The National Innovation and Startup Policy 2019 for Students and Faculty, Guidelines for Higher Education Institutions of the MoE provides a set of recommendations and guiding principles for higher education institutions for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem within campuses. Section 7 of the said policy states the norms for faculty startup as below:

• For better coordination of the entrepreneurial activities, norms for faculty to do startups should be created by the institutes. Only those technologies should be taken for faculty startups which originate from within the same institute.
• Role of faculty may vary from being an owner/direct promoter, mentor, consultant or as on-board member of the startup.
• Institutes should work on developing a policy on 'conflict of interests' to ensure that the regular duties of the faculty don’t suffer owing to his/her involvement in the startup activities.
• Faculty startup may consist of faculty members alone or with students or with faculty of other institutes or with alumni or with other entrepreneurs.
• In case the faculty/staff holds the executive or managerial position for more than three months in a startup, they will go on sabbatical/leave without pay/utilize existing leave.
• Faculty must clearly separate and distinguish on-going research at the institute from the work conducted at the startup/company.
• In case of selection of a faculty startup by an outside national or international accelerator, a maximum leave (as sabbatical/existing leave/unpaid leave/casual leave/earned leave) of one semester/year (or even more depending upon the decision of review committee constituted by the institute) may be permitted to the faculty.
• Faculty must not accept gifts from the startup.
• Faculty must not involve research staff or other staff of institute in activities at the startup and vice-versa.
• Human subject related research in startup should get clearance from ethics committee of the institution.

Startup and Entrepreneurship Policy [PDF]