With the creation of an entrepreneurship cell, Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS) has taken one more step towards providing its students a holistic learning environment.
Founded by second-year KIAMS student Shailendra Chaturvedi, the club aims to promote creative thinking among students, motivate them to take up the challenges of entrepreneurship, equip them with the necessary skills and provide them any assistance they may need.
Outlining the activities planned by the club, Shailendra said they would organise entrepreneurship development programmes such as workshops, seminars and case studies of start-ups. They would also hold a business plan competition every year, arrange meetings with entrepreneurs and guide and assist students in various aspects of entrepreneurship such as preparing project reports, obtaining project approval and acquiring loans and.
According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies and Confederation of Indian Industry, if India wants to be a developed country by 2020, it needs to create 10 million jobs.
“Entrepreneurship is the only answer,” said Shailendra.
“In India we have a large number of technical and management institutions, churning out a large number of engineers and managers but most of them are job seekers, instead of job generators. To change the trend, to produce job generators, we need to produce entrepreneurs.”
This entrepreneurship cell is an endeavour “to encourage students and professionals alike to think beyond conventional boundaries, to think beyond having a secure future, to stop giving into the pressures of everyday life, to stop living their fears and start living their dreams, to keep faith in themselves even in the toughest of times, to foster the spirit of creating something unique, creating their own space, their own impression, in their own way, with their own sweat and blood.”
Shailendra felt that KIAMS students and the institute itself will both benefit from the creation of the e-cell. Students will develop the skills necessary to think and act entrepreneurially, identify new business opportunities, learn to manage a family business and learn to turn their ideas into marketable innovations. They will benefit from increased employability as companies prefer students with enterprising qualities like innovation, leadership and problem-solving.
In turn, KIAMS will get a chance to build a network with existing entrepreneurship communities and many prestigious B-Schools. It would do this while increasing its branding and publicity through a newsletter which will be going to many corporate houses and educational institutions.
The e-cell, named UDAAN, is already having an effect.
One of the selected first-year representatives, Nikita, said at first she “was not at all interested in becoming an entrepreneur” but as she learned more about the e-cell and entrepreneurship, “my point of view truly changed.”
Fellow first-year rep, K. Girish, said he did a lot of research about entrepreneurship cells at various B-Schools, which made him realise how big a thing this group was and what prominence it had in other B-Schools.
“This made me want to be the entrepreneur rep even more because I would be given the chance to put forth my ideas and grow this club in KIAMS.”
And the third club rep, Vikas Kalani, said: “All three of us hope to take UDAAN to a new height as it was a dream to be lived and felt. We will make UDAAN an important and essential part of KIAMS.”
source: http://www.kiams.wordpress.com / Home / August 16th, 2012