The capacity building program was undertaken by Mr. Prakash Mundhra, (Marketing Director Prmotex Industries). The workshop attended by 10 startups.

Mr. Mundhra spoke about the element of a marketing system that includes the development and delivery of company or product messages to targeted customers. Paid advertising along with a number of other unpaid promotional tools are used to accomplish marketing communication objectives.

There are different types of marketing strategies available. Picking up a marketing strategy includes analyzing the needs of business, target audience and specifications of products.
The two main types of marketing strategy are:

• 1. Business to business (B2B) marketing
• 2. Business to consumer (B2C) marketing.

According to him “Marketing begins with a creator and ends with a consumer. It’s the process by which consumers learn about and obtain products and services. Marketing is more than just advertising, though it does include that aspect of the process. It also includes the media through which a product or services offered and the research that goes into the final decisions of how to package and sell it.”

Some do’s and dont’s in Email-Marketing :

1. Bulk email is not very effecting marketing strategy

2. While drafting an email subject line should be very important

3. Email should not be too long

4. Keeping track of the bounced mail

Lastly he mentioned about an impotent tool of marketing which is digital marketing :The Internet and all its permutations is the latest frontier for marketers. An online presence is almost a requirement in the 21st century as part of any marketing efforts. Marketing can be done in a huge array of formats, from websites to social media and mobile applications, and can allow for customization, content-based ads, and interaction from the audience.

The workshop ended with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by not only the participants but faculty as well.

The capacity building program was undertaken by Mr. Arindam Som, Consumer & Market Insights (CMI) Lead at GSK CH; ex-CMI & Marketing Director at Unilever. The workshop attended by 10 startups.
Mr. Som spoke about “India needs to nurture the dreams of start-ups as they become the future engine of our economic growth”. He mentioned that the Start-ups have great innovation ideas, many of them are positioned to solve some genuine problems of ours or enabling people to aspire big.However there are few basic questions which we need to solve for to make a profitable business out of it. These are:

(i) ESTIMATE THE UNVOICED or PERCEIVED NEED GAPS

Is there a genuine or perceived need gap in people’s livestoday, around which our idea exists? Would people really spend more money than usual, to buy this new product / service from you? How do we understand or observe for people’s genuine needs which many a time, may remain unvoiced?

(ii) THE NEED FOR A BRAND

In many instances, people would spend a bit extra to buy a product (over any other) because it comes with certain credentials. Is it just the highest quality? Or are they looking for an enhancement of their image, what they would like others to think about her / him while consuming this product / service?

(iii) APT COMMUNICATION IN THE RIGHT CHANNELS

How do you make sure that the news of your product / service has reached the right people in the right way, hopefully at the minimum of the expenses? You may not be able to advertise in TV but you still need to make the news viral. Are you doing things required as per the evolution of the product / service?

(iv) VALUE FOR MONEY, ITS NOT ABOUT THE PRICE

Indians need to feel smart while buying your stuff. We would like to extract the maximum value for whatever we spend our money in. Is your product / service up for this challenge? Have you packed ‘more things for less cost’? Do people see a value of your idea beyond its usage life cycle?

(v) RUTHLESS CONSUMER CENTRICITY

In a market when a maximum 5%-10% innovations survive with decent margins, really think ‘consumer centricity’ is the answer which can fool-proof our idea against all odds (even while talking to potential investors and incubators). Spending time with consumers (even potential) and shadowing them and having genuine conversations with them is going to provide the much-needed solutions for need gaps, branding, communication approaches and how to optimize cost and price. If we do this for atleast 3-4 hours in a week with discipline and without distractions for all members of your organization, its bound to provide practical solutions for not only your business but also your self.

Lastly he mentioned that , our entrepreneurs are already superb with their thoughts, are willing to sweat it out and are focused on making a business. At the same time, the market is ruthless in weeding out the ‘weak’. Therefore, we need to think practical and always think ‘how to make money’. It really helps us in prioritization.

The workshop ended with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by not only the participants but faculty as well.

The recent days buzzed ‘business’ in the air of the IIM Calcutta campus as we successfully organized and hosted two major events in the premises that could inspire the upcoming business and corporate fraternity to a great extent.

The E- Cell, IIM Calcutta in association with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIM CIP) organised its flagship event – Ideas to Implementation (commonly known as i2i) 2018. The I2I business plan competition was a practical learning and implementation platform for aspiring entrepreneurs and proved to be a tough decision for the judges as they wracked their brains to decide on the winner out of 19 participating teams, all of which had come up with mind blowing business ideas that would yield great results if implemented.

The judges for the competition were Mr Subhrangshu Sanyal (CEO IIMCIP) Mr.Sagar Daryani ( Founder Wow-Momo) Mr. Ambarish Murty ( Founder- Pepper Fry) and Mr. Aloke Mukherjee who finally came up with three names who would turn their Start-up dreams into reality based on Social Impact, Innovation, Business Model, Revenue Model & Sustainability, Leadership and Team.
The winning team, Manuring It! came up with a brilliant idea of developing a digital platform which will calculate in real time and match the farmer’s land input and output cost with the average of other farmers of the same area; with a standard farmer practicing sustainable agriculture and with government’s projections and history of the crop value and demand. The information or the latching score will enable the farmer to know if he/she is under using or overusing the farm inputs. They have already started post revenue phase with equipment lending and insurance model. The digital platform will be patented and can host data of 1 million farmers in real time.

Parallel to the competition, this year, the 11th International Entrepreneurship Summit which surpassed all its previous records in terms of magnitude, took place in IIM Calcutta Auditorium. The theme of the E- Summit theme was Think beyond Funding: Going Sustainable.
Every year E-Cell, IIM Calcutta along with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organises The Entrepreneurship Summit, famously known as E-Summit. It is a mammoth entrepreneurship event of its kind in Eastern India. The event merges entrepreneurs, industrialists, VCs, angel investors, famous personalities from different domains, faculty and students to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship

Initiating the event, Mr. Subhragshu Sanyal, the CEO of IIMCIP threw some light on the issue of ‘Going Sustainable’ as it is a cause of global concern and point of discussion among many of the who’s who of the industry. He highlighted on the importance and heritage of this Summit and how it impacts the thought process of the attendees because of the excellence with which the course of events is carried out to be deciphered by the audience.

The stalwarts who were present as speakers in the Summit to put forward their expert opinion around the subject of sustainability were Mr. Utkarsh Amitabh, Microsoft – Business Development; World Economic Forum Global Shaper (Davos50); Founder – Networkcapital.co. followed by Vinay Jaju , Founder , Onergy and Ambresh Murthy, founder of Pepperfry.

Panel Discussion of IIMCIP incubated startup on Think Beyond Funding: Going Sustainable was graced by Varun Biyani, Anup Agarwal , Cofounder – Truckhal, Ekta Jaju, Founder-Onganic, Rajib Sengupta, Co-Founder -Arogya Medtech, Priyadarshini Dey , Director-NexConnect and proved to be fruitful from where attendees could draw inference of the subject.

IIM Calcutta once again retained its reputation of fostering and motivating young minds and nurturing their talents irrespective of their background.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC), Lavale, Pune on January 27th, 2018. About 120+ students attended the seminar. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generating interest and inspiring the youth to come up with innovative solutions to prevalent social challenges.

The speakers consisted of an esteemed panel of entrepreneurs including – Suman Mukhopadhyay – Director Banglanatak.com; Varun Kashyap, Co-founder LetsEndorse; Honey Bajaj – Serial Innovator and Entrepreneur & Co-founder – Avir Technologies; Ashwin Naik, Co-founder – Vaatsalya Healthcare; Ramesh Menon – Visiting Faculty SIMC, a veteran journalist, author, documentary film maker and a corporate trainer; Manivannan, CEO – Desicrew

Suman Mukhopadhyay – Director Banglanatak.com shared with the audience the concept of Social Entrepreneurship and the relevance of smart solutions to solve development challenges in the country.

Honey Bajaj, Serial Innovator and Entrepreneur & Co-founder – Avir Technologies shared with the audience her inspiring journey in the social entrepreneurship space. Honey has used her design thinking methodologies in the work she does and created some innovative solutions to some of the challenges. She is currently a researcher at MIT and co-founder of Avir Technologies for humanising technologies for creating impact in the Indian healthcare system.

Varun Kashyap, Co-founder LetsEndorse spoke about his entrepreneurial journey and shared the vision of his organization. He found his calling in entrepreneurship back in 2006 when he joined Punjab Engineering College for an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. Currently Varun is the co-founder at LetsEndorse – a community platform that engages the NGOs, Social innovators, Businesses/Companies, Government and all the People to create an Ecosystem that drives Social Change.

Ashwin Naik, Co-Founder – Vaatsalya explained to the audience how everyone is a Changemaker and how young people can take up the opportunity in changing the world. He also shared the journey of Vaatsalya and explained how

Ramesh Menon, Visiting Faculty SIMC, a veteran journalist, author, documentary film maker and a corporate trainer addressed the students on the topic of why social thinking is absolutely necessary for India. He commended the youth for being full of ideas, and encouraged them to come up with interesting ideas in the social sector. “Our youth is not only looking at a better quality of life but also a better India.”

Manivannan, CEO – Desicrew spoke about DesiCrews journey and how they have enabled over 4 million people to open bank accounts. He also spoke about how Desi Crew had set up operations in over 400 villages across India.

The winners of the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2017-18 (TSEC), a joint initiative of the Tata group and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC), were announced during the grand finale held on January 6, 2018, at the IIM Calcutta campus. The challenge endeavours to find India’s most promising early-stage social enterprises, and create an ecosystem for social entrepreneurship – encouraging sustainable, scalable and measurable social impact.

The Elbow Engineers from Chennai (Winner), Chakr Innovation from New Delhi (1st Runners-up) and JK Nanosolutions from Bangaluru (2nd Runners-up) emerged as the top three most promising social ventures, winning prize money of Rs. 2.5 lakhs, Rs. 2 lakhs and Rs. 1.50 lakhs, respectively.

REWARDS

• Mentorship: The top 20 teams were selected for semi-finals and provided mentorship support for two weeks.
• Funding Opportunity: All teams shortlisted for the semi-finals and finals get an opportunity to pitch to India’s largest social VCs for seed funding.
• Incubation: The top 20 teams will get an opportunity to pitch for incubation at IIM Calcutta.
• Cash Award: Total prize money of ₹6 lakh for the top three teams. The semi-finalists received travel grants.

The Elbow Engineers, the winner of the challenge, is a Chennai-based startup that has developed a device to provide a comprehensive water generation solution. The device generates water by condensing water vapour from the atmosphere, it purifies the generated water through an Ultra Violet Light sterilizer providing clean drinking water at less than 84 paise per litre, and in the process cleans the air that we breathe of harmful substances.

Chakr Innovation, which was announced as the first runners-up, is a New Delhi-based startup that has developed Chakr Shield, a device that can capture 90% of particulate matter emission from diesel generators. The device controls pollution without causing any adverse impact on the engine’s performance or the environment, and at the same time converts the collected particulate matter into raw material for inks and paints.

JK Nanosolutions, the second runners-up, is a Bengaluru-based startup. It has developed a cost effective rapid solution for complete treatment of waste water and textile effluent using nanotechnology. By this method, 98 percent of treated water can be reused.

Apart from the top 3 winning ventures, the 7 ventures that have made it to the top 10 finalists are, Bombay Bijlee, Villamart, Cerelia Nutritech, Manuring It!, Nanobios lab, IIT Bombay, Resnova Technologies and Sonant Technologies. The ventures were judged on three parameters – Business Model, Social Impact and Sustainability (For more details on the ventures, please refer to Annexure 1).

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Ashok Banerjee, Director, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park said, “Over the last six years, Tata Social Enterprise Challenge has encouraged many budding entrepreneurs to grow with a vision and create positive sustainable social impact. We are pleased with the quality of talent and the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs who have dreams to make a difference to the society to which they belong.”

Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Managing Director, Tata Metaliks, felicitated the winners and said, “Listening to and meeting the finalists of Tata Social Enterprise Challenge was an enriching and inspiring experience.”

The Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2017-18 received over 500 proposals from across India, of which 205 met the eligibility criteria and qualified for the next round of the competition. These proposals covered several different areas such as agriculture; food and dairy; healthcare; water and sanitation; technology and development; education and skills development; housing; handicrafts; energy; and micro finance, among others.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) in association with Department of Science & Technology (DST) launched the ‘North East Accelerator Program’.

Ennovent, a global innovation company which focuses  on sustainability , STPI (Software Techparks of India),   the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology Government of India have  partnered with IIMCIP to execute the acceleration  program.

The initiative has been counted among  the first of its  kind in the North East region, acting as a platform for budding entrepreneurs and innovators from the North East,  all the while  facilitating  the  creation of successful ventures through implementation of various processes being  mentoring, providing visibility, networking support, capacity building and access to funding opportunities. The accelerator program is a unique initiative which is expected to bring  together the key stakeholders in the North Eastern  entrepreneurial  ecosystem comprising of   start ups, investors, mentors and subject matter experts. The selected entrepreneurs will get the opportunity to participate in boot camp and shall be closely  mentored by the panel of experts from IIMCIP on various aspects of business along with opportunities to  connect to potential  customer segments and investors.

Speaking on  the occasion, Dr.Subhrangshu Sanyal (CEO, IIMCIP) said and we quote  “Though the North-Eastern States of India have huge potential being– human, natural and economic, it is also true that this large resource   remains largely unexplored. Away to unlock this potential would be to unleash the creative energy of current and emerging entrepreneurs from the region. This in turn will have multiple benefits like creating more employment opportunities, reducing or reversing migration of local youth, expansion of  the local business ecosystem all the while helping facilitate the socio-economic development of the region”.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at the International Management Institute, on 4th Dec,2017. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generating interest and inspiring the youth to come up with innovative solutions to prevalent social challenges. The speakers at the seminar comprised of eminent and social entrepreneurs, investors and members of the academic field being individuals who have been accredited of having established their own outstanding ventures creating a strong social impact. The panel at the event comprised of seasoned entrepreneurs including Dileep Kumar (Tata Power Delhi), Suman Mukhopadhyay(Director – Banglanatak.com), Arun Nagpal (Founder – Mrida), Anirban Gupta(Founder – Dhriiti), Pawan Mehrotra(Founder – Aarna Biomedical Products Pvt. Ltd) and Neha Arora(Founder – Planet Abled).

Mr. Dileep Kumar cheered the inaugural session mentioning the activities TATA Group had undertaken till date. Mr. Suman Mukhopadhay enlightened the audience about aspects of Social Entrepreneurship and relevance of smart solutions to solve development challenges, Clarity was brought about to the concept of ‘social entrepreneurs’ being entrepreneurs who aim to solve prevalent societal problems, either for-profit or non profit..

Mr. Arun Nagpal spoke about his journey as an entrepreneur . His journey that started a decade ago wherein he believed that not all the solutions to India’s problems could come from the government or a body Corporate. Mr. Nagpal stated that he believed in solutions to prevalent social issues to be brought about by entrepreneurs, individuals who have had a strong relationship with an issue and are committed to designing a solution for it. Explaining his venture ‘Mrida’ having its nomenclature roots in Sanskrit which meant ‘Soil’ Mr. Nagpal explained that, the single word encapsulates what they stand for which would be working at the ground level, close to the soil, their work being directed mainly the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) individuals being their core customers.

Speaking about his venture Anirban Gupta Founder of ‘Dhriiti – The Courage Within’ an NGO (social enterprise) registered under the Societies Act of 1860 established in December 2004 by Anirban and two other members. Anirban elaborated about Observing the problem of unemployment and underemployment in the country at large, and contemplating on how these problems could be tackled in the long run as well as providing immediate solutions .. He inferred that the problem of unemployment, disguised unemployment and underemployment cannot be dealt with, at all levels by creating more jobs in the government and the high investment public/ private sector.
The Founder believes that self-employment and entrepreneurship is an important tool to counter the problem of widespread unemployment and underemployment in the country. The core idea behind Dhriiti as he spoke was the spirit of entrepreneurship that we want to promote, introduce and inculcate. Dhriiti works from the two ends of the continuum to spread a culture of entrepreneurship.

Mr.Pawan Mehrotra Founder of Aarna Biomedical Products Pvt. Ltd a social entrepreneurship start-up, shared his experience and journey as an entrepreneur.

Neha Arora Founder of Planet Abled affirmed that the world is nostalgic, whether we just feel it through our five senses or experience it wandering on a wheel chair or our own feet. She said and we quote “This world is for everybody, whosoever it is. We should explore the world with an open mind, without any hindrance”.
Further explaining her inspiration for her venture Neha spoke “My personal not so good travel experiences as a daughter of parents with disabilities led to the inception of Planet Abled. Mfather is blind and mother is a wheelchair user, but we all are fond of traveling.” The zeal to travel but the difficulties that she had faced while travelling lead her to break every barriers and create her own travel agency for disabled people.

The seminar concluded with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by the students and faculty members.

The outreach program took place at the IIMC Campus from 6th December – 9th December. There were 12 delegates attending the workshop. The session was presided over by CEO IIMCIP Mr. Subhrangshu Sanyal followed by Prof. C.D Mitra, Mr. Suman Mukhopadhay (Banganatok.com) and Mr. Vikram Duggal who spoke about structuring a business model canvas. The event was graced by the presence of participants from Mizoram and Government officials of the State of Mizoram topics covered during the session were:
1. Reasons to carry out innovation & taking up entrepreneurship
2. Usage of Ideation Tools & Techniques
3.Process undergone during Design Thinking
4.Structuring a Customer Value Proposition Model
5. Genesis and structure of a Business Plan and
6. Process of Drafting a Business model canvas.

Later Mr. Subhrangshu Sanyal- CEO IIMCIP delivered an elaborate speech providing an overview about Ideations tools and Techniques used while structuring customers Value Proposition Model. Mr. C.D Mitra explained the marketing and branding requirement for any product. IIMCIP Incubatee MS. Priyandarshini Founder of (5C Network), Ms. Ekta Jaju Founder of (Onganic), Mr. Biswajit Founder of ( Edurade) joined the session . While interacting with the start ups Mr. Suman Mukhopadhay explained why the start-ups need mentoring on day to day basis. During his speech Mr. Suman Mukhopadhay affirmed that mentor becomes a priceless resource for any startup, stating that if an entrepreneur can benefit from mentoring, his/her chances of success (and the scale of success) are very likely to be higher than otherwise.

The audience were highly engaged in the program and actively participated in the same. The program was a grand success and acquired positive responses from fervent individuals from various sectors.

Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2017-18, a joint initiative of the Tata group and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), celebrated India’s most promising early-stage social enterprises, which intends to bring long-term solutions to India’s social needs.
The grand finale of the program will be held on January 6th, 2018, at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C).The event shall be attended by individuals from various sectors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem comprising social entrepreneurs, students, corporate, impact investors, and members of the academic sector from all over the country.
TSEC 2017 edition had received over 400 registrations from across India, out of which 205 met all the eligibility criteria and moved to the next round of the competition. The impact sectors being agriculture, food and dairy; healthcare, water and sanitation; technology and development; education & skills development; housing; handicrafts; and energy and micro-finance/financial inclusion, amongst a few. The ventures were judged on three parameters them being :
Business Model,
Social Impact and
Sustainability.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at IITM Research Park, Chennai, on the 21st November. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generate interest and inspire the youth to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges. The speakers of the seminar comprised of eminent and social entrepreneurs, investors and members of the academic field who have established their own outstanding ventures touching the lives of thousands ..
The panel of speakers was graced with the presence of esteemed entrepreneurs including Mr.Gaurav Kapoor: (Serial Social Entrepreneur), Ms.Geethanjali Radhakrishnan (Founder & Director – Adiuvo Diagnostics Private Limited), Ms.Sabarinath C Nair (Founder CEO at Skillveri), Mr.Kalyan Sivasailam (CEO – 5C Network), Mr,Pradeep Thangappan (Founder – Enability Foundation) and Dr Anand (Founder FIB-SOL Life Technologies Pvt. Ltd )
The seminar commenced following a welcome address by Mr Gaurav Kapoor. Mr. Gaurav Kapoor emphasized on the subject of being a social entrepreneur he added and we quote “Being social doesn’t just mean being on the social media but also being Social in the true sense of the word. A social entrepreneur is a person who pursues novel applications that have the potential to solve community-based problems. These individuals are willing to take on the risk and effort to create positive changes in society through their initiatives”.
Mr. Sabarinath C the Founder CEO of Skillveri Training Solutions Private Limited,spoke about his venture which helps in addressing India’s Skill Gap. Skillveri enables better quality delivery of practical vocational skill training at significantly lesser costs through its innovative, scalable platform of multi-skill simulators. The Venture has recently graduated from IIT Madras’ Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI). During current times Skillveri has established itself as a market leader in the sector with a range of welding-training products and new offerings like spray painting, gold -jewelry soldering and medical skills.
Mr. Kalyan Sivasailam (CEO – 5C Network) shared his experience about his journey as an entrepreneur. 5c Network being a technologically driven advanced telehealth platform focusing on Remote Radio diagnosis, offers the highest quality radiological interpretations at the fastest possible time. They connect the best radiologists to hospitals and diagnostic centers, thus solving the problem concerning lack of qualified radiologists at every hospital or diagnostic centers,. It is their innovative technology and business model, that makes 5C Network unique in the telehealth platform. They are India’s first diagnostic network, and their vision is to bridge India’s healthcare divide.
Lastly Mr. Pradeep Thangappan the Founder of Enability Foundation For Rehabilitation, spoke about his venture which focuses on providing indigenous and affordable assistive technology solutions for rehabilitation workers, teachers, schools and resource centers. Their product iGest, captures gestures of children with cerebral palsy and converts them into a dictionary of sentences.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at T-Hub, Hyderabad November 20th, 2017. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generate interest and inspire the youthto come up with innovative solutions to social challenges. The speakers of the seminar comprised of eminent social entrepreneurs, investors and academicians who having established their own outstanding ventures and having an impact on the lives of thousands ..
The panel of speakers consisted of an esteemed entrepreneurs Mr. Suman Mukhopadhyay,Director
of Banglanatokdotcom ,Mr. K.C .Mishra, Founder E-Kutir, Mr.Binayak Acharya- Founder,Tatvagyan ,Mr. Amar Kr Jamdhiar- Founder &CEOProsperita Medi360 Pvt Ltd, Ms.Ambika Satpathy- Co Founder,Zoofresh and Mr.Sanjib Parida – Founder,Orbonix.

Mr. Suman Mukhopadhay chaired the session highlighting Social Entrepreneurship and the relevance of smart solutions to solve development challenges. He emphasized on the fact that today the social Entrepreneurs have a number of opportunities in their disposal and as such should be equipped to handle any situation and innovation that ultimately will lead to a solution as was mentioned earlier in the session by Mr. K.C .Mishra, Founder E-Kutir.

The seminar ended with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by the students and faculty members.

The Thirteen outreach program took place at St Xavier’s College, Patna on the 10th November 2017. There were about more than 75 students were present at the event . The program started with a welcome note by Secretary of BEA , Mr Abhisek Singh followed by a speech delivered by Mr Soujit Das,INVENT–IIMCIP providing an overview on IDEATION, SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INCUBATION at IIMCIP under the INVENT Program.
Mr Abhisek Singh chaired the session giving an introduction about IIMCIP & BEA Collaboration for emerging start-ups of Bihar . Mr Adarsh Srivastav from Green Agrevolution shared his experience and also how they were being helped by IIMCIP.

Eleventh outreach program conducted by IIMCIP took place at NSHM, Kolkata on 1st November 2017.Graced by the presence of 50 participants attending the program. The program started with a welcome note by Dean of the Institute.
Later Mr Gaurav Kapoor,Head INVENT –IIMCIP delivered a speech providing an overview of Social Entrepreneurship, Ideation and Incubation process under INVENT Program.
When it comes to social entrepreneurship, India is often referred to as the epicenter of impact investing, and the world’s laboratory for testing new ideas was the view shared by Mr. Gaurav Kapoor,a he affirmed the fact being social entrepreneurs can be described as visionaries who solve prevalent problems. Social entrepreneurs should be obsessed with sustainability, provide solutions which are environment friendly, making the best use of local resources, ensure the growth of the rural ecosystem, exploit the power of cooperatives, promoting local industry and community-driven initiatives.
The audience were highly engaged in the programme and actively participated in the same. The programme was a grand success and acquired positive responses from enthusiastic individuals from various sectors.

The Twelfth outreach program took place at ADAMAS University on the 10th November 2017. There were about more than 100 participants . The program started with a welcome note by University Dean ,DR. SHYAMAL KUMAR PABI.
Mr Gaurav Kapoor, Head INVENT –IIMCIP delivered a speech providing an overview of the Entrepreneurship Awareness Program. This was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Journey of a Social Entrepreneur and its Challenges’. The panel comprised of Mr Rajib Sengupta Founder Arogya Medtech Pvt Ltd and Mr Prantik Sinha Founder Agasthya Buyont Pvt Ltd along with Mr. Debayan Biswas from Agastya Buoyant who has been closely working with many salvaging companies and diving training institutes, across the country, providing training on use of underwater lift bags.
Mr Prantik Sinha Founder of Agastya Buyont while speaking about his venture mentioned that Agastya Buoyant Pvt Ltd,was looking forward to gain expertise in design and development of inflatable’s for different field of applications in India. He further affirmed that they are the leading manufacturer, engaged in offering a wide range of Trash Boom, Underwater Lift Bag and Gas Storage Balloons. Later in the day Mr Rajib Sengupta vividly described t Arogya Medtech describing it as a scalable solution for neuro -imaging which will change brain scans world-wide, cerebros for on site brain scanning. According to the founder his product is a Low-cost, Portable, Radiation Free, Non-Invasive, Multi-modal Brain-scanning device as wearable head-gear integrated with a cloud based Tele Neuro-platform.
The audience were highly engaged in the program and actively participated in the same. The program was a grand success and acquired positive responses from enthusiastic individuals from various sectors

Trustlaw is the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s global pro bono service, which connects NGOs and social enterprises with free legal advice and research from the best law firms and in-house legal teams around the world. They work with over 4,000 members in over 175 countries, including over 3,000 NGOs and social enterprises and over 120,000 lawyers from top law firms and in-house legal teams. Their lawyers provide advice on the range of transactional matters that might arise for an organization, including intellectual property, structuring, HR issues, drafting or reviewing partnership agreements, contracts, templates, cross border legal research etc. To get an idea of some of their work, we encourage you to look at the Impact Award video, Innovation Award video and the Collaboration Award videos from the 2017 TrustLaw Awards.
The workshop was undertaken by Mr Simit Bhagat, Program Officer, Asia at Thomson Reuters Foundation .Attended by 8 incubates present there for the workshop being Medi360, R C Hobbytech, Growvill Education, NexConnect Ventures, BigCells Technologies, Bongiyo Gramin Krishi Udyog, Onganic Foods and Sanjevani Khamar.
Mr Bhagat spoke about how they help the organisations to connect with different legal matters if any. The participants were given an opportunity to speak about their existing business model and share the legal challenges they are facing currently. Mr, Bhagat provided practical tools and techniques to help participants solve legal matters, shared ideas validated some ideas shared by the incubates and provided support all the while to manage their product development process.
The workshop ended with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by not only the participants but faculty as well.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at T-Hub, Hyderabad on November 20th, 2017. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness about social entrepreneurship, generate interest and inspire the youth to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges. The speakers of the seminar comprised of eminent and social entrepreneurs, investors and members of academia having established their own outstanding ventures having an impact on the lives of thousands .
The panel of speakers comprised of esteemed entrepreneurs including Mr, Gaurav Kapoor: (Serial Social Entrepreneur), Mr. Brig P Ganesham Founder – President, Mr. Palle Srujana Prashant Lingam Co-Founder, Bamboo House India; Dr. Praveen Kumar SecretaryTelangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS).
The seminar commenced following a welcome address by Mr Gaurav Kapoor, emphasizing on what it means to be social entrepreneur he added and we quote “Being social doesn’t just mean being on the social media but also being Social in the true sense of the word. A social entrepreneur is a person who pursues novel applications that have the potential to solve prevalent community-based problems. These individuals are willing to take on the risk and effort to create positive changes in society through their initiatives”.
Brig P Ganesham Founder – President, Palle Srujana spoke about villagers who have their own knowledge and ways of expression. Stating facts that traditional knowledge of the villagers has been ignored and the rural people are not able to cope with modern knowledge being disruptive. Its urban populations responsibility to bring their usefulknowledge back by engaging in conversation with the rural people. The speaker said and we quote “The whole world is run by the people and for the people, henceforth we shouldn’t be dependent on the machine, we should extend our hand and help the farmers”. He mentioned that to become a social entrepreneur one needs to first become a coachable individual and have the right kind of skills set.
Later Mr. Prashant Lingam Co-Founder, Bamboo House India spoke about his journey in social entrepreneurship. Bamboo House India is a social enterprise established by two first generation entrepreneurs Prashant Lingam ( Management Graduate) and Aruna Kappagantula (Science Graduate) in the year 2008 with an aim of utilizing bamboo as an economic driver for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural and tribal communities dependent on bamboo for livelihoods and at the same time utilize bamboo as a eco friendly substitute for wood , steel, iron steel and plastic thus establishing the – Bamboo House in Hyderabad.
Lastly spoke Dr. Praveen Kumar Secretary, Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) about the zeal a social entrepreneur should have. He emphasized on the fact that a social entrepreneur should be ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
The seminar ended with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by students and faculty members.

SMART FIFTY :IMCIP & DST(Department of Science and Technology) launches Smart Fifty which is aligned to ‘Start-Up India’ movement and aims to promote socio-economic development in India. Smart Fifty is probably the biggest Start-Up hunt in India to identify, recognize and reward aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. The platform will focus on innovative ideas which can transform India from a socio-economic perspective, urging participants to present solutions that are SMART(Sustainable, Motivating, Affordable, Responsible and above all,Transformative).

The program will emphasize on  India’s need for smart solution, what is Smart solutions, and what are the Investment opportunities available for the startups. SMART FIFTY outreach Program at 91 springboard Mumbai . Time: 4 P.M-6 P.M Date: 18th November,2017. For any Query mail to : henna.jaireth@iimcip.org

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group and Bihar Entrepreneur Association hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at Chanakya National Law University on 22 July 2017. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generate interest and inspire the young generation to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges. On 21^st July 2017 we had organized a business plan pitching session for social entrepreneurs in Bihar. 80 startups had applied for this and only 20 startups were shortlisted to participate in this event.

The speakers of this seminar comprised of eminent and social entrepreneurs, investors and academicians who have already established their own outstanding ventures and have impacted the lives of thousands of people.

The seminar commenced with the welcome address by Mr Abhishek Singh, Secretary General – Bihar Entrepreneur Association who spoke about how BEA was formed and the kind of work they are doing in the state of Bihar. He mentioned, “ We are a regional coalition of entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, organizations and local government dedicated to provide start-ups of Bihar with access to nationwide tools and resources that will help them scale up.”  He also spoke about the Bihar Startup Yatra’s which they have been organizing in partnership with the Department of Industries, Govt. of Bihar since 2011.

Capt. Amitabh, Head (Skill Development), CSR – Tata Steel, Spoke about the initiatives taken up by the Tata Group . He said, “Truly imbibing the ethos set by our founder JN Tata, as a responsible corporate citizen, we believe community to be the very purpose of our existence. Tata Steel’s commitment towards CSR dates back for more than 100 years and is known for it nationally and globally.”

Gaurav Kapoor, Head (INVENT) – IIM Calcutta Innovation Park spoke about who is a social entrepreneur and how to identify gaps and create a business opportunity out of it. He said, “India is a vast country with humongous challenges in almost every social sector. The government can make policies and provide the infrastructure, however, the actual change will be brought in by the people themselves. It is time that the youth takes on the baton and assumes responsibility to solve problems impacting the masses, especially the rural population, which is where the larger chunk of our population lives. He further said, “The startup ecosystem is evoking entrepreneurial talent and if the youth takes up entrepreneurship seriously, it wont be long before we see some amazing ideas come forward and create sustainable enterprises while solving some massive problems. Tata Social Enterprise Challenge is one such initiative.”

Mr. Vikram Duggal, Unitus Seed Fund spoke about the funding opportunities available to start-ups in the social entrepreneurship space.

Mr Kaushlendra, Co-founder Samriddhi and President Bihar Entrepreneur Association spoke about the scope of social entrepreneurship in Bihar & Jharkand. He also explained to the audience the importance of technical knowledge.

Mr Suman Mukhopadhyay, Director – Banglanatak.com spoke about the challenges and Innovation in Social Entrepreneurship. He further mentioned, “The diversity of ideas, background, age and gender of existing and potential entrepreneurs who participated in the pitching session was very impressive. Energy of the youth and their willingness to venture into unchartered territory with an intention to deliver common good is an indicator of evolving social Entrepreneurship in the State.”

The seminar ended with an interactive Q & A session and the names of the top 3 winners of the Business Plan Pitching Session held the previous day were declared.

The following teams were the winners:

TakGi: They are bridging the gap between the retailer and wholesaler for sourcing medicines, which is a major pain point, by assigning a dedicated staff who is required to source the medicines on a daily or weekly basis.

The Ganna Cafe: The Ganna cafe provides freshly prepared hygienic and healthy sugarcane juice through a vending cart. This is done through a motorized machine in a single crush process. The ganna juice which they provide is hygienic, healthy and cost effective i.e. at par with the current market rate.

R-Labs: They help engineering students to test their robotic programming on high end, state of art Robots which are located at various premium universities in Europe.

‘SMART FIFTY‘: IIMCIP & DST(Department of Science and Technology)launches Smart Fifty which is aligned to ‘Start-Up India’ movement and aims to promote socio-economic development in India. Smart Fifty is probably the biggest Start-Up hunt in India to identify, recognize and reward aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. The platform will focus on innovative ideas which can transform India from a socio-economic perspective, urging participants to present solutions that are SMART(Sustainable, Motivating, Affordable, Responsible and above all,Transformative).

The program will emphasize on Smart solutions, Challenges of India, how smart solutions can help transform India and why entrepreneurship alone can transform India.

SMART FIFTY outreach Program at Ecospace Business Park, Block 4B Action Area II New Town. Time: 4 P.M-6 P.M Date: 15th November,2017. For any Query mail to : henna.jaireth@iimcip.org

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with MEDMOC, Government of Mizoram announced the launch of MIZORAM KAILAWN on the 18th July’2017, to promote and develop entrepreneurship in Mizoram starting with the first business plan contest in Mizoram.

The business plan contest has been conceived to ignite the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the people of Mizoram which will eventually lead to growth and prosperity in Mizoram.

To know more about the contest and to apply click here

Last Date to Apply: 31st August’2017

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) in association with Rotary Club of Calcutta Renaissance – RI District 3291, conducted the INVENT Social Entrepreneurship Awareness Programme on the 11th of June’2017 at Rotary Sadan – Kolkata.

The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generate interest and inspire the young generation to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges.

The event began with an opening address by Mr. Chirabrata Mazumdar, President- Rotary Club of Calcutta Renaissance. Mr Gaurav Kapoor, Head- INVENT (IIMCIP) presented a talk on social entrepreneurship- what is it and innovative startups in the social entrepreneurship space. This was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Journey of Social Entrepreneur- its Challenges’. The panelist comprised of F&B company owner, Debayan Biswas from North Bengal speaking on his venture MOMOS on Wheels which has successfully innovated frozen momos with a life span of 9 months and is working with unemployed women rejected by society; Prof Somprakash Bandyopadhyay, Mentor of ‘NexConnect Venture’ a unified digital teaching-learning platform that seeks to provide a quality learning environment to every child/student in both rural and urban areas; and Mr Sandip Datta, Senior representative from ‘IKure’, which has a vision to provide affordable, accessible and quality healthcare using technological intervention.

The audience were highly engaged in the programme and actively participated in the same. The programme was a grand success and acquired positive responses from enthusiastic individuals from various sectors.

Sixth INVENT outreach programme was held at GMIT , Baruipur on Monday , May 15, 2017.   There were about 100 participants including students and faculty members  from different colleges  of Baruipur.  The programme kick-started with the welcome note  by  the Chairman of the College.This was followed by an overview on the INVENT program , Social Entrepreneurship and “Ideation & Creating Business Plan”  for the budding entrepreneurs by Mr Soujit Das of IIMCIP. Mr Prantik Sinha of Agastya Buyont and Mr Biswajit Dey of Edurade,  two entrepreneurs who are incubated at IIMCIP shared  their journey so far-challenges faced, milestones achieved. A session was conducted where the students displayed their project models and earned valuable inputs from the IIMCIP team members. Audience actively participated in the  sessions conducted and the programme received positive responses from enthusiastic budding entrepreneurs.

The 4-day workshop on Managing Innovation in Small Businesses, started on the 31^st of May’ 2017 with 15 participants from different parts of the country.
The programme delved into not only theoretical concepts but also practical tools and techniques to help participants generate innovative product/service ideas, validate them and manage their product development process. It included Experiential Learning Methodology (ELM) using a blend of classroom lectures, presentations, case studies, group discussions and hands-on exercises.

The participants were at the beginning given an opportunity to speak about their existing business model and share the challenges they are facing. Through the span of next three days participants were exposed to the different facets of innovation & entrepreneurship-Innovation Basics, Customer value propositions, Ideation Technique, Design Thinking, Marketing and Branding, Business Model Canvas, Financing Essentials and Presentation Skills.

On the last day the teams presented their business models based on their learning, after being given hands-on experience on how to bring innovation in their existing ventures.

The workshop helped the participants to look at their businesses from a whole new perspective and helped them to think differently by giving pivotal importance to the customer’s pain points. The workshop particularly assisted Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) not only to find the ‘right idea’ to grow their business but also to improve their overall innovativeness.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at Pacchunga University College on March 31st, 2017. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generate interest and inspire the young generation to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges. The speakers of the seminar comprised of eminent and social entrepreneurs, investors and academicians who have already established their own outstanding ventures and have impacted the lives of thousands of people.

The seminar commenced with the welcome address by Dr. C. Vanlalramsanga, IES, Secretary Planning Department and Alternate Chairman of Mizoram State Entrepreneurship Development Monitoring Committee (MEDMOC) who spoke about the various initiatives which the Mizoram government has been taking up on Entrepreneurship Development. He also urged the students to take inspiration from these social entrepreneurs so that they can take up entrepreneurship as a career option.

Prof. C D Mitra, IIM Calcutta spoke about who is a social entrepreneur and how to identify gaps and create a business opportunity out of it. He said, “Being an entrepreneur is not only about starting your own venture, It is essentially finding a gap between what is and what should be. The moment you find a smart way to bridge that gap connected to a social problem and you create a business opportunity, you become a social entrepreneur.” He urged the students to innovatively solve some of the unsolved problems in the state.

Mr. Vikram Duggal, Unitus Seed Fund said, “There are so many unresolved problems, especially in the North-Eastern regions of India. Social Entrepreneurs have tremendous opportunity to create profitable businesses and impact lives of underserved masses at same time. He also added that at Unitus Seed fund they need to see traction, among other things, before investing in any startup. Ten of the portfolio companies have raised series A and two have raised series B funding.

Mr Debayan Biswas, Founder: Momo on Wheels said, “All north eastern states are filled with opportunities which contribute towards the development of nation’s economic growth. We just need to be aware of these opportunities in the state in order to solve some of the social challenges.”

Mr Gaurav Kapoor, Innokul, spoke about the various social issues plaguing our nation in the health, environment, education, population and employment sectors and how youth can take cognizance of these issues and come up with relevant indigenous solutions. He inspired the youth with videos of live examples of social enterprises that have solved some mammoth social challenges in their respective sectors. He also gave the audience a deep insight into the concept of social enterprises and how they function.

The seminar ended with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by not only the students but faculty as well.

A business plan pitching session was conducted by IIM Calcutta Innovation Park at the Bihar Entrepreneurship Summit on 21 March 2017. Over 100+ startups had applied initially through an online application process and from there 15 startups were shortlisted for the final pitching session.

The Judging panel comprised of members from the startup ecosystem (IIM Calcutta, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, YourStory, Nasscom, F6S).

Top three teams were awarded a total of 1 lakh cash prize. The winners were: