2021 and 2022 are said to be the years of Start-Up i.e. India has produced the maximum number of Unicorns in the year 2021 and is expected to double the number in 2022. Keeping up with the trend XLRI ExPGDM Organised a Virtual Conclave on 6th March 2022 ‘Ingenium – The Start-Up Conclave, This Conclave was started to give a platform to showcase the journey of the Start-Up. In its second year the central theme of the Conclave was ‘Xlerating Start-Ups to Unicorn’.
The Conclave started with an Inaugural Address by Dean of Academics Professor A.K.Pani, XLRI Jamshedpur emphasizing the need of the start-up and elaborating on the entrepreneurship program in XLRI. It was followed by the Chief Guest Address by Dr. Madnesh Kumar Mishra, Former Joint Secretary at Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India on Start-ups: Its role for Indian Economic Growth and Future Road Map. He talks about how start-ups are boosting the economics and need of youths to have an entrepreneurial mindset.
The second speaker of the conclave was Mr. Ankit Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Dare2Compete and talk about How to be a Successful Entrepreneur, the pillars of entrepreneurship. It was then followed by a Keynote Address by Mr. Srihari Sikhakollu, CEO, eRemit Singapore on Transforming Remittances- eRemit Singapore Way with Commercial and Social Impact at Heart.
The first half of the session came to an end with a Panel Discussion on Navigating the Challenges of an Emerging Ecosystem by Mr. Sandro Stephen, Vice President, Indian Angel Network, Mr. Rahul Singh, Program Manager VC Partnerships, Microsoft for Startups, Ms. Smita P Mishra, Founder, Fandoro Technologies, Ms. Aastha Grover, Head Startup India Hub, Invest India moderated by Prof. Rahul Kumar Shukla, Assistant Professor, XLRI Jamshedpur. The discussion talked about many topics like VC funding, hurdles faced by entrepreneurship.
The second half of session started with a Keynote Address by Ms. Harnoor Kaur, Co-Founder, Evage Ventures. She talked about the future of EV in india and discussed on different hydrogen fuels as alternatives of petrol and diesel. It was followed by a Keynote Address by Mr. Maheshwer Peri, Founder & CEO, Careers360 on Topic: Ethics is No Longer an Option emphasizing on need of ethics as the building block of start-ups and repercussions of it when there is a lack of it. It’s impacted on long term journey of the startup.
Later, the session was followed by another Keynote Address Mr. Kush Mehra, CBO, PineLabs on Topic: The Revolution called Fintech and how this sunshine sector can boost your career. He talked about his failures before becoming a success.
The next session was a fireside chat moderated by Rajeev Roy, Professor of Entrepreneurship, CEO XCEED, XLRI with Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder, Naukri.com on topic: Importance of Consumer Insights in Building Businesses. They discussed on how consumer behaviour has changed in the current scenario leading to new start-ups. Importance of understanding consumer behaviour and it’s impact.
The session continued with the next keynote address by Mr. Sharat Dhall, COO, Policybazar.com an alumnus of XLRI on how to build a start-up . He shared many anecdotes that led to the creation of Policy bazar. The govt policies impacting the policies and startup.
It was followed by a session with by Mr. Vivek Sinha, COO, Unacademy, on Rethinking how India Learns – the Unacademy way discussing on how education landscape has changed, how they have made it affordable by different modules of Unacademy. The last but not the least guest of the session was by Mr. Sandeep Gupta, COO, Innovaccer, discussing on Putting Innovation at the Heart of Healthcare.
The Day concluded with a vote of thanks by the Placement Committee summarising the whole session.
