Good platform for budding entrepreneurs

Nurturing skills

The Entrepreneur Week (E-Week) is going on in all colleges of the City. The entrepreneur development cell (EDC) of M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) too organised an E-Week on their campus recently.

Abuzz with an array of activities, this E-Week provided a great platform to students to showcase their entrepreneurship skills. With a theme of ‘Invent The Future’, the students took part in various events like mad ads, quiz, seminar and even organised bazaars and awareness programmes as part of the E-Week.

One of the interesting event was ‘E-Volve’ in which the students were divided into teams and had to invest a small amount and make profit out of that.

For instance, a pen worth Rs 20 had to be sold for Rs 50. While another programme called ‘Restoration’ had students going to various houses and teaching them to segregate waste.

Over the course of the week, some students even held a ‘No Plastic Day’ at Mantri Mall. Under the guidance of Rekha S K, chief project coordinator, EDC, the students sold paper and cloth bags to the visitors.

“The idea was to create awareness about ‘going green’ and it was communicated via stalls. Over 400 bags were sold and we raised Rs 25,000 in four days,” said Manpreet, a student coordinator.

The ‘Public Transport Day’ was held as part of the ‘E-Week’ too. “We went to ten different colleges around the campus and spread the message to over 1,500 students to use public transport,” explained Irfan and Aditya, two of the students. 

There was also an interesting talk on entrepreneurship by Rakesh Godwani, head, IIM-B Alumni Association. Addressing the student, a point that he made was, “An entrepreneur doesn’t need help. If you don’t have the ability to take risks, then don’t become an entrepreneur.” The students, of course, had a number of questions for him to which he gave some insightful and interesting answers.

Another creative and fun aspect, which added vibrance to the E-Week, was the ‘MSRIT Bazaar’ in which the students put up a stall and showcased their unique skills. “From portrait-making, photography to even juice and puzzle stalls, the students put up a great show,” informed Nimesh, another student organiser.

“The EDC has always mentored us and helped us become great entrepreneurs. Over all, the basic aim of the E-Week was to help us develop our skills and it succeeded in doing so,” noted Ayush, one of the student organisers.