Maxell Foundation announces 3-point agenda to develop entrepreneurship in Maharashtra

In a bid to generate large scale employment in Maharashtra, Maxell Foundation - a non-profit making registered charitable trust, has unveiled the three point agenda to develop entrepreneurship and promote 'Make in Maharashtra' concept.

Maharashtra's 10 crore population, which translates to approximately 2 crore families, has ability to develop one entrepreneur per 1,000 families. This would give Maharashtra 20,000 new entrepreneurs in the next 3-5 years. Even if they employ on an average 50 employees, it has the potential of creating 10 lakh new employment.
      
Speaking on the sidelines of fourth successful year of Maxell Business Awards 2015, Nitin Potdar, Founder Trustee, Maxell Foundation said, "Maxell Foundation aims to recognize the entrepreneurial zeal and award the innovative entrepreneurs across Maharashtra. We are pleased to announce our three point action points to develop an ecosystem through education that would create a wave of entrepreneurship for 'Make in Maharashtra' that would also generate large scale employment, without the need of any large investments/projects. All that we need is 'One Generation of Young Entrepreneur' that would engage our younger generation in creating productive assets."

Emphasising the need for work experience in the form of internship along with education qualification to get a job, Subhash Desai, Minister of Industry, said, "The state of Maharashtra has educated manpower and an English speaking population which attracts global companies to our state."

Recognising the importance of entrepreneurship, he added that, "The Government of Maharashtra has joined SIDBI to set up a Rs 200-crore venture capital fund with a view to providing easy financing options to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs), which traditionally face hurdles in formal sources of funding."

Maxell foundation's vision is to help create an ecosystem that would encourage next generation to take full advantage of the 'knowledge based economy', be creative and build productive assets, for which it has announced three point agenda outlined below:

1. Develop the Ecosystem for Entrepreneurship: To begin with, last year Maxell Foundation undertook an introductory program on entrepreneurship called "Maxplore - Exploring Entrepreneurship " in association with the University of Mumbai - Department of Life Long Learning & Extension. The program helped students to introspect, ideate and implement business ideas. In the first year itself, Maxplore has reached out to 1200 students from 30 colleges across Mumbai. This year, the foundation has tied up with Welingkars' We School and would scale up across the state of Maharashtra. Maxell Foundation has set an ambitious target of reaching out to critical colleges and a minimum of 5000 students across colleges from the rest of Maharashtra including Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Ahmednagar, Kolhapur and the Konkan region.

2. Engagement with Ministry of Industry: There is an urgent need to connect the educational system with the industry and this is possible only through an intense state-wide internship program. This would have multiple effects - firstly, it would provide opportunity to the students to learn direct skills in the relevant industry; secondly, it will offer them employment and the industry will get already trained/skilled people. Maxell Foundation is more than willing to engage with the Ministry of Industry to create legislation for 'Internship Act' as a part of the Maharashtra's 'Industrial Laws'.

3. Engaging with Ministry of Education: Maxell Foundation is currently working on a broad syllabus on entrepreneurship that can be part of the text books on entrepreneurship in schools and Colleges. Including entrepreneurship as a part of the curriculum subjects like History, Geography and Science in schools and colleges would be a revolutionary step and first-of-its-kind in India. It would help students to be more creative and participate constructively in building productive assets.

Vinod Tawde, Minister of Education, said, "Education in Maharashtra needs a total overhaul. And entrepreneurship needs to be cultivated at grass roots level and early in schools and not just a mere subject in colleges. Investment in education is investment in future and his Government is committed to bring about a revolution in the education system." 

He said that, "Programs like Maxplore should be taken in colleges across Maharashtra. They have already introduced tablets instead of text books to facilitate interactive learning and enriching the syllabus will be the next logical step."