National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 Conferred to 30 Young Entrepreneurs and 6 Organizations

Highlights

* The awards were presented to honor outstanding contributions in entrepreneurship development
* 30 young entrepreneurs and 6 entrepreneurship ecosystem builders were conferred with the award
* The award included a trophy, a certificate and prize money up to Rs 10 lakhs

In the quest to give a boost to entrepreneurship in the country, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) today conferred Awards to 30 Young Entrepreneurs and 6 Organizations /Individuals contributing to entrepreneurship development during the fourth edition of the National Entrepreneurship Awards (NEA). The award ceremony was held at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, New Delhi.                The event ceremony was graced by Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon’ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship who has been spearheading the Ministry’s vision and focusing extensively on encouraging young skilled youth to take up entrepreneurship bringing the shift from being a job seeker to a job giver.

Due to the concerted ground level effort, this year, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship witnessed a sharp increase not only in the total number of applications, but also in terms of completed applications from a variety of businesses. These ground level initiatives were in the form of targeted meetings, focused workshops, specialized gatherings like MSME meets, seminars at alumni gatherings of various business schools, One-on-One interaction with Entrepreneurs during Fairs and Exhibitions etc. All these collectively could create resounding effect to bring seriousness for completing applications although it meant some amount of hard work by the applicants. The number of completed applications grew from 2379 last year to 4134 this year. This 73% growth of successful entrepreneurs completing their application for National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 is reflection of the increasing seriousness of young entrepreneurs for the coveted National Entrepreneurship Awards.

Speaking on the entrepreneurial growth culture in India, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon’ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, said, "Today, India is at a threshold of startup boom, as we are world’s third fastest growing startup eco-system. With 7,200 startups, India is closely behind UK with 11,864 startups and catching up to US which had 41,500 startups as of 2018. India is changing and soar the aspirations of its people. It is an evidence of drastic improvement in the business environment, Of course fueled by the innovative modules of business that we are witnessing from the youth of the country. It is our priority that we give the right kind of support to the aspiring talent and nurtureand encourage our young minds to dream big and achieve bigger.”

“NEA is a great platform to encourage young aspiring entrepreneurs and recognize the exemplary work that they have done adding to their professional and nation’s overall growth. I wish all of them the very best for their future and hope they further motivate many more to be a part of India’s growth story,” he further added.

For the successful execution of the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019, MSDE partnered with twelve premier institutes and organization which are spread across the country,  including IIT Madras (Lead Partner), IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, XLRI, TISS, NSIC, IIT Guwahati, IRMA, MANAGE, NIF (Co-Lead), NABARD, and RSETI. These institutions were responsible for mobilizing nominations and evaluation process.

The winners were selected by an eminent panel of National level Jury members comprising of Dr. R A Mashelkar, Former Director-General, CSIR; Mr. Milind Kamble, Founder, DICCI; Ms. Neelam Chibber, MD & Managing Trustee Industree Foundation; Mr. Arun Tyagi, Director, Induslnd Bank Limited; Shri Harish Hande, Founder SELCO India Foundation and Mr. Vinayak Nath, Managing Partner, Venture Catalysts.     

The National Entrepreneurship Awards (NEA) was instituted by the Ministry of Skill Development &Entrepreneurship in 2016 to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship across the country and honoring the Young Entrepreneurs and Eco-System Builders for their outstanding efforts in entrepreneurship development.

The Awards ceremony witnessed attendance from senior officials of the ministry, members of the Skill Sector Councils, corporate leaders; successful and budding entrepreneurs among others.

Selected winners and models of excellence include the following: 

Shri Ravindra Bhausaheb Supekar from Maharashtra is an inspiration for many. Despite being 80% physically disabled, Mr. Supekar started, Stree Swabhiman Unit which offers bio-degradable, chemical less, low cost high quality eco-friendly sanitary napkins and  offers the healthcare requirement to the tribal and remote village women and even generating employment.

Shri Jeet Singh Arya, a young entrepreneur from Chhattisgarh, started a travel startup, Unexplored Bastar which focuses on sustainable tourism through community-based approach and it has so far impacted the lives of more than 300 tribal people inthe State.

Smt. Shalini Santhosh Kumar from Pune started Early Foods Ltd, an organic food company for children & new mothers and offers, chemical-free meals & snacks which helps to build healthy future generations.

Shri Bandabiang Dewkhaid and Shri Tynshain Dewkhaid from the North Eastern state of Meghalaya started Shillong Bamboo to provide innovative (eco-friendly) bamboo products made from the bamboo &rattan canes obtained within the state with superior quality and design leading to overall increase in consumption of innovative bamboo products.

Smt. Shivaranjani Ramasubramaniyan and Smt. Nisha Subramaniam from Cuddalore started Sura with an aim to support rural women. Today, Sura offers tote bags Stitched in cotton, matched with kalamkari and ikkats and also successfully set up a running a tailoring center in a remote village.         

Business Sakhis (Biz-Sakhis).

Additionally, NIESBUD in association with UNDP, NIRDPR and TISS jointly developed a new concept and system that is providing mentorship support services of both psycho-social and business supports through a cadre of community mentors called Business Sakhis (Biz-Sakhis).

These mentors will also help in providing backward (with financial institutions for example) and forward (with more lucrative business ideas and market) linkages. Moreover, the mentor will provide the aspiring entrepreneur with the much-needed psychological support that a woman will need to face all the obstacles that prevent her from starting or sustaining her own business.

For developing such community mentors, NIESBUD, UNDP and NIRD have developed and launched today, a certification course curriculum by training them in various mentorship aspects (capacity building and psycho-social support skills including life-skills, soft skills and leadership, business development, market analysis, communication, marketing, financial linkages, etc.).

The Curriculum devised based on various pilot projects implementing in three states in the country, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana where nearly 3000 women entrepreneurs been supported by 300 Biz-Sakhis. The Biz-Sakhi training imparted 5 days of classroom and 20 days of field work for every month totaling 5 months with 25 days of classroom sessions and 100 days of field work. Course is certified by NIESBUD and NIRDPR.

In the context where GoI and Hon. Prime Minister declared the thrust for entrepreneurship and employment, the system of mentorship for fostering women’s entrepreneurship in tire-1, tire-2 cities and rural areas is very much necessary for brining economic empowerment and employment. Various schemes and programes under MoRD, MoMSME, MoWCD, MoAFW and MSDE can make use of this curriculum for promoting both various agricultural and non-agricultural based entrepreneurship.