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S.A. Engineering College, Chennai, has set up an incubation centre for entrepreneurship development on its premises. The centre functions in association with the Ministry of Micro, Small Medium Enterprises, the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust, the Confederation of Indian Industry, ITCOT, EDI, SIDCO and TIIC. It aims at offering students with innovative ideas and an opportunity to become entrepreneurs.

Promising candidates can start right from the first year and we have quite a few students who have exciting ideas. We operate with mentors trained by City and Guilds, U.K., who identify the innovations and offer training to the budding entrepreneurs,"says P. Venkatesh Raja, college director.

The college provides office space for a year at its premises and gives domain-specific management development programmes with government support."The hub is open to everyone with innovative ideas and we protect the innovator's intellectual property rights,"says Raja.

The centre has in place a management team with experience in entrepreneurship and product development and an advisory board comprising academicians and expert professionals from diverse industries."We have signed an agreement with 36 corporate houses to facilitate incubation of ideas,"he says.

The hub is supported by the National Institute for Quality and Reliability, and is an Indo-Swiss initiative through which an innovator can get as much as Rs. 50 lakh as loan without collateral for their business.

An idea that is submitted to the MSME ministry by the board of governors of the innovation hub is taken forward towards its fruition.

The college is the second patron with its Centre for Innovation, Promotion and Entrepreneur Development giving the innovator mentor-support for two years. The mentor looks after the business and the loan is automatically repaid even as the business develops.