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........

© Inc42