NewZNew (Chandigarh) : “Don’t listen to the World, especially your relatives and even parents, if you wish to be a successful entrepreneur. Dare to take the risks and be courageous to fail as failures are the pillars to success”, emphatically advised Mr Hindol Sengupta, World renowned journalist, writer and entrepreneur to the budding and existing entrepreneurs at a Learning session organised by Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Young Indians (Yi) Chandigarh Tricity Chapter at CII NR Headquarters in sector 31 A, here today.
“Had Steve Jobs told his relatives or parents that he would like to make computers or smart phones, they would have lambasted him. Who knew, he would revolutionize six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing”, added Mr Sengupta.
“I believe in the power of economy. Entrepreneurship is indeed the key to an all-inclusive progress of our country. Entrepreneurs all across India have supported the Government to provide jobs and enhance the living standards of underprivileged. The entrepreneurs in the unorganised sector still contribute 50 % of our GDP and provide 90 % of the total jobs available in the country, despite just 10 % of institutional finance reaching them. There is a huge potential and hence it is imperative to strengthen our finance system to help it reach more and more small entrepreneurs easily. It is most important that the MUDRA Bank scheme gets truly implemented”, he informed.
The CII Yi session which aimed to inspire new entrepreneurs in India, featured examples from the real stories and case studies of entrepreneurs from Kashmir to Kanyaumari in his latest book – Recasting India: How Entrepreneurship Is Revolutionizing The World’s Largest Democracy.
It also features story of Gauri Singh from Chandigarh who has revolutionised domestic help industry. She founded The Maids Company for professional cleaning, washing, cooking @ affordable prices. Her objective was to provide dignified jobs and incomes to underprivileged migrant women labourers and excellent and satisfactory services to the urban middle class. She had trained 3000 women so far and served around 2000 clients.
The book which has been praised by global business thinker Vijay Govindarajan, renowned economist, Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog of India & Former Chairman of Infosys, N R Narayana Murthy has received brilliant feedback in the US and in India.
Recasting India is the only book by an Indian to be shortlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious prizes in economic writing, the Hayek Book Prize, given by the Manhattan Institute also making him the youngest writer to be nominated for this prize.
“The reason behind my writing this book was that a lot has been spoken, written and read about the negative things, but there is a need to showcase a lot of positive things happening in India for centuries, to change the mindset”, he shared.
“In India, out of 1.2 billion people only 1 million are thinking about entrepreneurship. Here we find many problems but we don’t have any solutions for it. Showcasing problems will not help in finding solutions in India. To fulfill this, one million young entrepreneurs are working for solutions on caste and gender related issues”, he shared.
“We have forgotten that we were a rich country until 1857. Presently, most of the young Indians are trapped in old ideologies and politics. I urge the youth to look for solutions instead of highlighting the problems,” added Mr Hindol Sengupta.
Hindol Sengupta is the author of six books including the forth coming ‘Being Hindu’. He lives in Delhi and is currently Editor-at-large at Fortune India.
Mr Amit Chugh, Chairman, CII – Young Indians (Yi) Chandigarh Chapter shared that “Nation building is one of the top priorities of CII Yi. We believe that in addition to smart cities, we also need smart citizens. CII Yi would spread awareness and run a campaign to promote responsibility amongst the society as well to support the governments.
