Punjab school students join bandwagon of startups

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 6

If you think startup ideas are restricted to colleges and universities of Punjab only, think again! Armed with innovative ideas, the startups based out of schools in Punjab are set to transform the social and health sector. 

From gesture-controlled wheelchair (meant for paralysed persons) to self-cleaning toilets, their brilliant ideas were cynosure at the grand finale of Startup India Punjab Yatra that saw participation from schools, colleges and universities.

Out of 15 winners felicitated by the state government for their outstanding startup projects in different categories, three were from schools. In the ‘Best Social Sector’ and ‘Best Health Manufacturing Sector’ categories, school students bagged the first position and were awarded a cash prize of Rs 30,000 each. Punjab Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Shyam Arora awarded the budding entrepreneurs.

Arshdeep Singh, a Class X student of Government Senior Secondary School, Mallawala (Bathinda), bagged the first prize in ‘Best Social Sector’ category for his smart toilet system. Jagnoor Singh Sandhu, again a Class X student of Major Ajaib Singh School (Faridkot), bagged the third prize in the same category.

Mohit Grover, of DAV School (Kotkapura) bagged the first position in ‘Best Health Manufacturing Sector’, while IET Bhaddal (Ropar) and PCTE Ludhiana bagged the second and third prize, respectively. ” “I never thought that my idea will emerge as a winner. Now my focus is to commercialise it,” said Mohit. 

The cash awards were given to top three ideas in five sectors i.e. social, IT + digital marketing and e-commerce, health and wellness, agriculture and manufacturing.

Earlier, the Punjab government, in collaboration with Startup India, organised Punjab Startup Yatra — a month-long drive aiming at tapping students to scout promising entrepreneurs.

Around 5,000 budding entrepreneurs utilised this platform to showcase their ideas. Out of these, 118 were shortlisted and provided with acceleration support to propel their startup journey. 

Finally, 15 students were declared winners who came up with innovative ideas such as interactive 3D textbooks, ‘bindis’ that can provide nutrition to pregnant women and bio-sensors for breast cancer detection.

This is one of the innovative steps Punjab government has taken to strengthen the startup ecosystem. Other steps include attractive incentives to startups, such as seed grant and interest subsidy on loans, creating incubators with plug-and-play facilities and state-of-the-art infrastructure, and setting up of a dedicated startup cell to promote startups in the state.

Startup India Punjab Yatra

• Started: January 16
• No of registrations: 3,000
• Ideas pitched: 523
• Shortlisted ideas: 118
• Awarded: 15 students