After helping many of its students set up successful businesses, IIT Kharagpur has made it its business to spread the spirit of entrepreneurship across the country.

The entrepreneurship cell of IIT Kharagpur, in association with the National Entrepreneurship Network, has drawn up a plan to inspire and educate college students in eight cities on how to set up their own start-ups. The programme will cover Calcutta, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Delhi, Pune and Jamshedpur.

“We launched our programme with a workshop at the CV Raman Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar on September 12 and plan to cover the rest of the cities by March 2009,” said Subhendu Panigrahi, a student co-ordinator of the cell.

The workshop will cover various aspects of entrepreneurship like framing a business plan, raising funds, securing patents and pitching an idea. The programme will also feature members from the industry and academia, who will share their knowledge with the budding entrepreneurs.

Some of the case studies that will be shared at these workshops will be from businesses set up by IIT Kharagpur graduates in recent years. These include Intinno Technologies, a firm committed to research and development in education and learning technologies, P2Power Solutions that incorporates Statcom-based technology for power quality in industrial scenarios, and Capillary Technologies, a text message-based service on shopping information, Data Resolve Technologies that works on data leakage prevention and detection technologies and Instant Karma that provides credibility ratings to NGOs across the country.

“The e-cell was started in 2003 and has inspired many students on campus. We believe that entrepreneurship is the only way to achieve Vision 2020, for which we have to go outside the campus and encourage students to think of business as a career option,” said Rashmit Ritam Das, another student co-ordinator of the e-cell.

The cell will have an Entrepreneurship Week in January and hold knowledge camps throughout the year to help students exchange information and tips on entrepreneurship and emerging technologies.