Latest news with #TheHindu-TamilNaduStartupSummit2025
The Hindu
24-04-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
T.N. Startup Summit: Mindset shift crucial to building global brands from small towns, note panellists
Mindset shift is the need of the hour to build global brands from small towns. This was one of the key deliberations at a session organised as part of The Hindu-Tamil Nadu Startup Summit 2025 in the city on Thursday. The summit was hosted by The Hindu along with SRM Institute of Science and Technology and co-presented by StartupTN in association with Sify Technologies. Tracing The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)-Chennai's journey in inspiring, mentoring and networking entrepreneurs, its executive director, Akhila Rajeswar, said the organisation was now present in 37 districts across the State. She was addressing the session on 'Nurturing Entrepreneurship in south Tamil Nadu: Opportunities and Challenges.' TiE had now turned its focus from startups to micro, small and medium enterprises and holds networking events in vernacular language to be more accessible to entrepreneurs in the State, she said. Retention of talent, digital divide and lack of resources were some of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in south Tamil Nadu. Panellists also spoke on the self-imposed constraints among the entrepreneurs in the southern districts which were restricting them from scaling up their business. On the funding pattern and investors, Chandu Nair, startup advisor and member, executive board, The Chennai Angels, said Tamil Nadu was yet to develop a robust ecosystem of entrepreneurs and enterprises interested in funding startups through efforts like equity investment. Regulations by various government authorities were another deterrent for aspiring entrepreneurs. Nearly 65% of the regulatory reforms fall within the purview of the State. Besides revamping education for research, entrepreneurs must draw examples from other countries like Israel and Vietnam that have built thriving business ecosystem. Describing south Tamil Nadu as trade zone, Sivakumar Palanisamy, vice-president, StartupTN, said many entrepreneurs were reluctant partially due to fear of failures and called for a change of mindset. Startup TN, with regional hubs in various places, had learnt that southern districts did not imitate entrepreneurship in urbanscape but created their own identity and promoted their culture and traditions through their ventures, he added. A framework was being built in south Tamil Nadu, taking into account affordability, accessibility and availability. It was time to prepare the workforce for AI driven future and create new streams of business models, Mr. Palanisamy said. Panelists underlined the need to prepare entrepreneurs to experiment and explore their potential to build international brands. Sangeetha Kandavel, Senior Assistant Editor, The Hindu, moderated the session.
The Hindu
24-04-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
T.N. Startup Summit: Experts call for early exposure to entrepreneurial experiences in schools to nurture innovation among students
Instilling entrepreneurial education at the school level is key to shaping the future. Educational institutions have a pivotal role in providing early exposure to creative thinking among students, said experts in a session organised at The Hindu-Tamil Nadu Startup Summit 2025 held in Chennai on Thursday. The summit was organised by The Hindu along with SRM Institute of Science and Technology, and co-presented by StartupTN in association with Sify Technologies. Addressing the session on 'Startup Success Begins in the Classroom:The Power of Education in Innovation', Krishnan Balasubramanian, Institute professor, IIT Madras, spoke about his experiences in mentoring startups. The focus was to enable mindset change among faculty and students to bring deep tech solutions from lab to market. Noting that expectations about educational institutions had evolved from teaching, research to metrics of patents and their translational effect, he said building startup ecosystems was one of the strong translational effects. Every institution must commit itself to creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem and take learning beyond the classrooms. Students have to look at technological learning and also raise funds for their ventures. He said students need to be on board early to cultivate innovation skills. The concept must spread to other streams like agricultural institutions apart from engineering colleges. Revathi Venkatraman, professor and chairperson, School of Computing, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, said, 'Students are encouraged to discuss failed attempts and promote the culture of entrepreneurship in academic environment. They are motivated to embrace failures, adopt solutions and emerge resilient.' Emphasising the introduction of entrepreneurial skills at school level, she said college students were exposed to a series of interventions, including boot camps and interaction with successful entrepreneurs. These interventions boosted their confidence to cope with failures. They also learnt about challenges of rural people through community connect programmes and came up with socially relevant solutions, she added. Pointing out that incubation cells were a source of support to startups, Shaivee Malik, co-founder and COO, Yotuh Energy, said such cells were part of ecosystem and helped discuss issues with other startup founders. Mentorship and motivation were important particularly for those venturing into a sector without background. Sudarshan Varatharajan, co-founder and CEO, Bversity, too underlined the significance of introducing entrepreneurial experiences early in schools and said it would help mindset among students and expose them to business and innovation skills. Chandran Krishnan, managing director and CEO, Campus Angels Network who moderated the session, said universities were becoming hubs for entrepreneurship, innovation and incubation.
