A palpable excitement engulfed the audience at TAG Auditorium on 8th February, 2018 as South India’s Biggest Entrepreneurship Festival, Enantrakickstarted with the welcome address of Dr. Ravikumar, Director of Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Anna University. The event was graced by eminent personalities including two IAS officers,Dr. Rajendra Kumar and DharmendraPratapYadav along withShrimathiSajeevana, Director of Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII)in the august presence of Dr.T.V Geetha, Dean, CEG and Dr. Vasudevan, President of Alumni Association, Anna University. Every personality on the dais enlightened the audience with empowering words on entrepreneurship and how the world opens doors for youth who are courageous enough to go out there and win the game. Facts such as India’s 69thposition in the Global Ecosystem of Entrepreneurshipwere stated.The need for entrepreneurial minds in the country was highlighted through examples of government-run programs such as NEED (New Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Development), a platform for budding start-ups in India,which has an acute shortage of applicants every year. Organizations like EDIIare escalating the start-up trend in India with their boot camps, idea camps and incubators.
Guest Speakers:
Senthil Kumar, Founder of MADIEE
A mechanical engineer from CEG and the son of a weaver-tailor couple from Namakkal,SenthilKumar went on to pursue his MS in UK. He had always wanted to become an academician as he was well aware of the role of a teacher in the society. Having realized during his college days that teaching was the least preferred profession by many, he was determined to change the perspective towards teaching professionals and its methodologies and that was how MADIEE (Making a Difference in Engineering Experience) happened. Having gained a lot of exposure and insight through the Young India Fellowship and JagritiYatra, he was convinced that liberal arts must be made mandatory in a graduate’s curriculum. He stressed on the demographic advantageIndia has over other countries (Ours is the youngest country in the world) and how putting yourself in the shoes of different professionals adds value to your own perspective.
Neelam Jain, Founder of Periferry
Neelam, a social entrepreneur and an eccentric graduate from Stella Maris worked for two years in the world-renowned Goldman Sachs. During one of her projects for the company, she came across the transgender community and through brief talks comprehended the miserable life they were leading in the Indian society. Moved by this, she quit her job and commenced a startup, Periferry, which works for the transgender community in India. Even though socializing with transgenders is considered a taboo, she did not allow the walls of the conservative society to curtail her. Her goal is to establish diversity in the workforce of the country. Just ten months into the field, she has already been featured more than 40 times in newspapers and on social media. She spoke on the importance of coming up with a business model that suffices a social entrepreneurship venture such as Periferryand also on the inclusion of the transgender community in the industrial workforce, ferrying them from the edges of the society to the global front. She truly stands as an inspiration to women out there!
PremananthSethurajan, Founder of LMES (Let’s Make Engineering Simple)
His very first sentence on stage “Tamil la pesalam” garnered a deafening roar of applause,a standing testimony to his YouTube stardom. His jovial nature and casual mannerisms struck a chord with the audience. Like the other speakers, he narrated his rise from a cliched ECE student to a YouTube personality and shared funny yet impactful anecdotes. His first moment of realization happened during an on-site visit to Michigan where a white gentleman explained to him what the imaginary number ‘i’ actually stood for. Having left a lucrative career in the US to pursue what he felt he should be doing,PremananthSethurajan is extremely happy with his decision. He urged the youngsters in the roomto follow their hearts as well. He concluded with a video clip about Fibonacci series in nature which left many of us musing over our own academic pursuits. Food for thought indeed!
Team Dronix
A team that rose above all trials to victory, these students fromPanimalar College of Engineering established a fleet of drones called Dronix to reduce manual labor and time consumption in agriculture, industries etc. Their newest innovation is called the “Hexacopter” which is a six-winged drone. ‘Policy>Innovation’ is their stand on entrepreneurship because innovations require supportive policies for implementation and recognition.
The eventwitnessed the confluence of dynamic, exuberant and congenialminds all suited up to carve a niche for themselves in the business world. Enantra is definitely an initiative which serves as an excellent catalyst for the aspiration of many students, be it CEG or beyond.
