Kochi's Startup Village rolls out scheme for innovative students

The entrepreneurial ambitions of engineering graduates in Kerala will now get a cutting edge with the Startup Village rolling out its 'FINTECH Studio' scheme, which provides devices and tools for transforming their innovative ideas into reality. In the first phase of the scheme in partnership with the Kerala-based Federal Bank, a total of 40 teams comprising five students each will be selected from colleges across the state, a release said in Kochi.

The first batch of the selected teams will have to work on the theme 'FinTech', which will focus on developing real-time technology solutions for banking and financial industries. Each team is expected to develop a prototype of their idea/application on the given theme within a time span of six months, starting from July.

According to PTI, the teams will receive a 'Startup Box', each of which contains an iPhone 6, iPad mini, Macbook Air, Nexus 5, Kindle, 1 TB Hard disk and Arduino Starter Kit, besides a company registration deed, a bank account opening form and an application form for the state's Student Entrepreneurship Policy, the release said.

'Kerala Startup Mission', also known as the Technopark- TBI, in Thiruvananthapuram, will be the nodal agency for the programme while the Startup Village, a public-private initiative, will be the implementing agency. The startups will get full incubation support from Startup Village and financial expertise from Federal Bank.

"The recently rolled out Kerala Technology Startup Policy envisions creating an entrepreneur-friendly ecosystem. Startup box is one among the state's entrepreneurship-oriented initiatives for the financial year 2015-16," said P H Kurian, Principal Secretary, Industries and IT.

"The initiative will also help students get world class equipment for a digital technology startup," he added. The teams will ideally consist of members with skills in programming, designing, operations and governance. The selected teams are to be integrated with Startup Village's Startup Studio 'FinTech Accelerator Programme', which is run in partnership with the Federal Bank.

Image Courtesy : Shutterstock

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