It takes out of the box thinking to dream of a new entrepreneurial venture. But to live that dream and find one's desired place under the sun needs the right platform and more importantly, a vision backed by dogged pursuit.
Subendhu Panigrahi, hailing from Sambalpur, a small town in Orissa, is just the epitome of these virtues which enable people to break free from the clutter and choose the path less trodden. Panigrahi, in his early twenties, who graduated in Agricultural and Food Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur dreamt different and of course, dreamt big.
And, to fuel his dreams was alibaba.com, a global leader in e-commerce for small businesses and a flagship company of the China-based Alibaba Group.
Subendhu is one of the two Indian students to have been selected for participating in alibaba.com's annual fest held in China last month.
The event provided a platform to him to interact with around 50 student entrepreneurs.
His ideation and plan structure for a health food manufacturing unit and retail chain won accolades from his counterparts on the global platform.
Impressed with his performance alibaba.com selected Subhendu to visit their office in Hangzhou, China as a part of the Entrepreneur Abroad Program.
The Entrepreneur Abroad Program is intended to teach young entrepreneurs how to build their businesses using international sourcing.
"My association with alibaba.com's annual fest has not only helped me network with other student entrepreneurs from across the world, and find out what they are doing to successfully run their business ventures, but has also provided me with great learning and international exposure to sourcing and international trade, given that alibaba.com are the leaders in B2B e-commerce.
This learning will definitely help me in setting up my business”, says Subendhu.
The idea to start a health food chain struck Subhendu while he was still pursuing the second year of his degree at IIT-Kharagpur.
Subhendu also headed the entrepreneurship cell and conducted research and experiments in the institute's labs nurturing his own entrepreneurial ambition.
"My business idea is to start a health food chain in form of juice, cereal grain products and salad bars. The health kiosks would be both mobile and stationery providing high quality and nutritious food products to the consumer. The product development is currently being done in IIT Kharagpur. I have worked on the initial prototype of the multi grain bread during my under graduation years in IIT Kharagpur”, Subhendu said in an e-mailed response to Business Standard.
