New Delhi, Delhi, India
Dr Nikhil Agarwal is India’s foremost expert on Startups, Innovation and Policy. He is currently serving as Managing Director, FITT, IIT-Delhi. Between 2019-24 he was holding the dual charge of CEO of SIIC and AIIDE at IIT - Kanpur. SIIC is the largest tech-incubator in the country with over 300+ incubated startups. IIT Kanpur was ranked #1 in innovation in 2023 in NIRF rankings. Between 2021-22, he was holding additional charge as CEO of C3iHub (Cybersecurity and Cybersecurity of Physical-Systems Innovation Hub) at IIT Kanpur. In 2018, he is appointed as Vice Chairman, Mahaashmita Livelihood Rural Accelerator Program (MILAP), Govt of Maharashtra – a program in joint collaboration with MSRLM and FICCI. In 2014, Indian Prime Minister urged Indian diaspora to return to the country to serve the motherland. Dr Agarwal responded to the call and returned from UK to join Govt of Andhra Pradesh as Chief Executive Officer, Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society (CEO, APIS) to kickstart the statewide innovation agenda between 2015-2017. He is also the founder of Entrepreneur Café – a global movement spread in 110 cities and six continents, connecting over 45,000 entrepreneurs. Dr Agarwal has founded businesses and advised firms on strategic matters in last 20 years of his career. He has worked with global multinationals like Cadbury's, FIC and Zensar (RPG Group). He has lectured at leading universities like Virginia Tech Polytechnic & State University, University of Bradford and University of Cambridge. His articles, interviews and work has been extensively covered in international media including Harvard Business Review Blog, Forbes, CNN Money, BBC Radio, The New York Times and Economic Times. Professor Agarwal has served on many international think tanks and hold leadership positions in global organizations such as WBAF. Between 2006 -13 he served as high-level-advisor to United Nations Global Alliance on ICT & Development (UNGAID). He was the first Asian to be elected as Co-Chair of prestigious Internet Society Advisory Council (ISOC-AC) for 2008-10. Between 2017-19, he was the Hon Fellow of IC2 Institute, University of Texas at Austin. He is recipient of ‘Excellence in Promoting Innovation in Governance” by Govt of Rajasthan, India. Nikhil has earned MPhil (University of Cambridge) and PhD (University of Edinburgh) in United Kingdom. Nikhil has interest in martial arts – he is co-recipient of ‘Guinness World Record’ in Taekwondo in 2017. In his free time (or when he is flying), he likes to read and watch shows on Netflix.
The Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi is a pioneering entity established to bridge the gap between academia and industry. Since its inception in 1992, FITT has been instrumental in fostering innovation and promoting technology commercialization. The organization offers a wide array of services, including managing intellectual property, facilitating technology transfer, and supporting startups through incubation programs. FITT’s incubation program, one of the earliest academia-based incubators in India, has successfully nurtured numerous startups by providing them with access to prototyping facilities, a vast mentor network, funding programs, and business support services. The program aims to convert innovative ideas into commercially viable products, significantly contributing to the entrepreneurial ecosystem at IIT Delhi. In addition to incubation, FITT manages the Research and Innovation Park, a state-of-the-art facility designed to accelerate research translation and amplify the technological and societal impact of R&D at IIT Delhi. This park provides avenues for close interaction between IIT Delhi students, faculty, industry, and government agencies to bring technological breakthroughs to market.
ValleyNXT Ventures is a premier investment fund committed to facilitating synergies between aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned investors. As a sector-agnostic, super-early-stage fund, we seek to catalyze innovative business ideas and pioneering concepts with strategic investments.
The overarching mission of the Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development is to offer valuable and actionable insights that will help ethical leaders to cope and thrive; and to drive policy innovations and institutional development in a changing world. Resiliency and sustainability depend on good leadership, empowered people, the wise use of natural resources and the profitable activities of ethical companies to bridge the gaps between rich and poor, so as to enhance prosperity for all. In addition to provide political economic analysis and laboratory resources for policy system and decision making, the intent of the centre is to provide opportunities for scientists, policy makers, business, and public leaders, to share their research interest and activities, to learn new methods in the area of our core research: - Sustainable Investment - Good Governance - Responsible Innovation From the perspective of trust and cooperation as key to solving global challenges, we break down the silos between sectors, harness new theories of change and consider legacy effects using evidence, so that new systems can be introduced. By blending system dynamics with political and economic analysis and rigorously developed business cases, we help achieve lasting change. We have helped over 1,000 leaders from the public and private sector from over 107 countries through our cutting-edge action-research and capacity building efforts. https://www.crsd.landecon.cam.ac.uk/centre-fellows
Nominated to be part of the Senate of IIIT Lucknow.
Worked as Chief Executive Officer IIT Kanpur Incubator (SIIC) and AI Center (AIIDE). I was responsible for successfully building India's largest tech incubator (SIIC) with over 300+ currently incubated startups (total portfolio of 450 startups). IIT Kanpur ranked #1 in NIRF ranking in innovation category in 2023. web: www.siicfirst.com
Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Driven Entrepreneurship (AIIDE) Center for Excellence is setup by UP govt with FIRST and FICCI to drive AI entrepreneurship in the state of UP.
Addl charge as CEO for Center for Cyber Security and Cyber Defence of Critical Infrastructure Innovation Hub (C3i Hub), IIT Kanpur - The C3i Hub has been founded as the result of a generous grant of 170 crores (US$ 24 million) from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India to create the country’s maiden research centre and cybersecurity testbed for critical infrastructure.