Starting up, making waves at IIM-Joka

Kolkata: Gopal Paul introduces himself as the CFO or the chief fun officer of Izifiso, and his "partners-in-crime" are apparently "crazy people like me". Petted and pampered by IIM-Calcutta, his is one of the two innovations adopted by the premier management school on its Joka campus.
Kolkata's Izifiso and the Delhi-based Buddy2Study were the Chosen Two from the 800-plus entries from across the country for IIM-C's "Ideas to Implementation" (I2I) competition in March.Now ready to launch itself as a pioneer in "edu-tourism", Izifiso, comprising geologist, software experts and gamers who are ex-students of JU and IIT-Bombay, will trek with school kids to mountain villages of Samanden and Gorkhey on the Sikkim-Bengal borders for star-gazing and photography. Buddy4Study has already gained popularity as a platform where needy students can look for scholarships.
"For the next two years, the start-ups won't have to bother about infrastructure or funding. It is free to implement their projects in a stress-free state, and become self-reliant," said Subhrangshu Sanyal, CEO, IIMCalcutta Innovation Parks, a Section 8 company under the aegis of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation or CEI at IIM-C to incubate and accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation.
IIMCIP's incubation centre has so far mentored 12 such enterprises, funding six of them. The non-profit venture has a business model, and has acquired 2-5% equity stakes in the incubating firms. "For a baby like Izifiso, IIM-C is like home. It helps us directly access the market through the right channels and gives us great networking opportunity. We get to meet the best of the minds at IIM-C and receive the right mentoring," said Paul (28), a geologist in Mumbai, who has moved to Kolkata to turn his passion of educational travel into his vocation.
Paul claimed Izifso took the pain to change traditional ways of imparting knowledge. "We offer crazy ideas, such as fossil-hunting, star-photography and musical trips for students. This gives them an opportunity to learn things outside the textbooks," he said "Hours spent observing the stars in the night sky of the mountains is time well spent. The sky at Samanden is so clear that galaxies can be recognized by the naked eye. There's no radio interference or light-emitted pollution. There will be experts with equipment to guide the students in star photography." Samanden is a 20km trek from Sepi, from where the students will be given the option of riding on horseback or walking. "The trek route is beautiful, with wild strawberries all around," Paul added.
If he's out to make education meaningful through travel, Ashutosh Burnwal, marine engineer and CEO of India's largest scholarship network Buddy4Study, is busy addressing the basics. "Every year, scholarships worth billions of rupees, are provided by governments, foundations and corporations, but many a time, they don't reach the deserving. Buddy4Study is trying to find a way out of the chaos and provide solutions to connect students and scholarship providers," he said. His startup has created a robust information repository and search portal, catering to the needs of more than 1,00,000 students. Buddy2Study had helped 800 students with scholarships worth more than Rs 2 crore, said Burnwal.