The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Incubator centres to help young entrepreneurs mooted

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Thursday, Nov 12, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Incubator centres to help young entrepreneurs mooted

Special Correspondent

“They should be set up in panchayats and municipal corporations”

— Photo: V. Ganesan

Happy occasion: Lars H. Thunell, executive vice-president & CEO, International Finance Corporation (second from right), honouring international award nominee Sarala Bastian (left), in the presence of her mentor Parul Bhatt at an interactive session in Chennai on Wednesday. Lakshmi V. Venkatesan, BYST founding trustee and executive vice-president (right), is in the picture.

CHENNAI: The State government should set up at least 25 incubator centres on a pilot basis to enable young entrepreneurs to set up their ventures, Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) founding trustee and executive vice-president, Lakshmi V. Venkatesan said here on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters, she said, “These incubator centres should be established in panchayats and municipal corporations to turn job-seekers into job and wealth-creators through their start-ups. It is not possible for every entrepreneur to have adequate space to run a unit. Hence, these centres should provide a floor space ranging from 200 sq.ft. to 600 sq.ft. for each venture.”

Mentioning that her plea to State government officials had failed to evoke a response, she said “All that we are seeking is allotment of land in industrial areas in a time-bound manner.” Speaking at an interactive session organised by BYST and supported by Confederation of Indian Industry, she said that in the last few years they had enabled about 2,000 job-seekers to become job-creators and their aim was to double it in the next five years by creating awareness among 40,000 people.

“Currently, we have four mentor chapters in Chennai and branches in Hyderabad, Pune, New Delhi, rural Maharashtra and Haryana. We will be venturing into Rajasthan, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir and Assam soon. We have raised some funds through BYST Growth Fund and C. Raja, a garment manufacturer, is the first recipient of this fund,” she said.

As part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrations, the first rural mentor chapter of BYST was opened in Kancheepuram. A.G. Ranganathan is the chapter chairman.

The occasion was marked by BYST members, young entrepreneurs and their mentors taking a pledge to support at least one grass root entrepreneur within a year.

Lars H. Thunell, executive vice-president & CEO, International Finance Corporation, urged the entrepreneurs not to give up as every industry had its share of ups and downs. He said they were thinking of joining hands with BYST to introduce this model in Africa, Philippines and Bangladesh.

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