Bengaluru to house largest IIT Alumni Centre; incubator to fund new ideas

The centre will be open to current and ex-IITians and faculties. It will also invite corporate and research institutions where IITians are working

Bengaluru will house India’s largest Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni centre in the country, which will house an incubator for start-ups and take up projects to serve social needs.

The centre, which will be funded by the alumni of various IITs residing in the city, is estimated to cost Rs 15-16 crore, while an additional Rs 10 crore will be raised for running expenses. The first fundraiser event was held in the city recently.

The centre will also look at bringing together corporates, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and IITs to work together on products and research. The association is already in talks with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited to help meet their software, hardware and material science requirements.

Due to be completed in March 2018, the centre will house an incubation centre for start-ups. It will also serve as a place for alumni to interact, work together on solving social issues and even form an advisory to state governments. It will be open to current and ex-IITians and faculties, and invite corporate and research bodies where IITians are working.

“The alumni interaction centre will be a place where the alumni can interact and contribute to society and industry. As a part of that, an incubation centre is being planned,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys co-founder and an IIT alumnus. “It will be an engagement platform for alumni to interact with the government, interact with society and give back to society.”

With an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 IITians residing in Bengaluru, the city will become home to the second such centre in the country after Chennai. The city is also home to several IIT alumni-turned-head honchos such as Nandan Nilekani and N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Sachin and Binny Bansal of Flipkart, Pranay Chulet of Quikr and Bhaskar Bhat of Titan.

The alumni have purchased land from the state government for the project near Electronic City.

According to former director of IIT Bombay Ashok Misra, IIT Roorkee will act as a nodal agency for incoming industry projects, deciding which centre can take them up based on their lines of expertise and ongoing projects. Talks have begun with few PSUs and research institutes, he added. “For smart cities, we had a nine-day workshop for the state government, where we spoke about water, sanitation, transportation, etc.”