IIT Madras launches School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to offer MS(Entrepreneurship), PhD

IIT Madras is already home to India’s largest ‘deep-tech’ startup ecosystem, with over 475 startups valued in excess of Rs. 50,000 Crore (US$ 6 Billion) under the aegis of IITM Incubation Cell

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched a School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to create a World-Class ecosystem to establish Deep-Tech Start-ups. The objective is to put the Institute on the Global Map of entrepreneurial universities.

IIT Madras is already home to India’s largest ‘deep-tech’ startup ecosystem, with over 475 startups valued in excess of Rs. 50,000 Crore (US$ 6 Billion) under the aegis of IITM Incubation Cell, together with several sector-specific incubators. These start-ups have cumulatively created more than 11,000 jobs, filed over 700 patents and have attracted Rs. 12,000 Crore in investments.

Through structured curricular and academic support, the Institute aims to catalyse the emergence of the next generation of Deep Tech start-up founders, boosting the vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’.

The School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be headed by Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee, serial faculty-entrepreneur and a distinguished faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras. Having nurtured student innovation through his leadership of both the maker-space Centre for Innovation (CFI) and the pre-Incubator Nirmaan, besides several successful start-ups, Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal brings extensive experience and vision to the School.

The School will offer a Minor Stream in Entrepreneurship, an MS(Entrepreneurship) degree and also establish novel programmes contributing to translational research besides a PhD Program and a unique ‘Entrepreneur-in-Residence’ (EIR) cohort to support returning professionals who want to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. These include practice-led degrees at the Undergraduate and Master's levels, as well as an industry-defined ‘Innovation Doctorate’.

The School also aims to create IIT Madras-specific funding mechanisms at the initiation and scale-up stages for start-ups. It will also run ‘IP clinics’ to help students understand the notion of IP filing and quickly convert their innovations into IP-backed products with support from IITM’s IPM Cell.

Highlighting the importance of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “As we progress after having achieved 1.2 patents a day and exceeded 100 start-ups in the last financial year, now, it is time to institutionalize our Innovation and Entrepreneurship efforts. We have a large’I&E’ stack that spans the e-Cell, Centre for Innovation (CFI) and Nirmaan pre-incubator to the Gopalakrishnan Deshpande Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GDC and IIT Madras Incubation Cell. We have already introduced in the second year of B.Tech program, a course on Entrepreneurship and System Building. Now, we will also have a minor. The PhD program is very interesting. This is going to be another USP of IIT Madras.”