On its mission towards building an enterprising India, Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur provides great opportunities for start-ups, colleges, alumni and corporates to get involved with us.

Indian government has realised the need of new entrepreneurs for development in various fields. In continuation with this, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, is very keen on developing Entrepreneurial Development bodies in all major educational institutions in India. In this regard, Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur stands out as a pioneering organization. Moreover, it is the most active students' organization in India. Thus, any association with us will be symbiotic and mutually rewarding to both sides.

IIT Kharagpur continues to be the cradle of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Every year, this hot-spot continues to brew up many innovative new ideas, which have the potential of creating huge economic returns. Entrepreneurship Cell invites business ideas from students through its various Business Plan Competitions, and the Innovation Platform. Most of these plans, however, are received in a very crude form and need a lot of expert guidance and support before they can face the competitiveness of the business world. For this, we look up to the alumni, who have years of experience as students of the institute and hence, can act as the best mentors.

There are various ways in which you get involved.
(a) Mentoring: The Business ideas we receive as entries need to be mentored and improved upon, before they can be established as profitable companies. You can act on the advisory board of the company and help with problems pertaining to your area of expertise.
(b) Angel Investing The most common problem faced by nascent startups is the lack of funds. Many potentially great ideas fizzle out each year due to the sheer lack of funds. You can act as an angel investor by providing seed capital to these startups. (Refer to Kharagpur Angel Network). You can otherwise provide token funding for projects under Innovation Platform.

Entrepreneurship Cell is searching for innovative and enterprising ideas through its Business Plan competitions. Our competitions provide a platform for students to get excellent professional mentorship from our experienced, varied and distinguished mentor pool, and to showcase their ideas in front of Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors and Industry Leaders. Students with business ideas about product design, social entrepreneurship, clean technology or web 2.0 and mobile based applications should submit their first round entries before November 7th, 2018. Click here for more details.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) (12th Edition, from 1st to 3rd February, 2019) is one of the biggest entrepreneurial platforms for academicians, new-age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities, venture capitalists and students to gather at one place and share their entrepreneurial endeavours and experiences, and to pledge to take entrepreneurship to greater scales. Colleges sending their delegates to GES can also get great help in opening their own E-Cells.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit also plays host to Startup Camp which would serve as a platform that connects the best startups of the country to students and VC’s. Startup Camp would witness participation of 20 of the best Startups in the country who would showcase their product/services to students and VCs. These startups would provide college students a unique opportunity to work with them as a full time employee or as an intern. In addition, the participating startups would get a chance to pitch their ideas to prominent VC’s of the country, thus giving an impetus to their venture. Other benefits will be finding appropriate partners and networking. It also serves as a platform of motivation and valuable learning for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive (EAD) is an initiative by E-Cell which includes workshops, indigenously termed as Entrepreneurship Awareness Camp (EAC) in 20 cities during the month of October. Colleges can play a major role as the venue in the selected cities. This gives them a chance to associate with us.

E-Cell strives to bring about a paradigm shift. IITs need to produce the next wave of entrepreneurs who will take strides towards fulfilling visions of India in 2020, and we here at E-Cell look forward to providing the right ecosystem.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit is one of the biggest platforms in India, for academicians, new-age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities and the students to gather and share their entrepreneurial endeavors and experiences and to pledge to take entrepreneurship in India to greater scales. More than 1500 students from various colleges in India, 2000 students from IIT Kharagpur and eminent personalities from across the entrepreneurial spectrum of India will gather in Kharagpur to discuss and find solutions to problems plaguing India.

Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive is a massive nationwide initiative to promote entrepreneurship among today's youth. With a footfall of over 20,000, EAD is the largest entrepreneurship drive in India and has been commented upon by personalities such as Dr. Sashi Tharoor and Dr. D. Subba Rao, Governor, RBI.

We at E-Cell, preach only what we practice. Hence, we have stuck to our motto of "Dare to be different" when it comes to our sponsors too. The advantages we provide to our sponsors are very unique:

1. Branding Apart from the conventional branding methods such as banners and posters, we offer certain innovative branding methods such as a presentation slot, video advertisement during the event and live blogging and tweeting.
2. Corporate Social Responsibility When associating with E-Cell, the money invested has a direct social impact, as most of the participants in our events look to start up on their own, and when they do so, they help in economic and hence, social development. Besides, entrepreneurship is one of the core development areas of Vision 2020.
3. Employer Opportunities The main audience in our events includes not only college students but also young professionals. This results in very good employer opportunities.

Entrepreneurship Cell is on the lookout for corporates who can mentor the Business Model that qualify in our competitions and the scores of other startups that look to us for connecting them with the right mentors. They can act as angel investors or as help with the technical aspects. Either way, a good return on investment is to be expected as most of the startups incubated through us have gone on to win various awards and are flourishing in their respective industries.

Entrepreneurship Cell has many offerings for newly started ventures as well as those in the pipeline:

Start-up Fair

The key event of our Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Start-up camp is a platform for start-ups from across India to

1. Interact
2. Find prospective mentors for technical as well as business related guidance
3. Pitch to our prestigious VC Panel
4. Hire fresh recruits and interns