Bhubaneswar, June 21: A start-up centre was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, to provide support to budding entrepreneurs and competent fresh graduates in and around Odisha.

The department of science and technology and the Union ministry of human resource development had sanctioned Rs 1.50 crore for establishing the start-up centre to encourage young entrepreneurs.

Inaugurating the centre today, director of IIT Bhubaneswar R.V. Raja Kumar said the centre aimed to enrol 10 start-ups in the first year of its commencement. "The start-up centre will provide working space and a seed grant to the tune of Rs 2.5 lakh for the enrolled start-ups," Kumar said.

IIT Bhubaneswar will shortly invite applications from budding entrepreneurs and tech-savvy graduates from the region to avail the facility. The institute already has a "technology incubator," which is opened for students along with faculty members. Four teams have been selected to work at the incubator and will be formally enrolled shortly, informed an IIT authority.

Besides, IIT-Bhubaneswar is also applying for establishing a research and entrepreneurship park with a financial outlay of Rs 75 crore, which would come up on its permanent campus to facilitate incubation of technologies and to promote start-ups, particularly those which need help and mentoring from IIT Bhubaneswar.

Earlier, in February, IIT Bhubaneswar organised e-Summit 2016 - a student-level entrepreneurial meet - aimed to infuse entrepreneurship and promote innovation among students.

The two-day event hosted lectures by eminent personalities across various domains who deliberated on the essentials that are vital for budding student entrepreneurs. A number of competitions among the students and an exhibition of products and services by start-ups were the major highlights of that event.