Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, young IITians are planning to set up their own ventures. From a few adventurous ones who dared to step off the placement mainstream, the breed has expanded, and premier institutions are now encouraging it too.

“Around 25 per cent of the students did not sit for placements this year. Some may be looking to become entrepreneurs and start their own ventures,” said S.K. Mehta, Assistant Placement Officer, IIT-B. While some students start off on their maiden ventures immediately after passing out of IITs, for many, the foundation is laid during their IIT days. Vivek Arya took off in his third-year at IIT-Bombay, when he started a simulation-based learning company. Though the venture couldn’t take off, it gave him the entrepreneurial experience.“The experience gave us a fair idea about entrepreneurship. It was then that I decided to start my own company,” said Arya, who started Makesense, a recruitment consultancy, along with two fellow IITians.

“We later launched a new software CareerOpener, which uses technology for intelligent sorting of resumes, beyond just keyword searches for recruiters,” he added.

Pratham Jahoorkar, an IITian, gave up his high-paying, comfortable job in New York to come back to India and start his own venture in financial services. “Sometimes you hit a wall and find yourself stuck in a cosy space. I wanted to push myself to do something different,” says Jahoorkar, who has created a platform that connects buyers and sellers for transactions.

Many of these start-ups have gone through IIT-Bombay’s entrepreneurship cell (E-cell). “E-cell plays the role of a connector in the ecosystem. It connects start-ups, incubators, angel investors and industry,” said Ayush Agrawal, overall coordinator, E-Cell, IIT-Bombay.

Similarly, IIT-Madras has an incubation centre that provides support to budding entrepreneurs. “ There is a 20-25 per cent year-on-year growth in the number of students getting into entrepreneurship. In fact, IIT-Madras’ incubation centre is 100 per cent full this year,” said Narayanan Ramaswamy, Head of Education Practice, KPMG.

ATTRACTIVE SECTORS

Sectors attracting budding entrepreneurs are technology start-ups, Web-based start-ups, education services and social media sector. “These sectors are not capital intensive and thus, require less time to break even,” Ramaswamy added.

>nivedita.ganguly @thehindu.co.in

>deepa.nair@thehindu.co.in