IIT Madras has set an ambitious target of incubating 100 start-ups for the next year, with a start-up once every three days, said its director, V Kamakoti. “I will keep emphasising the target of 100 start ups at every given opportunity,” he said at the 65th Institute Day of IIT Madras on Saturday.
“This year, we had a lot of targets in mind. The target No 1 was one patent a day. We wanted 366 patents to be filed in the last one year but crossed 370. The number of patents granted crossed 400. It is innovation and protection of our IPs that are going to make India a superpower,” he said in his presidential address.
IIT Madras’ BS Data Science and Electronic Systems programs have crossed, enrolling more than 26,000 students in different parts of this ‘Multiple-Entry, Multiple-Exit’ program. This year, the institute must aspire to reach 30,000 students so that within the next two to three years, IIT Madras should have a total of 50,000 enrolled as part of the higher education system. This will include 12,500 students on campus and more than 37,000 in online mode, he said.
V. Sumantran, Chairman of the Board of Directors of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (IndiGo Airlines), in his speech said India is slowly becoming a convenient hub for travel between South East Asia and the Middle East. If someone is travelling from Bangkok to Jeddah, the traveller can use one of the Indian airports as a hub and transit, said
India is moving forward with a lot more speed, with infrastructure in the system growing quickly. The country has around 140 operating airports and will increase to around 220 by the year 2030. “We are seeing a huge increase in regional travel and beyond the domestic,” he said addressing the IIT Madras’ 65 Institute Day.
We can see a huge amount of growth coming out of this. Last year in Paris (Air Show), we placed an order for 500 aircraft, which is the single largest aircraft order in aviation history, counting by the number of aircraft ordered , said Sumantran, Chairman of Celeris Technologies, and an alumnus of the 1981 batch of BTech in Aeronautical Engineering and a Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Madras.
“India offers a phenomenal platform. For a sustainable world, India can offer lessons on how to grow with responsibility - Achieve more with less and secondly, well before even 2047, many of our enterprises can be globally successful,” he said.