Introduction

In November 2016, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) released a Startup Policy document for AICTE approved institutions, to address the need of inculcation of innovation and entrepreneurial culture in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The policy primarily focused on guiding the AICTE approved institutions in implementing ‘Startup Action Plan’ of Government of India. Subsequent to release of the Startup policy by AICTE and further interaction & feedback received from education institutions, a need was felt for a more elaborate and comprehensive policy guiding document, which could be applicable for all the HEIs in India.

A fifteen membered committee was constituted by Ministry of Human Resource Development to formulate detailed guidelines for various aspects related to innovation, Startup and entrepreneurship management. This committee deliberated on various facets for nurturing the innovation and Startup culture in HEIs, which covered Intellectual Property ownership, revenue sharing mechanisms, norms for technology transfer and commercialization, equity sharing, etc. After multiple rounds of meetings, National Innovation and Startup

Policy 2019 for students and faculties of HEIs were prepared.

India aspires to become 5 trillion-dollar economy by 2024. To reach the mark, it needs to evolve systems and mechanisms to convert the present demographic dividend into high quality technical human resource capable of doing cutting edge research and innovation and deep-tech entrepreneurship.

The ‘National Student and Faculty Startup policy 2019’ is a guiding framework to envision an educational system oriented towards start ups and entrepreneurship opportunities for student and faculties.

The guidelines provide ways to Indian HEIs for developing entrepreneurial agenda, managing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ownership, technology licensing and equity sharing in Startups or enterprises established by faculty and students. In India, innovation is still not the epicenter of education. In order to achieve the cultural and attitudinal shift and to ensure that ‘Innovation and Startup’ culture is the primary fulcrum of our higher education system a

policy framework and guidelines are the need of this hour. These guidelines will enable institutions to actively support their faculty, staff and students to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) related activities, thus encouraging students and faculty to consider start ups and entrepreneurship as a career option.

These recommendations and guiding principles will also help HEIs in creating their own policy framework, if required. Moreover, these guidelines will facilitate Ministry of Human Resource Development in bringing uniformity

across HEIs in terms of IPR ownership management, technology licensing and institutional startups policy, thus enabling creation of a robust innovation and Startup ecosystem across all HEIs. These guidelines will also help emphasize that the entrepreneurship is all about creating a business, which is financially successful for HEIs.