IITs & IIMs launches new consortium to support entrepreneurs, innovation

The new venture is named as 'Innovation-Venturing and Entrepreneurship in India Network (iVEIN)

Top IITs and IIMs have formed a consortium to boost the country's Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem through research in innovation and entrepreneurship.

The new venture has been named ‘Innovation-Venturing and Entrepreneurship in India Network (iVEIN)and the founding members include the faculty at IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta and IIM Kozhikode. 

This network of institutions will leverage the strengths of partners and will work with other stakeholders such as incubators, government and investors to generate and disseminate knowledge.

iVEIN was launched along the sidelines of ‘Dialogue with Stakeholders’ event held by Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bombay.

Prof A Thillai Rajan, Department of Management Studies at  IIT Madras, who is coordinating the initiative, said that innovation, venturing and entrepreneurship are getting increasing attention from policymakers. 

These three areas are expected to play a key role in the economic growth of the country in addition to strengthening India’s position as an innovation country. The iVEIN network will facilitate high-quality research in this field among the academic fraternity in India and create avenues for dissemination of relevant knowledge through conferences and journal publications, he said.

Prof. B Ravi, who heads the Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay added the proposed network would create a strategic bridge between various stakeholders, strengthen the ecosystem and synthesize the knowledge that exists in silos among different groups.”

The network will create an interdisciplinary body of knowledge synthesising multiple perspectives, which would meet the requirements of policymakers, academic researchers, students, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and all those interested in innovation and ventures

It will track the contours of the vibrant innovation, venturing and entrepreneurship segment in the country and develop a holistic and analytical narrative on the dynamics that drive the development in these areas. It will also help in effective policy formulation at multiple levels; develop thought leadership for practice

Institutes, organizations and individuals, especially policymakers, investment managers, practitioners and entrepreneurs with an active interest in entrepreneurship, innovation and venturing are invited to join the network to facilitate and promote collaborative research, said the coordinators.