India, March 22 -- There's no stopping an idea whose time has come. The year was 1999 and, as fears of the Y2K fallout gripped the world, a teacher at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) had an audacious idea, unheard of then: instead of preparing students for jobs, why not create employers, not employees.

That idea took shape as the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), one of India's early start-up incubators.

More than 25 years later, and after one of its success stories, Sedemac Mechatronics launched an IPO two weeks ago, we trace the journey of an institution that has played a pivotal role in the country's evolving start-up ecosystem.

Formally established in 2004, SINE has driven innovation through over...