Amrita Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE) inspires first generation entrepreneurial ventures through a one-month EDII-DST funded EDP from October 30 to November 27, 2019.
ACE conducted a free, non-residential, 1-month Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) sponsored by National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, and supported by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad. 26 participants attended the program from October 30, 2019 to November 27, 2019; including a couple of Amrita alumni.
The program was inaugurated by chief guest and Social Entrepreneur Ms. Meera Menon, Managing Trustee, Intrust Foundation and Jt. Secretary, TiE – Coimbatore as well as Convenor – Thalassemia Welfare Society and Former COO – Ampere. Wg. Cdr. Dr. A. Balachandran, Dy. Director – Corporate Relations, CIR, Amrita also spoke in the inauguration. The program objectives, expectations from trainees, final goal and program strategy was briefed by Mr. R. Krishnan, Head – ACE, CIR, Amrita. In the post lunch session on the first day, Ms. Vasantha Kokilam Proprietor, CandleFire Development Academy and Mr. V. Saravana Krishnan, Marketing Officer, NSIC were the other resource persons. The other resource person for the first module on Entrepreneurship and Schemes of Assistance were: Ms. B. Kayalvizhi, Asst. Director, Branch MSME Development Institute; Mr. Pradeep Menon, Chief Officer, Zacco Cyber Security Research Labs; and Mr. V. Srinivasan, Founder, IdeaGuru Solutions.
The second module was Project Selection and Pre-Feasibility. The resource persons for this included Dr. J. Mohanasundari, Managing Director, Sharp Electrodes & KayJay Sharp Trendys. The EDP participants could interact with the entrepreneur when they visited the industrial unit.
The other resource persons for this module included the entrepreneur counselling and guidance team from CODISSIA; Prof. R. Krishnakumar, Value Educationist, and Former HOD – International Business & ED Cell Incharge, PSG CAS; Mr. Hariharan Sonaimuthu, Founder & CEO, NoothukuMuttai and The Shake Studio; and Dr. K.R. Sreeni, Program Manager, Amrita Serve.
The third module dealt with Consolidation of business idea and Market survey. The resource persons for this module included among others, Mr. Albert Jermi, Manager, SIDBI; Mr. N. Sridhar, Managing Partner, Innovatus Systems; Mr. V.T. Amarnath, Director, Martram Foods India Pvt. Ltd.; Wg. Cdr. C R Vaidyanathan (Retd.), Advisor (Defence projects), Tata Projects Ltd.; Mr. Karthik Srinath, Founder, Green Coir Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. B. Karthigaivasan, General Manager, District Industries Centre (DIC) and Ms. R. Sunithakumari, Dy. Manager, L&D, CIR, Amrita. It also included field visits to meet domain experts like Mr. N Karthikkeyan, Partner, Iyal Vanigam; Mr. M Ganesh Karthick, Secretary, Meipporul Trust; Mr. AV Gnanasambandam, CEO, TBI – ABIS, Directorate of Agri-Business Development, TNAU; defence sector specialist and inspiring entrepreneur Mr. P. N. Raghavan, Managing Partner, Amar Metering Pumps; and Dr. K Suresh Kumar, Executive Director, PSG-STEP.
The fourth module was on Motivational inputs that addressed Entrepreneurial Competencies (Achievement Motivation Training) by Mr. V. S. Sukumaran, Sr. Consultant and Former Sr. Faculty, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII).
The fifth module was on Project Report Preparation. This included the following resource persons, among others: Mr. V. Devaraj, Consultant Director & Auditor, VL Management Services; Ms. Sindhu Kalyanasundaram, Founder, Ignite Akademi; Mr. G.T. Bharath, CEO, Casting India; Mr. R. Hariharan, Vice President, Lakshmi Electric Control Systems (LECS) and Founder-Sunwind; Mr. Sankaran Iyer, CEO, Strategeez Management Consultants; and Mr. A.R. Muralidharan, Director, Atlaz Business Solutions & Principal, CapHelp; apart from an inspiring industry visit to have enriching inputs on Product Planning and Product Mix by Mr. Hari Nagendiran, Founder & MD, Chocolate Teddies.
The resource persons for the sixth and final module on Management inputs included, among others, Mr. V Sreedhar, COO, Aosta Software Technologies India Ltd.; Mr. P Suresh Babu, Chief Manager – Credit Sanctions, ESAF Bank; Mr. Krishna, Founder Director, Ask Krishna Centre for Mindfulness; Mr. R.P. Ramanathan, Chief Legal Consultant, Meta Yage IP Strategy Consulting; and Ms. Reni Auxiliya P.W., Co-Founder, MOMADE lunch box and PLAYWORKZ Coworking Space. The valedictory session that followed after the address Mr. Sivaprasad V, Director, Realworks Studios profiled him along with Mr. Jayaram Pillai, Director – Technology Development, Amrita.
This was followed by a TiE networking session @ “Let’s Talk Biz Series” that featured an address by Mr. Suraj Shantakumar, Director – Business Strategy, Kirtilal Kalidas Jewellery Pvt. Ltd.
At the end, the participants were truly delighted at having interacted with such great resource persons for an amazing month-long excursion on entrepreneurship and vowed to wow everyone with their own entrepreneurial ventures in the near future!
