more-in In an initiative said to be the first of its kind in the country, the Entrepreneurship Development cell of the Puducherry government will open an ‘Innovation Café’ aimed at encouraging exchange of ideas and information. The Innovation Café will be launched by Revenue and Information Technology Minister M.O.H.F. Shahjahan at the government-run Pondicherry Engineering College (PEC) campus at Kalapet here on Friday. The café is an effort of ‘Inclusive Entrepreneurship’ in which dropouts and those who don’t have a formal education will be given hand-holding for any viable entrepreneurship ideas. “The objective is to identify and recognise entrepreneurial ideas and explore to link them for further support with stakeholders concerned from the government, non-governmental organisations and private agencies,” Prof. S. Ramkumar, Director, Entrepreneurship Development cell said. Minister Shahjahan told The Hindu, “The main objective is to identify more entrepreneurs from the youth community. The government already has a tie-up with engineering colleges. We will invite people including students and dropouts and discuss their ideas such as a startup business. The Ggovernment will try to patent innovative ideas and support by hand-holding them.” Tapping potential At the Innovation café, students can also guide the government on how to solve certain burning issues. The café will provide a platform for them to think and bring out their own potential and creativity, Mr. Shahjahan said. The ED cell has planned to have one such café in each of the Communes in the UT. This will be an entrepreneurship promotion effort which will reach the ordinary people who have a creative or original innovation to share with and who are often unreached, Mr. Ramkumar said. “We are looking at more job providers rather than job seekers and the ideas should ultimately end in entrepreneurship. Initially, the café will function for two hours in a month wherein people can visit and propose their ideas to a group of members. A team comprising of representatives from the government, Confederation of Indian Industry will listen to the ideas and help them to connect to the next level,” he said. The Entrepreneurship Development cell will also launch a programme to build entrepreneurship among the students of schools and colleges in the UT. The objective is to identify and nurture the qualities when they are young so that they become successful entrepreneurs, Mr. Ramkumar said. The competition is open to school and college students. The students will be classified into different groups and the 10 best ideas will be given certificates. The first three ideas will be given assistance for a startup by the government in partnership with the CII and industrial agencies.

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