Startups in healthcare are a rarity in India; not only it requires high cost of investments but also they need specialized man-power and in-depth research to launch a product. Understanding the needs of health care startups, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad on Thursday launched a Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship, an interdisciplinary centre focused on making universal healthcare a reality.

“We have to make innovation a part of our education culture. IIT Hyderabad is today at the forefront of the second generation IITs. With this Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship they bring technology into healthcare aiming to touch the lives of people.” said B V R Mohan Reddy, Chairman IIT Hyderabad.

The centre was inaugurated by Telangana Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj KT Rama Rao in presence of BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairman, Board of Governors of IIT, Hyderabad and Prof UB Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad.

After T-hub, which has been hailed as India’s largest tech incubator, this is IIT Hyderabad’s second incubation centre. It will be sponsored by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and IIT Bombay alumni Raj Mashruwala and Avinash Manudhane.

This is 2nd biggest healthcare based incubator program launched in India. In 2013, Pradeep Jaisingh, a healthcare entrepreneur launched HealthStart, which was declared as India’s first such incubator program designed for health sector. As of now, it has successfully funded 7 companies in two batches.