JOIN USIIMB plans to scale up entrepreneurial programmes
The N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) in the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) has planned to “scale up” its training programmes as well as incubation activities, with greater focus on social entrepreneurship.
The NSRCEL presently provides entrepreneurship training programmes under the Management Programme for Women Entrepreneurs (MPWE) and the Management Programme for Entrepreneurs and Family Business (MPEFB).
A highly placed member of the NSRCEL, on condition of anonymity, said, “As of now, these training programmes are largely Bengaluru-centric. We are looking to take the delivery of these programmes outside of the City. A lot of interest has been shown and there is a need to cater for such interests.”
In fact, half of the students who enrol for the programmes are not based in Bengaluru, the member added.
There may also be changes in the duration of the these programmes that presently range from around 25 days to 40 days.
“We may introduce a training programme of a shorter duration. We realise the difficulty of many entrepreneurs who cannot invest much time in such long training programmes,” the member said.
As far as the incubation activities are concerned, the centre has the capacity to provide mentoring to 13 to 15 start-ups at a time. “This capacity would be increased to provide mentoring to around 20 start-ups,” said the member.
Social entrepreneurship
A greater focus towards social entrepreneurship is also part of the new plans of the NSRCEL. However, judging by the profile of some of the past and present incubatees, it would not be a surprise to see this inclination. BinBag, a start-up that concentrates on responsible e-waste recycling and Milaap, a microfinance and crowdfunding start-up, could be taken as examples.
“As of now, we have not engaged in this aspect (social entrepreneurship) as much as we would have wanted to,” the member said. This focus on social entrepreneurship would however be broad in nature and will cut across all the activities of the centre, be it incubation, training or mentoring.
“The focus on social entrepreneurship will not only be through incubation alone, but it will be through multiple engagements of capacity building, meet ups et al. I also do not rule out the possibility of starting a training programme on social entrepreneurship, although, presently we are not in a position to make our decisions public at the moment,” the member added. Well-known startups
Some of the well-known startups that have come out of the NSRCEL include, MeshLabs, the advanced text analytics startup that was acquired by the Nasdaq listed software company, Pegasystems, last year;Amagi Media Labs, the media technology startup that recently received funding from Wipro Ltd Chairman Azim Premji’s investment firm Premji Invest.