Reinvent, reimagine ‘Brand India’, says Vice President Venkaiah Naidu

BHUBANESWAR: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu here on Monday put emphasis on reinventing and re-imagining ‘brand India’ and reviving dying industries through nation’s spirited young entrepreneurs. He said this while attending a summit on ‘Empowering young grampreneurs to create jobs’ organised by Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), an NGO, in collaboration with corporate houses and industry body.

He said the country must encourage more young entrepreneurs to start businesses that promote India’s unique, traditional arts and crafts. They need to be trained to brand their products and market it effectively. The growth of 37.1 per cent witnessed by ‘Khadi India’ in the last four years shows that proper branding can make Indian products popular, he added.

“As the world is becoming more globalized, let me advice you to be more ‘local’. I urge the budding young entrepreneurs present here to source your raw materials locally and to recruit talent from your neighbourhood,” said Naidu advising the entrepreneurs present over there.

He said entrepreneurship is valuable only if it has a multiplier effect on the prosperity of local communities, especially in rural areas. He advised the entrepreneurs to provide livelihoods and raise standard of living of their community.

The Vice President stressed on encouraging more women to embark on the path of entrepreneurship. Currently, women constitute around 14 per cent of the total entrepreneurship that is 8.05 million out of the total 58.5 million entrepreneurs, he added.

Governor Ganeshi Lal said non-government organisations along with government should work for the development of entrepreneurship through mentoring.

Lakshmi V Venkatesan, BYST’s founding and managing trustee, said, “We appreciate the help of industry bodies like Tata Steel and JK Paper in supporting the mentoring programme in Odisha to create entrepreneurs.”

He gave away BYST-JKP Business Idea Contest award to three youths and BYST-TSL Business Excellence Award to three successful entrepreneurs. Among others, JK Paper president Arun S Mehta, Tata Steel Limited’s CSR chief Sourav Roy, BYST’s member of board of trustees Saurabh Srivastava spoke.