On the chain of thoughts on Entreprenuership, Ujjwal Banerjee - one of my seniors from NITIE also posted his thought. Ujjwal as some of you may recognize is one of the finalists of the Lead India contest held by Times of India.  Ujjwal, true to his iconoclast image strikes a completely different perspective on Entreprenuership - that of the Individual's choice. Read on ...   "I belief in Libertarian school of thought where the individual is given complete autonomy to decide what he/she chooses to do in life. The government and society should faciliate that ideal and allow people to flourish and ensure that they abide by the rule of law. "The role of education is to help them become rounded individuals where they not only acquire certain skills, but also understand the responsibility they have towards their fellow beings, nation, environment and the world at large. Today the education is more focussed on skill building that too for the section of society above a certain...

Continued from previous posts [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] While my point on the US culture and subsequent responses, has anyway addressed a lot, Prof Prasad's take on Indian society is worth mentioning.  I feel - what is there in USA we cannot (in economic terms) provide in India. And even if you provide all those things which are in USA to the Indian audience, we cannot achieve the results what US achieved with their method, because we are different on many other things. We are culturally and socially different compared to USA. There people work, People tell and do the same things, there is no inheritance of wealth, youth are made to work. In such a system the VC system works.  Let me now come to what India is when compared to USA on enterprising front. In India, the social system is [built on] spoon feeding. 45 year olds are controlled and mentored by their elders. Till 30 years [of age] there is complete dependence on the parents. Parents want to continue the dependence syndrome even furt...

Continued from previous posts [ 1 ], [ 2 ] I feel that entrepreneurs are born with it and they can only be provided the right opportunities. Such opportunities are available to a lot of people in the US - opportunities like  Universities which will allow you to stay in the hostel, not attend classes, but work on your ideas People who are ready to give you a pocket money to run your life while you are busy burning midnight oil in a garage working on your startup Proper funding when you see a business rise beyond the curve Unfortunately, we don't have such things in India.  Note that even in the US, its is not specific courses - definitely not MBA courses - which have churned out entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have come out of regular courses on software engineering or energy research or aviation technology or plain accounting or commerce (Steve Jobbs & Bill Gates).  But what has differentiated such courses from similar ones in India is the prevailing culture of the institutions th...

Continued from previous post Conversely, I realize that entrepreneurship requires skills which come in very cheap and are not exactly "business related". Business skills (imparted in MBA courses) are required in entrepreneurship way down the curve when your business idea/company has already survived a couple of winters. For example if you want to start something in software - you need to basically know coding and stuff like that; if you want to start something in energy - you need to know the technical details behind that. One doesn't need to know accounting methods or Investment management or Supply Chain principles when one is in startup mode. So here is the dilemma which needs to be dealt with when it comes to "education for entrepreneurship". The basic skills for entrepreneurship are not difficult to learn - and the soft skills for entrepreneurs are more intrinsic than those which can be taught. So, how can education make or break an entrepreneur?  In my opi...

One of my NITIE professors, Prof. T Prasad has been working on promoting student enterprise in the country. Work done by Prof Prasad [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ video ] is really commendable - especially given the lack of support such initiatives receive in this country, from student and faculty alike.  I and another alumnus,  Rohit Tripathy , recently had an email discussion with him on the subject of Entrepreneurship education - here's what came out of it.  Apathy in B-schools towards Entrepreneurship It is absolutely true that there are few jobs at this in time. Still, MBAs are waiting for recruiters to reject them rather than try their luck in their own ventures. Prof Prasad recently met 2 students from a B-school who won B-plan at another B-school with intent of commercializing innovations. However, when asked, students said that purpose of this b-plan participation was to win it; they were not concerned with entrepreneurship at all. B-Plan Competitions and other "networking" eve...