IIT summit to encourage business skills

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, November 1

IIT Kharagpur is taking an initiative to help students become entrepreneurs, rather than job-seekers.
The institute will host a three-day entrepreneurship summit from Friday for students of eastern India. The initiative, the first of its kind by IIT-KGP students, is aimed at helping students of other technology institutes and general degree colleges. “After completing our degree courses, most of us think of taking up a job but few consider becoming an entrepreneur. But we have seen that many students want to become entrepreneurs but do not know how to go about it. This summit will help them understand the various aspects of starting a business,” said Rashmit Ritam Das, a third-year student of IIT-KGP and student manager of the institute’s entrepreneurship cell responsible for organising the event.
About 400 students from various institutes in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, including St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University and Heritage Institute of Technology, are participating in the summit.
“We have seen that no matter how much money the government is ready to spend, the students have an inherent fear of starting a businesses venture. They want to stay secure with a monthly salary instead of taking up the challenge of running a business. Summits such as this organised by students for students will help them overcome this fear,” said Dhrubesh Biswas, professor of electronics at IIT-KGP and professor-in-charge of the entrepreneurship cell.
To cultivate a love for entrepreneurship skills among students, the summit will also include contests. Winners will get cash prizes and a chance to get incubation from IIT-KGP to start a business with up to Rs 10 lakh as start-up money. The summit will include workshops where experts will talk about aspects such as entrepreneurs finance, how to ideate and write a business plan, innovation in IT and social entrepreneurship.
Another problem that the students and faculty members would try to address through this summit is how to inspire students who have decided to start entrepreneurship to stick to it. “The problem is that in this part of the world we do not have an entrepreneurship culture. And hence even after getting money, they do not go ahead with their business venture. But this would not happen if the students themselves form a community with the interest in setting up their own business. And that is what summits like this will be doing,” said Biswas.
Mou.Chakraborty@hindustantimes.com