The Ministry of Education has constituted the Institution’s Innovation council in the year 2018 and Rural entrepreneurship development cell in the year 2020 at CTTE College for Women, Chennai, Tamilnadu. Both these forums aim at involving students in innovative and sustainable entrepreneurial ventures towards economic development of our nation. In line with this objective and in continuation of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the College with CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, both the institutions concurred on conducting a week long national level workshop for students on “Rural Techpreneurship Development”. This workshop was organised by the college Centre for Student Development (Entrepreneurship Development Cell and Institution’s Innovation Council) and Internal Quality Assurance Cell in association with CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha from 15/12/21 to 21/12/21.
Inauguration
The inaugural session of the workshop commenced on 15/12/21 at 4pm with the State song, Thamizh Thai Vaazhthu. Thiru L.Palamalai, IAS (Retd.), Managing Trustee and Correspondent of Chevalier T.Thomas Educational Trust, Dr. T.Pavan kumar, Senior Scientist, CSIR, IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha and Dr. S. Sridevi, Principal, CTTE College for Women were the dignitaries who attended the inaugural session.
Dr. P.Malarvizhi, Assistant Professor in Commerce and Director, Centre for Student Development, CTTE College for Women welcomed the gathering. Mrs. Princy Susan Selvakumari, Assistant Professor in Business administration and Vice President, Institution’s Innovation Council of CTTE College for Women briefed on the various concepts that were to be discussed in the 7 day workshop.
Thiru L.Palamalai, IAS (Retd.), Managing Trustee and Correspondent of Chevalier T.Thomas Educational Trust in his inaugural address, highlighted the scope provided for the students to explore the potential creative ideas available in the rural areas.
Dr. S. Sridevi, Principal, CTTE College for Women, while expressing her gratitude to the CSIR team for their support and coordination, pointed out the relevance of this program which would take us in the right direction in fulfilling the vision of NEP 2020.
Dr T.Pavan Kumar, Senior Scientist, CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, appreciated the proactiveness of the College and common ideas and opinions shared by both institutions in conducting programmes for the development of student community in particular and society in general.
The inaugural session concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Mrs. J.Mary Catherine, Head, Department of Computer Science and Coordinator, Internal Quality Assurance Cell of CTTE College for Women.
Day 1 – Idea to Enterprise
Date – 15.12.2021
Dr. T. Pavan Kumar, Senior Scientist, CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar-751013, Odisha
Dr T.Pavan Kumar, Senior Scientist, CSIR-IMMT, Bhuvaneswar was the resource person on Day 1 elaborated on the methods of identifying the problem, discovering the solutions, exploiting them as an opportunity, and thereby creating job opportunities to resolve unemployment issues in India. He gave an overview of Intellectual property rights and explained the significance of patented inventions. He also stated that there is a high percentage of job satisfaction, happiness, freedom, and independence in entrepreneurship when compared with employment.
Day 2 – Rural Technologies for Large Societal Benefit
Date – 16.12.2021
Dr. Snehasish Behera, Chief Scientist, CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Dr. Snehasish Behera gave detailed information on Rural Technologies available for large societal benefits. He highlighted the technologies designed and developed by CSIR-IMMT such as natural draft and forced draft biomass operated dryers, biomass maize dryer, thermoelectric and solar box type cookstoves, biomass bakery oven, terafil water purification system etc. The improved GVK series cookstoves were distributed to rural villages in India and received positive feedback from rural families and communities including Anganwadis.
Day 3 – Rural entrepreneurship development from tech transfer experts view
Date – 17.12.2021
Dr Ravi Pandey, Research Establishment Officer, IIT, Kanpur
Dr Ravi Pandey, Research Establishment Officer, IIT Kanpur, enlightened the participants with his knowledge on Rural Entrepreneurship Development. He showed several examples in his presentation to strongly support the statement, ”entrepreneurship or emergence of modern technology should not just focus on financial turnover but should have a positive impact on society”. He explained about the startup CD SPACE founded by an alumnus of IIT Kanpur. The drones had wide application in supplying medical aid for hospitals in hilly regions and mountains. He elaborated about the seed sowing boot developed by IIT Kanpur to help the farmers with less manpower.
He played a video demonstrating how flowers from temples were utilised to make products like incense sticks. Another such example which he showed to support the wealth from waste concept was the production of organic plates from stubble which usually cause pollution by burning.
Day 4 – Waste to Wealth: Technologies for agricultural sector/ entrepreneurship
Date – 18.12.2021
Dr. Manish Kumar, Principal Scientist, CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Dr. Manish Kumar, gave deep insight on the techniques to become a smart entrepreneur by turning the huge agriculture and other waste produced every day into profit-making products. The resource person reported that over 75% of waste generated in India is recyclable, but only 30% is recycled. He also said that waste to wealth has great business and entrepreneurial opportunities. The speaker stated that proper utilization of Agro waste will lead to sustainable development and the government policymakers also consider waste to wealth for the environment and economic planning. The guest speaker emphasized the significance of filing patents for innovative ideas to start up a business.
Day 5 – Inspiring Innovations for Societal Development
Date – 19.12.2021
Dr Kapil Arya, Senior Scientist, CSIR- IPU, New Delhi
Dr Kapil Arya, highlighted that India has made commendable progress so far, but there are still many challenges facing the country that hinders India’s Development. This could be solved with the practice of societal innovation.Social innovation is said to be a new form of thinking to solve social problems and this focuses on the ideas and the solutions that offer efficient, sustainable and positive social change that creates social value.In order to utilize its scientific strength and meet the expectations of the country, CSIR has a dynamic network of 37 national laboratories in India which works on different societal fields like agriculture including medicinal and aromatic plants, disaster management, farm machinery, healthcare, infrastructure, leather processing, potable water etc.
Day 6 – Terafil Technology and Entrepreneurship Around
Date – 20.12.2021
Dr Debabrata Singh, Senior Scientist, CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Dr D Singh emphasized on producing efficient and need based devices locally by the youth of the nation. He explained how the Terafil Water filter disc is manufactured, how the components of this disc – sand, saw dust and pottery clay – work as filters and how it’s production is cost effective.
The speaker also told in detail, how this technology is taught to others and thereby making many people to venture into this field. This simple knowhow and it’s low cost have attracted many people towards this field.
Day 7 – Support Schemes for Entrepreneurs
Date – 21.12.2021
Prof V. Swapna, Associate faculty, NIMSME, Hyderabad
Prof Swapna gave a clear and detailed explanation on schemes like the Prime Minister Employment Generation Program [PMEGP] and also explained the government portal of PMEGP and illustrated the process of online application. The EDP programs that are being developed by PMEGP for the entrepreneurs were also highlighted. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise [MSME] and its Schemes like design scheme, Incubator scheme, IPR scheme, Loan manufacturing scheme etc were explained by mentioning its functioning and the services offered by them. The e-portal of MSME was explored and its uses were described.
Valedictory
The one week workshop concluded with a formal Valedictory session. Mrs. Y.Kavitha, Head, Department of Business administration and Startup Coordinator, Institution’s Innovation Council of the College presented a summarized report on the proceedings of the workshop. The knowledge disseminated through the seven days was encapsulated briefly for easy understanding of the participants.
This was followed by a feedback session during which Ms. Rajakaleeswari and Ms. Nishipriya, Student Council President and Vice president of the College expressed that the workshop helped them to gain immense knowledge and information about entrepreneurial innovations and rural technologies. On the whole, the workshop was found to be an eye opener towards the potential entrepreneurial opportunities available in rural India.
The final vote of thanks was given by Mrs. Princy Susan Selvakumari, Assistant Professor in Business administration and Vice President, Institution’s Innovation Council of CTTE College for Women
Nearly 865 participants across the nation benefited from this workshop.
The seven day National Workshop has helped the student community to comprehend technology-oriented rural entrepreneurship development and also exposed them to potential entrepreneurial opportunities in rural India.
