Visitors at the Business Blasters Expo at the Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Smart security apparatus, pocket-friendly yet sustainable footwear, smart walking sticks for the visually challenged... affordability remained the common goal of the ‘young entrepreneurs’ participating in the Business Blasters Expo at the Thyagaraj Stadium on Saturday.
A total 126 teams from Delhi government schools showcased their ideas to investors at the summit.
At a corner stall in the stadium, a team of students from a school in Kalyanvas was showcasing its variants of smart walking sticks for the visually challenged — priced between ₹1,500 and ₹3,000 — with features such as sensors to alert the user about the surroundings.
Nikhil, 18, the leader of the team of seven called ‘G7 Technology’, said the project was started with a seed capital of ₹14,000. The making cost of the product was close to ₹8,000 and the remaining funds had been reserved for research purposes to further add to its features, he said.
Social cause
“The children came up with the idea after visiting a school for the blind. They thought of creating something that would assist their daily movement. They had two choices, either work towards developing a product for social causes, or towards profit-making; they clearly chose the former,” said the team’s Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum (EMC) coordinator Harish Kumar.
Diagonally opposite to their stall was a team of six called ‘Digital Suraksha’ from a government boys’ school in Dr. Ambedkar Nagar. They were showcasing a smart security apparatus for commercial establishments — developed with a seed money of ₹20,000, which went towards making six pieces at a cost of ₹16,500. Each apparatus was priced at ₹4,000.
“This idea was initially a part of a science project we did a couple of years ago, and we got a good response. The apparatus has a locking system with an alarm, and it further alerts the user via phone calls in case of a security breach. When we got an opportunity,we decided to make it a business idea and took it a step further. Now we have managed to gain a profit of ₹35,000, while 26 pieces have been sold,” said Shami Akhtar, 17, who initially developed the idea with teammate Abdul Rehman.
Nikhil and Akhtar’s proposals were among the few selected from over a 1,000 ideas that were developed as part of the Delhi government’s Business Blasters project, under which seed money was given to close to three lakh students.
Calling the project a “unique investment show”, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the vision is to instil an entrepreneurial mindset in young children and enable them to become “job creators” in the future.
“These kids, from Class XI and XII, have developed unique business ideas with the help of the government. Now, they are placing their ideas in front of investors, of which some have also expressed interest. This is a good start, especially towards solving the problem of unemployment,” said Mr. Sisodia.
Investors at the event were a happy bunch with the likes of Google India’s former vice-president Rajan Anandan emphasising that he was impressed with most ideas and they had the potential to become profit-making ventures.
“The ideas are quite practical and most of them have sold, which means they have revenue. Close to 70% have made more profit than the seed capital they raised; it is quite remarkable given the age of the students. This programme adds to their confidence while helping them think through complex problems and facing rejection; these are life skills,” said Mr. Anandan, who now serves as the managing director at Sequoia Capital.
