IIT Alumni Council, the largest global body of alumni, students and faculty across all the 23 IITs and partnering Technical Institutes of Excellence (TieNet) has announced investible corpus of Rs 21,000 crores, largest ever private social initiative for India aimed at creating social infrastructure, ensure self-sufficiency and improve quality of life and be a supportive catalyst for Prime Minister’s mission of Atma Nirbhar Bharat.
“The past few years have seen paradigm shifts in the development space with the emergence of social enterprises, both for profit as well as not for profit, and social venture funds which have been set up pursuant to stringent SEBI regulations. The social venture fund ecosystem has a critical role to play in the immediate context of covid19 and for nation building in the longer term. IIT Alumni Council needs special recognition for driving transformational change to this sector through their technology initiatives as well as their leadership in channelizing large funding commitments from alumni and private sector investors” said Vikesh Mehta, senior Chartered Accountant, Mumbai University Alumnus and PanIIT Fund Independent Director in charge of CSR Compliances.
The IIT Alumni Council along with its institutional partners – University of Mumbai and ICT Mumbai – has over 5 million alumni. Corporate investment vehicles managed or controlled by these alumni have assets under management of over Rs 500,000 crores. “Mega Fund is the dedication of Alumni community of IITs , MU and ICT towards supporting the Prime Minister’s mission of Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Our alumni ecosystem includes over hundred Padma Sri awardees and thousands of PhDs. The alumni have global dominance over the technology sector and intellectual leadership in the venture capital industry. If this ecosystem were to be a country, it would be one of the largest economies in the world. As geography becomes history and survival of the human race outweighs all other considerations – we are heading towards a new knowledge age which will see an acceleration in technology driven economic development” said Ravi Sharma, President and Chief Volunteer of the IIT Alumni Council.
Healthcare specialist funds such as Somerset Indus have worked closely and contributed to the testing initiative at the NSCI Dome, the IIT Covid Test Bus and the development of high sensitivity indigenous radiological equipment including digital Xrays and ultrasound. “We are delighted to facilitate the participation of our portfolio companies in the testing and treatment initiatives of the IIT Alumni Council such MegaLab, the MegaFab and the Engineered Biomolecule Mega Incubator. These initiatives which are speeding forward at an unimaginable pace completely redefine what a start-up is or can be. This is indeed the y2k moment for Indian healthcare,” said Nitin Deshmukh, a ICT Mumbai alumnus, a member of the Board of Governors of ICT Mumbai, founding member of Kotak Private Equity and co-chair of the C19 Task Force Venture Capital Group.
