Ending Soon! Save 33% on All Access

'Networking is the Key to Become Successful Entrepreneurs' Industry stalwarts, who attended the event, talked about how they overcame their challenges to disrupt the market with their unique ideas

By Komal Nathani

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

IIT Kanpur

In an attempt to kindle the entrepreneurship spirit within students, IIT-Kanpur recently held its annual event, "eSummit 2017'. The three-day event was packed with a variety of activities, including seminars and talk sessions where successful businessmen shared their entrepreneurial experience with students and addressed their queries.

Several workshops and competitions were arranged to groom young minds in building their own ventures.

Workshop on Networking Skills

"Seeding the Impact' was the theme of this year's summit, which trained students on their networking skills.

IIt-Kanpur's annual event has always been popular and successful in encouraging students to come up with the best of innovative ideas.

And, this year too, the institute has brought great speakers to guide students in their pursuits.

Director's Vision

IIT-K Director Dr. Indranil Manna while addressing the gathering talked about his endeavour to make the institute on a par with MIT in terms of entrepreneurial and incubation opportunities.

Manna said the INR 300-crore research park has facilities to provide students co-working spaces and other amenities.

Expert Speak

Industry stalwarts like Sanjeev Agarwal, BVR Mohan Reddy, Sandeep Aggarwal, Arvind Pradhan and Sumit Dutta Chowdhury talked about how they overcame their challenges and disrupted the market with their unique ideas.

Co-founder of Helion Ventures Sanjeev Agarwal stressed that the present scenario was appropriate for young individuals to play with their ideas. Citing the example of Elon Musk, he drew home the point how the youths were disrupting the well-established industries in the world.

BVR Mohan Reddy (Chairman, Cyient) emphasized on how entrepreneurship was the need of the hour as he relived his memories at IIT-Kanpur. He suggested that Indian economy should generate 100 million jobs in the next 10 years and predicted that 60% of them would be from start-ups and small scale businesses.

Founder of ShopClues Sandeep Aggarwal motivated budding entrepreneurs saying, "It takes time to establish a product and your enterprise and then to take it to the next level. A good product is never done. You strive your entire lifetime to improve it."

The workshops saw an overwhelming participation from students and guests. Most of them were overenthusiastic to get their "dualfies' or "groupfies' clicked with the man, who spoke on "Design Thinking', — Prakash Maheshwari from Focus Adventures India.

More than 1,500 people attended the summit. Like every year, students felt benefitted from the opportunity of listening to the who's who of the business world, from whom they gained some fascinating insight into the art of doing business.

Komal Nathani

Former Correspondent, Entrepreneur Asia Pacific

A firm believer of hard work and patience. Love to cover stories that hold a potential to change the momentum of business world. Currently, a part of all-women web team of Entrepreneur’s Asia Pacific edition to jig the wheel of business journalism!

Thought Leaders

Need More Confidence? These 10 Bestselling Books Will Help Improve Your Self-Esteem

Self-esteem can be hard to come by and even harder to maintain. To give yourself a boost, try these authors' words of wisdom.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

News and Trends

Navigating the Boom: How Investors Are 'AI-ing' Big in India

While the startup ecosystem tries to leave the funding winter behind, the AI startups and investors are having a pleasant time

Side Hustle

The Side Hustle He Started at Age 15 Led to a $4 Billion Boon for Small Businesses: 'They Would Take a Chance on Me With Their Hard-Earned Money'

Nic Beique asked his local barber, gym and more if they'd like him to build a website for their businesses.

News and Trends

IVY Growth Launches INR 250 Crore Sector-agnostic VC Fund 'Arigato Capital'

It will look to back agritech, cleantech, generative AI, fintech, consumer brands, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies

News and Trends

Collective Artists Network Secures Investment from Nikhil Kamath

The investment is a secondary transaction, that is poised to open the road to a '5X' return, thanks to a strategic exit for InMobi's Glance, which had an investment in Collective dating back to 2021.