History of RTBI

IITMS Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI), a Society Registered under the Tamilnadu Societies Registration Act, 1975 is set up to design, pilot and incubate scalable business ventures with a rural / social inclusive focus.

RTBI has emerged from IITM’s informal incubator – The TeNet Group, with an inception fund from the World Bank’s Info Dev Project and the Government of India’s Dept.of Science and Technology and functions under the chairmanship of Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala.

As an Incubator, RTBI leverage information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for social development, support young entrepreneurs aspiring to evolve rural inclusive business models, and mediate between urban enterprise and rural potential.

Established in the year 2006, RTBI with its proximity to IIT, also supports its entrepreneurs in terms of design, development and deployment of relevant and low cost technologies.

RTBI tries to use business incubation as a strategy and methodology for rural and social development towards imparting facilities for Capacity building, Income Generation and also Enablement of Services.



Business Incubation


Significantly it provides leadership, funding, and an incubation eco-system suitable to entrepreneurs at any phase in their venture, including at the very early concept stage as well as linkages and mentorship.