University to collaborate with Hero Group to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the State of Punjab

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Hero Group and Birmingham City University are collaborating to establish the Munjal BCU School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MBSI) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the State of Punjab.

The project will come up at Ludhiana and will cater to the needs of the business industrial sector of the State.

Higher education in Punjab finds itself at the crossroads with many students seeking to study and then immigrating to other countries in search of better opportunities. Students appear reluctant to pursue higher education in Punjab because of the perception that the quality of training and education on offer isn’t quite up to the standards expected of an industrialised state.

This is where the proposed Munjal-BCU School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MBSI) could emerge as a game changer. The School aims to re-design the higher education offering in a manner that it leads to more meaningful student outcomes. The proposed MBSI aims to trigger industrial revival in the state by:

  •          Driving innovation in the state’s industrial clusters and promoting entrepreneurship
  •          Tapping into the state’s reservoirs of manpower
  •          Developing the considerable potential in the knowledge-intensive businesses

In the new economy that is emerging around the world and in India, innovative solutions will provide competitive advantages to businesses and markets, while also offering answers to developmental challenges. There is, therefore, a growing global opportunity to create, scale and transform business organisations through innovation and technological up-gradation.

MBSI plans to take a STEAM-oriented (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) approach to higher education. The idea is to use the strengths of each of these streams to power innovation and productivity. To do this effectively, MBSI proposes to collaborate with some of the well-established names pioneering STEAM-based higher education around the world.

STEAMhouse, pioneered by Birmingham City University,is designed as a centre for innovation, research, and creative production where technology, art, and design are used to nurture innovation and creativity. It is proposed to establish a Munjal-BCU School of Innovation (MBSI) at Ludhiana to meet the growing innovation needs of industrial enterprises in the State.

Professor Julian Beer, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Birmingham City University, said: “After nearly nine months of negotiations I am delighted to announce that Birmingham City University and the Hero Group, through the Munjal Foundation, are working towards establishing the Munjal – BCU Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2020, which is effectively our STEAMHouse in India.

“STEAM has the ability to transform economies across the globe and by developing this way of thinking and this way of working we can make a real difference to businesses and communities worldwide, and this partnership is a real step forward in this journey.”

Punjab is home to around 50,000 SMEs spread across the clusters of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Mohali, Patiala, Mandi, Gobindgarh, etc. Many such SMEs are reasonably successful and managed by third and fourth generation entrepreneurs. Yet for a variety of reasons, a significant number still exist as SMEs and are typically characterized by low levels of innovation and technology absorption. One possible reason for this inability to scale is the lack of a platform to come together, discuss and develop opportunities to scale up, perform R&D, practice innovation and re-visit business models necessary in a rapidly changing world.

The proposed MBSI aims to establish a common, independent platform that facilitates innovation and builds an entrepreneurship ecosystem in the State.

A high-level delegation led by Birmingham City University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Philip Plowden, Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Julian Beer, and Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Alison Honour is visiting Punjab during Progressive Punjab Investment Summit 2019 to finalise the details of the proposed Munjal-BCU School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

For more info visit: bcu.ac.uk

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