How Indian startup ecosystem has impacted colleges in India

When I joined university back in 2014 for a graduation degree in mechanical engineering, I was not at all aware of what a startup was, until I attended an event in November that year, that stepped me into the so called startup world. Attending that event I had got an idea of what a startup was and how it worked. Than, came the year 2015, and who knew that 2015 was going to see a startup burst in India, and will be remembered as the year of startups in Indian history. Number of startups grew by 40% and 2015 saw 4,500+ startups making India the third largest base of technology startups in the world. Startup stories started soaring the internet and went trending on social media, which influenced the people so much that now everyone wanted to do a startup, especially the college and university youth, as they have got infinite number of reasons and resources to do the same.

Herd behavior of humans toward startups.

As it is said that colleges/universities are the best time to start a business, every youth now started working on their own business ventures and everyone had stepped into a never ending race towards success. Unlike, their thoughts they were not going to get overnight success, after all no one gets overnight success. Achieving success in the startup ecosystem needs a lot of patience and a lot of hard work, which today's youth don't understand. Everyone had started acting upon the herd behavior of humans. And, slowly the environment in the colleges/universities changed.

The impact.

When I joined my university, it was a house to around 2-3 student initiated businesses that worked on a conventional business model, there was no involvement of technology, nor they had anything that could term them as a startup, but as the startup burst was taking over the whole of India, the scene was going to turn upside down. Within one year of span, I saw those 2-3 businesses changing into a successful business venture, and now they had all those specs, that could term them as a startup. Not only that, my university now housed 36+ technology startups; be it a tours and travels or a food delivering service; with the startup burst came the innovation burst. Students now have started innovating conventional business models and started involving technology to drive their businesses, which shows a positive sign towards making India a truly startup 'Nation'. These figures I am referring to are from my university, but I am 100% sure that the students and faculties reading this article would have seen a similar changes in their college/university environment.

Also, students now started taking more interest in starting their own businesses rather than participating in cultural activities like singing and dancing competitions. With the increase of innovation in businesses done by university students, we saw an increase in business competitions especially organized for students and also an increase in participation for the same. College/university students and youth have started living startup life, many times I have heard other students talking about, starting their own business ventures while I am walking down from my academic block towards hostel.

Not only the attitude of students and youth have changed ever since the startup burst have driven India, but also the faculties of colleges/universities had grown a positive attitude towards students starting their own business ventures. Few years back, when students seeked help from their faculties to start their business ventures they were obviously helped but also asked to drop the idea just because the faculties thought the students would end up ruining their lives. But, today the scene has changed, teachers not only help students in their startups but also motivate them to take it further and make it a success.

Truly, the Indian startup ecosystem have impacted the colleges/universities of India in a positive way, which will help us become a true startup 'Nation'.