IIT Madras is conducting its technical festival, Shaastra from January 4-7, which includes a “Green Energy Summit”, a program for experts and student enthusiasts to come together to learn and network. I’ll be speaking at the summit today along with Dr. Ashish Polkade and Swapnil Jain, where we’ll be sharing our respective entrepreneurial journeys in the CleanTech space.
This also gave me a neat excuse to return to IIT Madras and refresh my memories of its pristine campus which I roamed during technical and cultural festivals in the decade gone by, and later during stints at the neighbouring IIT-M Research Park. Where else can you bike down Bonn Avenue for breakfast at Tiffany’s and have to stop for a couple of deer fighting it out over a doe as a bemused blackbuck looks by, and all while half-a-dozen monkeys ransack your guest house room because you didn’t shut a window properly. I may be exaggerating a bit there: the monkeys were very well-behaved and just wanted a break from the sun.
I plan to share a few examples of innovative business models and startup interventions in the sustainability space that I have come across over the years in various capacities. I’ll also cover some upcoming trends. The overarching idea is to showcase the variety of opportunities and even greater variety of approaches to tap said opportunities that lie on the path to sustainable development.
Ashish is the director of Vision Ecologica, a company that specialises in microbial services and waste management, and Swapnil is the co-founder and CTO of Ather Energy, where he oversees the system design of vehicle and related technical development.
You can read about the event and speakers on Youth Ki Awaaz at 3 Inspiring Green Energy Entrepreneurs You Must Catch At IIT Madras.
Join us at ‘Startup Talks’ this afternoon. More updates soon.
