The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Entrepreneurship plays a huge role in development”

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Saturday, Nov 28, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Entrepreneurship plays a huge role in development”

Special Correspondent

Lifetime Achievement Entrepreneur Award for N. Srinivasan

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

BIG HONOUR: N. Srinivasan (second from right), Vice-Chairman and MD, India Cements, receiving the Life time Achievement Entrepreneur of the Year Award from M.V. Subbiah of the Murugappa Group, at Chennai Trade Centre on Friday. Gopal Srinivasan (right), Chairman, TVS Capital Funds, is in the picture.

CHENNAI: Historically, entrepreneurship has altered the direction of markets’ progress across the world and has a huge role to play in a nation’s development process, N. Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman and MD, India Cements, said here on Friday.

With the liberalisation of the economy in 1991, the consequent elimination of licensing and import controls, access to IT and risk capital, subsequent IT boom and the emergence of sunshine industries, entrepreneurship received a fillip in India, one of the world’s youngest nations, with the number of people who earned exceeding those who did not. In the next ten years, the predicted bulge in the number of young persons in the country will also thrust the additional burden of finding jobs for these people, Mr. Srinivasan said. Suggesting a series of changes that should make it easy to start a business in India, Mr. Srinivasan said the process had to be simplified. It was also important to strengthen the interface between universities and industries and start entrepreneurship development cells in varsities. Another key requirement is to ensure that these entrepreneurs have access to all kinds of capital, he said, highlighting the role of angel investors in the future.

Earlier, Mr. Srinivasan was conferred this year’s Lifetime Achievement Entrepreneur Award at TiECON Chennai 2009 organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs.

The other awards given away on the occasion included Start Up Entrepreneur of the Year Award for P.N. Vasudevan, MD, Equitas Micro Finance; Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Kami Narayan, co-CEO, PreMedia Global; and Extreme Entrepreneur of the Year Award for D. Satish Babu, CEO, Univercell.

Others honoured on the occasion were M.B. Nirmal, founder, Exnora International (Social Entrepreneur of the Year); Ravi Appaswamy of Appaswamy Real Estates and Residency Group of Hotels (Nextgen Entrepreneur of the Year).

The Family Business Award went to M.V. Subbiah of the Murugappa Group of companies and the Entrepreneur of the year Award to Kalanithi Maran, chairman and MD, Sun Network.

Gopal Srinivasan, TiECON Chennai 2009 Awards Committee chairman, said entrepreneurs were those who saw an opportunity where others had seen hurdles. They had to be recognised and celebrated. J. Krishnan, Conference chairman, said the theme for TiECON Chennai 2009 was “Creating Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur.”

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