Integrating Startup and Engineering Education Ecosystems in India

India boasts of the 3rd biggest higher education system world-wide after USA and China with 1100+ universities & 56000+ colleges with 40 million enrolments and 1.5 million teachers in higher education. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), is inching towards 30% with 40 million students pursuing higher education according to the FICCI EY Parthenon Knowledge Report 2023 of higher education in India. India has taken great strides in higher education considering the fact that the GER is marching ahead at a pace comparable to developed economies. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of the Government of India aims for the Indian higher educational system to attain 50% GER by 2035. The objective is to have additional 26 million higher educational enrolments by 2035 with engineering admissions taking the lion share. Hitherto, there are 6000+ higher educational institutions in engineering education with over 3 million enrollments as per the statutory body regulating engineering education in India, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in its 2023 annual report.

This remarkable growth in engineering education and mushrooming of higher educational institutions has brought about its share of concerns and challenges. These include diverse challenges related to access, accreditation, employability, equity, faculty, funding, research, quality, and ranking. As per the World Economic Forum (WEF) Future of Jobs Report, the unemployment rate in India in 2023 while remaining fairly stable overall at 3.2%, has seen increase up to 9% amongst workers with higher educational qualifications such as engineering. One of the key reasons for this conundrum is the employability skills gap pointing towards the quality of engineering education in India. This is very relevant in the context of the digital transformation and disruptions happening world-side in all sectors and verticals. Job roles are likely to see dramatic changes such that 50% of the present job roles are likely to be irrelevant in the next 5 years. This is no doubt a challenge but also a great opportunity, India’s demographic dividend can be put to good use globally especially with the talent and numbers of Indian engineers. India can prepare itself to meet the need for engineering talent on a global scale, with the potential for talent mobility across borders to contribute US $ 500 billion to the global economy provided steps are taken to increase the employability.

The India Skills Report 2025 is a report brought out with industry-academia-government collaboration providing insights on the status quo with respect to employability of India’s youth, emphasizing industry readiness for an AI-powered future. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Association of Indian Universities (AIU), AICTE, Google and Wheebox are amongst the partners for this report. As per the India skills report headlined by Wheebox, employability rate is around 55% for Indian graduates in higher education. This is an increase from 33% over a decade ago. With respect to engineering education, it is 70%. However, there is sufficient cause for worry considering the fact that 30% of engineering graduates do not make the cut in terms of employability. These numbers are also alarming considering the overall numbers, which are close to half a million engineering graduates in India.

A wide variety of 21st century skills are needed for preparing the future-ready engineering workforce. These include and are not limited to Data Science and Analytics, AI & Machine Learning (ML), IoT & sensors, cloud & virtualization, Cybersecurity as well as life skills and human-centric abilities like leadership, collaboration, empathy, communication, ethics, and cognitive skills.

So how do we do ramp up the employability numbers and buck the trend?

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

India’s vibrant startup ecosystem is a shining example of the India rising story. India is the 3rd largest startup ecosystem with more than 1.6 lakh registered startup providing employment to 1.6 million people, with most of them being engineers. These are the registered startups with DPIIT. Unregistered startups may be three times this number including student startups in universities and colleges. India is also home to 100+ unicorns which is perhaps the largest number of unicorns in any country worldwide. And most of these startup founders are mostly graduates from regular engineering colleges such as NITs and private universities and colleges in India. These young entrepreneurs have mostly worked on their own steam with limited support, which has primarily come from the incubation centres in their colleges and campuses. There has been no dearth of talent and aspirations in India, and these startups have multiplied and thrived despite not having a fully developed startup ecosystem like the USA replete with venture capitalists, angel investors etc. The Indian startup ecosystem is now fast developing with the partnership of all stakeholders including government agencies, universities, colleges, venture capitalists, angel investors, incubators and accelerators. As on date, there are 1000+ incubation centers in India with the majority of them in engineering institutions. The connection between startup and engineering education ecosystem primarily through these incubators and these have reaped dividends. The startup numbers in India are proof of this. However, we have only scratched the surface.

Further integration between the startup and engineering education systems is the need of hour. Fortunately, there are several initiatives linked to statutory and regulatory compliances, accreditation, and rankings for engineering institutions linked to development and promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship. These include Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) and National Innovation and Startup Policy (NISP) for higher educational institutions by AICTE and Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC). IIC and NISP are complementary to each other. These initiatives promote, facilitate and enable startups and entrepreneurship as also also incentivize these engineering colleges who realize these innovation and entrepreneurship outcomes including startups, patents, prototypes, projects and the like. There is a five-star rating for the IIC performance, and a good number of engineering institutions are working towards securing the best star rating. AICTE approval and extension of approval has now been linked to a functional IIC and these activities and IIC performance star rating also fetch points in various accreditations of NAAC and NBA and NIRF rankings of the Government of India However, it is vital that all engineering institutions take these initiatives proactively and seriously as also strategize towards attainment of various outcomes.

The numbers of engineering colleges working towards improved IIC performance have seen a steady growth, but the numbers need to be significantly ramped up. Full coverage will definitely have a force-multiplier effect on startup numbers in the colleges, thereby increasing employability and employment. This has the potential to dramatically increase startup numbers so that India can emerge as the top startup nation in the world within the next 5 years. Details of these initiatives which can play a cardinal role in integrating the startup and engineering educational ecosystems are as follows:

Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC): This council aims to create a vibrant local innovation ecosystem by encouraging students and faculty to work on new ideas and convert them into viable startups. Each IIC functions as a platform within an institute to plan, implement, and monitor innovation-related activities such as idea competitions, hackathons, workshops, and start-up mentoring sessions. It connects academic institutions with regional and national innovation networks, enabling collaboration and knowledge sharing. By fostering creativity, design thinking, and entrepreneurial skills, the IIC framework helps nurture future innovators and contributes to India’s vision of becoming a global innovation hub. IIC Activities include but are not limited to.

• Orientation and awareness sessions on innovation and entrepreneurship
• Idea generation and submission drives
• Workshops on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), design thinking, and prototyping
• Entrepreneurship development programs
• Innovation Day celebrations and success story sessions
• Smart India Hackathon (SIH)
• Toycathon, National Innovation Contest (NIC), and Impact Lecture Series
• Bootcamps, innovation challenges, and leadership talks
• National-level exposure visits and mentorship programs
• Internal hackathons or idea competitions
• Industry–Institute interaction sessions
• Startup or product exhibitions
• Expert talks and innovation awareness programs
• Prototype development and incubation support activities.
• Celebration of Innovation Day, Startup Day, World Entrepreneurs’ Day, etc.
• Showcasing local innovations and success stories
• Felicitation of student innovators and mentors

National Innovation and Startup Policy (NISP): The National Innovation and Startup Policy (NISP), launched by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and the AICTE, provides a comprehensive framework to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education institutions. It aims to create a robust campus ecosystem that encourages students and faculty to develop ideas into viable startups. The policy outlines guidelines for setting up incubation centres, managing intellectual property (IPR), and integrating entrepreneurship into academics. By fostering collaboration between institutions, industry, and investors, NISP helps build a culture of creativity, problem-solving, and self-reliance among young innovators. Key features of the policy include the establishment of pre-incubation and incubation centres, provision of mentoring and funding support, and the creation of institution-level innovation councils to monitor and promote entrepreneurial activities. It also provides detailed guidelines for intellectual property rights (IPR) ownership and revenue sharing between the institution, faculty, and students to ensure fair recognition and benefit distribution.

(This article has been authored by Dr. Prashant R. Nair, Associate Director, Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the writer and do not represent the editorial stance of Education Post Magazine.)