IIT Kanpur, IIM Lucknow to promote tech startups

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Jan 31, 2021

The startup wings of the country’s top two academic institutions viz. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow have joined hands to support technology startup and innovation ecosystem in the country.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between IIT Kanpur Research and Technology Park (Technopark@iitk) and IIM Lucknow Enterprise Incubation Centre (IIML-EIC).

According to the IIT Kanpur, India is witnessing an unprecedented boom in the country’s innovation startup ecosystem and in the current scenario the motto of self-reliance and ‘Make in India’ and startup holds more prominence than ever before.

“This association between the two world-class premier institutes will not only foster close linkages between academia and industry, but would also open new avenues for resource sharing,” IIT Kanpur director Prof Abhay Karandikar, who is also the chairman, Board of Technopark@iitk, said.

He claimed the collaboration will boost the entrepreneurial ecosystem and empower the future innovators of the country. The unique association is expected to serve as a benchmark for other IITs and IIMs to follow suit.

“As an emerging economy, we need to fill in the institutional voids that have long existed to create something on the lines of the Silicon Valley, and incubation and innovation is the only way out. At IIM Lucknow, we are deep into AI (artificial intelligence) and have many technology startups incubated with us. This MoU (with IIT Kanpur) will facilitate a collaborative exchange of ideas and knowledge between our startups,” Prof Anadi Pande, Faculty-In-Charge, IIML-EIC noted.