The entrepreneurship cell of IIM Shillong — i-Cube in association with ONGC hosted the sixth edition of its entrepreneurship summit— Emerge 2K17. The two-day summit comprised business plan and case study competitions organised in partnership with India Virtual Hospital (IVH) and CIPET Haldia in addition to numerous expert talks, panel discussions, and workshops.
The summit brought together problem-solvers from various fields on one stage and discussed solutions to problems that have impeded the progress of the north-eastern India thus far. All the insights generated from this summit will be used to formulate a white-paper on the problems facing the entrepreneurial space in the North East and ways on how to tackle them. This shall be presented to major stakeholders and policy makers to be a part of tangible change in this space.
The summit featured an Investor Panel discussion where eminent personalities like Amanjot Malhotra, VP, Delhi Angels; Shurjo Ghosh, chairman, TotalStart; Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO and founder, Gozoop; Avelo Roy, MD, Kolkata Ventures and Prashant Chourasia, VP, Chatur Ideas discussed the challenges and opportunities in the start-up ecosystem. “Ideas alone can’t fetch money, entrepreneurs need traction to succeed,” Avelo Roy said.
Talking about new ideas, Vijay Nayar, founder, OMl said: “Business is people plus opportunity. Everything else is just hustle.”
The participants also witnessed a workshop on ‘Design thinking’ by Aditi Gupta, managing partner, Design thinkers group, an expert talk by Amit Chaudhary, COO and co-founder, lenskart and an inspiring session by Biswapati Sarkar, creative director, TVF.
The ‘Table to Farm’ discussion saw entrepreneurs like Phanindra Sama, co-founder, RedBus; Manash Chaliha, founder, Organic Majuli; Nidhi Pant, founder, DesiVDesi; Prashant Patil, founder, Mera Kisaan; Rajesh Prasad, founder, Zopar Exports and Bhawesh Niroula, founder, Darjeeling Black, discussing the scope and opportunity in the agriculture and allied sectors, focusing on the challenges in the north-east. “Technology once built can be used repeatedly. India’s population can be leveraged by tech startups for profit,” Phanindra Sama said.