Collaboration And Mentorship Integral For Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

At the International Mentoring Summit held on 9th November in New Delhi, with the theme “Mentoring Young Grampreneurs for Inclusive Growth”, on the occasion of Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust’s silver jubilee, there was a session on “Setting up a National Agenda for Fostering Grampreneurs”. The session looked at the skill sets and the critical role of mentoring required to create entrepreneurs among disadvantaged youth, through a panel discussion by thought leaders, addressing the role of multi-stakeholders- Government, Private Sector, Financial and Education Institutions in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The moderator of the session, Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor, CNBC TV 18, asked as to what the Indian banking system can do to nurture the risk-taking ability of Indian entrepreneurs, to which Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India replied, “We are seeing a new approach towards entrepreneurship, venture funds are coming up. We ourselves are planning to provide debt capital and appoint fund managers who will run the program. We can’t leave the equity part to traditional bankers. Through collaborations, our targets are achievable.”

On being asked about his approach to the start-up constituency, Kishor Kharat, MD & CEO, Indian Bank said, “Providing funds is not an issue, the issue is how do we create entrepreneurs? We are creating jobs, not entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, start-ups don’t have a credit history. The linkages will come when we bring flexibility into the banking. If bankers are in a position to get a flexible approach, will help in financing start-ups. We keep on devising new products with a lot of flexibility, the banker’s mindset has to change”.

Bhan then asked Yaduvendra Mathur, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog, about what the government needs to do to improve access to finance, and what are the outcomes of the efforts already put in, to which Mathur said, “The government is trying to catch start-up entrepreneurs when they are very young, that’s what the Atal Innovation Mission is about. Start-up India through IPP is up and running, and you have a time-bound process which is efficient to get entrepreneurship going. The challenge is to really structure a good bankable project. The challenge for mentors is to not encourage purely innovative products which are not fulfilling anyone’s need. Mentoring is moving towards service delivery, it’s becoming more about outcomes. The New India by 2022 is firing everyone’s imagination. If we can all co-operate and collaborate and support each other’s resolution, we can have a New India.” Mathur also went on to add, “We are really bringing in the joy of learning. We are trying to take away the emphasis from a degree, but the output. I have no doubt in my mind, the school ecosystem is evolving greatly. It’s important to catch them young. There is huge hope, we need to work together and get the results”. 

Regarding a question about the essential tax-break needed for start-ups to get up and running by Bhan, and how 5 lakh grampreneurs can actually be created, Subodh Bhargava, Member, Board of Trustees, BYST said, “BYST focuses on underprivileged youth who have business ideas. BYST has partnered with corporate India to match talent to potential and identifying mentors. I think the private sector is continuously looking for outsourcing. Without going down to SMEs, many big corporates cannot be competitive for technology.  Mentorship and partnership are very integral. I think the model for partnership with corporates and financial institutions is right there, with a very competent mentor. I think we should be reaching 10,000 entrepreneurs in the next 5 years.”

Bhan also said, “Women have a lot of risk-taking ability, for example Narayan Murthy got his first access to credit from his wife”, and asked Shobana Kamineni, President, Confederation of Indian Industry, about what can be done to encourage women entrepreneurs, to which Kamineni replied, “I think there are fantastic programs in India, the problem is we battle with a population of 1.3 billion people. BYST is a fantastic model. Where we need to really push women is scale.  Bringing partnerships in a collaborative mode is one way. It’s about pushing the needle. With regards to CII, I have two things happening, one is through job-linking, where we take 100,000 kids and coach them and help them get jobs. The second is the creation of training centres with partnerships from corporates which will create an additional 100,000 jobs.”

Kishore Jayaraman, President- India & South Asia, Rolls Royce said, “At Rolls Royce, we think about sustainability a lot. We need to harness the potential of the youth, based on the foundation of science, education and technology. We would like to reach out to a quarter of million people by the end of 5 years, to make them think-out-of-box and think of innovations which address the challenges of a society”. “Clearly we have to catch them young. The traditional model of technology business incubators are not really relevant for the rural population. Mentorship is a single critical thing. Department of Science & Technology is reaching to 3 lakh people towards awareness creation for this purpose. The model to go for is distributed incubation. While we need relevant micro-industry for rural sector, we need resources which use local resources and satisfy local needs. We need good models for mentorship, and math does not add up, because there are a lot of mentors to be trained and lots of people who need mentorship. We want to make innovation very broad-based”, said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Speaking about the potential for mentorship among the elderly, Arun Maira, Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group said, “The fastest growing resource that the country has, is the elderly, who are considered to be a burden. The elderly are a great resource for youth. Change always comes from wisdom and experience. It’s not just about teaching and technical skills, it’s about actually giving knowledge through experience. It’s about partnerships for mentoring. There has to be a partnership between associations of the elderly and the associations of the youth. Mentors are available in the rural areas among the elderly. Collaborations mean we are collectively achieving a shared vision, it’s about leaving no one behind.”

 BYST on the occasion of its silver jubilee also unveiled a programme called ‘Mentoring India’ which will be the most important component in the current entrepreneurial ecosystem- to increase the viability and success rate of young, first-generation entrepreneurs in underserved communities.

Anurit Kanti

BW Reporters The author is correspondent at BW Businessworld, he has a keen interest in sustainability and environmental economics