Entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India are expected to receive a major boost as India's second Entrepreneurship Week takes off from Feb 2-9, 2008. E Week India (E Week), a weeklong public awareness campaign, is aimed at celebrating the opportunities in today's India and improving the ecosystem for entrepreneurship in the country. E Week 2008 builds on the resounding success of the first E Week 2007, run at the initiation of the not for profit organization, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN).

NEN will be co-hosting E Week 2008 with over 270 member colleges from across the country along with entrepreneur support associations such as The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), India Venture Capital Association (IVCA), Indian Angel Network (IAN), Proto.in and Dare. E Week 2008 is supported by corporate sponsors including HSBC, Himalaya and Symphony Services.

As part of the weeklong celebrations, E Week India 2008 aims to bring over 2,00,000 people including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors and other experts together through more than 1800 entrepreneurship activities across 30 cities and towns. Activities include panel discussions, entrepreneur leadership talks, live case studies, creative entrepreneurial games, film screenings, street plays, entrepreneurship bazaars etc. NEN will be also be honoring the 'Champion' institutes - those that best embody the Spirit of E Week 2008.

The central theme to E Week 2008 is 'Connecting Industry & Academia', in order to bring the best value of both to India. E Week 2008 is expected to reach beyond those already engaged by bringing several others to support entrepreneurship; an effort that will result in building a good ecosystem for new and future entrepreneurs.

Information on E Week India events can be obtained on E Week website www.eweekindia.org.

Laura Parkin, Executive Director, NEN & Wadhwani Foundation says, "We are delighted and somewhat amazed at the excitement and activity that Entrepreneurship Week India is releasing on campuses across the country. Young people have clearly seized the challenge of improving the ecosystem for entrepreneurs across India - and they are applying incredible energy, drive and creativity to the task. NEN is honoured to support their efforts."

"We are also delighted that all the major associations supporting entrepreneurs have come together to celebrate E Week 2008. The participation of all the Co-hosts and Sponsors sends a powerful message that entrepreneurs, industry, and academia are working in concert to accelerate India's entrepreneurial growth."

There will be great amount of excitement, buzz and festivities in Bangalore institutes during E-Week. St Josephs College, MES College, Mount Carmel College and Sir MVIT College will be taking the lead in hosting the events this year. A competition - 'Cooking with constraints' , a fashion show to promote budding fashion designers, an Entrepreneurship Week Bazaar, talks by prominent entrepreneurs, panel discussions and idea generation workshops are among the many activities that will take place on Bangalore campuses.

According to Prof. S. Sadagopan, Founder & Director, IIIT-B (International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore), "A new breed of brave and smart entrepreneurs is emerging among the Indian youth. This culture must be fostered and encouraged. Industry and academia must join hands in this endeavour to create a holistic and positive environment for entrepreneurship to thrive. NEN's E-Week is a great attempt towards achieving this goal."

Sridhar Iyengar, President Elect TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Mumbai, said, "At TiE, it is our mission to foster entrepreneurship and we are delighted to partner with NEN in this exciting nationwide celebration of entrepreneurship. Through E Week, TiE and NEN intend to connect present entrepreneurs to future ones. In addition, E-Week also presents a platform for budding entrepreneurs to come together and exchange notes and ideas."

E Week India 2008's nation-wide Pledge campaign would also be centered on the theme of industry academia partnership, bringing thousands of people to make at least ONE promise to support entrepreneurship in India.

About NEN
National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is a not-for-profit initiative of the Wadhwani Foundation working to inspire, educate and support the younger generation of entrepreneurs. Currently NEN is working with more than 295 top-tier academic institutes reaching over 3 lakh young people across 30 cities of India. The organization was co-founded in 2002 by leading Indian institutes, including IIT-Bombay, IIM-Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani, SP Jain and IBAB. NEN's advisory board includes eminent experts such as Kiran Mazumdar Shaw - Biocon; Naina Lal Kidwai - HSBC; Arun Seth - British Telecom and Prof Howard Stevenson - Harvard Business School to name a few.

Media contacts
Babit Batra
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National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)
E Mail: babit[at]nenglobal.org

Ms. Shruti Upadhyay /
Ms. Subhashini Pattabhiraman
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