ReportWire

Tag: IIM

  • IIM Bangalore’s NSRCEL and Yunus Social Business Fund to back social start-ups from rural India

    IIM Bangalore’s NSRCEL and Yunus Social Business Fund to back social start-ups from rural India

    [ad_1]

    NSRCEL, the entrepreneurship centre of IIM Bangalore, has signed an MoU with Yunus Social Business Fund Bengaluru (YSBFB) in social business financing and scaling. NSRCEL’s Impact Orbit Incubation Vertical recently launched its first-ever Rural Entrepreneurship Incubation program, which aims to identify, nurture and scale social innovations in rural India. 

    According to the company, NSRCEL will support nine early-stage startups in scaling their revenues through specialised businesses and investment-readiness training through this program. The goal of this incubation program is to support at least 25% of the cohort to double their revenue and to directly impact 500-700 livelihoods and indirectly benefit 2500-3000 lives.

    While NSRCEL is leading the incubation program, YSBFB will facilitate modules on investment readiness, working capital management, and exposure to different forms of funding, including an opportunity for two ventures to raise debt from the fund, an official statement read.

    Anand Sri Ganesh, COO of NSRCEL said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting digitization helped the centre serve entrepreneurs from all over.  “We also started to see first-time founders moving to rural areas, noticing a local problem or a market opportunity, and innovating for the same. This incubation program is a result of unearthing such ventures with a focus on innovative route-to-market solutions & rural livelihood creation, especially employing local women,” Ganesh added.

    “We are excited to work with an experienced partner like Yunus Social Business fund Bengaluru (YSBFB), which has worked with such ventures globally in other emerging markets like Kenya, Uganda, Colombia and Brazil. We look forward to having YSBFB team engage with our ventures during our November Bootcamp and ready them for future investments in the impact ecosystem.”

    Suresh K Krishna, CEO of YSBFB said that YSBFB has always supported social businesses that intrinsically work with rural populations, creating decentralised livelihood opportunities or enabling access to essential products and services. “The Rural Entrepreneurship Program comes at an opportune time to build back a resilient India. YSBFB is thrilled to partner with NSRCEL, which has for the last many years promoted the entrepreneurship movement in India,” he said. 

    Also read: BEENEXT leads $3.4 million seed funding round in Bengaluru-based gaming startup Driffle

    Also read: As creator economy grows, this start-up helps creators monetise

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • If the internet hadn’t happened, I don’t think I would have started Make My Trip: Deep Kalra

    If the internet hadn’t happened, I don’t think I would have started Make My Trip: Deep Kalra

    [ad_1]

    Online travel company Make My Trip Founder and chairman Deep Kalra says that like most things in life, an MBA education, too, is in a state of flux, especially after the pandemic. Kalra, 53, says that even before the pandemic people started questioning the value of an MBA which is typically two years of your life. “What changed this perception was more online education, professional courses being available on different forums. People have started weighing the benefits of doing such a course while working and I think technology has brought about that change,” he said. 

    For MBA aspirants, Kalra has a word of advice: always ask yourself why do you want to go for an MBA, is it just for the degree or will it actually help you achieve your goals or learn more about courses on new technologies like crypto currency. “It’s unfair to expect your business schools to prepare you for future technologies. I did my MBA in 1992 there was no way I could learn about the internet then,” he adds.

    Looking back at 1992, when he was sitting for his final exams at IIM-Ahmadabad, Hyderabad-born Kalra hardly never thought that entrepreneurship was his cup of tea. “I never thought I would turn into an entrepreneur. I was actually going to chase a professional career and if the internet hadn’t happened, I don’t think I would have started a company,” he recalls.

    In hindsight, one of the things he wishes his B-school had given him more entrepreneurship courses and industry interactions and being away from metro cities in Ahmadabad didn’t help either. But what did help Kalra is the fact that a B-school provides one with a well-rounded education essential for any kind of career one embarks on. The second thing, he says, is that it gives you the requisite skills to tackle new situations that help you go down uncharted territories and that has been very relevant for me,” he says. He adds that a B-School typically prepares students for breaking down any problem into many “smaller mini-solvable problems”.

    [ad_2]

    Source link