The E Week Impact
Published in DARE Magazine
March 2011 Edition
By: Shubha Narayanan
A True Celebration of the Entrepreneurial Spirit
Entrepreneurship Week India 2010 concludes with record number of events and participants from all over India
From February 6 to 13, over 6,00,000 people across 30 cities engaged in a celebration of entrepreneurship for Entrepreneurship Week India 2010. Over 4,000 entrepreneurial activities were led by 70,000 students of E Cells (Entrepreneurship Cells) from 512 member institutes of the National Entrepreneurship Network as part of E Week India – making it the biggest entrepreneurship activity in Asia. The unique, week-long campaign advocating support for entrepreneurship was based on the theme ‘India: Opportunities Within’. In line with the theme, participants organized a range of activities and programs to explore opportunities in solving India’s biggest problems: from education to healthcare to energy to water and more. Panel discussions, expositions, tech-bazaars, idea-generation competitions, awareness rallies were all part of the campaign – and were conducted with vigor in campuses across the country.
Mumbai
800 ventures in two days
Padmashree DY Patil turned its entire campus into a Special Economic Zone for two days during E Week. Each of its 800 students started a small venture during those two days, ranging from yoga classes to career counseling to organizing DJ parties. Thakur Institute of Management Studies tied up with local NGOs to host a bazaar on campus, and also held a workshop on eco-Ganesha model-making, enabling E Cell members to make and sell their own paper mache models in the festive season.
At Atharva Institute of Technology, student entrepreneurs showcased their campus companies, including a stationery shop, a college magazine, a tiffin service and an information portal for students. “We have learnt so many new things in our NEN E Cell, and we cannot wait to put them to practice. A campus startup is the best way to start,” says NEN E Leader Ishani Ghosh.
Pune
Villages become ‘party’ zones
Students of MES Garware College created new market places in the villages of Deagon and Asde near Pune, by organizing Hurda (corn) parties there, this E Week. The Hurda parties, launched to promote agritourism and agriproducts, were designed for young urbaners to give them a taste of rural India.
Following the success of these ‘parties’, Borade Vasant, a school teacher in Asde has volunteered to support agri-tourism in the village, and his wife Alka even wants to teach visitors how to cook traditional Maharashtrian food. “The village will certainly prosper from tourists from nearby cities. We see hope,” Vasant says.
The E Cell members now plan to take three-four families in a mini bus to other villages where agri-tourism is working, to encourage them to implement the same in their own village. “Agro-tourism will flourish only when the local villagers participate actively in it, and our E Cell wants to facilitate this,” says NEN E Leader Sagar Muluk of Garware College. Incidentally, two more hurda parties have already been booked for the month.
Kolkata
More than 3 idiots set E Week rocking
The cool innovator of 3 Idiots, Aamir Khan’s Rancho, will find plenty of company in the E Cells of Kolkata. An SMS system to control 16 home appliances, a ‘glowing’ walking stick to aid the blind and biofuel using vegetable oils were some of the innovations and inventions that E Cells at Institute of Engineering and Management and Heritage Institute of Technology are looking to commercialize to solve some of India’s key issues. “The crux is commercialization. How do you convert these models to ready-to-use products? We are trying to look at our technical projects from the market’s point of view and use technology as a way to meet the market needs. Our E Cell has tried to build this mindset this E Week,” said Souvik Bhattacharya.
Indore
Ten startups launched in a week
Running a very large public campaign this E Week, the E Cell at IPS Academy painted the town, literally. They painted the E Week message on bridges and on walls across Indore. In the midst of all this, they also launched ten ventures, ranging from breakfast service to medical kits for rural poor to even a US education office. It also launched a campus company – a library for entrepreneurs. In a week, the library raised Rs 70,000 in funds, and 107 books on entrepreneurship.
Jaipur
Princess Padmini Devi, Vasundhara Raje, Chetan Bhagat support E Week
The entire city of Jaipur, including its princess Rani Padmini Devi, ex-chief minister Vasundhara Raje, actress Vidya Balan and the award winning author Chetan Bhagat acknowledged and were inspired by E Week because of the efforts of institutes in Jaipur. SKIT’s E Week campaign at the Jaipur Literary Festival was just one of the 100s of events it organized during E Week, where it reached out to 33,000 people. Meanwhile, Biyani Girls College organized a B Plan competition and a series of entrepreneurship workshops in schools.
Durgapur
The ‘E’ word rules Durgapur
Apart from running full-fledged programs throughout E Week, Bengal College of Engineering and Technology ran very large public awareness campaigns all over Durgapur. Despite being in a disadvantageous location (there are not many entrepreneurs in Durgapur), the speaker events at BCET were among the largest in the country. Demonstrating leadership, they have even started to mentor a new institute, which is interested in entrepreneurship. Dr BC Roy Engineering College organized 115 events during the E Week.
Chennai
E Week sparkles on Chennai beaches
From idli sellers to morning walkers on Chennai beaches – everyone was given an introductory lesson in entrepreneurship by E Cell members of several Chennai institutes, including SSN College of Engineering, Saveetha Engineering College, Loyola College, Loyola Institute of Business Administration and SMK Fomra Institute of Technology, during E Week. SSN College of Engineering even managed a debate on the E Week theme ‘India: Opportunities Within’ on NDTV channel. Another mega event in Chennai was TEDx hosted by Velammal Engineering College, and organized for the first time in the country. Velammal Engineering College received a special license from TED International to run the event during E Week. 400 students and 40 entrepreneurs attended the Conference that showcased talks by designer Christian Fabre, film critic Sudhish Kamath and anti-corruption activist Vijay Anand.
Coimbatore
Creativity and Invention at work
VLB Janakiammal College of Arts and Science has 3,000 students on campus, and each of them participated in multiple events this E Week. It also tried to change the tourist route map of Tamil Nadu, with E Cell members marketing their hometowns as the hottest tourist destinations in the State. They created brochures documenting their hometowns, and distributed them on campus, on buses and trains. The idea: Explore untapped tourist opportunities.
PSG Institute of Technology’s E Cell launched an Innovation Club this E Week to help technocrats think entrepreneurially. The iClub will run workshops on fund raising and patenting laws, facilitate networking with experts, VCs and Angels, and help students build business plans.
Mysore
E Week bridges urban-rural tech divide
The National Institute of Engineering made a special effort of taking the innovations that have been sitting in the institute for several years to the market. It partnered with NIE’s Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST), an organization which has been researching on rural technologies for over eight years, to bring some of their inventions – an eco-friendly, smoke-free chulha, biogas plants and solar lighting appliances – to rural villages in the outskirts of Mysore. 50 rural families were benefited through this project during the week. NIE also organized a hugely successful open house talk show between entrepreneurs and parents, with over 500 students attending this face-off between 20 entrepreneurs, 20 parents and 40 aspiring E Cell members on the subject of Entrepreneurship.
Bangalore
Shouting it loud
Mount Carmel College started building up to E Week long before E Week was launched. In January, it organized a Startup Day to facilitate internship opportunities in startups; and followed it up with over 120 events during the week. A college with over 5,000 students, they involved every single department, including faculty, management and students, in entrepreneurship activities. Jyoti Nivas College ran a large SMS campaign, covering 1,00,000 people, to spread awareness about E Week. They also ran a village outreach program. A couple of rural companies are being funded now as a result of their initiative. RV College of Engineering reached out to the public through street plays on entrepreneurship and conducted surveys on local entrepreneurs.
Delhi
Excitement on full throttle in Delhi
Noida-based Jaipuria Institute of Management ran very large public awareness campaigns all over Noida and also conducted several in-depth, experiential activities on campus. JIM isn’t a residential campus, but students refused to leave the campus, and had to be forcefully sent home every single day. It organized 135 events, which included talks by entrepreneurs from various sectors like healthcare, energy, agriculture and education. Birla Institute of Management and Technology and Lady Shriram College also conducted workshops and talks on entrepreneurship.
Hyderabad
Innovation on high gear
E Cell members of Malla Reddy Institute of Management launched interesting prototypes at the Rural Innovation Exhibition organized during E Week. Some of their inventions included a washing machine that worked without electricity, a coconut tree climbing machine and a bomb detection device. In addition, the E Cell also provided free consulting services to four loss-making apparel industries in the neighbourhood.
