NSRCEL at IIM-B to get Rs 10 crore for infra expansion

NEW DELHI: The NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning ( NSRCEL), the incubation and entrepreneurship hub at IIM Bangalore (IIMB), has been selected by NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) to receive Rs 10 crore as scale-up support over the next two years. This will enable the centre to upgrade and expand its infrastructure and thereby its services to entrepreneurs, according to a release.

NSRCEL is one of the six established incubation centres in the country to receive this financial support under the Atal Innovation Mission. NITI Aayog received 232 applications from all over India last year for assessment under this scheme. A total of 17 shortlisted centres were interviewed and reviewed in depth by NITI Aayog, before the final six were picked.

“In addition to helping start-ups, we will be using these funds to help SMEs and family businesses professionalize and scale their operations. In addition to incubation facilities, we plan to train entrepreneurs by using a blended learning approach, which uses both online and offline classroom training. Since IIMB already has over 20 online courses, it would be easy for NSRCEL to reach out to a large number of ventures,” Suresh Bhagavatula, Chairperson, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development, NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore said.