Kamala Kanta Dash for Odisha Diary
The Two Day National Startup Workshop organised by Srinnovation Club of Sri Sri University came to an end with series of sessions of mentoring, presentation and awards. The workshop was organised in collaboration with National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) of Wadhwani Foundation, sponsored by NALCO along with media partners like Odisha Diary and India Education Diary.
Sixteen teams presented their business plans. The innovative plans included ideas pertaining to low-cost waste management, agribusiness management, organic products, packaged tender coconut water, agro-tourism, biogas plants, jaggery, kungfu yoga, village e-commerce and admission solutions for academic institutions. Participants came from NLUO, Vivekananda Institute of Technology, XLRI, GITA, Srusti Academy of Management, College of Engineering and Technology, Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan and Sri Sri University. Teams competed on the basis of product, service, feasibility and viability. The mentors chose top three teams for supporting, mentoring and funding by NEN.
Avelo Roy of Kolkata Ventures, KC Mishra of eKutir, Swayam Baral of Canyon Consultancy, Pritam Mishra of Travdots, Sanjay Mohanty of MayiFind, Debasis Sahoo of Playbook Consultancy, Rakesh Gupta of SPP Associates, Natabar Rout of ARVI Innovation, Ayush Agrawal of Lecturenotes, Ambika Nanda of Tata Steel, C Chandra Shekhar of Catalyst IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Anil Kumar Mishra of Citigit Technologies, Mukteshwar Patra of Tanvi Consultants, Surekha Routray of KIIT-TBI and Deepak Kumar Sahoo of Arrelic joined the two day event as mentors, judges and motivators.
In the pre-lunch session, KC Mishra of eKutir emphasized on why everyone is a potential entrepreneur. He urged everyone to understand the need to be job creators. He rejected the attitude of job seeking and branded this attitude as counter-productive to the development of the country. He went to advise that entrepreneurship has to be about sharing not accumulation. Ayush Agarwal shared his experience of entrepreneurship and how startup is all about getting your work done. He concluded that ‘Get It Done’ attitude is necessary for entrepreneurship.
In post lunch session participants presented their business plans before the mentors and judges for questions and feedback. Prof Srinivas Subbarao, the mentor of Srinnovation Club presided over the valedictory session. He appreciated the efforts of the mentors who spent two days to guide budding entrepreneurs. He thanked Barada Prasad of NEN, NALCO, Rashmi Ranjan Parida, the founder and editor of Odisha Diary and India Education Diary and participants from different institutions of Odisha and neighboring states.
Ambika Nanda of Tata Steel spoke about great qualities of entrepreneurs. He cited the example of Achyuta Samanta who started from a modest background and how he wanted to be a job provider. The businesses have to have higher value and cannot be only driven by the financial interest. Business with a social value is the need of the hour.
Avelo Roy of Kolkata Ventures advised the entrepreneurs to graduate from why to wow. He said that the question ‘why’ is the most important part of the entrepreneurial journey. He advised that if entrepreneurs are good at certain things, they should be the best in those things and there is no need to try to be good in everything. He also gave his mantra for entrepreneurship which is to start with zero money, to build with client’s money and ultimately to scale up with investor’s money.
The team of Tilotham Chaganti, Pallavi and Priyanka of Sri Sri University won the First prize for the Annadata Agri Solutions. The team of Gourav Baghel and Prateek Joshi of Sri Sri University won the Second Prize for Rig Agri Tourism. Sushant Kumar, Purna Chandra Samantaray and Dhirendra Mani Tiwari of XLRI won the third prize for his project on use of Foundry Sand.
Barada Prasad of the NEN proposed Vote of Thanks. He thanked mentors, judges and participants. He was happy to share that students used the two day workshop to fine tune their ideas. The Srinnovation team and Sri Sri University students presented cultural programmes which included Odissi dance and solo signing. Kaavya Ravi and Raunak Bansal hosted the valedictory session.
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