DD Correspondent
JAMMU, The DST i-TBI at IIM Jammu hosted the latest edition of its “Sector Roundtable Series-MSME”, bringing together entrepreneurs, MSME owners, industry representatives and IIM Jammu faculty to foster meaningful dialogue, identify sector-specific challenges and explore innovation-driven solutions for businesses across the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh on 11th Aug 2026.
The initiative is aligned with the broader mandate of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, to strengthen innovation, entrepreneurship and technology-led enterprise development. Through focused sectoral engagements, the roundtable seeks to create a sustained platform where industry challenges can be translated into opportunities for innovation, research, student engagement, mentorship and technology adoption.
Dr. Ramswarup A. Bhaskar, Co-Chairperson, CEISD Jammu, underscored the potential of transforming real-world industry challenges into structured innovation opportunities for students. He proposed developing an “industry problem-to-student solution” pipeline, wherein challenges faced by MSMEs could be presented as innovation problems and explored by IIM Jammu students through projects, competitions and experiential learning. Such an approach, he noted, can simultaneously address industry requirements while creating practical learning and innovation opportunities for students.
Introducing the initiative, Dr. Vivek Sharma, Chief Innovation Officer, DST i-TBI, IIM Jammu, highlighted the opportunities available through IIM Jammu for innovation-driven startups and MSMEs. He spoke about the availability of grant support for eligible innovation-based startups through the incubation ecosystem and encouraged participating enterprises to leverage the talent pool of higher education institutions by exploring internship opportunities for their organisations. He also invited the participants to articulate their training, consultancy and capacity-building requirements so that appropriate academic and institutional support could be explored.
The session also provided participants with an opportunity to experience the innovation infrastructure available through the IIM Jammu Incubation Centre, including its FAB Lab and 3D prototyping facilities. These facilities are designed to support innovators and entrepreneurs in moving from conceptualisation and experimentation towards functional prototypes and, ultimately, market-ready solutions.
The roundtable was led by Shri Parveen Pargal, All India Executive Member and State President, Laghu Udyog Bharati, who emphasised the importance of strengthening the regional MSME ecosystem through greater collaboration among industry, academia, startups and government-supported innovation platforms. He highlighted the need for stronger linkages that can enable MSMEs to access contemporary knowledge, technology, talent and professional expertise.
The interaction was further enriched by the participation of IIM Jammu faculty members from diverse domains, including Analytics, Supply Chain Management and Economics, who engaged with the participating entrepreneurs to understand their operational and strategic challenges and explore possible avenues for academic and technical collaboration.The MSME representatives brought forward a range of practical challenges confronting their enterprises. Key areas discussed included digitisation support, marketing capabilities, business growth strategies, technology adoption and sector-specific operational challenges. The interactions enabled entrepreneurs to engage directly with faculty members and explore possibilities for developing innovative, technology-enabled and scalable solutions tailored to their business needs.
