Sponsored by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and IIT Bombay alum, Raj Mashruwala and Avi Nash Manudhane, the centre will operate with a physical office and research facilities within IIT Hyderabad’s campus. Apart from being an incubator, the centre intends to have a complete programme for identifying and grooming entrepreneurs, and mentoring them all the way to productisation, scaling and eventual social adoption and impact.
The centre was inaugurated by K.T. Rama Rao, Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj in Telangana.
“Entrepreneurship and this centre is in line with the thinking of our PM and CM. The role of the government in entrepreneurship is two-fold - the government can be an early adopter and can incentivise the innovators,” said Rao.
“We welcome IIT Hyderabad to work with Telangana government in setting up entrepreneurship opportunities in the areas of IT, aerospace and healthcare. Technology that does not bring about social change is futile.”
Chairman, Board of Governors of IIT, Hyderabad, B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, who was also present during the event, said, “Although we have a god given demographic advantage, there is a need to create 100 mn jobs in 10 years. It’s often thought that large companies create jobs, but it is start-ups that contribute 60 per cent of the jobs today.”
"Innovation and entrepreneurship are the key drivers to India's economic development. It is imperative that we create an ecosystem in India for innovations and entrepreneurship. Starting the Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship at IIT Hyderabad is a step in creating this ecosystem,” said UB Desai, Director IIT-Hyderabad.
The centre will be headed by Renu John, Professor and Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad. The centre hopes to jump-start an effort that trains entrepreneurs to deliver a pipeline of cost-efficient solutions, which are increasingly ‘commercialised’. The centre will aim to develop ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions, nurture promising ideas through start-up phase, guide the best ones to access the full set of resources, financial, operational as well as organizational, to permit broad implementation.