NEW DELHI: The alumni of the 1969 batch of Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi have started an award to provide an annual stipend to a graduating student of the institute every year. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed for the ‘Batch of 1969 Innovation Fellow Award’ that will carry a monthly stipend of Rs1 lakh for one year, as per a statement, here on Saturday.
The Award will be executed and managed by the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) of the IIT-Delhi. In exceptional cases, the awardee may be considered for further support for a maximum of six months. “To set up a special fund for this award, the Batch of 1969 has collectively contributed over Rs1 crore with an aim to promote the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship among graduating students at I IT Delhi,” reads the statement.
“While funds are usually available for students to continue their projects in the incubation mode, most venture/angel funders do not permit their funds to be used as stipend/salary for the students themselves,” it said. “Many, if not most, graduating students thus find it difficult to continue with their projects as the alternative of high paying jobs are much more attractive than the risk of supporting themselves using personal resources to work on projects that ultimately may not find venture capital support.”
The fund will partially bridge the gap by establishing the corpus at IIT-Delhi for providing an annual stipend to a graduating student at any level of any discipline or programme.
ROLE OF FITT
FITT is an industrial interface organisation. It was established as a registered society in 1992. Its mission is to be an effective Interface with the industry to foster, promote and sustain commercialization of science and technology in the institute
(With agency inputs)