IIT Powai, Mumbai – The Silicon Valley of India?
In this article, we are not going to compare Stanford and Palo Alto with IITB at Powai, Mumbai. But yes, we are definitely going to introduce the fast emerging start-up hub – Powai here. According to newspaper reports and official records, approximately 20 new ventures have been established by IIT-B students and alumni in the last year. The number looks so impressive that budding entrepreneurs have already started comparing Powai with Silicon Valley.
In fact, a number of e-commerce ventures started as Facebook pages operated by students from their hostel rooms. Two of the most popular and budding start-ups by IITians from IIT Powai – Ola Cabs and Housing.com revolutionized taxi booking and house hunting with their innovative ideas.
IIT Bombay acts as a mentor to students in the form of the institute’s incubation centre and entrepreneurship cell. These help centres assist in inculcating a strong network among entrepreneurs.
The strong network, support and atmosphere at IITB have helped a migrant from Patna, Saurav Suman, co-founder of timemytask.com to commence a start-up business while still in college. Timemytask.com allows one to order timed sessions of professional and specialized housekeeping online.
Like these ventures, there are many students and alumni of IIT Bombay who have initiated successful start-ups, and it is only going to increase in the coming years.
We hope to stand next to Stanford and Palo Alto in the years to come!
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