CII-AP to team up with academa to train students on enterpreneurship

Visakhapatnam: CONFEDERATION of Indian Industry (CII) AP State council chairman Datla Tirupathi Raju's focus will be to spread innovation culture to create first generation entrepreneurs.

Raju, Executive Chairman of Vijaynagar Biotech Pvt Ltd who recently took over as the head of AP unit of CII, said they would be partnering with Indian Institute of Management-Vizag, Indian Institute of Technology-Tirupati, Andhra University College of Engineering and other premier institutes to depute their experts to train students on entrepreneurship to help students to make use of their creative talent in contributing to the country's GDP and generating job opportunities.

In an exclusive interview to Bizz Buzz, he said they would be conducting bootcamps shortly so as to encourage students on nitty-gritty of entrepreneurship. This would help the Central Government's flagship programme Atmanirbar Bharat and the State's initiative to create more entrepreneurs to put AP in the driver's seat in accelerating growth. "If right idea is pitched and validation is done by the prospective entrepreneur on their plans, funding won't be a hindrance. Besides government agencies, angel investors, high net-worth investors (HNI) crowd-funding and other options could be explored," he opined.

Raju, who did Masters in Management from Dr Rajendra Prasad Institute of Technology and trained in biodynamic agriculture under the guidance by Peter Procter, Biodynamic Association of New Zealand, said there are several unexplored opportunities in the field of food processing industries, supply chain management, agriculture, water supply management, solid waste management, recycling of water and other sectors.

"Strong will power and out-of-the box ideas will help youngsters in redeeming their dreams to become successful entrepreneurs. At the same time they should remember that there is no short-cut to success," he stated.

He started his career with trading of chemicals, established poultry, steel re-rolling mills, cement grinding, pesticide formulations and horticulture.

Raju is of the strong belief that industry-academia partnership would help in addressing the problem of getting job-ready engineers and managers. At the same time, more thrust should be on generating more entrepreneurs as unemployment has become a matter of serious concern mainly after the coronavirus pandemic.

The new CII chairman said the industries would be convinced to earmark more funds for environmental protection under corporate social responsibility. Better compliance of the laws enacted by the governments would certainly help achieve higher index of happiness by improving quality of life, he stated.