“National Workshop on Start Ups” @ College of Agriculture, Vijayapur

With the aim of bringing awareness on opportunities and support system from Government and other institutes and policies for setting up of StarUps in Agriculture and allied sectors for the students and faculty the “National Workshop on Start Ups” was organized at College of Agriculture, Vijayapur under the aegis of the World Bank funded ICAR-NAHEP-Institutional Development Plan (IDP) project on 15 December 2020. Dr. S. B. Kalaghatagi, Dean (Agri), AC, Vijaypur & Nodal officer extended a warm welcome to all the participants. Dr. P. U. Krishnaraj, Principal Investigator of the project gave a brief note of the IDP project and upcoming events for students. Dr. K. V. Ashalatha, Assoc. Coordinator introduced the chief guest and resource persons.

The workshop was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Shri Sathyanarayana B. V., Ex-Deputy Head, StartUp Karnataka. He highlighted about the Indian Startup scenario and advised students to work hard to reap the real benefit of the Startups. He also opined that setting up a time frame and punctually adhering to that is very important for the business people. He also told that ideas when generated are to be implemented without time lag to get the advantage in business, as the similar ideas will also be simultaneously being thought by others. He urged the faculty to create a good environment system in the campus to attract the students to multiply their idea. As students are rejecting the sales job in the company he asked the students to accept the sales job where an opportunity to learn about the company and that will helps to design the product based on the needs of the market.

Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Dr. M. B. Chetti, in his presidential remarks highlighted the key features of a successful entrepreneur stressing on a good network which can result into an effective marketing of the products through valid negotiations. He highlighted about the policy draft on Agri-Startups which is being submitted to Govt of Karnataka for approval under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. Ayyappan and in presence of other competent authorities. Resource person, Mr. Sangram Nayaka, Founder & CEO CreditAI Pte Ltd, Singapore gave a comprehensive overview on Startup opportunities in Agriculture and allied sectors. He also discussed about potential areas where the innovations are possible to have startups for the young entrepreneurs to showcase their creativity in the business. He highlighted the scope of startups in various activities of agriculture especially in cultivation, protection, harvest and post-harvest, supply chain and logistics, market linkage including credit and finance. Also stressed the students towards more especially in cultivation activity of Agriculture have huge scopes for setting up of Startups.

Mr. Pankaj Ghode, Founder & CEO, Agri10X Pune took through his successful venture and brought out the challenges and risks involved in setting up of a StartUp. Mr. Pankaj described the importance of establishing the strong network based on ground level information and effective decision making in the business. He advised not to look at the success of others but to look at failures and lessons learnt. He advised the students to build contact with good mentors who are giving good advice and willing to be with you in all time to achieve the goal. Mr. Jaikrishna Ramesh, Manager-Marketing & Outreach, Startup Cell, KITS, and Govt. of Karnataka gave an overview of Karnataka StartUp Policy 2020 and highlighted upon several aspects of the policy including GoK initiatives in innovation and global innovation alliances. It was proudly told that Karnataka state is the first in the country to launch its own StartUp Policy and has been nationally recognized as the “Top Performer” in the state ranking. The programme was moderated by Dr. M. D. Patil, Nodal officer, AC, Vijayapur.