Govt. all set to pitch ideas of ‘young entrepreneurs’ to investors

Over 100 proposals of school students to be showcased at Business Blasters Investment Summit on March 5

Over 100 business ideas developed by students of Delhi government schools will be showcased to investors at the Business Blasters Investment Summit and Expo that the government is organising on March 5 at the Thyagraj Stadium.

The event is a curation of the best ideas selected from over 1,000 proposals that were developed as a part of the ‘Business Blasters’ programme where about 3 lakh students were given seed money to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and start a business. The government said ideas for the expo have been selected after rigorous assessment by eminent entrepreneurs and experts. This expo will be an opportunity for the students to scale their businesses and a chance for investors visiting the event to directly invest in the projects of their choice, the government further added.

Inviting investors to participate and encourage budding entrepreneurs, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said through the Business Blasters website some of the ideas have already caught the attention of investors. “These ideas have so much potential in them that many investors, who wanted to support these bright budding entrepreneurs, have offered the support of more than ₹12 crore through the Business Blasters website. This programme has helped in changing the mindset of students,” Mr. Sisodia said.

Along with the investment for their business ideas, students who will qualify the final round of selection will get direct admission to universities such as Delhi Technological University (DTU), Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW), Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU) and Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), to pursue Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Mr. Sisodia further added. Terming it one of the largest startup initiative in the world, with the government providing combined seed money of ₹60 crore to the students in the first phase, Mr. Sisodia said the programme will help in tackling the problem of unemployment in the country. “Unemployment is such a major issue in the country that when a job vacancy with the eligibility criterion of class 8-pass is released, most of the applicants are either graduate, postgraduate or PhD holders. On assessing the situation, it was observed that today’s generation is lacking an entrepreneurship mindset,” Mr. Sisodia said.