From seeding new courses in the realm of innovation and entrepreneurship to enabling interdisciplinary collaborations, the centre is projected to become a go-to place for students with ideas and projects.

The traditional approach involves a faculty member finalising a research proposal and running around for government funding, leading to a protracted process, said IIT-M director Bhaskar Ramamurthi. “This centre would instead focus on building an adaptable or marketable idea, more than just facilitating financial support. By doing this, the centre will look to impact all domains fundamental to the research, training, product engineering and policy-making,” he said.