Binny Bansal pitches in to set up tech institute

BENGALURU: Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal contributed Rs 70 crore towards setting up an emerging tech-focused institute at Plaksha University called the Binny Bansal Institute for Inventing the Future (IIF). This flagship institute within Plaksha University focuses on developing solutions to tackle global challenges using technologies like AI, blockchain, and robotics.
Many donors have joined hands to collectively commit Rs 1,500 crore to the varsity. Some of the individual and corporate donors include Neeraj Aggarwal, chairman, Asia Pacific at Boston Consulting Group and Chair of the Board of Trustees at Plaksha University, Srikanth Velamakanni, cofounder of Fractal Analytics, and Prashant Prakash, founding partner at Accel India. Some of the corporate donors include Rakesh Bharti Mittal of Bharti Foundation, Deepak Parekh of HT Parekh Foundation, and Raamdeo Agrawal of Motilal Oswal Foundation.
Bansal said the institute catalyses a virtuous cycle, fostering cross-disciplinary learning leveraging AI+x. It aims to tackle complex issues where technology intersects with various sectors, including healthcare, agriculture, energy, and sustainability. "Engineering and science come first and are closer to what I know and do. It is in my hometown, so I could relate to it a lot more, both from the head and heart.It is envisioned as a hub that attracts the best researchers, founders, and students to come together and create magic," said Bansal. "Technology has a much more transformative effect in developing countries than in developed ones. The problem statements are very different in these countries compared to the West. You pick large problems and look at researching and applying technologies to solve them," he added.
Aggarwal said the idea was to reimagine tech education and convert research outcomes into viable real-world applications. IIF, for instance, will also leverage Plaksha’s partnership with the University of California in Berkeley and Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab for joint research projects. "The university is built on collective philanthropy for a variety of reasons. By design, it will bring the best minds, academicians, students, and founders themselves.Many founders are in their active years, and we felt that giving back in their active years, both in terms of money and time, is important," he said.
Shankar Sastry, founding chancellor of Plaksha University and Thomas Siebel Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley, said, "They want an experience which is more experiential and interdisciplinary. They want entrepreneurship baked in. And entrepreneurship, not just as a startup mindset, but entrepreneurship is defined as a way of mobilising resources to solve complex problems confronting society," he said.
Prof Rudra Pratap, founding vice-chancellor of Plaksha University, said, "We put together an interdisciplinary thought and problem-solving approach, where problems don't come in silos."