A promised government innovation and incubation centre may take many more months to come up, but Ranchi will boast the state's first private start-up lab as early as next week.
Secretary of IT department Sunil Kumar Barnwal will formally launch Culture CoLab, a 2,000sqft innovation workshop in the capital's Kantatoli area, on May 19.
Founded by Abhinav Jha, a 26-year-old mechanical engineer and management graduate from Jamshedpur, the lab aims to combine art and technology to power strong start-up ideas and turn them into feasible business models, besides offering academic sessions to inject entrepreneurial enthusiasm into school and college students.
"Culture CoLab is an amalgamation of maker space, innovation lab and incubation centre. The purpose is to find, develop and create solutions. The idea is to bring together people from local communities and help grassroots innovators, thereby generating employment in the long run," Abhinav told this newspaper on Friday. "It will be Jharkhand's first innovation and incubation lab," he added.
Culture CoLab has partnered with RE-Rise - considered to be the world's first virtual incubator - for setting up the centre in Ranchi. Abhinav maintained that they were working simultaneously on launching similar centres across eastern India to support entrepreneurs.
Detailing about the facilities at the Kantatoli lab, he said it would have two components - incubation and training.
"Incubation can be of myriad types for anyone who wants to come to us seeking help to developing a product, market ideas, understand accounting and so on. Training will focus on imparting skills in prototype and product development. These will be aimed primarily towards students of schools, colleges and vocational institutes. The trainees will use digital prototyping tools like 3D printers and laser-cutters while also being educated in courses such as design thinking, human centred design and lean innovation," said Abhinav.
For incubation and training, Culture CoLab has roped in two more partners - Futurite and 3Dexter.
"Futurite is based in Calcutta, with its parent company in Dubai, and has strong capabilities in developing and executing curricula for school students while exposing them to 3D printing, robotics and coding. For college students, 3Dexter has developed unique diploma programmes in 3D printing and additive manufacturing. These short, intense courses will expose students to the nitty-gritty of technology as well as inform them about developments around the world," he said.
Asked what kind of start-up ideas would be in focus, Abhinav said innovative ones in healthcare, education, housekeeping and allied services and mentioned that they were also working as accelerator partner to various technology business incubators such as IITs Kanpur and IIT Delhi, and NASSCOM 10000 Warehouse.
Besides honing business brains, teaching animation skills will be one of the many USPs of the lab.
"Art and technology can do wonders in any business. In association with illustrator Umesh Singh, a self-taught cartoonist with many books to his credit, we are working on a school for cartoon studies in India. The school will be called Cartoon Trip (also the name of his book). This apart, CoLab has also partnered with Hastakshar, the oldest, active theatre group in Ranchi to propagate theatre in the city by holding workshops to promote lesser known art and craft," he said.
How will ideas be selected for incubation? "To begin with, the inauguration will include a start-up pitch session with Rs 10,000 worth of cash prizes as well as up to Rs 1 lakh incubation support. So, those having ideas can register on http://event.rerise.in/. This apart, once the lab begins, anyone can come to us with their requirements," he said.
And, what about fees? "It will depend on the kind of services that we offer both for incubation and acceleration work, and academic programmes. The latter will begin from June," Abhinav added.
