100 women entrepreneurs selected for IIMB start-up programme

The NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) recently announced the selection of 100 women entrepreneurs-in-the-making and their ideas for incubation. The women selected were graduates from the 2018 class of the nationwide ‘Women Start-up Programme (WSP)’, which is supported by Goldman Sachs, a global investment bank and active investor in India, and the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India (GOI).

The WSP is a first-of-its kind customised online and classroom-training programme designed to enable aspiring Indian women entrepreneurs to systematically identify and test their business ideas. The WSP provides an in-depth training to nurture and augment managerial and entrepreneurial skills of female entrepreneurs through mentorship from industry veterans, incubation at leading institutes and financial support.

 Following the successful 2016 pilot of the WSP in Bangalore, which saw participation from 1,700 women, the 2018 class of the WSP saw over 6,000 women register from across the country in partnerships with leading academic institutes that included, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIM Indore, IIM Nagpur, IIM Sirmaur, IIM Udaipur, IIE Guwahati and CIIE Ahmedabad.

The WSP 2018 class was made up of diverse participants across age groups from 20 to 50 years of age; academic backgrounds spanning from higher secondary degrees to PhDs and MBBSs; and diverse professions from women who are on a career break to doctors and engineers. Geographically, the women resided all across India, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

The Department of Science & Technology provided support to host and organize roadshows, events and workshops. Goldman Sachs has been a key and founding partner of the Women Startup Programme since its launch in 2016.

The selected 100 women entrepreneurs will receive a fellowship of Rs 30,000 per month in addition to a prototype development fund to help kick-start their ventures from the DST, GOI. From that group, 10 women identified to have the best ideas will also be provided with an opportunity to go on a start-up study trip to Israel. This year’s incubation class addresses a variety of sectors across society and industry, including construction, ecommerce and retail, education, healthcare and wellness, finance and manufacturing.

Bhavya Purana Hosadurgam, founder of momSAURUS and one of the 100 selected entrepreneurs, said: “I have benefited immensely from this programme. It has provided me with access to the tools, processes and mentorship necessary to translate my concept into a working idea.  It has also given me courage and inspiration by connecting me to like-minded women so that we can share our passions and dreams. At momSAURUS, we are working to disrupt and enhance the way parents and their young children perceive mealtimes and food.” 

The WSP 2018 Programme Structure 

The programme targeted women entrepreneurs in the ideation stage of their ventures or first-time entrepreneurs.  

Stage 1: A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was held on the IIMBx platform for six weeks in January focusing on entrepreneurship, including the fundamentals of making a business model followed by a week of customer validation. A total of 6,136 women signed up for the MOOC, 1,067 completed the course, making the completion rate 17 percent, which is well above the global average of 6-8 percent, according to HarvardX and MITx.

Stage 2: In April, 287 participants were shortlisted for the first boot camp after submitting a business model and video pitch for their venture vetted by partner academic institutions based on geography.

Stage 3: In May, 100 female entrepreneurs and ideas were chosen for a second boot camp at IIMB’s NSRCEL, which addressed concepts in entrepreneurship, design thinking, compliance, idea articulation, basics of finance, leveraging networks, mentor interaction and provide feedback sessions. Opportunities to network with successful women entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, IIMB students and Goldman Sachs professionals were provided.

Best employers in India

Leading global professional services firm, Aon, that provides a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, has announced the list of Aon Best Employers India 2018.

The Aon Best Employers India study launched 18 years ago in India reveals a significant shift emerging in organisations – they are responding to disruptive business and economic changes with ‘consistent agility’. The study finds that while there is a long road ahead for India Inc., the Best Employer organisations are ahead of the curve in this journey.

The year-long study process culminated with an independent jury coming together to shortlist the Best Employers.

In addition to the list of 16 Aon Best Employers India 2018, three companies received special recognition awards for Commitment to Engagement. These are InterGlobe Hotels, Tata AutoComp Systems and Vedanta Limited, Jharsuguda.

Tarandeep Singh, Partner, Aon India Consulting, said, “I warmly congratulate the leaders and employees of 16 organisations that made the Aon Best Employers India 2018 cut.

The purpose of Aon Best Employer study is to gain insights into companies that are creating real competitive advantage through their people, to explore what makes a workplace of choice and to identify the Best Employers in the region. The Best Employer study research methodology involves a rigorous process, conducted over a nine-month period that culminates in a solid, credible list of Best Employers decided by an external panel of independent jury. 

Aon Best Employers2018 

• Aditya Birla Group - Conglomerate Winner
• Aegis
• Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company
• Bajaj Finance
• Bayer
• DBS India
• DHL Express (India)
• Godrej Consumer Products
• Hindustan Unilever
• Marriott Hotels India
• Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management
• Shell
• Tata AIA Life Insurance Company
• Tata Communications
• The Oberoi Group
• Vodafone India

Leadership programme at Sanawar school  

The Lawrence School, Sanawar (Himachal Pradesh) in collaboration with Aspire, will present an unprecedented cast for their second edition of The Sanawar Leadership Program (TSLP), a summer leadership camp (a ten day residential camp) for 10-14 year old young leaders on their 139 acres, 150 years old majestic campus in the Kasauli Hills.

The programme to be held from 19-28 June 2018 is open to Middle School students (ages 10-14) from across the country. The Lawrence School, Sanawar opened its campus to the nation through this programme, to gift its legacy of creating national leaders, beyond the students who attend the co-ed boarding between Grades 5 to 12. 

The 10-day residential camp will help students understand and practice enlightened leadership, develop self-awareness, grow confidence, and evolve intellectually as well as emotionally through experiential learning. 

Summer School on AI

The Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-D) will be organising summer school on Artificial Intelligence in July-August 2018. This will focus on the fundamentals and advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, including Deep Learning. With this initiative, the institute is not only assuring a sanguine future for job seekers and executives but simultaneously, this programme will also help the industries to meet their future goals with smart and well-equipped talent. The summer school is open for all — from students and faculty to government officials and industry professionals and is also a golden opportunity to learn algorithms of ML and AI.  

The summer school curriculum also focuses on three application domains: Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and Autonomous Driving/Robotics. The institute has scheduled the summer school on the weekends of July-August for the convenience of both students and working professionals. Besides theory and practical exposure, participants will also get to interact with several skilled and seasoned professionals. Along with this, on successful completion of the programme, the participants will be awarded a certificate from the Infosys, Center for Artificial Intelligence, and IIIT-D.

For more details regarding registration, fees, timings and other things, visit:  http://cai.iiitd.ac.in/summerschool2018/ 

UPES academic partnerships with Infosys and BSE Institute

UPES, Dehradun, has entered into academic partnerships with Infosys and BSE Institute, an arm of leading stock exchange, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This is the first-ever academic partnership signed by BSE. These academic collaborations are the latest in a series of partnerships that UPES already has with leading industry giants such as IBM, L&T, Mahindra & Mahindra, Philips Carbon Black Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, KPIT and XEBIA.

The academic partnership between UPES and Infosys is for the BTech Geo Informatics Engineering program that UPES offers at its School of Engineering.  Infosys will assist UPES in developing the programme curriculum to make it industry aligned & contemporary and their subject matter experts will teach specific course modules to students. Eligible UPES students will also get opportunities to undergo summer internship with the organisation. Under UPES’ unique faculty-immersion initiative ‘Abhigyat’, faculty members will do internships and projects at Infosys to stay updated with latest trends and technologies.

As part of the MoU with BSE Institute, subject matter experts from BSE Institute will help UPES design curriculum for Finance & Accounting and Corporate Finance. The initiative will incorporate 3-credit module in Finance & Accounting across all MBA programmes and 8-credit module in Corporate Finance for students of MBA General Management majoring in Finance. To ensure up-to-date market knowledge is imparted to students, BSE will provide dedicated BSE experts to teach the new modules. Additionally, BSE Institute will provide free-of-cost software to set up mock trading desk at UPES campus which will enable students to get hands on learning for investment, trading and equity market.