Seventh entrepreneurship summit inaugurated at Shillong

A Reporter

SHILLONG: IIM Shillong inaugurated EmergE 2018, the 7th Entrepreneurship Summit on Saturday hosting entrepreneurs across the country. Director of the Institute Prof. Keya Sengupta inaugurated the 2-day event in the presence of senior faculty member Prof. Sanjoy Mukherjee and other dignitaries.

"The idea of EmergE emanated from a strong desire to foster entrepreneurial acumen in the own academic products of the institute and further to celebrate the true spirit of entrepreneurship and provide a platform for sharing ideas among Industry, Academia and Entrepreneurs,” remarked Prof Sengupta, while speaking during the inauguration.

The theme for EmergE 2018 is “Embracing Northeast” that resonates with the modern-day startup ideas and intends to mine the opportunities that lie untapped within the serenading lands of Northeast India. “Don’t try to be employed; try to be the employer,” highlighted Prof. Keya Sengupta, while emphasizing the Institute’s initiatives towards nurturing budding entrepreneurs.

“IIM Shillong also has APJ Abdul Kalam Research Centre for Policy Research & Analysis which is constantly working in figuring out ways that would ensure more businesses emanating through facilitation of the Institute,” she added.

Farrhad Acidwalla, founder of Rockstah Media delivered an expert talk walking through his journey from an aeromodelling enthusiast to a technology aficionado.

A workshop was conducted by Piyul Mukherjee and Pia Mollback- verbic from quipper Research Private Limited. The workshop enlightened the participants about the importance of knowing our end customers in any business and also highlighted the role of “Qualitative Research” in attaining the necessary insights. This session garnered great interaction from the students in reviewing the various business aspects of a brand that they had chosen.

The panel discussion on the emerging trends on handicrafts brought to the table multiple facets of the handicraft industry and its evolution over the past few decades.

The second day of the summit, which was sponsored by Lakme, VIVO, RedBull, Bank of India, et al, began with a panel discussion on Fintech, essentially the connection between fintech and how it is an enabler to do something bigger in financial inclusion.

Durlov Baruah, founder at Kuhipaat (Payment Solution-Northeast), Nitin Mathur, Director at TAVAGA, Anubhav Jain, co-founder and Head of Risk at Qbera and Visweshwaran Narasimhan, Assistant VP at FSS touched on a prevalent problem of reluctance of people to adopt apps and services based on financial assistance and then went on to discuss effectiveness of various banking transaction technologies.

Also Read: Meghalaya News