BITS Pilani and Entrepreneurship Culture Made for Each Other

(2005-09-02) BR NATARAJAN

BITS Pilani established by the Birlas who have steered the Indian Economy for over a decade has the reputation of having produced several alumni who are who is who in the industry today.

The Shekhawati region of Rajasthan lies in the triangular area between Delhi, Jaipur and Bikaner and the main trading and industrial houses of India such as the Birla, Bajaj, Aggarwal, Dalmia, Goenka, Poddar, Singhania, Murarka, etc have their roots right from here. The Birla Institute of Technology & Science -"BITS" is located at Pilani, the birth place of the Birlas. The Shekhawati region is synonymous with Entrepreneurship and Pilani is right in the middle of this region.

A successful entrepreneur requires Information Skills, Problem Solving Skills, Decision Making Skills and Communication Skills apart from Ability for Time, Stress and Project Manangement. The broad based integrated and interdisciplinary approach of education at BITS, Pilani gives ample opportunities from admissions to graduations for developing such skills and acquiring such ability to ensure that winning in tough situations becomes a way of life for the students of the Institute.

Its no wonder that captains of various corporates starting from Vivek Paul, Baba Kalyani, Rajesh Hukku, Mukesh Chatter, Shivan Subramanian, Prem Jain, Gulu Mirchandani, Vijay Chandru, Balaji Krishnamurthy, Diaz Nesamoney, Vinod Agarwal, Sunil Duggal, Ranvir Trehan, Ramesh Grover, Naresh Khattar, Rajendra Khare, Harish Bhat, RK Arora, Satish Gupta, Punita Pandey are all from BITS Pilani.

The Indian Economy is aheading for big times and there is no denying that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) constitute the growth engines of the economy due to their ability to create jobs, foster entrepreneurship and provide depth to the industrial base of the economy. In the recent past production and exports in SMEs have risen by 8% and 21% respectively and realizing the SME potential, the Government of India on 13 May 2005 introduced the SME Development Bill 2005 in the Parliament seeking to enhance the investment cap as well as to consolidate the laws governing SMEs.

BITS Pilani is organizing a Seminar on Entrepreneurship Culture: Issues & Challenges of Small and Intermediate Entrepreneurs at Grassroots Level from 2-4 Sep 2005 sponsored by Oneworld South Asia, UGC, NSTEDB, Union Bank of India, KVIC, CSIR, Hudco, Indianoil, SIDBI, and NABARD.

The inaugural function took off with the ceremonial lamp lighting and Prof Venkateswaran the Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani highlighted the BITS System of education including details about Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership "CEL" as well as Technology Business Incubation Cell existing at BITS. Prof Damodar Acharya Chairman All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) stressed on the fact that to promote entrepreneurship, the educational curriculum should lay more emphasis on design and problem solving aspects. He added that the sanctions imposed on India by USA were indeed a blessing in disguise for developing our own Supercomputers, Space and Nuclear Technologies.

Other speakers for the inauguration included Shri N Balasubramanian Chairman SIDBI Lucknow, Shri B J Panda Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Smt Ranjana Kumar Chairperson NABARD Mumbai and Prof L K Maheshwari Director BITS Pilani.

The seminar will have various technical sessions and Open House Discussions and the proceedings will undoubtedly be an important milestone for further promoting Entrepreneurial Culture at BITS, Pilani.

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Birla Institute of Technology & Science
Pilani (Rajasthan) India 333031
BR NATARAJAN