By K. A. Alagarsamy, Director, Consortium for Technical Education (CTE)

Technology Entrepreneurship Education teaches individuals how to create and run successful technology-based businesses. It combines both technological and entrepreneurial skills, helping students develop the technical skills necessary to build and innovate new products or services, as well as the business acumen needed to turn those innovations into profitable ventures.

The goal is to help students learn how to identify and capitalize on business opportunities in the technology sector, as well as how to navigate the challenges and uncertainties that come with starting and growing a business.

B-Schools Vs Entrepreneurship Education

When we discuss Entrepreneurship Education, it is quite natural to compare it with Business Schools. Entrepreneurship Education and Business Schools both focus on teaching skills related to starting and running businesses, but there are some key differences between the two.

Entrepreneurship Education is generally more focused on teaching individuals how to develop innovative ideas and turn them into successful businesses. It emphasizes creativity, risk-taking, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Entrepreneurship Education often involves hands-on learning experiences.

On the other hand, Business Schools typically offer a more traditional approach to business education, with a focus on developing a broad range of business skills, such as accounting, marketing, management and finance.

Another key difference between Entrepreneurship Education and Business Schools is their target audience. Entrepreneurship Education is often aimed at individuals who are interested in starting their own businesses, while Business Schools are designed for individuals who are looking to pursue careers in business, whether as managers, consultants, or executives.

Entrepreneurship Education and Business Schools both provide valuable skills and knowledge related to starting and running businesses, but they differ in their approach, focus, and target audience.

Role of Educational Institutes – Engineers to Entrepreneurs

Universities and Educational Institutions play an important role in the rapidly evolving role of society. For the formation of new businesses and technological advancements, they must foster a collaborative environment.

Engineering Colleges across India churn out over 15 lakh techies every year, and the number of job seekers keeps on increasing every year. It’s high time to convert the output of potential Engineers into Entrepreneurs. Educational Institutions need to start programs and courses to provide Entrepreneurship Education.

There are several reasons why Entrepreneurship Education is important, particularly at the college level:

1. Promoting innovation: Technology Entrepreneurship Education encourages students to develop innovative solutions to real-world problems.

2. Fostering entrepreneurship: India has a large population of young people who are interested in starting their own businesses. Technology Entrepreneurship Education can help to foster entrepreneurship skills and provide students with the tools they need to start and grow successful businesses.

3. Contributing to economic growth: Entrepreneurship has been identified as a key driver of economic growth in India. By promoting technology Entrepreneurship Education, Educational Institutions can help to create a more entrepreneurial culture and contribute to the Country’s economic development.

4. Encouraging social impact: Many technology startups are focused on creating social impact, such as addressing issues related to healthcare, education, and poverty alleviation. By providing students with education and training in technology entrepreneurship, colleges can help to promote social entrepreneurship and encourage students to create businesses that have a positive impact on society.

29th March 2023: Bairiya by Arijit Singh becomes his first ever song to be featured on the digital perimeter boards during a global football match broadcast, The El Clasico between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona – at FCB’s home ground Camp Nou.

Arijit Singh is making India proud and creating history by taking Indian music to global platforms. Yesterday the fans at the stadium as well as the viewers across the world witnessed Bairiya flashing through the match. Bairiya is composed by Goldie Sohel, written by Amitabh Bhattacharya, and sung by Arijit Singh.

“I am glad that our song Bairiya has paved its way to feature at FCB’s home ground, Camp Nou. I am grateful to everyone connected to the song for this moment of happiness,” said Arijit Singh.

“It’s an absolute pleasure for me and everyone who has been a part of this masterpiece. This is a global recognition for our song Bairiya at Camp Nou. We couldn’t have wished for anything better,” said Composer Goldie Sohel.

Bangalore, 29th Mar 2023: Plutus, a creator-first platform building business and financial infrastructure for creators, announced their pre-seed round of funding from Campus Fund and other Investors including CIIE – IIM AhmedBangalore, 28th Mar 2023: Plutus, a creator-first platform building business and financial infrastructure for creators, announced their pre-seed round of funding from Campus Fund and other Investors including CIIE – IIM Ahmedabad, Shruti (Co-founder, ApnaKlub) and Alagu Preiyannan (Co-founder, Bluejeans).

Started by Karata Dasmahapatra (dropout from Dartmouth); Shivanshu Tyagi (student at IIT Kanpur) and Sambhav Jain (student at BITS Pilani) – Plutus focuses on deepening interactions between creators and their fans through a mix of community games both live and hypercasual. They work with over 3k+ creators across India, along with a waitlist of 10k+ creators. The start-up is seeing strong user love with a 35% month over month userbase growth and an 86% Net Promoter Score (NPS). Plutus intends to use the fundraise to deepen partnerships with creators and fans, while also building new tools to expand the monetisation potential.

The creator economy is growing at a CAGR of 25-30% and is one of the fastest growing sectors today. Creators, especially ones that fall in the category of being micro-influencers don’t earn a stable income through ad revenue, since this is largely contingent upon the number of views, followers and subscribers to their content. While social media platforms have evolved, the experience across them remains the same – creators make content, fans consume the content. “This is where Plutus has changed the norm by building a single platform with two-way flow of content via live rooms, group chats, creator led games, integrated payments and analytics. With an innovative pay-as-you-go structure, creators are able to earn more than subscriptions or workshops from their user base, and in some cases more than advertiser promotions. With this fundraise Plutus aims to expand across India and South East Asia, and launch new set of hyper-casual games and features.”, said Karata Dasmahapatra, Co-Founder & CEO, Plutus

With a 35% M-o-M growth in userbase and strong engagement rate, Plutus wants to become the go-to tool for Gen-Z creators. While creators are seeing a significant uptick in their monthly income, Plutus continues to build additional avenues for creators and fans to engage.

Shlok Vora, Student Associate at Campus Fund and part of the Plutus deal team highlighted, “What impressed us most is that the Plutus team has always been nimble in innovating new features for creators to connect better with their fans. The creator economy is at an inflection point and Plutus is positioned really well to potentially become the Shopify for creators.”

abad, Shruti (Co-founder, ApnaKlub) and Alagu Preiyannan (Co-founder, Bluejeans).

Started by Karata Dasmahapatra (dropout from Dartmouth); Shivanshu Tyagi (student at IIT Kanpur) and Sambhav Jain (student at BITS Pilani) – Plutus focuses on deepening interactions between creators and their fans through a mix of community games both live and hypercasual. They work with over 3k+ creators across India, along with a waitlist of 10k+ creators. The start-up is seeing strong user love with a 35% month-over-month userbase growth and an 86% Net Promoter Score (NPS). Plutus intends to use fundraising to deepen partnerships with creators and fans, while also building new tools to expand the monetization potential.

The creator economy is growing at a CAGR of 25-30% and is one of the fastest-growing sectors today. Creators, especially ones that fall in the category of micro-influencers don’t earn a stable income through ad revenue since this is largely contingent upon the number of views, followers, and subscribers to their content. While social media platforms have evolved, the experience across them remains the same – creators make content, and fans consume the content. “This is where Plutus has changed the norm by building a single platform with a two-way flow of content via live rooms, group chats, creator-led games, integrated payments, and analytics. With an innovative pay-as-you-go structure, creators are able to earn more than subscriptions or workshops from their user base, and in some cases more than advertiser promotions. With this fundraise Plutus aims to expand across India and South East Asia, and launch a new set of hyper-casual games and features.”, said Karata Dasmahapatra, Co-Founder & CEO, of Plutus

With a 35% M-o-M growth in userbase and a strong engagement rate, Plutus wants to become the go-to tool for Gen-Z creators. While creators are seeing a significant uptick in their monthly income, Plutus continues to build additional avenues for creators and fans to engage.

Shlok Vora, Student Associate at Campus Fund and part of the Plutus deal team highlighted, “What impressed us most is that the Plutus team has always been nimble in innovating new features for creators to connect better with their fans. The creator economy is at an inflection point and Plutus is positioned really well to potentially become the Shopify for creators.”

29th March: Freedom Healthy Cooking Oils launched a new campaign on Freedom Rice Bran Oil to inform the customers about the health benefits of using Rice Bran Oil. This is the continuation of the ‘Freedom Oil Knowledge Series’ on the benefits of using Rice Bran Oil. The new campaign highlights the harmful effects of high levels of cholesterol and the benefit of using Rice Bran Oil for daily cooking to control the same. In the video released as a part of the campaign, renowned Nutritionist Dr. Matheen Asrar (Ph.D. Nutritionist) recommends people to take a balanced diet, do regular exercise, and switch to a healthy cooking oil like Freedom Rice Bran Oil for everyday cooking to live a healthy life. The campaign has been rolled out across social, digital, electronic, and print platforms. It has already garnered 1 million plus views from the social media platform.

In the earlier campaign of ‘Freedom Oil Knowledge Series’ an animated video was rolled out to explain the process by which Freedom Rice Bran Oil with 10000+ ppm Oryzanol, tocopherol, and tocotrienols which are natural Antioxidants, helps to reduce Bad Cholesterol (LDL), and maintain Good Cholesterol (HDL). The new campaign shares the inputs by a renowned dietitian on steps to be taken to take care of heart health. The campaign is designed to communicate the message in a simple yet effective manner from an expert and encourage people to use Freedom Rice Bran Oil for daily cooking.

According to Mr. P. Chandra Shekhara Reddy, Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing, Freedom Rice Bran Oil, said, “We try to conduct focused campaigns as a part of ‘Freedom Oil Knowledge Series’ to inform the customers about the health benefits of edible oils. This new campaign on Freedom Rice Bran Oil, is designed to share insights on healthy living from an expert Dr. Matheen Asrar (Ph.D. Nutritionist), who recommends people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, eat a balanced diet, and cook food in a healthy oil-like Rice Bran Oil. Freedom Physically Refined Rice Bran Oil contains an ideal quantity of Oryzanol ie. 10000+ ppm therefore we request people to #SwitchtoFreedom and #ChangeForTheBetter and stay healthy with #ricebranoil.”

According to experts, if people maintain a healthy lifestyle, eat right, drink at least 2 liters of water, avoid bad habits like smoking, regularly monitor and control diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and Cholesterol levels and choose healthy oil like Rice Bran Oil for everyday cooking, they are likely to stay healthy and safe.

Paytm, India’s pioneer of QR code and mobile payments, now enables devotees visiting Shri Mata Vaishno Devi to pay via Paytm UPI LITE and Paytm UPI. To make the pilgrims’ experience of making donations, buying prasad, and paying at shops at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi hassle-free during Navratri, the fintech pioneer has placed direction boards along with Paytm banners, stickers at shops, and UPI LITE for branding across the temple. It has also provided EDC machines to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and the nearby shops.

Devotees across India can make donations at the temple from the comfort of their homes, and can make online orders of prasad for home delivery using Paytm Super App.

India’s most innovative tech company, Paytm, has also enabled lightning-fast payments that never fail with UPI LITE at the shrine, and devotees can scan QR code to pay via Paytm UPI.

Bengaluru, March 29th, 2023 – The Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID), the incubation wing of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore is inviting applications for its deep science incubation program. Applications particularly from women entrepreneurs and SC/ST/OBC/minorities are encouraged. The applications are to be emailed to stem.cell@iisc.ac.in before March 31st, 2023.

FSID’s focus on women/minority groups stems from the recognition of obstacles entrepreneurs face when heading a deep science enterprise, and the challenges faced by these groups make it even harder to build a successful startup. They require the necessary support and guidance in order to bridge this gap, and FSID will play this role.

The incubator offers access to state-of-the-art resources, invaluable mentorship, and a vibrant community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for innovation and change. It focuses on accelerating startup growth by helping entrepreneurs commercialize their innovations, taking products from the lab to the market.

Currently, FSID has a portfolio of over 80 startups spread across various domains such as Agri-Tech, Bio-Tech, Space-Tech, Medical devices, Life sciences, and others. For over 30 years, FSID has used an incredible repository of knowledge, world-class infrastructure, and talent to help incubate business enterprises. FSID was founded in close collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.

March 29, 2023: Connect and Heal, a leading health-tech company providing end-to-end coordinated care, announced that Dr. Haleema Yezdani has been appointed as one of the board of Directors of the HIMSS India Chapter Board for 2023-25. In this role, Haleema will participate in membership drives, outreach activities, events, reports, advocacy, and other working groups, to help drive the thought leadership for faster adoption of healthcare IT in India.

Dr. Haleema has served as a General Physician and Diabetologist for 20 years, including nine years of experience in telemedicine. She has received a total of 15 awards for her contribution to telemedicine, making her one of the future 50 clinical leaders in telemedicine globally recognized by HIMSS.

She is also a Rajyotsava Award holder for Project step one, recognized for her extraordinary work during COVID-19 in Step One, a non-profit startup by technology and healthcare professionals on a mission to better prepare our society for future health emergencies. She is also the Director of Women’s International Empowerment at World Peace. Currently, she is associated with Connect and Heal as Senior Manager, Telemedicine.

Sanjay Vinayak, Founder, of Connect and Heal, said, “This recognition is a testament to Haleema’s exceptional work in the healthcare sector, and we take pride in saying she is one of us. As one of the board of Directors of the HIMSS India, she will get more meaningful opportunities to drive growth and innovation in the healthcare ecosystem, helping it become more accurate and efficient in the coming years.”

Dr. Haleema Yezdani, Senior Manager, Connect and Heal (Telemedicine), said, “I am delighted to join HIMSS India as one of the board of Directors. I look forward to collaborating with like-minded industry leaders and bringing more transformations to the telemedicine sector.”

New Delhi, 29 March 2023: Eqaro Guarantees, a technology led financial guarantees company, announced its partnership with Rent Ok, a super app for residential renting that enables you to advertise your property, schedule visits, complete tenant KYC, rent agreement and police verification, automate rent collection and accounting. The partnership will enable zero-deposit homes to young professionals and students across the country.

Over the next decade, an estimated 300 million Indians will migrate to the top 100 cities in the country, leading to a robust growth in rental yields, creating the need for fractional investments and resulting in quicker property turnover periods among tenants. This will be fueled further by the growth of the millennial and Gen Z populations across India. This generation has found it increasingly difficult to rent properties due to the large security deposits ranging from 2-12 months of rentals. The partnership involves building a comprehensive ecosystem of landlords and tenants and making available zero deposit homes at over 12000 properties in more than 220 locations across the country. The Zero deposit homes will be powered by Eqaro’s Rental Bond, a guarantee that protects the landlord in the event of a default by the tenant. The rental bond acts as a replacement to the security deposit & covers unpaid rent, lock-in period if any, damage to the property and unpaid bills as set out in the lease agreement.

Mr Pankaj Bhansali, Chief Operating Officer of Eqaro Guarantees said while reflecting on the partnership, “We are delighted with our partnership with Rent Ok. Rent Ok has a wide spread presence across the country including key markets like Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai & Pune. The partnership envisages a holistic and a growth partner approach to the residential rental segment. While rental bonds provide the landlord with a credit verified and an assessed tenant resulting in faster occupancy with higher rental yields, our customized guaranteeing solutions will help the landlords and co-living operator partners get access to finance by way of advance against rent receivables or collateral free loans. The tenants on the other hand get access to their dream home without the need for security deposit. For the first time in India, the tenants will also be able to carry forward the benefits of their good tenancy track record on to their subsequent tenancies.

Srijan Raj, CEO of RentOk said: Srijan Raj, CEO of RentOk said: Our partnership with Eqaro aims to make renting easy for millennials and Gen Z when they move away from home to study or start their first job in a new city. Our goal is to offer the largest collection of zero-deposit homes to tenants across the country while helping our customers (co-living/PG operators, flat owners) find creditworthy tenants backed by an institutional guarantee. Right now, we add 15,000+ new tenants every month. With Eqaro, we want to make sure that these new tenants do not face the challenges of dealing with high security deposits. This partnership also enables collateral-free working capital loans for property owners, allowing them to scale their operations without putting up any collateral. We have also introduced the concept of advance rental for co-living/PG operators in India, whereby they can get their rent in advance through Eqaro’s lending partners to meet their working capital requirements.

29th March 2023, Hyderabad: Techwave, a global IT and engineering solutions firm, joined hands with WaterAid India, a global non-governmental organization, to support ‘The Blue Mile’ program, which aims to increase awareness of water scarcity, sensitize individuals, and encourage water conservation practices to help secure a safe and clean water supply for future generations.

To combat the water crisis, Techwave associates took part in the six-day virtual than “The Blue Mile” with great enthusiasm towards the cause, and people from all regions participated actively in the initiative. Techwave associates joined the initiative by participating in running, walking, and cycling activities, demonstrating their support for the cause, and helping to raise awareness about water scarcity.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Raj Gummadapu, CEO, Techwave, expressed, “At Techwave, we strongly believe that each individual has a responsibility towards encouraging sustainable development. Water scarcity is a pressing issue that demands immediate attention. We are delighted to partner with WaterAid India and join hands with the Blue Mile community to tackle this crisis. We take pride in the active participation of our employees, and we are confident that this initiative will enhance their understanding of the significance of water and its actual struggles. Through our combined efforts, we aspire to create a positive impact on the environment and pave the way for a better future for generations to come.”

Mumbai, 29th March 2023: Bloomingdales Pre-Primary is excited to unveil our new uniform for the upcoming academic year. We are proud to introduce colourful t-shirts for our students, featuring the image of an endangered animal on the front. Our goal is to instil in our young learners a sense of responsibility towards our planet and its inhabitants. By wearing these t-shirts we hope to create awareness among our students about the importance of being environmentally conscious and the urgent need to conserve and protect endangered species.

Our new school uniform includes t-shirts in three vibrant colours, each featuring an endangered animal that represents the three essential elements of our planet – Air, Water and Earth. The Red Panda represents Earth, the Forest Owlet signifies Air, and the Blue Whale symbolises Water. The School Mascot, AWE, is a reminder of the interconnectedness of these elements and the importance of taking care of our planet. By wearing these t-shirts our students will not only look great but also be reminded of the need to protect and conserve our environment.

Mrs Damayanti Bhattacharya, Principal of Jasudben ML School and Bloomingdales Pre- Primary, said, “The new uniforms reflect the school’s theme of the year – Happy at School. We believe that a happy school environment begins with creating a sense of belonging among our students towards the environment at large. By introducing the new uniforms, we hope to create a sense of unity and responsibility among our students while also making them environmentally conscious, which will contribute to their overall well-being as well as happiness.”

She further added, “We understand that parents want their children to feel comfortable and confident at school but also conscious of the world beyond its school gates since their early years. And the new uniforms are designed to be comfortable and practical while also being unique, relevant and meaningful. We believe that this change will be appreciated by parents and contribute to their happiness and satisfaction with the school. With this new uniform, we hope to inspire our students to become ambassadors of change and make a positive impact in their communities and beyond. ” The school is excited to begin this new chapter and looks forward to seeing its students wear the new uniform with