In a bid to promote product and service innovations and strengthen the IT industry in Gujarat, forums like Gujarat Electronics and Software Association of India (GESIA), The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) and Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) are increasingly hosting mentoring workshops for start-ups.
The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Gujarat Chapter, for instance, is hosting a flurry of such workshops for various groups of budding entrepreneurs across chapters in the state. From conducting a workshop on 'How To Prepare Realistic Business Plans and Implement them Effectively' to short term workshops for young school going as well as women entrepreneurs, TiE is strengthening the start-up base in Gujarat.
"We conducted about 30 such mentoring workshops last year in Gujarat. The idea is to pair budding entrepreneurs with charter members who have established businesses. The biggest thing for the budding entrepreneur is to be partnered with an established player. This way, they can relate to first hand problems in people management, finance management, etc. Plus, they are guided by someone who is a real practitioner," said Kaushal Mehta, president of TiE-Ahmedabad Chapter.
Founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley, TiE currently has over 11,000 members and more than 2,500 charter members in 53 chapters across 12 countries.
Even GESIA, as part of its five-pronged strategy, is looking aggressively at mentoring. “One of the ways to tackle manpower shortage in the industry as well as promote innovation in the IT industry is through mentoring. This is why our members have taken up the mentoring with start-ups in the industry,” said Sunil Kakkad, president of GESIA.
Moreover, the IT industry body is also going to conduct mentoring workshops to enhance innovation in the state. For this, GESIA aims to get associated with organisations like NASSCOM, MAIT, CMAI, TEMA, ASSOCHAM, ESC, ELCINA, GCCI, CII, and FICCI, among others.
“There is some of the world class IT innovation happening from Gujarat through start-ups. We can also help these start-ups tie-up with venture capitalists,” added Mehta.
Meanwhile, according to TiE, the corporate India employs around 10 million, Government of India employs about 20 million and SMEs employ around 30 million.
While the job market is growing at 10-15 per cent, currently the population of youngsters below the age group of 14 years and in the range of 15-25 years is 350 million and 250 million, respectively, showing a demand-supply gap in the job scenario and what most of them could go for is entrepreneurship.
