In a major push to India’s emerging quantum and deep-tech sector, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has launched the Wadhwani-IISc Innovation Centre and unveiled a startup acceleration platform aimed at turning advanced scientific research into globally competitive technologies and ventures.
The centre was inaugurated by former ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar in the presence of Ajay Kela and Shirshendu Mukherjee. The initiative is part of the Wadhwani Innovation Network (WIN), launched under the Rs 1,400-crore collaborative investment announced last year by the Wadhwani Foundation along with academic institutions and government partners. The initiative aims to strengthen India’s deep-tech innovation and research commercialisation ecosystem.
“Quantum technologies represent one of the most transformative frontiers of science and innovation. Through the Wadhwani-IISc Innovation Centre, Quantum Pitch Fest and the InQubate platform, IISc is creating a collaborative ecosystem to help researchers and entrepreneurs translate cutting-edge quantum research into scalable technologies and globally competitive ventures,” said B Gurumoorthy, Director, Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID), IISc.
“India has world-class research talent and scientific capability. The next frontier is accelerating the translation of research into scalable products, start-ups and societal impact. Through the Wadhwani Innovation Network, we are working closely with leading institutions like IISc to build stronger innovation ecosystems that can take breakthrough ideas from lab to market faster,” said Ajay Kela, CEO and Board Member, Wadhwani Foundation.
