This text is sponsored by Ciena in collaboration with nasscom basis.
A younger youngster is inspired to discover the world and get their palms soiled in a playground. ‘Fall down seven instances, get up eight’, are phrases that each youngster lives by. Why then, can we lose this never-say-die angle as we develop up?
Pushing kids to harbour this angle to unravel real-life challenges is the TechForChange programme, which offers them with a “geek playground”.
The concept, Nidhi Bhasin, CEO, nasscom basis, explains, is to encourage social improvements from the leaders of tomorrow. “We encourage youngsters to play whereas educating them that it’s okay to fall in a playground. We’re creating an analogous playground for entrepreneurs, the place it’s okay to fail. We educate them to face up by offering the required help wanted for achievement.”
Take, for instance, 22-year-old Shivam Gupta who had a incredible thought for constructing drones for the defence and agriculture sectors. In want for steering and funding, he joined the programme as an engineering pupil in August 2022.
The programme helped him refine his thought and be taught the artwork of pitching to traders. His startup ‘Home Applied sciences’ was one of many winners in Cohort 2 and is now up and working, blazing an impactful path on the bottom.
Not simply Shivam, this programme has helped 11 startups discover their ft whereas accelerating the entrepreneurship journey for the scholars. This helps to make the difficult early levels of enterprise creation — from ideation to product growth and advertising — simpler to navigate.
TechForChange is a Company Social Accountability (CSR) initiative led by Ciena, a community {hardware}, software program and providers firm, in collaboration with nasscom basis as a part of the nasscom ecosystem in its third yr.
The aim is to equip younger innovators with important instruments, help, data, and alternatives, empowering them to make a significant affect. It is usually to offer them with a platform to show their concepts into prototypes and companies. Spanning over 18 months, the immersive programme guides college students, exposing them to cutting-edge know-how and potential use instances.
The highest 5 high-potential startups are introduced with a seed grant of Rs 5 lakh every via Expertise Enterprise Incubators (TBI).
Empowering tomorrow’s leaders to drive sustainable innovation
As we speak, the crucial for sustainable options that sort out important social points is plain. And this programme seeks to empower younger leaders to catalyse international transformation via their revolutionary ventures and entrepreneurial spirit.
TechForChange strives to steer this cost by nurturing rising entrepreneurs and offering them with the help and assets they should soar. It’s designed to foster options that not solely sort out urgent challenges but in addition resonate with the United Nations’ Sustainable Improvement Targets (SDGs), thereby contributing to a extra sustainable and equitable future.
This programme was conceptualised to deal with the hole discovered within the ability set amongst school college students. Whereas they’re well-prepared for placements, they aren’t geared up with the important instruments wanted to begin their very own ventures.
“Ciena’s Digital Inclusion programme goals to foster pupil growth and entrepreneurship in know-how, selling it as a viable and sustainable profession possibility,” says Amit Malik, VP & Gross sales Chief, Ciena India.
Ciena India workers additionally have interaction in common volunteering periods to impart their very own abilities and data to assist increase the scholars’ confidence.
Ciena, in collaboration with nasscom basis, has carried out two profitable cohorts prior to now two years and nurtured over 157 concepts. Of those, 11 startups have materialised throughout numerous sectors — together with healthcare, training, psychological well being, and agriculture know-how.
These 11 startups acquired mentorship from trade stalwarts and grants value Rs 61 lakh.
“We acquired plenty of assist and help from the mentorship periods. The programme helped us be taught advertising and allocation of funds too. It has made me a extra assured one that can current his thought higher,” Shivam shares.
He provides that the programme helped them launch the drones available in the market and in addition led to grants value over Rs 19 lakh from programmes in IIT-Mandi, NSUT IIF (Incubation and Innovation Basis of Netaji Subhas College of Expertise, New Delhi), and the Vimarsh 5G Hackathon.
For the reason that third version of the TechForChange programme commenced in January 2024, the highest 124 concepts have been chosen. The method was kick-started via hands-on workshops on design pondering and ideation, which helped in refining the concepts.
The programme stands out by providing hands-on workshops and project-based studying, that are instrumental in growing experience in cutting-edge applied sciences — corresponding to Synthetic Intelligence (AI) and Machine Studying (ML).
Going past technical abilities, the TechForChange-Cohort 3 programme emphasises the significance of innovation, guiding members to establish buyer wants and market gaps. This ensures that the options are usually not simply theoretical however are related, and it helps to find the product-market match.
By this, they hope to encourage kids to seek out options to the burning challenges in society as we speak. The TechForChange-Cohort 3 programme has created a framework and help system that allows these options to turn into working prototypes via know-how.
Nonetheless, developing with an revolutionary thought is simply step one within the journey of entrepreneurship. Recognising this, the programme affords intensive help within the important early levels of enterprise creation. This consists of mentorship, assets, and steering on points — starting from ideation to product growth and advertising — making certain that these younger entrepreneurs have the very best basis to thrive.
The heartening change noticed within the programme over the previous three years is the growing variety of ladies members. TechForChange’s robust dedication to range and inclusion has performed a key function in attracting extra ladies. Within the present cohort, 30 % of the members are ladies. “We hope that this quantity continues to extend over time,” says Vishal Thakur, CTO, nasscom basis.
The highest 5 chosen startups from the third cohort will obtain enterprise mentoring, seed funding, and advertising assist. On the finish of 16 months, these 5 startups will probably be able to launch.
Particulars of the programme
The TechForChange-Cohort 3 programme is open for faculty college students in Delhi-NCR with a technical background. The scholars should provide you with a technical resolution for a social downside. The programme spans 18 months — together with 11 months of cohort and 7 months of incubation for the chosen 5 startups.
Part 1: Ideation observe (2 months)
The chosen 124 groups get a chance to refine their early-stage ideas into viable concepts via workshops and webinars. This observe focuses on refining the issue assertion.
Part 2: Product observe (3-4 months)
Fifty groups with promising concepts will probably be chosen for this thrilling stage, the place their concepts will come to fruition as prototypes. Mentors with related expertise will information the scholars and equip them with the required abilities to take action. The programme will even present assets for his or her prototyping journey, together with a small fund to assist college students construct their options.
Part 3: Startup observe (2 months)
Issues get heated up as 20 promising prototypes transfer to the following part, the place the ideas will begin changing into enterprise fashions. Mentors will information on product-market match, growth, firm registrations, and extra.
Part 4: The ultimate 5
The highest 5 startups will probably be chosen for incubation and an opportunity at seed funding. Their ventures will probably be on the cusp of changing into realities via a seven-month incubation.
To get updates on upcoming webinars and occasions, click on here.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
