With the challenges presented by COVID-19 continuously mutating, the students of city
based Parul University have been constantly innovating. The University has been pushing
forward an intense entrepreneurship and innovation agenda, all in the efforts of providing
practical solutions to the problems presented by COVID-19. In recognition of their efforts
numerous student and faculty teams from the University have received start-up grants
under the Student Open Innovation Challenge (SOIC) by SSIP, Government of Gujarat,
entrepreneurship initiatives. In the recent COVID-19 start-up challenge presented by SOIC,
15 Students teams of the University received grants out of a total of 36 shortlisted students
from Universities around the State. The winners were declared in recognition of their ability
to develop and innovate ideas which have the highest form of utility towards alleviating the
challenges presented by this pandemic.
The Student Open Innovation Challenge SOIC, is an initiative under the Student Startup and
Innovation Policy which seeks to develop a platform for promoting highly innovative ideas
in the academia. Further extending this entrepreneurial initiative, SOIC created a stream of
various challenges centred on providing the solutions to COVID-19 issues. From the generic
category of these challenges, 26 teams of Parul University were selected for a grant of
19.64,000 lakhs as a result of the various start-up initiatives which they developed. The projects proposed by the students were within the numerous fields of Pharmacy, Ayurveda,
Engineering amongst others. Under the COVID-19 category of the same SOIC challenge another total of 15 teams from the University won grants of upto 6.72.000 lakhs. The challenge was specifically designed to
look into the various areas which are related to COVID-19, and how in all the impacted
sectors , which possible solutions can be devised for the betterment of the society. The
students of Parul University displayed great prowess in their ability to not only meet the
requirements of the challenge but also go on to cater to the needs of the people in the
society. The grants received will now be taking these projects for further development and
to bring them into real-world applications for the betterment of the society. The projects
presented by the University’s teams were ranging in the numerous sectors of academics
including pharmacy, engineering, applied sciences, medical and paramedical, and also others
in the Ayush sector.
In addition to this, another total of six teams from Parul University had their start up ideas
selected for further development under the GIC-SSIP challenge. The teams of students and
mentors received a total of Rs. 3,46,000 lakhs grant, for COVID GTU Innovation and Start Up
centre so that they can further develop their ideas into practical business ventures. “We
have been continuously making efforts to create an atmosphere of innovation amongst our
students even in a time when they are learning from home. As the entrepreneurship
development cell of Parul University, we have been motivating and nurturing our students
in line with the effective strategy required to turn their innovative ideas into practical
realities”, said Jay Sudani the University’s Entrepreneurship Development Cell, Chief
Executive Officer(CEO)
In this distance learning era, the University has been constantly pushing towards exposing
the students to more practical methods of learning, through research projects and through
entrepreneurship ideas. This teaching and learning approach has been directed towards
ensuring that the students get an exposure to the much needed practical experience which
has been missing as a result of school closures imposed by governments around the world. “
The challenges which are surrounding us today in the various social, economic and political
spheres of life, have been more than evident. As Parul University, we strongly adhere to the
belief that the academic field has a key role to play in regards to ensuring that we get to
have effective solutions to meet the challenges of COVID-19. It brings me great pride to see
our students and their faculty mentors going the extra mile and taking the extra step to
make use of innovation for academic progression and for the society”, said the University’s
President Dr. Devanshu J Patel.
