Hyderabad: The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad’s Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship (CHE) is offering a unique opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs targeting Indian healthcare. The center is offering a one-year, fully-paid fellowship training program. This is a world-class program for aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs and currently one of India’s most competitive and coveted fellowships. The full time in-residence fellowship and training will be strongly ‘hands-on’. The fellowship is designed as a simulated entrepreneurial journey with clinical immersion, needs analysis and design, ideation, business model development and culminates in the pitch to investors. In designing solutions, fellows avail the deep technological expertise of the 100+ research labs at IIT Hyderabad.
The CHE’s fellowships are dedicated to the mission of “Healthcare for all”, in line with “Startup India,”. It has been conceptualized, is administered and mentored by a global team from India and the U.S., including Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, academics from Stanford University, biomedical industry professionals, and some of India’s well-known healthcare NGOs.
Speaking about the CHE fellowships, Prof. U.B Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad, said “The Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship at IIT Hyderabad is one of a kind center in India. It focuses on healthcare education, hospital immersion, connect with rural healthcare needs and finally incubating companies. It offers a unique opportunity for Make in India mission as well Startup India mission in the context of healthcare”
Speaking about the CHE fellowships, Raj Mashruwala, member of CHE Board said “We believe entrepreneurship and innovation can be institutionalized. This fellowship aims to do just that by bringing in the best processes and entrepreneurial traditions of the Silicon Valley.”
Speaking about the CHE fellowships, Prof. Renu John, Associate Professor & Head, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Co-Head, CHE, IIT Hyderabad, said “A striking feature of CHE fellowships is the tight integration between doctors, technologists and entrepreneurs to solve problems in healthcare”
Speaking about the CHE fellowships, Dr. Mohan Raghavan, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Co-Head CHE, IIT Hyderabad, said “To give a cricketing metaphor, entrepreneurship especially in healthcare is like a test match – long and grueling where only those with sound technique, passion and work ethic can survive. These are exactly the qualities we seek to imbue in our fellows at CHE. We try to reduce chances of failure by ensuring that the entrepreneur constantly keeps his eye on the clinical need, times his solution well and hits the sweet spot between creativity and feasibility”
The objective of the fellowship is three-fold: to foster creativity and entrepreneurship in the healthcare sector to solve healthcare needs of our communities and help universalize healthcare products and services by increasing reach and affordability. A big draw of this Fellowship is that it will provide exposure to local and global Venture Capital (VC) partners during training and incubation. The trainees would be given an opportunity to pitch to investors at the end of the Fellowship.
There is no fee for this Fellowship, in fact it comes with a stipend of Rs. 50,000/month. Fellowship is open to applicants from all backgrounds ranging from doctors, management graduates, engineers, designers. The minimum eligibility to apply for this Fellowship is B.Tech./B.E. degrees or higher, M.B.B.S. / B.D.S. or higher, B.Des. or higher. Candidates with prior track record in entrepreneurship or demonstrable proof of intent in that direction, will be preferred. The Fellows are selected through a highly competitive and rigorous process by a panel of experts. The final number of Fellows will vary depending on the quality of applicants. The first batch of fellows will pass out by end of summer 2017.
Candidates can apply online at http://bit.do/che2017 on or before 15th April 2017. Shortlisted candidates must appear for interview over video link from May 1, 2017 onwards. Selected candidates will be appearing for final interview in person during last week of May 2017.