- Institute’s technology business incubator ‘Centre for Advancing & Launching Enterprises’ (CrAdLE) was inaugurated on Friday by Shri Kishor Kharat, President of EDII and MD & CEO, IDBI Bank Ltd
- Micro-smart irrigation, affordable & efficient solar panels, easy networking platform for patients and manufacturing and distributing juices in the most natural way are some of the business ideas shortlisted for incubation
- Technology Business Incubator is supported and catalysed by NSTEDB, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India
December 2, 2016: ‘Centre for Advancing & Launching Enterprises’ (CrAdLE) – the Technology Business Incubator, supported & catalysed by NSTEDB, DST, Govt. of India and hosted by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), was inaugurated at EDII campus today by Shri Kishor Kharat, President of EDII and MD & CEO, IDBI Bank Ltd.
Speaking during the inauguration, Shri Kishor Kharat, President of EDII and MD & CEO, IDBI Bank Ltd. said, “CrAdLE will focus on four niche segments of manufacturing, food processing, renewable energy and healthcare. EDII is offering milestone-based learning for future entrepreneurs and most of the verticals focused upon are in line with Government of India’s ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’ and ‘Stand-up India’ schemes. We are confident that with the support from DST, EDII would be able to create new enterprises that would be job creators in next few years.”
CrAdLE is aimed at fostering technology & knowledge based entrepreneurial start-ups by nurturing them at an early stage and helping them overcome teething troubles by providing legal, financial, and technical services. Emphasising on the sustainability of start-ups, Shri Kharat spoke about the need to adapt ethical financial discipline early on to avoid scalability failures. As a gesture of support, Shri Kharat pledged financial aid to all EDII trained and incubated pass-outs. He also urged the budding entrepreneurs to set-up businesses away from urban and semi-urban areas and focus on Rural India.
Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director of EDII said, “CrAdLE will have a mix of investment from DST, EDII and angel investors with whom we have touch-based. Apart from providing physical infrastructure, EDII will also play pivotal role in mentoring, guiding and even funding, if required to incubatees. CrAdLE has been registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, which would enable it to invest in start-up ideas and share profits that would again be re-invested in the development of the incubation centre.”
CrAdLE will incubate 10 business ideas in its first year of operation and proceed with rest of the ideas in a phased manner. Some of the business ideas shortlisted so far are:
- Micro-smart irrigation technology where a sensor will be embedded in soil which will give signals to farmers about moisture level in the field.
- Affordable and efficient solar panels that will generate maximum electricity per square feet. These panels will effectively reduce cost of electricity will be low maintenance.
- Easy networking platform for patients that will connect patients suffering from similar ailments. It will also act as digital record for all patients’ files and diagnosis so that they don’t have to carry heavy files while visiting to Doctor’s for consultations. Doctors’ can access their files from this platform. Also, there is a facility to provide online counselling to patients from doctors via this platform.
- Manufacturing and distributing juices in the most natural way that will increase the shelf-life of the product. The juices will be available on a subscription basis and will be delivered at the door-step of the consumers.
Housed in EDII’s Gandhinagar-based campus, the incubator will work towards strengthening business skills & knowledge of incubatees and providing them with a platform for speedy commercialization of technologies developed in academic and R&D institutions of the country. Most importantly, it will also facilitate business networking for better and faster enterprise growth.
About Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (www.ediindia.org)
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) is an acclaimed International Resource Centre engaged in training, research, education and institutions building. EDII’s mission is to be a catalyst in facilitating emergence of competent first generation entrepreneurs and transition of existing SMEs into growth-oriented enterprises through entrepreneurship education, training, research & institution building. EDII is an autonomous and not-for-profit institute, set up in 1983, and is sponsored by apex financial institutions – the IDBI Bank Ltd., IFCI Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and the State Bank of India (SBI).
EDII’s mission has led to the emergence of several programmes under strategically planned centres to generate awareness, sensitise environment, strengthen institutional linkages and networking and impart training in specialised areas. EDII’s focus areas are: 1) Entrepreneurship Education & Research; 2) Micro Enterprises, Micro Finance and Sustainable Livelihood; 3) SMEs & Business Development Services; 4) Cluster Competitiveness, Growth & Technology; 5) Social Entrepreneurship & CSR; 6) Women Entrepreneurship & Gender Studies.