Entrepreneurship Week to inspire and educate people for improving ecosystem

PRAKASH MUNDHRA,a graduate from Symbiosis Management College, would have followed the same path like his peers: Taking Rs 10-lakh-salary packet in a multinational and getting settled in life. Instead, he decided to become an entrepreneur.

Named Sacred Moments (it is a complete Diwali puja kit), Mundhra has a turnover of Rs 40 lakh. He made it with the help provided by the entrepreneurship cell of Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resources and Development (SCHMRD), which provided him with market research, facilitating a meeting with venture capitalists and other sundry helps. SCHMRD is a member of National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), a not-for-profit initiative working to inspire, educate and support new and future entrepreneursin India.

onsider this: 30 per cent of the population below 29 years of age worldwide is Indian. To provide jobs to this population, India needs entrepreneurs in every field. And to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship, NEN is organising ‘Entrepreneurship Week’ from February 23 to March 3.

Part of a global initiative, Entrepreneurship Week aims to bring several thousand citizens together to celebrate opportunities and explore the myriad ways in which the nation can improve the ecosystem for the entrepreneurship in the country.

“India offers amazing opportunities for entrepreneurs today. At the same time, the culture and ecosystem throws up tremendous barriers. Entrepreneurship Week has been initiated as both a celebration and a call to action: A week during which people will come together to improve climate and the support necessary for entrepreneurship success -inside companies starting ventures, in government and academia. The spirit of E Week is ‘We can. We will’,” NEN executive director LauraParkin said.

“With the initiative, I see a vision and a synergy that allows the creation of an eco-system that nurtures the spirit of enterprise. Employability and empowerment through entrepreneurship is a pragmatic path ahead for India. We must create an environment that inculcates a spirit of challenge and risk taking,” Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said.

The week will open with two nationwide campaigns aimed at getting general public to think about entrepreneurship and their role in creating a favourable entrepreneurial campaign. One will be an online contest to give one line question, ‘what does entrepreneurship mean to you?’ and a pledge campaign that is expected to bring 2.5 lakh peopletogether.

Founded in 2002, NEN today connects 167 institutes in India including most of the IITs and IIMs and other major institutions. The aim of the network is to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship among students of these institutions by providing them with logistical support, marketing knowledge, and research and facilitating meetings with VCs.