Invoking Mahatma Phule, new industry body set up in Mumbai's BKC

The choice of Phule's birth anniversary as the launch date carried a message: economic opportunity must extend beyond privileged classes to reach the last mile of Indian society.

Mumbai: Invoking the legacy of the legendary social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule on his 200th birth anniversary, a new industry body aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among marginalised and rural communities was formally inaugurated in Mumbai on Saturday.

The NextGen Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), founded by entrepreneur Pravin More and co-founded by Shital Borade, was launched at Wockhardt Towers, Bandra Kurla Complex, in the presence of senior industry leaders, retired bureaucrats, banking officials, and grassroots entrepreneurs.

The NCCI’s core mandate is to dismantle structural barriers that have historically prevented Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Class, and rural entrepreneurs from accessing capital, markets, and institutional support.

The choice of Phule's birth anniversary (11 April 1827 – 28 November 1890) as the launch date carried an explicit social message: economic opportunity must extend beyond privileged classes to reach the last mile of Indian society.

“Our objective is not merely to create entrepreneurs — it is to close the gap between those who have always had access to opportunity and those who have not. Every scheme, every banking linkage, every market opportunity that exists in urban India must reach the rural entrepreneur and the startup in the village,” said More.

Meanwhile, Huzaifa H. Khorakiwala, Chairman and CEO of Wockhardt Group, extended the organisation’s support for the NCCI’s entrepreneurship initiatives, signalling that established industry has a role to play in building an inclusive business ecosystem.

Former IAS officer Dr. Sanjay Chahande underlined the urgency of developing an entrepreneurial culture within the Bahujan community comparable to that seen in the United States. He drew attention to a venture capital fund offering grants of up to Rs 15 crore available to eligible entrepreneurs and urged the NCCI to actively connect members to such instruments.

“Knowledge and skill must accompany capital. Entrepreneurship without capacity building is unsustainable,” he said.

The NCCI’s launch comes at a time when government schemes such as Startup India, MUDRA, and the Procurement Policy for MSMEs have created a formal architecture for entrepreneurship support — yet ground-level access, particularly for rural and first- generation entrepreneurs from marginalised communities, remains deeply uneven.