Infosys founder N. Narayan Murthy on Tuesday said that every enterprise has to first master the art of selling, at the 10th Sankalp Global Summit, an initiative by Intellecap at NESCO in Goregaon.
Addressing budding entrepreneurs and discussing the theme of ‘Agenda 3 Billion: Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystems,’ Mr. Murthy said, “It is the most important aspect of any kind of entrepreneurship, second is finance. Obtain better returns for your investors. Then you need a team with various strengths, technology and lastly, without luck, it is very difficult to succeed.”
The Infosys founder said that the what India needs is cultural transformation through honesty and discipline.
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Speaking on the occassion, Niti Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant said that in India, we have travelled the journey of opening a bank account in 10 months to now to 55 seconds using biometrics, when we use instruments like Aadhar.
“The process of urbanisation provides unlimited opportunities to entrepreneurs in India and across the world to use technology and innovation to tackle our immense challenges,” Mr. Kant said.
1,100 entrepreneurs
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Nearly 1,100 entrepreneurs, incubators, investors and 350 startups participated in the two-day summit. Sankalp Forum, established in 2009, is a development platform that runs across four continents. It focuses on connecting investors and startups. Intellecap, founded in 2002, provides a broad range of consulting to investors, development finance institutions and corporations.
Vineet Rai, founder of Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group, said, “This year, we focused on showcasing entrepreneurs who have reached a mark of ₹100 crore and helped them present ideas and their story on how they have scaled up. We discussed growth of startups and Mr. Murthy has decided to extend support to the entrepreneurs and work on their challenges.”
Providing energy access and mitigating climate risk for three billion people and challenges of young entrepreneurs were also discussed.
Nitin Prasad, chairman, Shell Companies in India, said, “We have designed a platform to support entrepreneurs and encourage those who are into energy access. We have invested in several companies and set a target for ourselves to nurture, groom and mentor the next generation of entrepreneurs. We will closely look at innovations and take them forward.”
Other sessions revolved around the themes of digital financial inclusion, gender and livelihood, access to health and water, sanitation and hygiene, agriculture and energy and climate change.
Amar Mhatre, a representative of a startup, Chiplun-based Mann Deshi Foundation, said, “With the help of advisory services provided by these two organisations, we have been able to slowly expand our business in our village.”
As a part of the event, potential entrepreneurs will get Sankalp Awards. A chance to pitch their ideas to the investors will also be provided to the startups at the end of the two-day summit. “The Sankalp Award Ceremony is a celebration of the spirit of young entrepreneurs and through this we want to showcase their work and support them.” Mr. Rai added.