How Galgotias University Is Creating Next-Gen Startup Founders

Vineet didn’t just live in his dream. He lived his dream. The youth was doing his graduation in medical biotechnology from Galgotias University in Uttar Pradesh when he founded Biopractify. A college-goer rolling out a startup venture – the image was hard to conjure up even a few years back. But things have changed, and changed for good. The Indian startup ecosystem, which is the third largest in the world, has cradled many young innovators like Vineet Mittal over the years. Vineet is transforming biotech education through skill development programmes, virtual labs, and interactive workshops and he gives the credit to GIC RISE, Galgotias University’s incubation unit, for helping his dream come true. Not just being an incubator at a young age, Vineet’s success reflects another rapidly evolving trend in the startup world – the founders or innovators are no longer products of premier institutes like IITs and IIMs. In fact, an Inc42 analysis shows that 60% of Indian soonicorn founders are not IIT graduates and nearly 77% do not come from IIMs. This clearly indicates that brains behind startups are no longer exclusive to top-notch government institutes – private varsities are catching up fast by nurturing talented youngsters like Vineet. While mapping the emerging trend, Inc42 caught up with Dhruv Galgotia, chief executive officer of Galgotias University. He shared his views on embracing and promoting entrepreneurship right from the very start in a student’s journey. “To foster the creative brains, we changed ourselves,” he said. “It was essential to match steps with the fast-changing world of today’s youths.” Galgotias University, according to him, changed the entire approach to classroom learning. “Today’s generation has a tough time sitting through hours of lectures, especially when they have a smartphone in hand. To solve this, we are changing the entire learning ecosystem from infrastructure to technical learning; we are making sure that students can truly experience what they learn in classes.” From its inception in 2015-16 with an initial enrolment of 1,590 students, the institute has experienced remarkable growth over a decade. By 2024-25, it had expanded its academic offerings to 351 programmes, culminating in a graduating batch of 5,089 students. Galgotia believes that the INR 5.8 Lakh Cr higher education market in India needs to evolve in sync with what the new generation of students want. “Creativity dies in stagnation. Change is essential,” he said. Here are the edited excerpts from the conversation: Inc42: We see a boom in student-led startups in India. How is Galgotias University nurturing such young creators? Dhruv Galgotia: I believe that student-led startups require an ecosystem that fosters ideas and innovation, and it is the responsibility of the institutions to build that ecosystem by enabling, supporting, and guiding the students. At Galgotias, we have over 135 registered startups because we have aligned the university with industry needs. For example, we have India’s first iOS development centre, powered by Apple and Infosys, where industry experts train and mentor students to help turn their vision into reality. This means that students are not just writing codes; they are developing ideas that are vetted by industry experts to keep them on track. I am proud to say that by the end of this month, five iOS applications developed by our students will be launched. One of these apps, Sakhi, addresses menstrual health issues, another assists the visually impaired, and a third empowers individuals with hearing disabilities to experience music. Many of the students developing these applications come from extremely humble backgrounds, and our affordable fee structure ensures that they receive world-class infrastructure and faculty support to achieve what they truly deserve. Apart from that, we also have a centre of excellence by Wipro, a Samsung lab, an Intel lab for cyber security, and an HP AI Nvidia centre on campus, set up in collaboration with these organisations. Their experts visit our campus to present real-world problems for our students to solve — challenges they are likely to face once they step into the industry. These labs also help corporations by providing trained manpower from the third year onwards. By the time the students reach their fourth year, they are equipped with the fundamental skills required by the industry. Inc42: You've invested in various advanced facilities like classrooms and active learning enabled with technologies like AI and ML. How do they contribute to the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem at Galgotias? Dhruv Galgotia: Traditionally, in India, the education system and exam patterns promote rote learning, which hinders students’ creativity. Students constantly face the pressure of attendance, exams, assessments, or other criteria set by the universities. However, at Galgotias, we are changing this entire ecosystem – from infrastructure to technical learning – we are building a better experience for students. In terms of infrastructure, we have moved away from the traditional bench system, which promotes the culture of ‘backbenchers’ and ‘lecture-ism’, to a cluster seating concept. This new approach promotes engagement, conversations, creativity, and sharing of ideas. Today, all classrooms at the university follow this cluster seating system. Instead of a single board in the classroom, we have 10 boards equally placed for students, increasing engagement and shifting from teacher-centric to student-centric learning. We also have touch-panel television sets that serve multiple purposes. For instance, if a faculty member needs to conduct a test, they can simply display a QR code on the screens, allowing students to take a live test using their smartphones. This allows teachers to receive real-time assessments of student's learning progress and use that data for personalised learning. We have integrated artificial intelligence (AI) to create individual learning paths for each student. This allows the faculty to assess performance, identify high achievers, and provide extra attention to those who need it. Apart from that, we have also invested approximately INR 300 Cr to build an Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Block which will be ready in the next few weeks. We are in talks with leading global tech companies for setting up labs for cybersecurity, machine learning, and robotics. It’s not just students. We are also training our faculty in active learning methods in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU). A delegation from NTU visits us every two months to train our faculty in active learning techniques. We are undertaking this project under the supervision of Professor Richard James from the University of Madison Melbourne. These methods help us make our classrooms more engaging, collaborative, and dynamic, becoming the reason for brainstorming and interactive discussions. Inc42: How is Galgotias University supporting young innovators through its incubation programme? Please tell us about the resources and opportunities. Also, do you have any ties with investors for the incubator? Dhruv Galgotia: Our Galgotias Incubation Centre for Research Innovation Startup & Entrepreneurs (GIC RISE) is a premier hardware-focused incubation centre that supports innovations across sectors. The primary aim of the incubator is to promote the culture of innovation on the campus, which it has been able to achieve successfully over the years. The incubator also has a co-working space, FAB Lab, clinical research lab, graphics lab, EV lab, and 3D printing facilities. It also has a centre of excellence (CoE) in the field of technology and artificial intelligence law, intellectual property law, and Intel Intelligent Systems Centre of Excellence (CoE). To date, GIC RISE has supported over 135 startups. Around 35 are still active and out of these more than 30 startups have a stable revenue stream with three making more than INR 1 Cr in revenue. To further support the innovation, we have conducted more than 120 events and training sessions along with over 10 startup challenges under the guidance of 35 mentors and 10 investor partners. We also have an advisory board consisting of experts from various industries who assist students with their visions and end products. Now, for the second part of your question, I think that startup funding has two aspects, first, we have a dedicated team at GIC RISE that ensures that the products of our students reach the right people in the relevant industry and that has already led to considerable success for us. Other than that, we do not promote the culture of chasing funds. We train our students to focus on building products that attract customers and instill a belief that if they build a product that attracts customers, funding will follow naturally. Inc42: Data shows that 74% of business leaders find GenZ more challenging to work with as they have a bold approach towards their choices. How have you designed your curriculum and training method to match this trend? Dhruv Galgotia: Earlier, the majority of students pursued only three types of courses – management, engineering, or medical – following the traditional paths largely guided by their parents. This trend has persisted for decades. While it still exists, it is now on a downward spiral. New students, who are tagged the GenZ, are making their own career choices, pursuing what they truly want without fear. They are making bold decisions to choose the professions that align with their passion. Higher education is no longer enforced by parents, and students now have a greater say over their careers, thanks to increased awareness. As a result, there is a more even distribution of students across different courses, and we see greater diversity in the fields they choose to enrol in. To effectively teach this new generation, we must adapt to the ways they prefer to learn. If we do not evolve our methodologies, the old ones won’t work. GenZ requires greater integration of technology and is more open to experimenting with new ways of teaching and learning. Speed runs as the axis of thought for this generation. They believe in quick thinking, fast action, and immediate results. At Galgotias, we have adapted our system to keep pace with this mindset and expectation. Accordingly, we are constantly customising our methods to align with how Gen Z wants things to be done. Inc42: How do you see the future of Galgotias University? Will you take us through the roadmap you have laid out for it? Dhruv Galgotia: We are expanding, but we do not believe in opening multiple campuses, as it can lead to a dilution of quality. Instead, we are transforming this campus into a more advanced facility. Our next immediate investment, approximately INR 600 Cr, will go towards establishing a hospital and a medical college. We are also building a school as part of our plan to enter the K-12 segment within the next three years. I have observed a trend where certain students who qualify for IITs opt for private universities, primarily due to the better infrastructure they offer. These students seek campuses with distinct aesthetics, modern facilities, advanced laboratories, and top-tier classrooms – qualities that, unfortunately, some government institutions lack. By creating an exceptional learning environment, we can bridge this gap, ensuring that students who graduate from our school can seamlessly transition into our university with world-class infrastructure and education.

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