BHUBANESWAR: The Atal Innovation Centre (AIC)-SOA Foundation, an initiative of SOA University designed to promote student entrepreneurship, was inaugurated at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) on Thursday.

During the inauguration, Gokulananda Mallik, the minister for MSME and Fisheries, and ARD, highlighted the state government’s startup policy aimed at empowering students and youth while enhancing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Odisha. He praised SOA for its commitment to research and innovation, stating, “Acquiring skills is vital today, and it is for the youth to focus on innovation and start-ups to boost the economy.”

Established with the support of the Atal Innovation Mission from NITI Aayog, launched in 2016, the AIC-SOA Foundation is set to serve as a catalyst for transforming innovative ideas into scalable and sustainable businesses, thereby bolstering the entrepreneurial environment in the state and nationwide.

Deepak Bagla, director of the AIM mission, noted that six out of every ten students are expected to start their own ventures soon. “New startups are being added every day, indicating a new engine of growth. While there were only 400 startups in the country in January 2016, nearly 200,000 have been registered since then,” he remarked.

The event was attended by SOA vice-chancellor Pradipta Kumar Nanda, CEO of Startup Odisha Smruti Ranjan Pradhan, SOA Pro-V-C Prof Prasanta Kumar Patra, and Prasanta Kumar Panigrahi, director of SOA’s Centre for Quantum Science and Technology.