IIT Kharagpur organized Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2022

 

March 21, 2022, West Bengal, India: Entrepreneurship Cell under the aegis of Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship of IIT Kharagpur, conducted their annual flagship event the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2022, on the theme ‘Innovation for Inclusion’ from 10^th  to 13^th March in an online mode. The event was inaugurated by Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Hon’ble Director, IIT Kharagpur. Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India graced the event with his presence. Mr. Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, Gupshup, and Mr. Saugata Gupta, Managing Director & CEO, Marico Ltd were the guest speakers at the opening ceremony.

The summit had a plethora of events over the four days, including competitions in various segments with titles like GES Pitchers, Intern Carnival, Co-Founder’s meet, PhonePe’s PayHack, Business Game, Gaming Night and HP Innov-Ethos. There were many workshops including ‘Evolution of FinTech in India’ conducted by Mr. Srijon Biswas, Head of Engineering, PhonePe and ‘Technology and Innovation: How it’s important for entrepreneurship’ by Mr. Vipul Mittal, Transformation Leader at Ernst and Young Global Delivery Services. GES had a global outreach with international panellists from countries like USA, Brazil, Germany, Australia and Finland besides others. With over 100 renowned investors, 300+ entrepreneurs and over 1500 college students from across the country as well as faculty members from numerous universities, the level of engagement was remarkably high.

Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, appreciated the contribution of the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Kharagpur fostering innovation and entrepreneurship among the youth of India with the support to set up business, training, incubation, patents and funding. He added that the knowledge and application of Science, Technology, Research and Entrepreneurship will be benefitting India to become ‘Aatmanirbhar’. He delineated the importance of such summits in promoting the culture of Entrepreneurship and understand as to how small idea grows into big businesses. He talked about the emerging sectors, working towards sustainability, such as electric vehicles, battery swapping, green hydrogen and ammonia and solar panels alongside windmills. He urged that the priorities of the stakeholders need to be aligned with the country’s commitment to net-zero carbon emission in the future and called upon entrepreneurs to work with innovative ideas for generating energy from waste material making India more self-reliant and clean.

Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, stressed on the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship reflecting the enormous possibilities in solving the problems and socio-economic issues involving healthcare, water and environment.

Mr. Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, Gupshup, remarked that Entrepreneurship is about can-do attitude, it is not about IQ, rather it is about EQ, to hone the ability to sell and be creative in approach. Mr. Saugata Gupta, Managing Director & CEO, Marico Ltd explained why innovation is important for startups.

Mr. Muhammad Yunus, Hon’ble Noble Laureate, remarked that today job creators are needed rather than job seekers and emphasised on the importance of social entrepreneurship.

GES 2022 gained the support of many corporate sponsors and was presented by Reliance Industries Limited, co-sponsored by PhonePe and powered by Acer. The entire event was conducted under the able guidance of Prof. Pranab Kumar Dan, Associate Professor, Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship