HYDERABAD: Kickstarting TiE’s Hyderabad chapter’s largest entrepreneurship summit, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu emphasised that fostering student-entrepreneurship through innovation programmes is extremely critical and universities need to establish close linkage with industries to mentor and handhold students with novel business ideas.
Describing India as home to the world’s third-largest start-up ecosystem, Venkaiah Naidu quoted a recent NASSCOM report according to which 50 per cent of the Tech start-ups were confident of reaching revenues of pre-Covid level. “This certainly is optimistic news and I am sure, things would look up for all Indian start-ups in the near future,” he added.
In addition to this, Union Minister for MSMEs Nitin Gadkari acknowledged MSMEs are the backbone of the Indian Economy. He said that MSMEs contribute 30 per cent to our GDP, which the GOI would like to increase to 40 per cent. He also added that as the MSME sector generates 11 crore employment the Union Government would try to create another five crore jobs.
Industries Minister KT Rama Rao expressed happiness that TiE was all set to establish it’s global headquarters in Hyderabad. “The government is the enabler and creator of the conducive environment. The new normal requires more entrepreneurship than ever as it needs to address its challenges,” he said. He explained how some of the State innovators rose to the occasion to create products such as low-cost high-accuracy Covid testing systems, low cost and import substitute ventilator and tracking and tracing mobile app.