Nurture startups, Infosys co-founder asks big businesses

Divyanshi Gaur

Chandigarh, January 24

“The region enjoys the requisite education and infrastructure to succeed and excel in entrepreneurship,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, chairman, CII National Committee on Entrepreneurship, and Infosys co-founder while addressing the gathering at the CII NR Startup Conclave here on Thursday.

On the occasion, Gopalkrishnan encouraged industry leaders and successful businesses to take up the responsibility to nurture new businesses.

“The responsibility of development lies with the corporate as well as with the government. Each industry leader should take out three to four hours a week to mentor and foster new businesses,” he added. Gopalakrishnan also chalked out a roadmap for the government and industry to work on collaboratively with a key focus on industry-academia linkages and startup elevation policies.

Foster entrepreneurship

Gopalakrishnan asked the northern states to follow an example of the Kerala Government, which had developed a student entrepreneurship programme. The programme has been initiated with the idea that students should learn business when they are in college. Various universities of Kerala and Gujarat have adopted this programme.

Introduce programme

like Elevate 100

This programme of the Karnataka Government identifies 100 innovative startups in different sectors, which are provided funds and mentorship. In 2019, Rs 72 crore was given to selected startups by the Karanataka Government.

Set up incubators

Gopalakrishnan suggested developing large research parks where industries should work closely with eminent educational institutes to incubate technological start-ups.

Excellence centres

Another initiative taken up by the Karnataka Government is development of numerous centre of excellence (CoE). These centres act as a hub of innovation from where startups can get mentors and fundsfrom the industry.

Garnering agricultural potential

Gopalakrishnan called farmers as business people and encouraged them to incorporate farmer producer organisations. Citing an example of Araku valley in Andhra Pradesh, he said tribals had harnessed the potential in their rural produce and exported organic coffee.