Is entrepreneurship finally catching in India?

It started with a simple observation: Finalists for Conquest 2007 include just one IIT entry, and one BITS entry. All the rest are either from outside India, or from small/local colleges.

This set us thinking: does this mean that entrepreneurship, and the culture of writing biz-plans are finally catching up in India?

Surprisingly (to me), the answer seems to be a yes!

The observation above led us to look at a few other changes we've seen over the past few months. To point out just a few:

CEL has a long tradition of helping other colleges/Universities set up entrepreneurial cells of their own. We were used to requests from IIT/NITs (considered to be among the cream of Indian engineering education).

Increasingly, however, we're receiving more requests from small colleges. College of Engineering, Pune; a few from Mumbai, a small college in Mysore, some colleges in Calcutta... a pretty nationwide phenomenon, IMO.

Another indicator: Conquest has a Torchbearer program, where we invite students from colleges across the country to act as brand ambassadors in their college and spread the word. The interest in this program has increased. Not linearly with previous years, but exponentially.

And yes, I can't forget to mention the interest in Stimulus, a little business simulation game we built over the past year. Unimaginably, the Times of India finds it important enough to mention it in its nationwide supplement, Education Times. Yes, I'm surprised, and we're delighted!

I could go on and on, but I think the point is well made. Increasingly, entrepreneurship is becoming a viable and attractive career option for many.

(Do you/your college plan to set foot on this journey too? leave a comment, or talk to us at info@celbits.org. Welcome to the party!)