Initiatives to promote entrepreneurship

Updated on: Friday, March 20, 2009

The Indian government has recently commissioned Entrepreneurship Developement Institute of India (EDI) to set up Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs) in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) countries as a mark of India’s commitment to the initiative of ASEAN integration. Vice-president Hamid Ansari recently inaugurated the Myanmar-India Entrepreneurship Development Centre (MIEDC), under Myanmar’s ministry of education at Yangon. Centres in the other countries have already started functioning.

EDI, Gujarat, a national resource institution, focusses on entrepreneurship education, training and research. Referring to EDI’s various business-oriented and job-oriented courses, Manoj Mishra, an associate senior faculty from EDI explains: “Earlier, when entrepreneurs encountered problems in their businesses, they blamed it on environment, policies, red-tapism, faulty systems and so on. Entrepreneurs rarely assessed their own competency and knowledge. Fortunately, mindsets have broadened and entrepreneurs place major emphasis on their level of understanding, entrepreneurial know-how and traits in dealing with issues. While this is what a business-oriented course looks at, a job-oriented course aims to build competency and skills required to become a manager rather than an employer.”

In view of EDI’s expertise in entrepreneurship, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had assigned it with the task of developing a curriculum. “The Gujarat Textbook Board assigned the institute the task of developing textbooks in entrepreneurship for classes XI and XII which has been done,” informed Mishra.

Niche programmes

EDI has created six centres and is offering various programmes like postgraduate diploma in management — business entrepreneurship (PGDM-BE), postgraduate diploma in management of NGOs (PGDMN), and open learning diploma in business entrepreneurship to mention a few. Similarly, it is providing various international programmes like inter-regional centre for entrepreneurship and investment training (IRC) and institutionalisation of ED process in CLMV countries.
Elaborating on the diploma in management of NGOs, he says: “The module has been developed in such a way that students are imparted inputs on the managerial domain along with the perspective domain.”

EDI offers courses for working professionals too. It conducts intrapreneurship development programmes that aim at increasing the competency level of professionals so that they can accomplish more within the same resources. Another programme is the one-year open learning programme in entrepreneurship (distance learning), which targets those who can’t make time for classroom entrepreneurship.

Initiatives to promote entrepreneurship

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