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IITB’s KReSIT: Key to future of Indian IT

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In a nation and industry that’s focused on IT services you hardly hear of companies that dare to be different from the crowd. IIT Bombay’s Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT) is a rare oasis where you’ll find... See more » In a nation and industry that’s focused on IT services you hardly hear of companies that dare to be different from the crowd. IIT Bombay’s Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT) is a rare oasis where you’ll find such firms. Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan, Srikanth R P and Stanley Glancy tell you what makes this school so special, and why it is perhaps India’s best ticket to true glory in the global IT scene As you drive into the IIT Bombay campus in suburban Mumbai you realise that it is the perfect example to prove the adage about lotuses thriving in muddy ponds. The condition of the road outside is a textbook case of all that can go wrong with infrastructure planning, and the pollution and noise doesn’t help. But enter the campus and as a fresh breath of air greets you it seems like you’ve stepped into an oasis. The lush green environs and sleepy surroundings of the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT) hardly give the impression of frantic activity. One just has to reach the fourth floor of this futuristic building however, to witness the future of technology being rewritten by some of the most ingenious young minds in the world. Welcome to the Business Incubator at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB)—the first of its kind in the country. The Business Incubator idea originally entailed the institute leveraging its renowned academic strength and outstanding industry interface to review business plans submitted by students and pick out those that were conceptually sound and financially viable. The students whose plans were selected were provided with financial and infrastructural support to set up a company that could then work on its products and/or services till it got sufficient funding to move out and make way for the next start-up. The support today includes office space in the Business Incubator, computers and connectivity, and most importantly access to the who’s who of academia and industry to guide these fledgling enterprises. While the Incubator’s initial location in the Physics Department was makeshift (the KReSIT was initially housed in the Maths department), its beginnings were by no means humble. Junglee.com founder Rakesh Mathur created history of sorts by funding India’s first campus start-up—Iportia and thus the student entrepreneurship ball was set rolling. Iportia, which later changed its name to Righthalf didn’t exactly take off and after a recent merger with Mathur’s Purple Yogi, now goes by the name of Stratify. Former employee Ketan Pandya, who has just completed his bachelor’s degree from IITB believes that the idea was ahead of its time. “The main concern then was building a user base, which was the currency that VCs dealt in then, rather than actual revenue.” Pandya now works for MyZus, the second campus start-up which met with tremendous success and moved out of the Incubator into its own premises in Powai’s posh Hiranandani Gardens Complex some months ago. MyZus has created cutting edge products in the wireless domain and some of its services have already been implemented by cellular service providers. Herald Logic and Deus Co Technologies started at around the same time (a few months after MyZus) and made the transition into the new KReSIT building where they are still housed. Herald Logic has been working in the area of reconfigurable software and intelligent enterprise applications. The company headed by Vishal Gupta whose final year project at IITB was the inspiration behind the venture, has developed a host of products and services. That the rest of the world is sitting up to take notice is more than evident. At the last Global Entrepreneurs’ Challenge organised by Stanford University, Herald Logic won the award for the ‘Best Strategy for bringing disruptive technology to the market’ and picked up a cheque for $10,000. The glittering trophy sitting pretty in the office is just the beginning. Deus Co Technologies on the other hand used a radically different approach. “We decided to adopt an alternative start-up model,” says co-founder Ramashish See less »

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IITB’s KReSIT: Key to future of Indian IT

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