‘Skill development centres needed in city to guide budding entrepreneurs’

THANE: Bitten by the bugs of ideation, innovation, experimentation, risk and entrepreneurship, youngsters across the nation seem to have been shunning traditional and stable jobs to start their own ventures in a variety of sectors over the past few years. While the change in career aspirations of the Gen X has gradually been taking place over the past decade, the process seems to have accelerated with various government initiatives like skill India and start-up India.

While the government has taken the first step towards handholding budding entrepreneurs by setting up a handful of start-up incubation and skill development centres across the nation, these initiatives are yet to fully enter cities like Thane and even Mumbai.

Sahej Mantri, a 29-year-old social entrepreneur whose start-up is focussed on improving the sanitary conditions of the city, said, "Even though my start-up is based on the model of social development, we had some of the same challenges faced by business oriented start-ups. We had to figure out how to make a business plan, source a seed capital to fund our work and pay salaries, capacity building and optimization of resources all on our own. This work requires a lot of mentorship from industry experts, which highlights the crucial need for incubation centres for every sector in our city."

Professional and experts in this industry worry that if government initiatives don't penetrate into smaller cities like Thane, it could result in the raw talent moving away.

"Start-up incubation centres are extremely essential to boost budding business persons in any city. I have come across thousands of talented youth in the lake-city, who have a world of ideas and concepts when it comes to starting their ventures. However, as it is their first start-up, they are faced by a plethora of concerns," said Arjun Amanchi, a city-based entrepreneur, who organises guidance workshops for budding start-ups.

Purushottam Pachpande, founder of Children's Tech Centre, which was just recently registered as a start-up company by the government of India's department of industrial policy and promotion, said, "The government's start-up India initiative provides budding entrepreneurs with guidance and support in starting their own firms through online courses, seminars and even arranging workshops for investors to see the entrepreneur's product. While I was a part of the process by approaching them myself and registering online, many are not aware of these facilities here.

"These young geniuses need mentorship and hand held guidance, not only in these infrastructural, financial and legal aspects, but also in terms of expert industry centric mentorship," added Amanchi.