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‘SIIC at IIT-K ready to lead as tech business incubator’
The Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) at the Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur (IIT-K) organised the annual startup expo ‘Abhivyakti 2019’ recently.
The Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) at the Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur (IIT-K) organised the annual startup expo ‘Abhivyakti 2019’ recently.
Addressing the inaugural function, UP additional chief secretary (commercial tax) Alok Sinha said that startups were the solution to many socio-economic challenges at the state and the national level. “The startup initiatives at IIT-K combined a great deal of innovation and technology to address the problems in various sectors,” he said.
The event saw dignitaries from different government departments and boards, business and industry leaders besides innovators. Investor Dr Saurabh Srivastava, former head of National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Harkesh Mittal and IIT-K director Prof Abhay Karandikar were present on the occasion.
Deputy secretary general, FICCI, Nirankar Saxena who attended the expo, was enthralled by the entrepreneurial zeal of the founders and emphasised on the need of greater industrial engagement.
“It is crucial for premier engineering institutions like IIT-K to constantly forge a stronger industry and customer connect. For this, it is imperative that campus interactions should be organised on regular basis. Apart from this, frequent visits by industry representatives and collaborations are must to leverage IIT-K expertise towards technology commercialisation,” he said.
Harkesh Mittal, programme head of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Tech Commercialisation at Department of Science & Technology, said, “It’s important for leading technical institutions to strive to stay relevant to industry requirements and have the flexibility to accommodate as per demand driven R&D.”
IIT-K sign MoUs
Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) of IIT-K, signed MoU with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and Goodera to work upon a wholesome solution for social entrepreneurs that would allow corporation participation, in each of their success stories.
“With this partnership, Goodera and SIIC would work together to ensure that the future of social entrepreneurship was bright and secure in this country,” said Abhishek Humbad, CEO, Goodera.
SIIC IIT-K also announced a partnership with Grasshopper magazine through which the passengers travelling in Tejas Express would enjoy the stories of disruptive innovations happening at IIT-K.
The director, IIT-K Prof Abhay Karandikar said, “IIT-K deep technology startups are at par with the best innovations in India. There has been a great institution level drive to consolidate the wide range of technology business related activities that are at the frontier areas of convergence of engineering and medicine.”
Dr Saurabh Srivastava, who led investments into IIT-K startups through the Indian Angel Network (IAN) said, “Students should strongly consider to follow the entrepreneurial path which is uniquely empowering to bring ideas to reality. As traditional options are quickly vanishing, the new jobs will be created by startups.”
“With Abhivyakti 2019, we wanted the nation to know about the recent achievements of the incubation centre in terms of the number and quality of innovations being supported by us,” said Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, the Prof-in-charge of SIIC IIT-K.
He further said that SIIC at IIT-K was now ready to lead as technology business incubator across the globe. “The startup companies supported by us are trying to solve some of the most pressing technological and societal challenges and transforming millions of lives,” he added.
