PhD research proposal
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DSSE  |  Academic Programs

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. 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. 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 on NPTEL and is developing MOOC (massive open online) 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) 

PhD Program

The vision of the Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship (DSSE), IIT Bombay entails creating a world class educational infrastructure for reliable promotion of technology entrepreneurship, by creating a concomitant knowledge base on this topic driven by fundamental research in the broad domain of innovation and entrepreneurship.

DSSE invites applications for a PhD in the domain of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the following indicative areas of research, for candidates who could subsequently spread across academia, industry and the social sector strengthening technology-based innovation and entrepreneurship infrastructure of the country: [PhD Inquiry: 022-21593274]

•       Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

•       Innovation and Product Development

•       Lab to Market Translation

•       Entrepreneurial Mindset & Behaviour 

•       Inclusive Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship 

•       University Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education

•       AI & Entrepreneurship 

 

Information regarding Written Test and Interview-Ph.D Admission, Autumn 2025-26

Based on the shortlisting criteria (https://acad.iitb.ac.in/files/Ph.D._Brochure_2025_26.pdf), those applicants who have been shortlisted would shortly receive the intimation letter on their registered email id regarding the DSSE written test / interview process. Preliminary details are as Follows :

  1. The in-person evaluation (written test / interview) will start at 0800 hrs on 10th May at IIT Bombay campus. It could finish on 10th May or spillover onto 11th May.
  2. You need to reach the exam venue (LC 302, Lecture Hall complex IIT Bombay, Mumbai) at 7:30 AM on Saturday morning. A diagrammatic direction from IIT Main gate to the lecture hall complex is appended below.
  3. Please remember to bring any one original photo identity card (Aadhar or PAN etc), and a signed photocopy of the same which we will retain for our records. 
  4. Broader pattern of written test exam is as follow:
    3 Section
    Section A: Objective questions to test foundational understanding of I&E (10 Marks)
    Section B: Commentary on popular article from business magazine or newspaper or blogs /web source  (20 Marks)
    Section C: Critique & commentary on research article from I&E domain (20 Marks)
     

We are excited about taking the recruitment and selection process forward, and we hope that so are you; it is but natural that you would have queries around the test format and other logistics.  We are planning to host an online meeting on Wednesday 30th April (7 pm to 8 :30 pm) to answer any queries that you may have regarding the process. To ensure that there is no confusion, it would be most optimal if you could keep your queries for this online meeting, instead of reaching out anyone at DSSE individually. We will make a presentation and then respond to your queries at this meeting, and subsequently circulate essential FAQs.

Additionally, please refer to the following links for important information about the Ph.D. selection process for the Academic Year 2025-26 (Autumn Semester). Pls do not reach out to individual faculty or staff members, the process is managed centrally.

 

Application Process  Coursework  Written Test / Interview Information   FAQs 

In Campus Courses

DSSE offers 20 courses across autumn and spring semesters – 3 doctoral courses, 16 elective courses 1 core course in the domains of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. DSSE Courses are open to UG, PG and PHD students. These courses are open to PG students right from their first semester, and DSSE welcomes PG students to come with their domain knowledge and tech ideas and build ventures with the business inputs provided by DSSE courses. UG students can take these courses either as electives or building towards a Minor program. From 2022, undergraduate students pursuing B Tech or Dual Degrees need to take a core course in Innovation & Entrepreneurship. UG students can start taking DSSE elective courses from their second year onward; those who complete a minimum of 30 credits in Entrepreneurship-related courses receive a Minor in Entrepreneurship. The foundation course ‘Introduction to Entrepreneurship’ is the most popular among students. All courses employ an interactive and collaborative pedagogy, using case discussions, field assignments and team projects. Courses offered by DSSE faculty are listed here.

ENT Minor Program

DSSE offers a Minor Program in Entrepreneurship for undergraduate students. To complete the Minor, students need to accumulate 30 credits - 24 credits or more can be from Entrepreneurship (ENT) courses and the balance 6 credits can be from courses offered by adjacent schools and departments like IDC School of Design, SJM School of Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, IE and OR etc. DSSE provides 15 ENT courses for this purpose and we have added other department courses to the Minor basket. The Minor basket includes courses such as HS 454, HS 448, ME 676, HS 490, HS 207, IE 501, MG 614, MG 402, MG 406, MG 401, and MM 417.

Around 10-12 students finish their Minor in Entrepreneurship annually.

Online Programs

In addition to in-campus academic programs, a second thrust area for DSSE is building online courses and programs to benefit aspiring student-entrepreneurs from tier-2 cities and colleges. Towards this end DSSE is offering courses on the NPTEL platform and MOOC (Massive open online) courses with Coursera, a leading edtech provider. DSSE believes that this will empower entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, researchers and managers – all those are either creating startup companies, innovating within their companies, or supporting the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. DSSE is working towards offering a Master’s degree or diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship using a blended / flipped model of learning. In a degree / diploma program, DSSE will offer a bouquet of courses combining entrepreneurship concepts, tech electives along with a capstone project for remote learners which could culminate in a startup.

NPTEL

NPTEL Swayam courses earn students credits which can be banked as part of ABC ( Academic Bank of Credits). These credits can be earned only for long-duration courses. 

DSSE has 2 courses currently on the NPTEL platform both of which are offered by Prof Devdip Purkayastha. These are titled Business Fundamentals – 1 and Business Fundamentals – 2 and have so far been taken up by over 10000 students. These have been on offer from Aug 2023. 

https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/noc23_mg126/preview

https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/noc24_mg67/preview

MOOC

MOOC courses take between 10 and 12 hours to complete and are purely online with inbuilt quizzes, tests and assignments. Learners completing these courses earn a course completion certificate. 

DSSE has recently launched 3 MOOC Courses on the leading edtech platform, Coursera. These courses are titled “ Introduction to Business Management – Winning Externally”, “Introduction to Business Management – Winning Internally” and “Introduction to Technology Management”. These three courses have been created by Prof Devdip Purkayastha. 

https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-to-business-management-winning-internally

https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-to-business-management-winning-externally

https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-to-technology-management

DSSE is also offering "Introduction to Tech Entrepreneurship", a MOOC Course on Coursera, which is offered by Prof Anu Narasimhan. 

https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-to-tech-entrepreneurship

 

Continuing Education Program (CEP) for Entrepreneurs & Professionals

DSSE conducts short-terms workshops, training programs , and executive education programs for working professionals, faculty and researchers, small and medium business owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs to update their knowledge and skillset in critical aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship. Some of the continuing education programs that have been conducted are listed here.

2nd Orbit Program for Entrepreneurs

DSSE offers the 2nd Orbit Program for MSME's and entrepreneurs seeking to scale up their business. This program is offered along with Dr Anand Deshpande and Dr Ashok Korwar ( Former Faculty, IIMA) - they originally developed the orbit-changing program and the content was customized with DSSE to target Nasscom members looking to scale. The 2nd Orbit Program covers topics like Visioning & Purpose, Leadership & Strategy, Theory of Constraints, Branding & Positioning, Team Building, Financial Planning & Governance. Here, the participants came for a 2 day residential workshop at the verdant IITB campus and in addition to the core faculty, they were addressed by successful entrepreneurs like Ashank Desai (Co-Founder, Mastek), Rajesh Jain (Co-Founder, Netcore) as well as other DSSE faculty - Prof Sankalp Pratap and Prof Ramesh Mangaleswaran among others. These participants were invited again after a period of 4 months to share their implementation and the results they have seen. This provided for peer learning, which was incredibly fruitful for the group. A couple of masterclasses on Sales and Strategy were included in the follow up workshop. DSSE plans to continue offering the 2nd Orbit program for Nasscom participants and expand the scope going forward.

Accelerating Technology Commercialization (ATC) Workshop for Researchers

Accelerating Technology Commercialization (ATC) Program was offered to faculty members and researchers from Maharashtra funded by RGSTC (Rajiv Gandhi Science & Technology Commission, Govt of Maharashtra). These three-day workshops cover topics under innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship and the sessions include Technology Package Development, Intellectual Property Rights, New Product Development, Finance and Commercials, Marketing and Go-to-Market Strategies for technology innovations. 

INV.ENT Workshop

This is meant for teachers, innovation/incubation managers and administrators from academic institutes to learn about entrepreneurship courses and programs for possible implementation in their institutions. They learn the best practices of translational research, product innovation and business incubation from experienced faculty and industry leaders. Visits are arranged to different inter-disciplinary centres developing innovative products and technologies. Participants also get a first-hand exposure to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in IIT Bombay, by interacting with startup teams working on live projects. The first program was organized during 14-18 March 2017, under the aegis of TEQIP, Ministry of HRD, New Delhi. It benefitted over 50 participants, most of them teachers at technical institutes across the country. The second program was organized during 8-12 July 2019. A one-day version of the program, called INV.ENT was organized on 31 Jan 2020.