IIMV Supers (Smart Undeterred Passionate Entrepreneurs among Resident Students) programme for the students of IIM Vishakhapatnam flagship residential PGP (MBA) programme, announced under a new startup policy initiative by the institute, is designed to foster entrepreneurship among PGP resident students.
The IIMV Supers programme is part of the comprehensive ‘startup policy’ recently formulated by IIM-Visakhapatnam to foster and nurture a robust innovation and startup eco-system. This guiding framework has outlined the vision and objectives of the incubator of the institute.
The policy has made several support provisions for the students and faculty at IIM-Vizag to nurture and support their innovation and entrepreneurship-related activities. The policy also framed guidelines regarding the services, activities, funding and support programmes that will be offered to external startup entrepreneurs and alumni.
Under the IIMV Supers Programme Students can now opt for a break up to 1 Year
As per the Policy, the PGP students of IIM Vizag can now opt for a break, to the maximum extent of one year, after completion of the first year of coursework requirements. This is to channelize their full-time efforts towards their respective ventures.
The student entrepreneurs may be given a placement holiday up to two years from the year of passing. The students, who have opted for deferred placements, can rejoin the campus placements if their entrepreneurial efforts run into rough weather.
The director, IIM-Visakhapatnam, Prof M Chandrasekhar, says that ‘entrepreneurship development’ has now been made a core course for the PGP students, which was earlier an elective course. “This is to inculcate entrepreneurial spirit among the students. Secondly, students now have the option of devoting their full efforts on startups by taking a break in the second year as per the institute’s startup policy. The students can also pursue exploratory subjects related to entrepreneurship as part of their ‘course of independent study’. The student startups will also be provided financial support in the form of seed funding, prototype grant, etc.,” said Prof Chandrasekhar.
Chief operating officer, IIMV-FIELD, Dr Md. Shameem Jawed said that the overall objective of the programme is to encourage a higher number of students towards entrepreneurship. “As the startup policy contains several provisions for students such as placement holiday, break and financial support, the Supers programme is expected to bring in a shift towards entrepreneurial culture and make IIM-Vizag a fertile ground for innovative startup ideas,” said Prof Jawed.
IIM-Vizag has floated a Section 8 Company, namely IIMV Foundation for Incubation, Entrepreneurial Learning and Development (IIMV-FIELD) to translate the innovative ideas into viable business proposals. The startup policy of IIM-V will be implemented through this Section 8 Company. As per the new startup policy, 1% of the IIM-V’s annual expenditure budget will be allocated to IIMV-FIELD for the entrepreneurial activities.
