Comments
Can there be a fossil free India? Can it be achieved in the next 20 years even as India is totally dependent on coal for its energy needs?
It may look impossible but entrepreneurship is all about taking up impossible problems and solving them. Fossil free India is going to be a major challenge but can be achieved if tens and thousands of youngsters, entrepreneurs and startups get involved and solve bits and pieces of the problems and some of the teachers like us keep guiding them?
"I am sure, we in India can do,” said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor at IIT Madras, after receiving this year’s TiE Chennai Lifetime Achievement Award at TiECON 2018 on Friday for his role in setting up the IIT Madras Research Park and mentoring new generations of startups for over three decades. Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Capital, presented the award to him.
“I would like to dedicate whatever life is left on fossil free future,” Jhunjhunwala said.
India has so many problems that are complex and enormous and that does not exist anywhere else in the world. Entrepreneurs are looking for problems and India is the best place to solve them. “We need to look more and more on solving India’s problems in various sectors, including energy and water. Even the smallest bits that you (entrepreneurs and start ups) do, will help,” he said.
Catastrophe was there in many places, and climate change has begun to impact globally and will create disasters if not checked. “Is this not a problem that we can solve ? With such a huge population, anything that India does will have a huge impact globally. India alone cannot solve the problems but can take the lead and the world will follow,’’ he said.
Entrepreneurship and startups are today's buzzwords. There is a glamour associated with it, and yet there are issues like seed capital but the key is mentorship. "Over the years, we were able to get more mentors, and that’s how IIT Research Park and IIT Incubation Cell were started and mentorship became the key," Jhunjhunwala said.
Other than seed funding, the research park and the incubation cell provide entrepreneurs legal help; assist in setting up a company, manage accounts and even train them to pay salary and manage cash flow. Training has become very important.
“I feel, we are not doing good a job in India as we need to do on training. TiE and others should get together in creating high quality training programme. Many youngsters will falter on one thing or the other if adequate training is not provided," he said.
Today, youngsters are prepared to fail and yet go on and on till they succeed. "We need to consolidate, expand and go further. We are still in the first five years of Silicon Valley. What is happening today is mind blowing, yet we are at an early stage, he said.
Other winners are:
Pickyourtrail - Startup of the Year
CreditMantri - Growth Story of the Year
Aspire Systems - Sustaining Enterprise of the Year
Suxus Menswear - Hidden Gem
The Banyan - Best Social Enterprise
Saravanan Sundaramoorthy, Founder and CEO, Edxis BrainLab - Associate Member of the Year.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.