DSSE | About
Entrepreneurship has been regarded as a pivotal factor for the growth and development of nations and societies with entrepreneurs focussing on problem-solving, job creation, and wealth generation. India has always been entrepreneurial since its early history but this generation is the one unleashing unprecedented entrepreneurial energy. In just the past decade, India has grown from 450 to 1.64 lakh DPIIT-recognized startups, making India today the 3rd largest startup ecosystem globally.
IITB identified the need for quality entrepreneurship education over a decade back. The Centre for Entrepreneurship was created in 2014, with the vision to establish a knowledge hub to train and develop entrepreneurs to have a positive impact on society. Seeing the rapid strides being made in entrepreneurship education, the Centre was accorded a new status as Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship (DSSE) in 2020. DSSE is a pioneering entrepreneurship school in India and combines academics with practice to serve the needs of the growing nation.
DSSE trains aspiring entrepreneurs through courses and pre-incubation programs at IIT Bombay. Since its inception, entrepreneurship courses have benefited more than 4300 students, about 950 students have been mentored by the faculty and alumni, close to 340 venture teams formed, and over 100 startups registered by DSSE students.
Origin
In 2010, IITB envisioned a dedicated centre to offer courses on Innovation and Entrepreneurship with the relevant content, context and contacts to aspiring students. This vision took shape in 2014 when an alumnus of IITB, Mr. Bharat Desai (B.Tech, Electrical Engineering, 1975) and his wife Ms. Neerja Sethi donated one million dollars to start the Centre. The Desai Sethi Centre for Entrepreneurship was approved on 31 January 2014 by the Board of Governors of IIT Bombay, chaired by Padma Vibhushan Dr. Anil Kakodkar. In December 2019, the Board of Governors of IIT Bombay approved the conversion of the Centre into the Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship.
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Entrepreneurship has a transformative power. But this is not for everybody. The journey is tough – the path is covered with stones and thorns, not roses. Entrepreneurs need to have passion, self-belief, discipline and perseverance. We need to attract and train the best talent to embark on entrepreneurship.
IIT Bombay has the expertise and the convening power to bring together the best minds in entrepreneurship and innovation. Neerja and I are delighted to be at the unveiling of the new DSSE building, which will cater to the educational and research needs of the IIT Bombay community and foster extensive community connections to the business industry. Our hope is that the building is bustling with student activity, mentorship, and research, where the 'lab to market' concept truly takes shape and helps grow commercialization.
- Bharat Desai ( Chairman, DS Advisors)
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IIT Bombay has always been at the forefront of innovation. With the Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship, we are proud to impart academic excellence and equip our students with the mindset and skills to become successful entrepreneurs. While the debate on whether entrepreneurship can be taught continues, it should not hinder efforts to teach and practice entrepreneurship. Experiential learning and wider exposure are extremely important in developing an entrepreneurial mindset and we are delighted with the soon-to-be-operational new DSSE building which will bring together students, researchers and faculty members to work on the pressing problems of the society and create solutions that can be taken to people.
Prof Shireesh Kedare, Director IIT Bombay
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Role in the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
DSSE is an integral part of IIT Bombay’s entrepreneurship ecosystem with symbiotic relationships with upstream student bodies and research labs and centres of excellence, as well as with downstream grant-giving organizations, incubators and investors. The key student bodies are E-Cell and ITC (Institute Technical Council). E-cell helps raise awareness and aspiration about entrepreneurship through pioneering events like the annual E-Summit and business plan competitions like Eureka! Under the auspices of the Institute Technical Council are various tech teams and clubs like the Aeromodelling Club, Racing Car team, Team Shunya for Zero Energy, Team Pratham for satellites etc. DSSE also works with IITB’s renowned technology business incubator SINE which provides ‘Start to Scale’ support for technology-based entrepreneurship by channelling venture teams through to SINE after pre-incubation. DSSE’s objective in the IIT Bombay entrepreneurship ecosystem is to ensure a robust funnel of ventures through its educational and pre-incubation programs. Towards this objective, DSSE engages with aspiring entrepreneurs and researchers at one end for generating tech ideas and key entities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem including government organizations, investors and incubators to support their entrepreneurial ventures.
Milestones
2013
- Meeting between IITB and DS Foundation.
- DSCE task force formed by Director, IIT Bombay.
2014
- DSCE starts operation from Dean ACR Office with Prof. Anand Kusre as PIC.
- Senate approval for the first two ENT courses.
- About 300 students enrolled for the courses.
- Two student ventures created.
2015
- Senate approval for two more ENT courses.
- Participation in Deshpande Symposium.
- UMass Lowell and Stanford Faculty Fellow Program.
- Three student ventures created.
2016
- Four more ENT courses launched.
- Visits to prominent entrepreneurship centers in Asian universities.
- Proof-of-concept lab starts functioning.
2017
- MoU with the class of 1990 for IDEAS Legacy Project.
- First batch of B. Tech. Minor in Entrepreneurship.
- Smart campus initiative.
- First TEQIP course on innovation and entrepreneurship.
2018
- i-Ncuabate program launched in collaboration with GDC, IIT Madras.
- IDEAS program Level-1 (MAP) and Level-2 (PIP) cohorts launched.
- Students continue to build and grow their ventures.
2019
- Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Symposium.
- MoU with CGI for Women in Entrepreneurship Program.
- Asian University Alliance Program.
- Smart Rural Initiatives over CGP.
- DSCE becomes Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship (DSSE).
2020
- Center renamed to Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship.
- Plans for new building, courses, and programs.
- Students enrollment in courses crosses 500 in a year.
2021
- Two full-time professors of practice appointed.
- Entrepreneurship courses revamped into six-credit full-semester courses.
- First edition of Mentors’ Day for facilitating mentors held on Teachers' Day.
- Two DSSE publications: an IEEE article and the book titled Shifting Orbits.
2022
- MoU signed with Di Mart and alumnus Saili Donde for Entrepreneurship Activities and M. Engg. courses.
- Sponsored project with RGSTC for training researchers / practical innovators.
- New introductory course ENT 101 for 1st-year UG students launched.
- Prof. Anuradha Narasimhan takes over as head — DSSE while students' enrollment crosses 1,000 a year.
- Ground-breaking ceremony for the new building held.
2023
- Entrepreneurship Symposium held on DSSE Day, 31st Jan.
- DSSE hires its first core faculty member.
- CEP Program "2nd Orbit for Entrepreneurs" conducted for Nasscom MSME participants.
- Two courses launched on the NPTEL platform by DSSE faculty.
- 5-year Academic Review conducted by an external committee.
- DSSE faculty participated in Entrepreneurship conferences at IIT Madras and IIM Trichy.
2024
- DSSE celebrates its 10th Anniversary on DSSE Day, 31st Jan, by felicitating contributors.
- DSSE hires its first international faculty member, expanding into Social Entrepreneurship.
- DSSE launches a PhD program in Innovation & Entrepreneurship with a maiden cohort of 5 students.
- Number of in-campus courses increases to 20, up from 6 in 2022.
- DSSE launches MOOC courses on the Coursera platform
2025
- DSSE unveils its new building in the presence of institute functionaries and the donors Bharat Desai and Neerja Sethi.
- DSSE hosts Entrepreneurship Day Symposium titled Catalysing University Entrepreneurship with over 300 participants.
Programs: Academic & Practice
DSSE serves as the fountainhead role for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay by training undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students in entrepreneurial skillset and mindset. DSSE’s theory and lab courses are designed at different levels – foundation, specialist, and capstone and the academic pedagogy includes concept teaching, experiential learning through field assignments and projects, and engaging with real-life entrepreneurs. These are open to undergraduate as well as post-graduate (Masters and PHD) students of IIT Bombay. Students can take these courses as electives or pursue a Minor in Entrepreneurship. From 2022, Introduction to Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a core course for undergraduates and offered in the first year of the B Tech / Dual Degree program. A current area of focus for DSSE is building online courses and programs to benefit aspiring student-entrepreneurs from tier-2 cities - DSSE offers courses for credit on NPTEL and MOOC courses on Entrepreneurship & Business Fundamentals on Coursera. courses and certifications with leading edtech providers. DSSE also offers short-term workshops for researchers (translational research), working professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs (intra and entrepreneurship).
Building on its pioneering leadership, Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship just launched its PhD Program seeking to bridge the research gap in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Its maiden cohort of 5 doctoral students come from diverse backgrounds like Engg, Social Sciences, Finance, and Management and they will focus on under-researched areas like entrepreneurship education and ecosystem, forms of innovation and product development, lab-to-market translation, inclusive innovation and social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship behaviour, and ethics, etc. The objective of the doctoral research program is to aid practice through insights about what is needed across the lab to investor ecosystem to build and scale tech startups, develop policy and regulatory recommendations through white papers, as well as to assess the impact of enterprises and entrepreneurial behaviour on the economy and society at large.
The school’s pre-incubation programs – IDEAS and WIE (Women in Entrepreneurship Program) – embody the spirit of entrepreneurship practice, providing mentoring and cohort-based inputs to early-stage ventures and leading them onto the next stage viz. incubation and fund-raising. The startup funnel starts with student-led activities like E-Summit, Eureka business plan competition, various tech clubs and teams like the Drone Club, the Racing Car team, Team Shunya for net zero energy, and also from the academic research done by faculty members and students.
These are channelized by DSSE through the double impact of project-based courses and practice-oriented, pre-incubation programs to early-stage venture creation resulting in product prototypes and business plans that can be put up to investors and incubators alike. With startups like Khatabook, Care Mother, Rephrase.ai, Manastu Space, JanYu Tech, Ushva CleanTech, NeoDocs, Proactive for Her, etc. in its kitty, DSSE has been a fertile ground for nurturing innovative tech ventures.
Facilities
Students can bring their ideas alive by fabricating proof-of-concept and prototypes in the POC lab of DSSE. They can also access other labs of the Institute, such as Tinkering Lab and Makerspace Labs.
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POC LAB
This is located in the ground floor of IDC School of Design and offers DSSE lab courses like POC-Basic and POC-Advanced . It houses hand tools, power tools, digital and screen printing facilities, CNC machines, laser cutter, 3-D printers , metal and wood working machines capable of prototyping using various materials. Students use these facilities for fabricating proof-of-concepts of novel products. Students participating in the pre-incubation programs or mentored by members of the DSSE team can access the facilities based on their requirement and availability of the facilities. -
TINKERERS’ LABThis is located at the intersection of two infinite corridors, near the corner of Mechanical Engineering department. It houses basic equipment including 3D printers, CNC machines, power tools and electronics. This lab is managed by the students and is open to all students of the Institute round the clock.
Partners
DSSE has symbiotic relationships with E-Cell and ITC (Institute Tech Council), both managed by the students, and SINE the technology business incubator of the Institute. The School also partners with several other institutes and organizations for exchange visits and collaborative training programs.
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E-CELLThe E-Cell was formed in 1998 to promote the culture of entrepreneurship. It is managed and run by the students, with Head of DSSE as the faculty guide. The Cell organizes the annual E-Summit, which brings together more than 30000 students, entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, startup founders and visitors. Other activities of E-Cell include Eureka (international business plan competition), NEC (National Entrepreneurship Challenge for colleges to build their own E-Cells), TTMM (The Ten Minute Million: pitching to investors), talks by business leaders and many competitions.
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ITC Institute Technical CouncilITC is managed by the students and drives technology projects including Mars Rover, Racing Car Team, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Pratham Satellite and Shunya (zero-energy housing). ITC also has several technical clubs like the Aeromodelling Club, the Electronics & Robotics Club, the Energy Club etc
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Centres of ExcellenceIIT Bombay is an ‘Institution of Eminence’ which is at the forefront of scientific discovery and emerging technologies – to accelerate this, the Institute has opened several Centres of Excellence that will allow IIT Bombay to take the lead in emerging technologies in the country and aid in nation-building. Some of the Centres of Excellence include Healthcare Informatics, Biosciences, Green Energy, Climate Change, Electric Mobility, Drone Technologies, applications of Artificial Intelligence and Data Sciences, and Digital Trust – all of which will have a profound impact.
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BETICBETIC has been partnering with DSSE both with academic and pre-incubation activities. Since its inception in 2014 at IIT Bombay, Biomedical Engineering and Technology Innovation Centre (BETIC) has been building the necessary eco-system by connecting stakeholders – government, academia, medical community, industry, investors and facilitators. The BETIC team has met several hundred doctors, identified 450 unmet needs, created 240 novel concepts, and filed 55 patents. Further, they developed 25 devices, incubated 16 startups, licensed 14 products to or developed for local industry partners.
FedEx ALFAIIT Bombay-FedEx Centre for Advanced Logistics and Focused Analytics (FedEx ALFA) has been established at IIT Bombay for undertaking cutting-edge research and development in the areas of logistics and supply-chains. The centre is supported through a generous grant from FedEx. IIT Bombay alumnus, Mr. Raj Subramaniam, President and CEO of FedEx Corporation, inaugurated the Centre in December 2023. The Centre aims to conduct research in the domains of logistics and supply chains, training students in these domains, addressing challenges faced by these industries, and incubating novel ideas.
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SINESociety for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), is an umbrella organisation at IIT Bombay for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech start-ups. It administers a business incubator which provides ‘Start to scale’ support for technology-based entrepreneurship and facilitates the conversion of research activity into entrepreneurial ventures. SINE has been selected as “Centre of Excellence” by Department of Science and Technology (DST), GOI with funding support to scale up its activities.
Contact
The DSSE team currently operates from the offices located in Monash Building near the Victor Menezes Convention Centre in IIT Bombay campus. Please visit us or contact through mail or phone call.
REACH US
Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship
Monash Building, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-400076, India.
E-Mail: office.dsse@iitb.ac.in
Phone: +91 22 2576 5381 / 5382