IIT alumni to present 80 start-ups

Mumbai: IIT-Mumbai Alumni is working towards showcasing 80 start-ups by October when the Global Business Forum (GBF) that it unveiled on Friday meets in Goa.

Eight special interest groups (SIGs) will present 10 start-ups each, ranging from vocation, energy, and environment/water to ICT related entrepreneurship to smart cities, said Prof. Deepak Phatak, department of computer science and engineering, IIT-Mumbai.

The Forum will for the first time bring together academia, industry and the IIT-Mumbai Alumni to meet the aspirational needs of society at affordable prices and on a scale never seen before said Ajit Ranade, chief economist, Aditya Birla group.

The ambitious scale will be achieved through new business models built through innovation and enterprise. Creating entrepreneurs and providing a livelihood will be the focus, he said.

For instance, he said, “In five years there will be three crore students per year, a large number of drop outs will be looking for employment and through the GBF they will be able to get the quality skills at affordable costs.