Business Incubation by Dr. Achutan and Mr. Shetty

Speakers - Dr. Krishnashree Achutan and Mr. Snehal Shetty

Date - 25/8/2014

Venue - SKH

Amrita Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in partnership with ASB has been encouraging people's dreams and giving incentives to innovate. As the CEO of Amrita TBI, Dr. Krishnashree Achutan pointed out that there have been several ideas that have translated into reality at Amrita TBI. She spoke about wanting to set up more dynamic centres at our Ettimadai and Bangalore campuses as well. She said that Mr. Snehal Shetty, V.P. Operations at Amrita TBI, was instrumental in starting several programs. He started Pitch Fest which is a competition to bring out the best ideas amongst students. He also helped incubate several start ups. 

Mr. Shetty then spoke about the opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship at Amrita TBI, which has a partnership with Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. They help find, nurture and motivate innovative ideas. They also have a STAR (Social Transformation Achieved through Rural innovations) program. He spoke about the importance of ICE - Innovation, Creativity that leads to Entrepreneurship. He gave examples of many brilliant ideas that students had which were developed into reality because of the motivation and support that TBI provided. Many such ideas were eventually patented. He encouraged the students to participate at the Pitch Fest. Mr. Shetty then signed off by asking the students to be the Purple Cow in a field full of black and white cows to make a mark. Dr Achutan began her talk by telling us the importance of distinguishing ourselves from the crowd. She reiterated that it is easy to be average but what takes courage is to be the purple cow, to stand up and stand out. Having an idea is important but coming up with an innovative idea is what makes one the purple cow. It is necessary to be remarkable in this world.

Once we click upon an idea, we need to breathe life into it, plan and execute it. This is where Amrita TBI helps to nurture and motivate ideas. It is one of the top incubators in the country and is supported by The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The focus areas of ATBI are Business Incubation, STAR@ATBI, Social Entrepreneurship and IdeaLab. 

ATBI’s achievements include:

1.      IEEE student enterprise award, New York

2.      Award: Intel Embedded Challenge 2010 –

3.      Third Prize - for the project titled Gesture-based4.      Wheelchair Control System for Physically Challenged

5.      Gold Medal- Special Intel Employee's Award for the best project

6.      A total of 24 innovative products that span across various fields have been built at Amrita TBI.

7.      Seven patents for products (3 already filed and 4 in process).

Mr. Shetty concluded by saying that the founders of Facebook, Microsoft, DELL and Apple were still at college when they landed upon a million dollar idea……why can’t we???

Arun Preethi

(Team Colloquia member)