GYAN PRAYAG

Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (RCSS) has long championed entrepreneurship and capacity development through its curriculum and field action projects. Recognizing the essential role of incubation centers in shaping the nation, RCSS has launched Gyan Prayag—a state-of-the-art incubation center dedicated to nurturing entrepreneurial spirit among students and alumni.

Gyan’ refers to knowledge and ‘Prayag’ is the meeting place of the holy Rivers the Yamuna and the Ganges. Thus ‘Gyan Prayag’ is the Confluence of knowledge to create a world of innovations that enhances opportunities.

At Gyan Prayag, students and alumni gain access to resources, mentorship, and a dynamic workspace designed to foster enterprise development and social innovation. The centre aims to inspire and equip future entrepreneurs, empowering them to turn ideas into market-ready solutions and address societal challenges.

LECOCON

As part of Entrepreneurship development initiative, Rajagiri took up the task of building an incubation Centre in RCBS called LECOCON. This was supported by Kerala Startup Mission, formerly Techno Park-Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI), the designated nodal agency for implementing Kerala Government’s entrepreneurship and innovation related projects in Technology area. Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), promoting nontechnology initiatives also is associated with the formation of LeCocon. The Incubation Centre aims at cultivating innovation and entrepreneurship attitude in the minds of students. The unit envisages a smooth transition of students from the initial stage of idea generation to commercialization. Rajagiri helps students in setting up their own start-ups while they are studying in college.

The objective of Rajagiri IEDC is to organize entrepreneurship awareness camps and training programmes in order to help students in setting up their own startups while they are still students in college. This provides opportunity for students to interact and learn from successful and failed entrepreneurs across different segments while they share their entrepreneurial journey and the take away from that.  Students will actively involve in initiatives like Boot camps, Entrepreneurship summits by TiE Kerala, CII, KMA, Startup Village etc.

Start-ups blooming in the college:

• Technovia Info Solutions
• Bizessence Consultancy Services
• Kiwi Ads
• True Code Pvt Ltd
• Travelngo
• Ravix Media

Incubation facility

The centre is divided into three adjacent physical zones to facilitate a smooth transition of students from idea generation to commercialization of ideas.

Zone 1

The zone 1 is a common place for all entrepreneurship aspirants and comprises a seminar hall which will be used for brainstorming, research and analysis, training and gathering. This zone will be used as an idea germination area and a common meeting place. All the aspirants will be meeting here for discussions, debates, activities, learning and planning. This zone will also be an abode for the preliminary phases of starting a business. The semi-formal setting up of the company, its initial operations etc will be facilitated at zone 1. This zone is also equipped with a mini conference hall which can be used for meetings, discussions and review.

Zone 2

Successful ideas germinated in zone 1 and are market-tested will be elevated from zone 1 to zone 2 of the incubation centre after the review by advisory committee. There will be continuous evaluation of the companies from the time of inception in zone 1 and they will be considered for the further graduation only after successfully clearing the review process by Advisory Committee. All business units which are potentially ready in establishing an organisational structure, a strong business model and operation stability will be considered for accommodating in zone 2. The following facilities will be available in zone 2

1. Own space, air-conditioned
2. Furniture
3. LAN/Wifi connectivity

Zone 3

Zone 3 is a facility inside the centre which caters to all the basic requirements to run a start-up company which is reaching close to its graduation. Here the companies will have individual private space for their operations, furniture, closed cubicle, LAN and landline phone connections. A company will be considered by the advisory committee for its elevation from Zone 2 to Zone 3 once the following criteria are met

1. Reasonably articulated vision, mission, objectives, policies, business model and structure
2. Continuous improvement and enhanced performance from the time of inception
3. A tenure of at least 12 months in the incubator.
4. At least 8 full-time employees on roll
5. Achievement of minimum 80% goals that are declared in the business plan.
6. And any other criteria fixed by the Advisory Committee based on their discretion

LECOCON operates as per the IEDC guidelines. A Nodal Officer and Assistant Nodal officers are appointed along with an Executive Committee every year. (Please see Annexure 1 for details of EC).

Entrepreneurship promotion

We encourage students to bring ideas preferably as a team complementing the expertise or on individual basis for start-up. A separate space is earmarked for idea exchange and consultation. Expert coaching by Faculty members is provided for converting the idea into a Business Plan. They are then asked to produce a working example/ prototype for further assessment.

In this context, we conduct a Business Plan Competition, THE PLAN, every year. The plans are first reviewed by internal faculty, then by external experts, and finally presentations are judged by external experts from the Industry.

Rajagiri, with the objective to honour its alumni and extend all possible support to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit, has organised "Papillon-19' a summit of Rajagiri Alumni who are first and second-generation Entrepreneur on the 28th Feb 2019 at RCBS. This one-of-a-kind get together brought under one roof nearly 50 alumni, established business persons and those who have just stepped into the industry. As a result of the summit, a dedicated alumni network of entrepreneurs was established with an Executive committee and they network through a dedicated Whatsapp group.

• Click here to view IIC
• Click here to view IEDC