Lakhs of students unleash their entrepreneurial spirit in E-Week India 09

The National Entrepreneurship Network-initiated flagship event Entrepreneurship Week 2009 grew to become a national movement for entrepreneurship this year, involving 350,000 students from 400 institutes across the country.

Showcasing the theme ‘Go Green – The World is our Business’, over 2,500 events were held from Feb 7 to 14, encompassing not only colleges but entire cities as well.

In Indore, Jaipur and Durgapur, thousands of citizens enthusiastically joined in mammoth rallies on main roads to promote the importance of eco-preneurship. Chennai witnessed a three-kilometer human chain formed by city leaders, filmstars, environmentalists and over 2,000 students, their placards chanting the same message. In Kolkata, students ventured into villages, advising farmers to use cleantech processes of farming. MBA students held street plays in residential societies and outside railway stations in Mumbai, teaching people to be eco-aware. In Bangalore, one college held marathon events on entrepreneurship that ran non-stop for 30 hours.

NEN blogger Shubha Narayanan accompanied by photographer Sujith Sujan embarked on their E-Week yatra, capturing the sights and sounds from across seven cities in seven days.

Here’s a snapshot.

Day 1: Indore
IPS Academy
Indore was painted green this E-Week.

The IPS Academy, in very imaginative ways, touched the nerve centers of the town—its public buses, shopping malls, top branded stores and the streets - with its patriotic campaign 'Mera Indore Green’.

Students of Institute of Engineering and Management pose with their robot creations

The inaugural day saw a thousand green-thinking Indore citizens hit the streets running. A Go Green marathon, much publicized beforehand on leading radio channel Radio Mirchi, local media and posters, witnessed scores of school children, collegians, Lion Club members and municipality officials join in.

Meanwhile, all the 95 public buses plying across Indore carried the message of ecopreneurship on their back during E-Week. Large flexes, portraying the ills of pollution and energy wastage using caricatures, were placed behind the rear windows of these buses. Batches of two students, working on five hour shifts, travelled on these buses—talking to passengers on entrepreneurship and making them sign the E-Week pledge. Students reached out to at least a lakh people this way. The week-long program was launched in association with Indore City Transport Corporation Limited.

Shopping malls, including Treasure Island, the biggest shopping complex in Indore, also came on board to support the E-Week initiative. Leading brands like Reliance Web World, Adidas, Provogue, Blackberry’s, United Colors of Benetton and Mufti showcased E-Week posters next to the 50 % discount announcements.

Day 2: Mumbai
Atharva College of Engineering
The Atharva team felt their biggest achievement this E-Week lay in the windmill they were building on the terrace of their college complex. The proposed windmill, whose blades are carved out of PVC pipes and expected to weigh about 120 kgs, will generate enough energy to run two computers. “We wanted to create something sustainable this E Week, and a windmill turned out to be a feasible idea, considering our campus is sea-facing. We are happy that we are in some way contributing to harness energy and save electricity. If our pilot is successful, we will construct more of them,” said an excited Amit, one of the organizers at Atharva.

High energy output, that one!

Students of Atharva College of Engineering pose with their windmill design

Day 3: Pune
Hiraben Nanavati Institute of Management and Research
Entrepreneurship was discussed like never before in the HNIMR campus, and it was more than mere talk. Students did some serious business this E Week.

Seven students of the institute have started green businesses on their own. Rucha Sharma has already taken the first steps. With the help of her father, she is setting up a roof water harvesting business in her draught-prone hometown Jalgaon. Currently, she is on a hiring spree, recruiting plumbers for the job, while her father is finalizing their first deal with an interested client in Jalgaon. “There is a loss of about one lakh liter of water for every 1000 sq ft area not covered under roof water harvesting. By venturing into this space, I hope to contribute to a sustainable future,” she says.

Shraddha Zende, an agriculture student, is market-testing her business idea of providing kitchen gardening services. “Homegrown vegetables are desired by many, but not many have the skills to grow and maintain them. I hope to provide my gardening services to people living in houses and apartments,” she shared.

Another student, Rasika Roman, whose family owns land in Maharashtra, wanted to start a vegetable and fruit processing unit in her village and provide local jobs.

Meanwhile, Amrutha Opte planned to produce sapling packing made of rice starch. Her friends, Priyanka Patil, Deepti Motivale and Tillotama Rajale, are also planning their businesses on similar lines. Tillotama is planning to sell scented wrapping paper, while Priyanka and Motivale will build their biodegradable packing business using paper waste.

Day 4: Kolkata
Institute of Engineering and Management and Heritage Group of Institutions
This E-Week, engineering students of Kolkata were all set to become the technology innovators of tomorrow.

Experimenting with energy solutions that can be commercialized, the students came up with models and prototypes that have the potential to solve some of the biggest problems we face today.

Dr M Das of Heritage Institute of Engineering, along with his team of chemical engineering students, has successfully tested an experiment where they could compress air, and later release two streams of air—hot and cold. Dr Das said the methodology can be used in freezing units and kitchens, without harming the environment. Also, the same methodology can be used to segregate gases into carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen. If this can be successfully commercialized, the result will be revolutionary—gas spewing industrial units will have a way to recycle their own exhaust!

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed