Seminar on Business Incubators held at BIM


“Business incubators are the greatest innovators of the 21st century,” has been said by Jhiang Zameen, Chinese Premier. To illustrate the point, was an address by Shri R.M.P. Jawahar.

Business incubators are organizations that support the entrepreneurial process, helping to increase survival rates for innovative startup companies. Only entrepreneurs with feasible projects are admitted into the incubators, where they are offered a specialized menu of support resources and services. The resources and services open to an entrepreneur include: provision of physical space, management coaching, help in making an effective business plan, administrative services, technical support, business networking, advice on intellectual property and sources of financing. The incubation process is intended to last around 2-5 years.

Most of the business incubators in India have been set up by educational institutions, the first being set up National Institute of Technology, (NIT) Trichy. The objectives of a business incubator include supporting new ventures, technological development involved in these ventures, thus leading to contributions to the tech world as such, and industrial development, as many of these projects are in varied areas across industries. The also impart technical and management skills to entrepreneurs and assist in the dissemination and replication of discoveries to other new businesses, to help enhance productivity and growth. “A business incubator,” remarked Shri Jawahar aimed at, in essence, “promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and technology”.

The support extended by a business incubator lends credibility to any project and provides a resource network for development. Its interventions come in the form of providing physical location, knowledge inputs and counseling to an entrepreneur who has ideas but no access to resources. A business incubator, thus, brings together technicians and experts under one roof.

STEP-TREP has sponsored over 161 ventures in 12 years, of which the ten most successful ones are worth over Rs 300 crores and have created over 140000 jobs.

A business incubator contributes in more than obvious ways. “Each rupee invested in a business incubator, pays back four times to the government in 5-7 years and is expected to grow manifold.” cited Shri Jawahar as an illustration. Business incubators create jobs through new endeavors and encourage all social classes, thus leading to regional development. They also create investment in infrastructure, essential for any development. New products and projects are discovered, through these enterprises, thus crossing the innovation barriers.

In spirit, an entrepreneur gains invaluable exposure, experience and insights through a business incubator. But practically, records show that the mortality rate of new ventures inside is a business incubator is 20%, whereas outside its as high at 70%.

A valuable address on the role of business incubators, one that provided information and insight to many budding entrepreneurs here.