Shri Ishwarbhai Parmar, Hon’ble Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Gujarat State delivering the inaugural address at the inaugural function of the first Entrepreneurship Development Programme for SC Youth under the mega project to train 750 youths in entrepreneurship and as Small Industries Management Assistants. Also seen on the dais are (from R – L) Shri D. S. Gadhvi, IAS, Managing Director, Scheduled Caste Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat; Shri Manoj Aggarwal, IAS, Principal Secretary, Social Justice & Empowerment Department, Govt. of Gujarat; Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director – EDII and Shri Prakash Solanki, IAS, Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare.

 
Seen during the inauguration ceremony is the (in the center) Chief Guest Shri Ishwarbhai Parmar, Hon’ble Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Gujarat State along with (from R – L) Shri D. S. Gadhvi, IAS, Managing Director, Scheduled Caste Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat; Shri Manoj Aggarwal, IAS, Principal Secretary, Social Justice & Empowerment Department, Govt. of Gujarat; Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director – EDII and Shri Prakash Solanki, IAS, Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare.

 
Shri Ishwarbhai Parmar lighting the ceremonial lamp at the inauguration ceremony.

Hon’ble Shri Giriraj Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises inaugurated the MSME Research Block at EDII on January 19, 2019. Also present on the occasion were Dr. Arun Kumar Panda, Secretary, MSME, Govt. of India and EDII Governing Board Member, Shri Milind Kamble, Chairman – Dalit Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Officiating President –EDII and Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director – EDII.
  

EDII has been working closely with the Ministry of MSME across targets with a view to contributing towards fostering and expanding economic and employment potential of MSME sector. Within the purview of the MSME sector, EDII has contributed in the areas of sustainable development, entrepreneurship, policy advocacy, governance and MSME promotion and facilitation. EDII has also undertaken significant research work and studies to promote the MSME sector.

Given the gamut of various verticals and an increasing number of activities being pursued by the Institute, an MSME Research Block has been constructed with support of Ministry of Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises under Scheme of Assistance to Training Institutions. The MSME Research Block is a great backing to the Institute’s work and its efforts will get a new impetus with this.

The MSME Research Block was inaugurated by Hon’ble Shri Giriraj Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Medium, Small and Micro at EDII. Addressing the gathering, the Hon’ble Minister termed conviction, emotion and devotion as the main ingredients of entrepreneurship. He termed capital as secondary. The Minister highlighted several stories of successful entrepreneurs who have achieved success purely on the basis of their passion and will to make it big.  Speaking on the use of technology in business, the Chief Guest said, “Technology must be employed judiciously in a manner that we do not become slaves to it. Technology must facilitate our dreams.” To elaborate this, the Minister quoted the example of a village where the locals had been provided with spindles which was powered by solar energy and technology built into it to enable people to enhance their earnings.  Speaking on bringing women into mainstream, the Minister quoted Mckinsey’s report and said that the Report highlighted that with 42% women’s involvement in the economy, China recorded an increase of 41%  in their GDP. Juxtaposing it with Indian Reports, he said that we need to wake up as in 2004, 35 percent of the women were contributing to GDP, while the percentage fell to 24 percent in 2011.   The Minister concluded by beckoning all to take advantage of learning and set up own enterprises.
 

On the occasion, Dr. Arun Panda, Secretary, MSME said, ““Entrepreneurship requires inner passion to pursue a dream. Institutes like EDII are providing an eco-system to business enthusiasts. MSMEs are the flavour of the season especially after GST was introduced in the country. Out of 1.17 Cr registration in the GST, more than 1 Crore registrations in GST are MSMEs. That means people have started dreaming big.” Dr. Panda  suggested that EDII must train the key officials of all the 18 tool rooms and technology centres all across this country which are working exceptionally well in skilling people, making them job ready. This training, he said, will enable these officials to impart training in entrepreneurship too, thus ensuring a good success rate in New Enterprise Creation.  Adding to this, he said, “Our honourable Prime Minister also announced on November 2, 2018 that 120 more centres – of which 100 small and 20 big centres will be established in the coming 3 years. This will be a huge game changer for the country and for people.”

Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director, EDII said, “India is going through a revolutionary phase in which entrepreneurship is receiving tremendous acceptance as a career. With the government promoting MSMEs directly under Start-up India Mission, Make in India and Digital India policies, this sector has flourished like never before during the last couple of years. Increasing number of start-ups, even student start-ups suggests that the country is all set to make a mark on the global front with innovative and path-breaking ideas.”

The function concluded with Vote of thanks by Shri Milind Kamble, Officiating President – EDII and Chairperson – DICCI. Shri Kamble also endorsed the need of technology and innovation as facilitating factors in MSMEs and urged youths to think out-of-the-box. Shri Kamble stressed on the significance of MSMEs for economic growth and encouraged youths to make use of the training to become entrepreneurs. Shri Kamble profusely thanked the  dignitaries for extending much-needed  support to encourage MSMEs.

EDII won the ‘Sustainability Leadership Award 2018’ at the India Sustainability Leadership Summit & Awards scheduled on 26th November, 2018 at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. The institute was awarded for its commendable efforts toward control of greenhouse gas emission, technology upgradation, promotion of alternative energy use and occupational health & safety of workers in the MSME sector. All this was under the CSR support of Yes Bank and cooperation of local industry associations in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, and Telangana. Through various preventive and diagnostic activities conducted as part of this initiative, a total of 8756 MSMEs were catered in these eight states.

Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) is a sub-scheme under National Rural Livelihoods Mission [NRLM], pilot program of Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India with a vision to help the rural poor come out of poverty by creating self-employment opportunities along local economic development by creating local employment through micro enterprises.

The Implementation of SVEP involves interventions at the block level for four years involving SHGs and their Federation to promote micro enterprises owned by SHG members / relatives, marginalized sections and SC and ST communities.

The project has been launched in the year 2015-16, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad is functioning as National Resource Organization in partnership with total 11 State Rural Livelihoods Mission [SRLMs] and implementing in 57 (activities started in 42 blocks) blocks across the country. The states are Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Odisha,  Punjab, Assam, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra.

The project also aims at developing a conducive ecosystem in the block for promotion of micro enterprises through Block Resource Centre [BRC-EP] and creation of Community Cadres as Community Resource Person [CRP-EP] for enterprise promotion and for providing necessary handholding support to the Rural Entrepreneurs.

EDII entered into partnership with West Bengal State Rural Livelihoods Mission in the year 2016-17 and implemented SVEP and implemented programme in two blocks : Pathar Pratima ; Dist: South 24 Parganas [Part of Sundarban Area; UNESCO Heritage Sites]  and Dinhata-1; Dist. Coochbehar.

During one of the SHG meetings in Pathar Pratima block, SHG member (a daily wager) Smt. Aparna Das came to know about SVEP and suggested this to her husband, Mr. Utpal Das, also a daily wager. Utpal was subsequently trained and mentored in micro enterprise management along with requisite skill development and handholding towards setting up a Common Service Centre [CSC] in 2017 with total investment of INR 1 Lac [SVEP CEF Support INR 50 thousand and INR 50 thousand own investment]. Utpal provides all kinds of E-services under the Digital India / E-Governance program to the local community.

Against all geographical & infrastructural challenges viz. Power, Transportation, Communication, skill development opportunities etc, with the effort of the WBSRLM and EDII Team support; Utpal established himself, generating annual revenue in the year 2017 of INR 96000.00 and 2018 of INR 180000.00, giving employment to two local youth and providing services to 1500 customers annually.

The Fourth batch of the Biotechnopreneur Programme got inaugurated at EDII on December 27, 2018. This is an initiative by Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission (GSBTM) to promote, support and guide the aspiring biotechnopreneurs in the making. The programme was inaugurated at the EDII campus in the presence of esteemed guests – Mrs. Anasuya Bhadalkar and Mr. Anand Bhadalkar, Joint Directors, GSBTM, Dr. Subhash Soni, Mission Director, GSBTM and Mr. Vipul Vasava, Under Secretary, Dept of Science & Technology, Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director EDII and  Mr. P. Ganesh, Programme Director.

The Biotechnopreneur (BTP) programme is especially designed for people who aspire to establish a career in Life Sciences and Biotechnology background. The programme is aimed at providing hand holding support to aspiring biotechnopreneurs on techno-commercial aspects and implementation of their entrepreneurial venture. BTP witnessed an interesting participant mix from varied backgrounds and age groups. The youngest participant is just 22 year old fresher while the oldest one is a 69 year old biotech professional with more than 20 years of experience. BTP is a 10 month programme out of which 4 months cover classroom sessions and remaining 6 months include industrial visits, field work and other on-site activities including meeting the mentors and preparing business plans.

Speaking at the inaugural function, Dr. Subhash Soni, Mission Director, GSBTM discussed the role of entrepreneurship in the country. He said, “Entrepreneurship plays the part of a key element in the Indian economy which needs to be encouraged at every cost. It has been a real pleasure for me to launch this programme in such a robust and dynamic institute that encourages aspiring entrepreneurs in making.”

Mr. Anand Bhadalkar, Joint Director, GSBTM gave a brief introduction about his association with GSBTM and his 16 years of teaching experience. “I have been co-ordinating Biotechnopreneur programme with GSBTM since the inception in 2012. Our main motive was to create an ecosystem for people from science and technology background where like minds can come together and discover new ideas while we provide them with everything like ideation and research support and funding options,” he said. He also talked about how earlier programmes helped him reshape the current Biotechnopreneur Programme and come up with changes that would benefit the current batch of participants.

Explaining the significance of Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission (GSBTM) in the Biotechnopreneur Programme, Mrs. Anasuya Bhadalkar, Joint Director, GSBTM emphasised on various changes made in the programme curriculum. She said, “Depending on the feedbacks from the participants of the earlier batches, we have made three major changes in the curriculum i.e., we will incorporate more industrial visits to ensure real time experience of the participants, include individual mentors for each participant and conduct multiple rounds of project presentations so that the participants can come up with a presentable business plan for their venture.”  Mrs. Bhadalkar also mentioned about EDII’s involvement with GSBTM since 2007 and spoke about how EDII has always lent a supporting hand for each Biotechnopreneur Programmes since the inception. “Apart from training biotechnopreneurs, GSBTM along with EDII aims towards bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and researchers of the state to provide them with a common landing ground to promote entrepreneurship in the field of science and technology.”

Speaking about the programme and EDII’s involvement, Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director, EDII said, “As an institute we have always been happy to work with GSBTM. Gujarat has been ranked no. 1 in terms of total number of start-ups coming up and it gives me immense pleasure to share with you that the last 3 batches of the Biotechnopreneur programme were fortunate enough to give birth to 20 new start-ups in the biotech background. When we have so much resource available with us in terms of the faculty and mentors, the programme will surely succeed.”

The session concluded with a vote of thanks to the guests by Ms. Harsha Thawani, Programme Officer, BTP.

The 10 month programme will commence from 29th December, 2018. Class-room lectures, field visits, simulation exercises and interaction with experts will form a part of the pedagogy.

Inaugurating the India-Uzbekistan Entrepreneurship Development Centre (IUEDC) at Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCIU) in Uzbekistan is EDII Director , Dr. Sunil Shukla with ( on his L) Mr. Adkham Ikramov, Chiarman, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Republic of Uzbekistan and ( on his R) Mr. Vinod Kumar, Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipoteniary, Republic of Uzbekistan.

EDII successfully conducted its 19^th Annual Convocation of Academic Programmes on June 30, 2018. A total of 87 students were awarded diplomas. In Post Graduate Diploma Programme - Business Entrepreneurship (PGDM-BE), 70 students received diploma; in Post Graduate Diploma Programme - Development Studies (PGDM-DS), 16 students were conferred diplomas and in Fellow Programme in Management, 1 student was awarded diploma.

The Chief Guest for the event, Padma Shri Prof. Anil Gupta , Founder – Honey Bee; SRISTI and GIAN, graced the occasion and shared his insights on the new Eco-preneurial approaches for transforming social imagination. The Chief Guest opined, “Indian society is becoming aspirational, entrepreneurial, and also more accommodative of new social and economic experiments for changing everyday life experience of the masses. When socio-economic transition takes place, lot of values come in conflict, some for good but some for bad. The social inclusion is one such issue which is receiving heightened attention of many entrepreneurs. The disadvantaged people are not willing to remain neglected any further. Their restiveness is a challenge to all those who want to design inclusive business models.” Expressing his thoughts over the future frontiers for achieving zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero pollution, as articulated by Prof Yunus, The Chief Guest suggested a six-point strategy as follows: 

• Decide that change is possible, it cannot wait, it has to begin now, and with me
• There is a choice between two roads of inertia and innovations, first is safe, will take u somewhere, second, is risky, difficult but will take u where nobody might have gone
• Innovations don’t have legs and  hands; they need to be coupled with investment and enterprise
• Access, Assurance, Ability-skill and Attitude (endogenous and exogenous) are important. Cynicism is infectious, optimism is not, the company one keeps determines ones attitudes
• Creativity, compassion, collaboration/co-creation, circular and convergence are the five significant virtues.
• Overcome six exclusions: Spatial, Sectoral, Seasonal/temporal, Skill, Social, Structural/governance

The Chief Guest also highlighted the need for social inclusion through cross subsidization, innovative business models and  public policy institutions who can afford to pay for those who cannot. He said, ‘We need special enterprises for elderly care, similarly for specially abled people, and for taking care of children of single parents. Sristi, GIAN and NIF have tried to tackle  the needs  of such knowledge rich-economically poor people, but need gap is so big, we need hundreds if not thousands of flowers to bloom.”
 
The Chief Guest concluded with congratulations to the graduating students and inspiring them to pursue excellence. 
 
Mr. Milind Kamble, Founder Chairman, Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry & esteemed EDII Governing Body Member, officiated as the President of the 19^th Convocation. Mr. Kamble held that India is at a crucial time with the country’s entrepreneurial interactions on a rise on account of the favourable environmental, governmental and institutional set up. He added that with entrepreneurship gaining grounds, the entrepreneurial processes are going to become more important than ever; and, therefore, exploring new opportunities and markets, networking, sourcing funding options and amalgamating factors of production, will have to be mastered to excel. Mr Kamble advised the graduating students to keep working hard and not fret over results. He inspired them to enter this new path of life with new hopes and determination.
 
On the occasion, Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director, EDII explained how EDII had adopted the new business strategy in keeping with the changing requirements. He added that the overall thrust would, however, remain on promoting start-ups, identifying and stimulating unexploited entrepreneurial fervor, instilling entrepreneurial orientation in executives, students, women, disadvantaged groups & other sections, addressing the vulnerability of rural and urban micro enterprises, emphasizing on innovations, incubation and research. Dr Shukla congratulated the graduating students and expressed his happiness over the way they were evolving as entrepreneurs and contributing to the nation’s growth. He also shared the institute’s major successes, over the years, with the audience.
 
The event registered a huge footfall comprising students, parents, professionals, academicians, officials, entrepreneurs and EDII staff and faculty members.
 
On this occasion, medals were also awarded to meritorious students:

• Dahyabhai Chhotalal Charity Foundation (Remik) sponsored Gold Medal for Scholastic Performance in New Enterprise Creation –  Deepesh Gandhi
• Dahyabhai Chhotalal Charity Foundation (Remik) sponsored Silver Medal for Scholastic Performance in New Enterprise Creation –  Vishwa Patel
• Dahyabhai Chhotalal Charity Foundation (Remik) sponsored Gold Medal for Scholastic Performance in Family Business Management –  Siddharth Bhat
• Dahyabhai Chhotalal Charity Foundation (Remik) sponsored Silver Medal for Scholastic Performance in Family Business Management –  Shitiza Jain
• EDII sponsored Gold Medal for Scholastic Performance in Development Studies –  Shruthi Surendran
• EDII sponsored Silver Medal for Scholastic Performance in Development Studies –  Nikita Patel

The four programmes which were concluded had commenced on October 23, 2017. In all, there were 60 participants from 27 developing countries. The programmes included:

Agri-Entrepreneurship and Supply Chain Management
The Programme has been specially designed to introduce the participants to the emerging opportunities in agri-business and cultivate an entrepreneurial attitude in them to that they become adept in developing innovative solutions to economic issues in food and fibre system.
 
Doing Business in Emerging Markets
The Programme is centered on driving an understanding of challenges and opportunities associated with organizational management and business strategies in emerging markets. 
 
Entrepreneurial Management
The Programme aims at developing the spirit of entrepreneurial management or intrapreneurship among participants so that they create a conducive organizational environment where entrepreneurship germinates and grows.
 
SME Banking & Financial Services
The aim is to facilitate an in-depth understanding and develop skills in assessing financial needs of SMEs and designing appropriate financial intermediation. 

 

Dr. Anup Singh, Director General, Nirma University was the Chief Guest at the Valediction Function