Hyderabad, NFAPost: TiE Global Summit 2020, the largest entrepreneurship summit ever held on the planet both in its magnitutde and number of attendees, kicked off on Tuesday evening.
The global technology summit is aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and succeeded in bringing onboard a record about 50,000 registrations, which is a unique milestone in the history of TiE. The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu formally inaugurated the event bringing the attention on entrepreneurship and impact of startup ecosystem across the country.
The grand opening ceremony was graced by Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari Union Minister. Speaking further, the Vice President, M. Venkaiah Naidu emphasised that fostering student-entrepreneurship through innovation programmes is extremely critical and universities need to establish close linkage with industries to mentor and handhold students with novel business ideas.
Addressing the TiE Global Summit-2020 through video conferencing from Visakhapatnam, the Vice President asked the universities to set up incubation centres to tap and nurture entrepreneurial talent among youngsters.
“It is time for the corporate sector to come forward to fund and promote an entrepreneurial ecosystem on university campuses,” said Venkaiah Naidu.
The TiE is a Silicon Valley-based non-profit organisation supporting start-ups through networking and its Summit-2020 will be showcasing opportunities to get mega investments into India.
Bringing the point that the youth comprise about 65% of India’s population, Venkaiah Naidu stressed that the vast energies of the talented youth should be tapped fully and their mindset should be changed from being job-seekers to job creators.
Entrepreneurship
“We should launch a special drive to be launched for promoting entrepreneurship among women. There is a huge potential for promoting women entrepreneurs in the country. It is happy to see that TiE has impacted 50,000 aspiring women entrepreneurs through mentoring,” said Venkaiah Naidu.
Describing India as home to the world’s third-largest start-up ecosystem, Venkaiah Naidu quoted a recent NASSCOM that about 50% of the tech start-ups are confident of reaching revenues of the pre-Covid-19 level.
“This certainly is optimistic news and I am sure, things would look up for all Indian start-ups in the near future. The most entrepreneurial countries in the world are also the most prosperous and entrepreneurship makes people happier and more fulfilled,” said Venkaiah Naidu.
Highlighting that entrepreneurship is not only about profits, Venkaiah Naidu said that it is also about making people’s lives better through education, health care and basic human rights. “It is about valuing both competition and compassion,” he added.
Adversities as opportunities
Talking about the challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vice President said that this is the time to turn adversities into opportunities. Calling upon the youngsters to come out with innovative ideas to meet the emerging challenges, he wanted the creation of an ecosystem that can enable many innovative ideas to be translated into promising start-ups.
Stating that entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in economic growth and employment generation, Venkaiah Naidu appreciated the Government for creating an enabling environment through Start-up India. Fostering entrepreneurship is not just about crafting the right economic policy, or developing the best educational curricula, it is about creating an entire climate in which innovation and ideas flourish, he added.
“When entrepreneurs succeed, they create economic opportunity not only for Indians but for people all over the world,” said Venkaiah Naidu.
Stating that with more and more young people joining the labour market, the world will need about a half a billion new jobs by 2030, the Vice President called upon the established entrepreneurs and chambers of commerce, associations like TiE to mentor the next generation. They need to share the wisdom they gained, while the universities must work through research and internships to nurture and develop the entrepreneurial skills of students before they graduate, VP added.
Investors attention
The Vice President was of opinion that good entrepreneurial ideas backed by talent will beckon investors, who will be willing to invest in early-stage entrepreneurs — not only in Silicon Valley — but in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam or any other place where there is talent. For the entrepreneurship ecosystem to be effective, he stressed the need for the private sector to work hand-in-hand with NGOs, universities, and governments.
Observing that starting a business is a daunting task, Venkaiah Naidu said that we must connect entrepreneurs with mentors who can guide them. He expressed happiness that in this TiE Global event more than 300 mentors are available to show the ropes to young entrepreneurs across the globe.
The Vice President noted that such summits not only provide an important platform to exchange ideas and knowledge but also help in creating networks and complimented TiE for this initiative.
Speaking on the occasion Nitin Gadkari said MSME is the backbone for Indian Economy. It contributes to 30% to our GDP, which we would like to increase to 40%, similarly the exports, 48% we will take up to 60%. MSME sector generates 11crore employment. We will try and create 5crore more jobs. Village industries contribute Rs 80,000crore. This we must make it to Rs 5 lakh crore in the next two years.
Rural India
Rural India has a huge potential. But there is a crisis in terms of social, economic and educational. We need to develop more industries to generate more employment, he said.
Convert knowledge into the economy. India is rich in our ancient wisdom. We must use it. Organic farming is the future, the Union Minister said. The Minister highlighted the various initiatives of his Ministry. The global tenders below Rs 200crore are disallowed, he said.
Reduce import and increase export, he said. Automobile industry now is Rs 4,50,000 crores and is poised for good growth and might become top in the world. The sector has increased its exports during the pandemic. Minister informed that the Ministry is working on the research of Hydrogen Fuel.
He informed that India is the most appropriate destination for the investment. He concluded his talk on a positive note that the country needs more positivity and self-confidence, so that we not only win the war against the Covid but also any economic battles.
Ecosystem in Hyderabad
KT Rama Rao who addressed expressed his happiness to know that TiE is going to set up its global headquarters at Hyderabad. The Minister enlisted some of the initiatives of the state in fostering the entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship cannot be inculcated artificially. The government is the enabler and creator of the conducive environment he said. The new normal requires more entrepreneurship than ever as it needs to address its challenges.
He explained how some of the state innovators rose to the occasion to create products such as low cost high accurate covid testing systems, low cost and import substitute ventilator and tracking and tracing mobile app. Telangana has done well in terms of COVID Management when compared to any other states. We have been inculcating innovation culture in the state and took up many measures, he informed.
Ranil Jayawardena MP, Minister for International Trade, United Kingdom; His Excellency President of Costa Rica – Carlos Alvarado Quesada also graced the inaugural. Sridhar Pinnapureddy, President, TiE Hyderabad; Mahavir Sharma, Chairman, TiE Global Board of Trustees, Mr. Manohar Reddy, Vice President Hyderabad also graced
Welcoming the gathering Sridhar Pinnapureddy said, TiE Global Summit is the 8th in the series. It will help 500 start-ups access capital and connect to the mentor network. It is the conference of the next generation of thinkers and dreamers. TiE will help them in harnessing new technology. The summit will help its participants to get ten times more benefits than a pre-covid summit would have done.
Scale business
Mahavir Pratap Sharma, Chairman TiE Global Board of Trustees while proposing a vote of thanks said TiE has been helping entrepreneurs solving the problems the society it is confronting with. It has been working with all the sectors in the industry and all stakeholders such as women, students. Now it is even reaching out to the underprivileged. We work with the bottom of the pyramid, he said.
The World’s Largest Entrepreneurship Summit is based on the theme ‘Entrepreneurship 360’ and it will focus on issues faced and challenged by entrepreneurs, provide a platform for funding, insights into strategies to grow and scale business
Though virtual, the summit was near to physical. It gave attendees something they don’t expect—a refreshing taste of real life. It added real-life feeling real virtual conference. The attendees got physical at the virtual event
