UC Berkeley sets up Smart City co-innovation lab

Smart City project gets yet another kick!

The University of California (Berkeley) plans to set up a smart city co-innovation lab in New Delhi. This move is aimed at providing an accelerator program for young entrepreneurs.

Here are the salient features in a nutshell:

. The accelerator lab will be launched in India in collaboration with 1M1B (A Million for A Billion).

. This is an initiative to activate a million leader who will drive a billion people out of poverty and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

. The age range to participate in the program ranges from 19 years to 29 years.

. Entrepreneurs and startups will be identified, mentored and funded to create sustainable solutions for Indian cities. Such cities are plagued with issues such as traffic, pollution, open sewage and unplanned growth.

. The program will teach courses on customer relationship management, understanding business models and monetization in a structured way.

. The startup accelerator at UC Berkeley’s student teams raised about USD 12 million last year.

“In older days we had pitched competitions and people used to write business plans. Now we have a structured educational method of becoming an entrepreneur,” says Andre Marquis, executive director of the Innovation Acceleration Group at UC Berkeley Executive Education.

Excerpts from Moneycontrol.com