Deccan Centre for Innovation and Design set for Sunday launch

 Nurture workable ideas through innovation and design; identify talents, boost their skill sets through focused mentoring and turn them into next-generation social entrepreneurs.

This is the big idea behind the Deccan Centre for Innovation and Design (DCID), all set for launch at the Indian Institute of Science Satish Dhawan Auditorium here this Sunday.
Instituted by the K N Guruswamy Educational & Charitable Trust, DCID has its objective clear: To be a startup enabler, incubator and accelerator for anyone with ideas. The focus would be on hand-holding ideas that has a social impact. “It would be about mentoring, networking and even funding help. The bouquet of offerings would range from small master classes to much longer incubator projects,” explained IIMB alumnus, Ravikiran Annaswamy, one of DCID’s directors.

In sync with this approach, DCID’s Sunday launch will feature TEDx style talks to give students and innovators a perspective on social entrepreneurship. On the agenda are talks on “Challenges and joys of running a social business,” “Enabling entrepreneurship: A view from the field” and “Ecosystem factors and considerations to enable a climate of social entrepreneurship.”

On offer
DCID’s bouquet will include short-term, low-cost skilling programmes led by experts and hands-on achievers, and long-term engagements for those ready with a social impact venture. Participants would be provided a co-working space, a team of mentors and senior advisors, besides opportunities to network with co-practitioners, investors and funders.

The Institute would be open to anyone with ideas, engineering graduates or dropouts, diploma-holders or non-engineers. “The focus would be on identifying a social need, and helping it become a business idea through design, technology and social innovation. There are business opportunities while solving social problems. There is money there,” explained another DCID director, Arvind Lodaya, a National Institute of Design alumnus.
Expanding its reach, DCID has already tied up with the Institution of Engineers. Tie-ups with other institutions and universities - both local and international -- are on the anvil. The Institute’s facility launch has been scheduled for 2016 February / March at the Indian Social Institute, 24, Benson Road, Benson Town, Bengaluru. More details could be accessed by mailing [e-mail]