IIM Bangalore & IIIT-B Sign Significant MoU

Bengaluru, June 09, 2016 : The International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) entered into a MoU today (June 09) at the IIMB campus with the aim to share their expertise in the areas of technology and management respectively with the start-ups being incubated in their respective innovation centres.

"IIMB and IIIT-B, from their collective experience in nurturing entrepreneurs and startups over the past decade, recognize their mutual interest in positively influencing the technology startup ecosystem in India and the importance of collaborating with each other to nurture early stage technology ventures and help them in shaping appropriate business models," said Professor Suresh Bhagavatula, Chairperson, NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at IIMB.

The institutions will work together to provide technology and business mentorship aimed at helping young technology startups and entrepreneurs achieve sustainable business growth in the Indian startup landscape.

"I am sure this collaboration will be a win-win situation for both the institutions and the startups," said Professor R Srinivasan, Director Incharge, IIM Bangalore.

Professor S Sadagopan, director, IIIT-B, said: "The collaborative partnership between the innovation centres of IIIT-B and IIMB is a much needed and one-of-its-kind model of cooperation between two premier Indian institutes for the benefit of the startup community."

The IIIT-B Innovation Centre was started in 2009, and is currently incubating 17 startup companies that are developing innovative IT-based products to solve problems in areas such as healthcare, transportation and energy.

The NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at IIMB is an open incubation centre that nurtures early stage start-ups and currently incubates 18 companies focused on providing scalable and sustainable solutions. NSRCEL's mission is to take ideas to implementation through a structured mentoring program.

"World over, startup companies look to mentoring and networking support provided by the incubators as key enablers of success. Startup companies incubated by these centres will now have access to a broader range of mentoring skills, both in the areas of technology and management, thereby enhancing the probability of their success," added Professor Sadagopan.

Professor R Srinivasan, Director Incharge, IIM Bangalore, D V Jagadish, CEO, Outreach & Innovation Centre, IIIT-B, Rajiv Sawhney, COO, NSRCEL, Professor K Kumar, Chairperson, Academic Pogrammes, NSRCEL at IIMB and Professor Ramesh Sundararaman, COO, Innovation Centre, IIIT-B and founder of I-MACX were also present on the occasion.

Professor Sadagopan and his team from IIIT-B who came to the IIMB campus for the signing of the MoU revisited their long association with IIM Bangalore. 'I am a faculty alum here," quipped Professor Sadagopan. As senior faculty member at IIMB, Professor Sadagopan was instrumental in setting up the management school's computer facility.

"IIM Bangalore was the first IIM in the country to get email and in the 1990s that made front page headlines in the national newspapers," recalled Professor Sadagopan. D V Jagadish is an alumnus of IIMB's PGP programme while Professor Ramesh Sundararaman is an alumnus of the PGSEM programme.