Chennai: Three illustrious alumni of IIT Madras came together and launched the Gopalakrishnan—Deshpande Centre at the premiere institute on Wednesday to promote creative ideas and entrepreneurship among the students.
Jaishree Deshpande, Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande and S. Kris Gopalakrishnan will jointly fund 1 million dollars per year to the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the next five years.
The centre aims at catalyzing new ideas to fill gaps and strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and nurture such new approaches.
Speaking to reporters after the launch, Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, an Indian-American venture capitalist and entrepreneur, said, “Essentially, we are looking to solve big problems in energy, healthcare, environment and education. It’s really bringing people together from lots of different disciplines.”
“The centre has a broader agenda of supporting innovative ideas, which could bring a social change. The student has to come out with the idea and plan to develop it and we will evaluate and support it,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, chairman, Axilor.
“Students need to have a complete vision of how this will change an industry or society. Then, we will help them fine tune it and detail it,” he said. IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi expressed hope that this centre will strengthen entrepreneurship.
“It’s about taking a few people who have come with intriguing ideas. They may need a lot of help in terms of mentoring and financial support. This centre will be part of a global network of Deshpande Centres which together aim to bear on the world’s major challenges,” he said.
