From your Ph.D./ Master’s Thesis to a start-up

Innovation Cell, Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India, and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) organised the second MIC Driven Activity of Quarter 3 on Friday, 23rd April 2021 in a virtual format on YouTube. The session was themed on the topic “From your Ph.D./ Master’s Thesis to a start-up” with Dr. Anand Deshpande (Founder and CMD, Persistent Systems) as the key-note speaker, Prof Anil D. Sahashrabuddhe (Chairman, AICTE) as session chairperson, Dr. M.P. Poonia (Vice-Chairman, AICTE), Prof. Rajive Kumar (Member Secretary, AICTE), and Dr. AbhayJere (Chief Innovation Officer, MIC) as the guests-of-honour and Ms. Ria Deshpande (aspiring Ph.D. student in synthetic biology) for providing feedback throughout the session to make it relevant and informative for the students. Dr. Anand Deshpande commenced the session by breaking the stereotype- ‘researchers cannot be entrepreneurs’ by drawing a parallel between the two, since researchers already possess the essential skills of entrepreneurship due to their research. He designed the session in three parts i.e., idea validation, team building, and cash generation. These sections were explained thoroughly and discussed amongst the panellists. With each topic, Dr. Anand shared several case studies and literature to showcase the viewpoints of brilliant minds. Prof. Anil D. Sahashrabuddhe shared the importance of passion, vision, and perseverance for individual and team success. Dr. Anand also focused on the idea of job creation and working hand-in-hand through team efforts as the Master’s and Ph.D. students are capable of creating job opportunities rather than demanding jobs. The session came to an end with the floor open for questions from the participants. The aim of the session was to guide the Master’s and Ph.D. students to convert their ‘knowledge into wealth’. The session was attended live on YouTube by over 9,300 participants with over 98,340 views.