We fund academic centres at IIT, and work long-term for creating impact: Rahul Mehta, founder, Mehta Family Foundation

MFF works with IITs in the areas of infrastructure, curriculum, professorships, conferences, joint research projects, faculty visits, and scholarship programmes. They also work on building collaboration between their schools at IIT and international universities.

Rahul spoke to indianexpress.com on MFF’s journey, the opportunities for growth of IITs, his experiences working with them, and the way forward for Indian research and innovation. Edited excerpts:

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Could you tell us about yourself and the foundation?

Rahul Mehta: I was born in Bombay and moved to the United States at a very young age. I was the first in our family to pursue higher education overseas in the US, and the experience was transformative. Over the years, I founded and built four software startups. These ventures gave me not only financial independence but also a sense of responsibility to give back to society.

I established the foundation to honour my parents, and it is a family endeavour; my brothers and sisters are deeply involved, and we operate from Houston, Texas. Our mission is to create opportunities through education and innovation, particularly in areas that can drive long-term societal impact.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us about your work with IITs in India, and what is different about your collaboration with them?

Rahul Mehta: Our engagement with IITs began with a vision to address gaps in India’s higher education, and our first initiative was funding a project at IIT Madras. At the time, India was already a powerhouse in computer science, producing global giants like Infosys and TCS. However, I saw a significant disparity when comparing Indian academia to its American counterparts. In the US, particularly in the early 2000s, about 50 per cent of academic research was focused on biological sciences; fields like biotechnology, bioinformatics, and bioengineering. In contrast, most IITs were heavily skewed toward computer science and traditional engineering disciplines, with little emphasis on biology-related programmes.

This led to the creation of the School of Bioscience and Bioengineering at IIT Madras in February 2006. Our goal was to introduce a curriculum that exposed Indian students to the engineering aspects of biology. It was a pioneering effort — the first programme of its kind at an IIT.

What makes our approach unique is our focus on impact over mere financial contribution.

To achieve our goals, we don’t just fund projects; we actively shape them. We work closely with IITs to design curricula, bring in global expertise, and foster collaborations that elevate the quality of education and research. That is the core of our model — active engagement to maximise impact.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: How is your approach different from a typical philanthropy model?

Rahul Mehta: Our approach is not the “write a cheque and walk away” model. It is about getting deeply involved in the process. When we fund a programme, it’s not a one-off transaction; it is a commitment to ensure that the centre is impactful.

To build a world-class academic centre, you need more than just funding. You need a curriculum that reflects global standards, good faculty, and opportunities for students to engage with cutting-edge research. We facilitate all of this. For instance, we have a team of advisors/experts from institutions like Purdue and UC San Diego, who help design curricula. We also organise conferences and workshops, bringing together Indian and international academics to share knowledge and spark innovation.

We funded the School of Bioscience and Bioengineering at IIT Madras in 2006, and even after more than 20 years, our relationship remains strong. They regularly consult us, invite us to participate in their planning, and involve us in their initiatives.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Why IITs and why these themes?

Rahul Mehta: The decision to focus on IITs stemmed from personal familiarity and their reputation. My sister graduated from an IIT, which gave me early exposure to them. IITs attract India’s brightest students and some of the best undergraduate talent in the world.

Our initial focus was on biosciences and bioengineering, later followed by a Center for Engineering in Medicine at IIT Kanpur and the School of Health Science and Technology at IIT Guwahati.

In 2017, we recognised artificial intelligence (AI) as the next frontier. I wrote a paper urging IITs to prioritise AI, as it was becoming a transformative force globally. At the time, AI was not as mainstream as it is now. ChatGPT’s release in 2022 brought it into the spotlight, but we saw its potential early. We funded AI schools at IIT Guwahati, Roorkee, and Palakkad, focusing on domain-specific applications like AI in healthcare, material science, and chemical engineering.

The third pillar of our strategy is sustainability. India faces significant environmental challenges, such as maintaining food security in the face of climate change. Biosciences, AI, and sustainability are interconnected fields that, when combined, can produce groundbreaking innovations.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: What have been your learnings from your collaboration with the IITs?

Rahul Mehta: While the quality of IIT undergraduates is good, the challenge is to expose them to cutting-edge technologies and global perspectives. Second, we have learned that Indian research needs to evolve. While India produces many PhDs, the focus should shift toward interdisciplinary, globally collaborative research that drives innovation.

We have a team of advisors through our MFF CARE Initiative — Collaborative for Academic Research and Excellence, where we tap into a network of thousands of Indian-origin professors in the US who are eager to contribute to India. Our foundation facilitates these collaborations, connecting Indian academics with global experts.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Can you give us some idea of the number of students who have graduated from your centres?

Rahul Mehta: Across all our programmes, we have created capacity for 3,000 students, including 1,500 BTech and 1,500 Master’s and PhD students. This is significant, as our efforts have added more capacity than some newer IITs, like Palakkad or Tirupati, which have around 1,800 students. Over the past five years, approximately 10,000 students have graduated, with 2,500 BTechs and over 3,000 currently enrolled. That’s the kind of scale we are talking about.

Money is just one input. The time, energy, and expertise we invest in curriculum design, faculty support, and global collaborations are critical.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us about what needs to change in the IITs.

Rahul Mehta: IITs are doing a lot of things right; they attract good talent and produce graduates who excel globally. But to compete on the world stage, India needs to scale up. First, they need to increase capacity at each location from 2,000 students to 10,000 or more. Second, they need better leadership training and succession planning for directors, deans, and faculty. Some faculty should have the option to pursue administrative careers, as is the case in Western universities.

Third, the research ecosystem needs to be more multidisciplinary and collaborative. Currently, Indian faculty often find it easier to collaborate internationally than within India. We need to foster a culture of teamwork across disciplines and institutions.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Can you tell us about any interesting tech innovations or interventions that have come out of your collaboration with IITs?

Rahul Mehta: One standout example is the cancer biobank at IIT Madras, one of India’s first. It collects tissue samples from local hospitals to study differences between Indian and Western cancers, addressing the unique Indian genome. This is critical because most drugs are tested on Western populations, and we need to understand how they work for Indians.

At IIT Madras, researchers have created models to help doctors figure out how old a baby is inside the womb during pregnancy. This is helpful as about half of pregnant women in India miss their first checkup. These models are designed specifically for an Indian context and are now being used in hospitals in Tamil Nadu and at army hospitals.

At IIT Madras, researchers have created a special reference genome, like a genetic map, using DNA from 10,000 healthy people across 83 different groups in India. They used this to build a genomegraph, which helps make custom genetic maps for different Indian communities. This project is a digital public good, and it is freely available to help doctors and researchers find India-specific disease patterns.

We are also working on a Bharat Cancer Genome Atlas, and we plan to host India-specific cancer genomic data for various cancers prevalent in India.

At IIT Kanpur, our Centre is making progress in prostate cancer research, with results that could lead to new treatments. We have developed patented solutions for cancers, blood disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders and are partnering with companies to bring these innovations to the market.

Researchers have invented a special kind of insulin that stays stable even at high temperatures. This discovery of thermostable insulin has led to several research papers and patents. We have also developed a Brain-Machine Interface for restoring hand movements in patients paralysed by stroke, in collaboration with NIMHANS Bengaluru.

At IIT Roorkee, we have been focusing on innovative, AI-driven, urban mobility transportation solutions and have successfully launched a few products. Researchers at the centre have also developed a new method called Zero-Shot Knowledge Distillation (ZSKD), which is an easier way to make smaller, faster machine learning models without needing the original training data, which is often kept private or secret for safety or business reasons. This groundbreaking method has found a mention in over 300 research papers.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: What are your thoughts on the university-research-innovation ecosystem in India?

Rahul Mehta: The ecosystem has potential but needs improvement. India funds a large number of PhDs, which is a strength, but the focus needs to be on impactful research. Indian faculty also need to collaborate more within the country, not just internationally. It is about translating research into economic and social benefits.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Where is the Mehta Family Foundation headed 10 years from now?

Rahul Mehta: I hope to expand our reach to support 10,000 students, up from 3,000 today, in cutting-edge fields like AI, robotics, global health, and sustainability.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: What are your three asks from the government?

Rahul Mehta: First, dramatically increase educational capacity to provide opportunities for more students. Second, promote research collaboration, both within India and globally, to drive innovation. Third, focus on translating research into economic prosperity and social impact by creating jobs.