Hyderabad: Fostering student-entrepreneurship through innovation programmes is extremely critical and universities need to establish close linkage with industries to mentor and handhold students with novel business ideas, said the Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday.
Addressing the TiE Global Summit-2020 through video conferencing from Visakhapatnam, the Vice President asked the universities to set up incubation centres to tap and nurture entrepreneurial talent among youngsters. He also appealed to the corporate sector to come forward to fund and promote entrepreneurial ecosystem on university campuses.
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Mentioning that the youth comprise about 65 per cent of India’s population, he stressed that the vast energies of the talented youth should be tapped fully and their mindset should be changed from being job-seekers to job creators. The Vice President was of opinion that good entrepreneurial ideas backed by talent will beckon investors, who will be willing to invest in early-stage entrepreneurs not only in Silicon Valley but in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam or any other place where there is talent.
The Vice President also wanted a special drive to be launched for promoting entrepreneurship among women. There is a huge potential for promoting women entrepreneurs in the country, he said and expressed happiness over the fact that TiE has impacted 50,000 aspiring women entrepreneurs through mentoring.
Describing India as home to world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, Naidu quoted a recent Nasscom report that about 50 per cent of the tech startups are confident of reaching revenues of pre-Covid-19 level. “This certainly is optimistic news and I am sure, things would look up for all Indian startups in the near future”, he added.
Talking about the challenges thrown up by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vice President said that this is the time to turn adversities into opportunities. Calling upon the youngsters to come out with innovative ideas to meet the emerging challenges, he wanted the creation of an ecosystem that can enable many innovative ideas to be translated into promising start-ups.
Stating that entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in economic growth and employment generation, VP appreciated the Government for creating an enabling environment through Start-up India. Fostering entrepreneurship is not just about crafting the right economic policy, or developing the best educational curricula, it is about creating an entire climate in which innovation and ideas flourish, VP said and added, “When entrepreneurs succeed, they create economic opportunity not only for Indians, but for people all over the world.”
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