MLR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Check you are eligible first

• The incubation and accelerator services described on the institute's innovation pages are for startups and SMEs registered in Telangana.
• Startups or SMEs that already hold funding from another government scheme are not eligible for this scheme.
• The institute's pages describe the audience as aspirants with an innovative idea that can create employment at scale.

How to get in touch

• The innovation pages give no separate application process. Use the enquiry form on the innovation cell page, or call the institute's office on the number listed for the centre.
• Ask specifically whether an intake is open for the Technology Business Incubator, the Livelihood Business Incubator or the startup accelerator, since the pages do not give dates.

What to ask before you join

• Whether the incubation is free or charged, and whether the centre takes any equity. The pages do not say.
• Where the incubation space is, and whether you can use the makerspace and prototyping lab as an outside startup.
• Whether the seed fund is available to your startup and how it is assessed.

MLR Institute of Technology, at Dundigal in Medchal Malkajgiri district, Telangana, runs its startup support through the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), set up to nurture young innovators and startup firms in their early months or years. The centre's stated aim is to promote creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship among students, alumni, faculty and industry, and to help convert technology-based ideas into products.

How the programmes work

The centre's incubation activity is organised as incubation units. The Technology Business Incubator supports innovations and startups with a seed fund, and the Livelihood Business Incubator aims to help people set up their own business enterprise and create local employment. Both are listed under the MSME incubation scheme on the institute's pages. Alongside these, the centre offers an innovation challenge, pitch sessions, a startup accelerator that builds the tools and skills needed to scale, business mentor connects, and help with protecting innovations through IPR.

Who can apply

The innovation overview page states that the scheme is for aspirants with an innovative idea that has the potential to create employment at scale, and that the startup or SME must be registered in Telangana. Startups and SMEs that have already received funding from other government schemes are not eligible for this scheme. The institute's startup and innovation policy also mentions potential applicants from outside the institution, not only its own students and staff.

Facilities

The centre has a makerspace for prototyping, with 3D printers, CNC machines and laser cutters, and its pages say the makerspace is open to incubators and startup entrepreneurs as well as student innovators. Other facilities listed include an innovation hub, an IoT lab, a social innovation room, a meeting room for mentoring, and office space with conference rooms.

Scale

The centre's pages show counters for student startups incubated, IPRs filed, innovations supported, design thinking activities, entrepreneurship activities and competitions and hackathons. These counters are self-reported and carry no date. The startup list on the institute's pages names ten ventures with DPIIT certificate numbers, and that list is shorter than the incubated-startups counter, so the two are not reconciled here.

Who runs it

The centre's operational team is led by a chief executive officer, with a chief technical officer, a chief operational officer, an entrepreneurship facilitator and an innovation and IPR manager. An advisory board drawn from industry, the public sector and entrepreneurship bodies sits above them, and a group of faculty mentors supports the incubatees.

Partners

The institute's pages name the T-Hub Foundation's T-Tribe mentoring programme, the Indian School of Business Hyderabad's technology entrepreneurship programme, the Wadhwani Foundation's entrepreneurship course, the Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre, the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge, and the J-Hub at JNTU Hyderabad.