IIM-A to focus entirely on technical merit

The incubating wing of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad is ready to look at innovations, especially in clean energy, to rope in entrepreneurs who are not necessarily from the top institutes of the country, as has been the case so far.

“Till now, we have been working mainly with people from top institutes like IIMs, IITs and the IISc, but there are a lot of indigenous innovations that can be incubated, right down to the mechanic tinkering with bikes in his garage,” said Phanindra P, programme director for Renewable Energy Search programme at the Center for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), which has been helping out business start-ups with management support and guidance, funding and networking.

Phanindra, who recently returned from a month-long tour to five major cities with a team of clean-energy start-ups to meet policy-makers, research scientists, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who have succeeded in the field, was impressed with the latter group who, he said, started off and succeeded at a time when the term “clean energy” was practically an enigma and no one thought India would run into the present energy crisis.

The team Phanindra travelled with – a group of 19 young entrepreneurs with new business ideas in solar, wind, bio-gas and other clean energy sectors – are currently in various parts of the country on fieldwork, and will return to IIM-A shortly to work out the modalities of finally being “incubated” by CIIE.

They are the first group under the Renewable Energy Search program. It is for the second program, as well as other programs under CIIE, that the center wants to branch out.

Kunal Upadhyay, CIIE’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are open to anything. Everything depends on the technical merit and economical viability of the project. It could be from anywhere.”

“If you can produce clean energy at low cost, you don’t have to be from a top college to work with us,” he said.