The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani announced that it will permit students and professors to take up to a year off to launch their own businesses.
This announcement appears to be an optimistic step toward promoting entrepreneurship in India.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), which continue to control the nation’s startup and unicorn ecosystems, are being challenged by BITS with this effort. One of the 23 IITs in India produced at least one founder of over 73 of the country’s more than 100 unicorn companies, according to a previous Moneycontrol investigation.
In the meantime, data from Tracxn Technologies shows that graduates of BITS Pilani have started more than 900 businesses, with more than 13 of them making it onto the list of Indian unicorns, including Zeta, MPL, Swiggy, BigBasket, and Groww. Alumni of BITS include Phanindra Sama of RedBus, Hari Menon of Big Basket, and Sriharsha Majety of Swiggy.
The BITS innovation and startup policy of 2022 was recently developed by the institute and is intended to
“guide in setting resource plans to achieve the institute’s entrepreneurship goals and give momentum to startups and other ventures founded and co-founded by BITSians in India and around the world.”
