ISB to Groom Engineering Students for Entrepreneurship

Hyderabad, July 26, 2014: The Indian School of Business (ISB) with campuses at Hyderabad and Mohali, today announced the launch of the Technology Entrepreneurship Programme (TEP) aimed at encouraging and enabling engineering students to consider entrepreneurship as a career choice.

Over a two-year period, the programme aims to embed technology entrepreneurship education, across the major disciplines of engineering and help the student’s to create and launch new business ventures.

TEP will be offered as an elective to the 3rd and 4th year of engineering students and will be delivered through a technology platform. On successful completion of this programme, it will help students develop several key competencies, offer a broad management/entrepreneurship education, and enable them to be more innovative and self-confident in whatever careers they choose to undertake.

The programme in Telangana, was formally launched by K T Rama Rao, Honourable Minister for IT & Panchayat Raj, Government of Telangana in the presence of Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB, H K Mittal, Advisor, Member Secretary, National Science & Technology Board (NSTEDB) and Secretary, Technology Development Board (TDB), members of the TEP Advisory Board, leading entrepreneurs, Angel Investors students from the participating institutions and members of the ISB community.

Launching the programme formally, KT Rama Rao, Honourable Minister for IT & Panchayat Raj, Government of Telangana said, “I am happy to launch ISB’s Technology Entrepreneurship programme, which will promote technology entrepreneurship and nurture the culture of entrepreneurship in the region. The government of Telangana is committed to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the new state. We want to support every deserving entrepreneur and hope that the next big idea comes from Hyderabad.  I look forward to work with the ISB to make Hyderabad the next preferred innovation and investment destination for entrepreneurs.”

Explaining the future roadmap for TEP, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB said, “We believe that programmes like TEP will help to scale up the entrepreneurial talent among the young people, which will make them wealth creators and have a social impact by creating more employment opportunities in our country. A closer connect between government, academia and the industry can play a larger role in supporting the growth of new and emerging businesses and assisting  existing enterprises in reaching this national goal. We are appreciative of the support from the Government   and look forward to working with them in creating one of the best enabling ecosystems in the country.”

Addressing the aspiring entrepreneurs, H K Mittal, Advisor, Member Secretary, National Science & Technology Board (NSTEDB) and Secretary, Technology Development Board (TDB), said, “Choose entrepreneurship as a career only if you are passionate about it. Money is but, a byproduct of an idea that is beautifully executed.“

ISB says there has been an overwhelming response to TEP and that it has received 2000 registrations from 14 Colleges across 7 districts in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and that 700 students enrolled into the programme  after a rigorous selection process. Students are from Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), Mechanical and Civil backgrounds and in with a strong presence of women students with a healthy gender ratio of 55:4

ISB has had some help from external partners in setting up the new programme. Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) extended support the TEP by providing articles and cases required for this program  at no cost, while Microsoft ventures has extended Mentorship and technology support to the TEP students and Google has provided technology communication platform.

The curriculum for this programme has been designed by ISB in association with industry leaders, entrepreneurs and the investor community. ISB says its faculty will play an important role in training faculty of the participating engineering colleges in cutting edge global teaching practices and improve the programme delivery n their respective colleges. Meanwhile, the selected students have been attending workshops on the design thinking approach to product innovation under the aegis of D’Labs, the design led incubator at the ISB.