CLGF Secretary-General Dr Greg Munro was the guest speaker at an important, virtual award ceremony for entrepreneurs in India.

The ceremony rewarded the more than 13,000 students who took part in an online, 30-day start-up training programme, which began in May 2020. As well as celebrating the students’ graduation, and presenting course completion certificates electronically, the  announcement was made about the 100 start-up projects that had been selected to be awarded grant funding. 

The event was virtually attended by an illustrious group of VIPs, including Smt. Smriti Irani,  the Union Cabinet Minister, Government of India and Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of the tech giant, Infosys. In his remarks, Dr Munro spoke about CLGF’s support for the project and entrepreneurships, in general, and then took questions.

Entrepreneurship into practice

Dr Munro said: "It is very pleasing, not only to see so many people acquiring business skills and being empowered to put entrepreneurship into practice, but also to witness, firsthand, the tenacity of people to work through the restrictions of the pandemic and continue to learn and prosper in business

As well as support from CLGF, Startup Pathshala 2020 is an initiative of Jabalpur Incubation Centre, Yi Bhopal, Confederation of Indian Industry, RGPV State Technical University and Incubation Masters. The aim of the programme is to train more than 12,000 young entrepreneurs of semi-urban and rural areas of Madhya Pradesh, India and help them start and thrive in their business. During the 30 day online course, 100 student entrepreneurs were selected to receive grant funds and incubation support for one year.

LED initiatives funded by DFID

Increasing Jabalpur's reputation as a centre for business creation is a keen priority with training opportunities on Local Economic Development for social entrepreneurs, first generation entreprenuers and non-tech start-ups. This is all part of the LED project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

CLGF Asia Programme Officer Anuya Kuwar explained: "This is one part of an inspirational project and we are very pleased with the attendance rate and the outcomes. We look forward to learning more about the success of the participants."