S. P. Mandali’s Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool), India’s leading B-School empowered young talent from across 50 higher educational institutes’ in a regional mentoring session as a part of the Proof of Concepts (PoC) contest. An orientation session on IIC 2.0 and ARIIA 2020 by Institution’s Innovation Council – MHRD, Innovation Cell was also held for faculty from higher educational institutes from Maharashtra and Goa. Around 110 students from North western region have participated in this nationwide PoC contest. At the inaugural ceremony, Chief Guest, Mr. Sanjay Inamdar, Chairman, AICTE start-up policy implementation committee and Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, S.P. Mandali’s Welingkar Institute of Management (WeSchool) inspired the youth with an advice on processing, decision making and problem solving skills. An energetic team led by Mr. Satya Ranjan Acharya, Associate Sr. Faculty of Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India and Mr. Dipan Sahu, Executive Consultant, Student Startup Policy Implementation Unit, AICTE also the guest of honor addressed on topics of streamlining innovation and start-up ecosystem in Higher Educational Institutions.

The student orientation workshop revolved around entrepreneurship and start-up. It delivered the know-how on opportunity identification, idea generation, viewing analysing and resolving a problem creatively. The second part of the workshop included venture opportunity profiling, five questions framework –industry & market, unit economics, competitive advantage, leadership team and talent management. Elements of a successful business model such as customer value proposition, profit formula, key resource.

Commenting at the function Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said,  “We are proud to partner for the one –day regional mentoring session on proof of concepts (PoC’s) for budding entrepreneurs and we are confident that such initiatives will catapult India’s economy, innovation index and research to the next level. These initiatives connect with the ecosystem for startups in India with growing ventures and ease of access to funds. Here, the role of the academia, industry and Government can further provide suitable tools and mentoring to inculcate critical and creative thinking among the budding entrepreneurs.”