IIT-Delhi to establish PhD start-up incubators; targets to incubate 20-ideas
Buoyed by "Institution of Eminence" (IoE) status, the IIT-Delhi has set to establish a Ph.D. start-up incubator, work on which is likely to begin this month. IIT-Delhi Director, V Ramgopal Rao, said the target would be to incubate at least 20 ideas in the first year. The IoE status provides full autonomy and special incentives to institutes to project them as "world-class universities".
Start-up incubator would help in harnessing deep technologies
"The start-up incubator would be for those people who have finished their Ph.D. and wish to work on an innovative idea on harnessing deep technologies," Rao said. "Idea is to encourage research and innovative work in advanced computational systems, like artificial intelligence, data sciences, blockchain technologies, among other fields," he added. "The incubator would come up in the Sonepat campus of IIT-Delhi," Rao said.
Incubator facility would help students to build prototypes: Rao
The IIT-D Director said the incubator facility at Sonepat campus would not only help them to build prototypes but also let them demonstrate it, say if it's from the field of nanotechnology, the prototype developed would also be demonstrated.
IIT-D will get Rs. 1,000cr as part of IoE grant
As part of IoE grant, the HRD Ministry will be providing IIT-D with "Rs. 1,000cr over five years", which the institute would supplement with internal revenue generation mainly through R&D grants and other mechanisms, Rao said. "We hope to raise another Rs. 1,500cr, so a total of Rs. 2,500cr would be spent by IIT-D on enhancing its research facilities, infrastructure, and outreach," he said.
Two-stage screening process to select best candidates for research
Anil Wali, Managing Director of Foundation For Innovation And Technology Transfer (FITT), an industrial interface organization at IIT-D, said, the incubator would focus on key challenges around deep technologies. "The program would be announced at national-level inviting applications. Then the plan is to have a two-stage screening process to select the best candidates who are serious about working on deep technology ideas," Wali said.
