IIT Madras to scale up pre-incubation centre for 100 student start-ups

Institute to tap public and private sector to raise CSR funding to support the budding enterprises

Nirmaan, the pre-incubation centre of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) is planning to scale up operations to support around 100 student start-ups. The institute will also approach public and private sector companies to raise corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding for these enterprises.

Some 12-15 out of the 80-odd start-up teams that it has supported during the past four years have progressed to the incubation stage and some have also started raising funds, according to Satyanarayanan Seshadri, assistant professor, IIT-M and faculty advisor, Nirmaan.

The institute has been nurturing new ideas through its Centre For Innovation (CFI), where students work on