IITians prefer to launch start-ups rather than go abroad for greener pastures

Chennai:

Indian Institute of Technology students are experiencing a change in their attitude of looking at greener pastures outside the country and many want to become an entrepreneur.

But then the fear lurks. What if their start-up fails? Will they get a job? Indian Institute Technology, Madras, Prof Dr Jhunjhunwala, who has been instrumental in setting up IITM’s Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI) assures them at a three day E-summit 2016 that a failed entrepreneur is most sought after by the start-ups.

And this is backed by vice-president of Mahindra and Mahindra Shyam Vembar, who says that he has hired failed entrepreneurs.

Interestingly, the fear of failure has stopped many of the young technocrats from venturing into launching their own start-ups.

Anand Chandrasekhar, founder and chief operating officer of Mad Street Den and an alumni of IIT Madras, says that not everyone running a start-up is successful. “Start-up will have failed entrepreneurs but it is not a black mark,” he says.

Talking about the failed ventures, Prof Jhunjhunwala says the issue is that the product or idea may be good but it lacks commercial planning.

“If you are not commercially successful, you will fail as an entrepreneur,” he says.

“The ability to take risk and survive without any money is important,” says Jhunjhunwala.

Interestingly, IIT has been instrumental in incubating 100 companies out of which 20 are being incubated by the faculty alone. “Now the students going abroad has dropped and there is a huge change taking place. Now 30 to 40 per cent students are going for incubating or joining start-ups ,” says Jhunjhunwala.

He says that IIT research Park, which has 60 companies setting up their research and development cell, is going to expand by 1.2 million square feet and would soon accommodate 150 companies. This could result in incubating more companies, he says.

But Vembar says that academic spark alone doesn’t make oneself a successful entrepreneur. “Entrepreneurship comes within. You have to experience it yourself,” he says