NLUO Cuttack is hosting a start-up weekend on its campus starting today, in what it claims is a first for any NLU.

The event is an initiative of NLUO’s Law and Entrepreneurship cell, LexTech, a concept NLUO has borrowed from NLSIU Bangalore and GNLU Gandhinagar, that have similar entrepreneurship initiatives for law students on campus.

Supported by Google, the event is dubbed the Google Start-up Weekend, which will be used to select a team whose start-up will be incubated from scratch by investors from TiE and TBI, KIIT. Uber also lent its name and some support to NLUO.

While neither tech company provided funds to NLUO, the event is facilitated by Google under its initiative “Google for Entrepreneurs”, run by Google subsidiary TechStars.

TechStars facilitates grassroot level start-ups, said NLUO and outsources the Google Start-up Weekend to various institutes and organisations that apply to organise a weekender. NLUO had approached TechStars six months ago about putting on the event.

After TechStars agreed to outsource the event to NLUO, the law school used the Start-up Weekend brand to appraoch Uber for sponsorship, and Uber is providing Start-Up Weekend logo t-shirts for the event.

NLUO provided around Rs 2.5 lakh of funds to hold the event.

A panel of judges – including KC Mishra, the founder of social enterprise E-Kutir Rural Management Services – will select the best two out of close to 40 participating ideas presented by lawyers and non-lawyers from all over India.

NLUO student Shivangi Bajpai, who is a part of the organising committee, told us that NLUO offered law and entrepreneurship as an elective subject and seminar course for final year LLB students.

She commented: “The objective of Lextech is to cultivate a rare breed of entrepreneurs by incubating, accelerating, mentoring and funding innovative start-ups, thereby creating a transformational learning environment for motivating, preparing and assisting entrepreneurial leaders and scholars to turn knowledge into action in pursuing innovative solutions to the most pressing problems of the globe.

“The upcoming event which is all about ‘law, entrepreneurship & innovation’ promises to be a huge success by virtue of Google being its title sponsor, Uber and SCC Online, being others. We are posing for a grand stage for successful start-up founders and businessmen in the economy.”