Enterprising B-schools

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION: They are setting up centres of excellence to encourage entrepreneurship.

B-schools all over India are looking at establishing centres of excellence to facilitate research and entrepreneurship programs.

A recent addtion is South Indian Education Society's college of management (SIESCOM) which established three centres of excellence "� banking, entrepreneurship and business ethics.

Says A K Sengupta, Director, SIESCOM, "We wanted to do a lot of research activity on our campus. These centres support such activities. It will help us develop case studies on the happenings in India and students can benefit tremendously."

A centre of excellence (COE) requires less than Rs 50,000 as initial capital. The Wadhwani foundation which supports such ventures with its National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) has already tied-up with 45 schools in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. It plans to establish similar centres in 105 colleges across 12 cities in the country by the year end "� taking the count to 150 colleges.

Says Sunita Singh, project manager at NEN, "Floating one's own business venture few years ago was the last thing on the mind. But there is no limiting oneself today. At these COEs, students are trained to be entrepreneurs. There is a clear value for everybody who is being creative and in a problem-solving mode."

The entrepreneurship bug is catching on. Students across India, belonging to different educational backgrounds and specialisations, are beginning to view entrepreneurship as a valuable career option so much so that engineering and generic institutions too are queing up to open centres of excellence on their campuses.

Says Singh: "We have liased with the National Law School in Bangalore. We are inundated with enquiries form colleges irrespective of their disciplines."

For instance, at the Institute of Bio informatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore, two of its students have already started their own enterprise in biotech. One student has started a consultancy in Biotech in London.

Says Gayatri Saberwal chief coordinator, Institute of Bio informatics and Applied Biotechology, "Basically the entrepreneurship program in the field of science helps students (who come with some work experience) float their own companies. It provides them with much needed information on the business front."

M S Rao, chairperson, center for entrepreneurship which is named Entrecomm (entrepreneurship committee), at the S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, says, "Looking at an MBA graduate as an analyst is passe. We tell our students that here is nothing like job security today. The corporate world is as risky and uncertain as starting ones own venture. Entrepreneurship is no longer community bound and one can start his own entreprise."

Students are so enthused that the institutions have to shortlist candidates. At S P Jain, for instance, it has been made an elective subject for the MBA program which students take up in their second year.

But what fuels the growth of such centres for excellence? Says Singh, "The climate in India has never been so conducive to entrepreneurship. The opening markets, innovations in technology and new government policies are creating opportunities and gradually making it easier for new and aspiring entrepreneurs to start companies. Furthermore, successful first generation entrepreneurs from all walks of life are inspiring others to follow their examples."