CENTRE FOR
CONSCIOUS ENTREPRENEURSHIP
About The Centre
Chanakya University has established a Centre for Conscious Entrepreneurship, which will serve as a forum for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop, test, and launch their business ideas, providing resources, mentorship, and practical learning experiences. Conscious entrepreneurship is a business approach that emphasizes purpose, ethical values, and a focus on creating positive social, environmental, and economic impacts alongside financial success. Conscious entrepreneurs aim to build businesses that contribute to the well-being of society, promote sustainability, and foster personal and collective growth. Special focus would be on the students that show promise to uplift their family business
VISION
The overarching vision of this centre is
“…to create an ecosystem to foster innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial thinking among students…”
Calendar of events
| Month | Theme | Speaker | Topic |
| Jan | Emerging business / technology | Shri Dinesh Pai | FinTech |
| Feb | Women in entrepreneurship | Ms Rashmi Bansal | Stay Hungry – Stay Foolish |
| Mar | Family business | Shri Ashok Thambi | How I grew my agarbatti business |
| Apr | Agribusiness | (Founder of Akshayakalpa) | TBD |
| May | TBD | TBD | TBD |
OBJECTIVES
The key objectives of the Centre are:
- To serve as a catalyst for entrepreneurship by supporting business ideas.
- To provide a platform for students to develop and test their business ideas.
- To offer access to mentorship, workshops, and resources that will support the entrepreneurial journey.
- To foster collaboration between students, faculty, and industry professionals.
- To create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within the university community.
- To contribute to local and national economic development by supporting the creation of new businesses.
- To be a one-stop shop for all entrepreneurship related matters.
- To work on policy papers that and come up with ways by which an entrepreneurship eco system may be developed. Policy papers may be presented to government agencies.
FOCUS AREAS
Following are the focus areas of the Centre
Social Entrepreneurship
Chanakya University has state-of-art physical spaces and technological infrastructure. The university also has access to some of the finest intellectual resources (i.e., successful entrepreneurs). With the university primed to attract many students from the rural areas, there is an opportunity to create an ecosystem that can enable students to take up entrepreneurship for sustainable development and upliftment of the community. Potential areas of entrepreneurship include:
- Agriculture and agribusiness: Technological and non-technological innovations in farming, processing, storage, and distribution of agricultural output. This may also include businesses involving floriculture, sericulture, and dairy development. There may be particular interest in cultivating /producing items in a manner that may increase the productivity (i.e., following newer methods without compromising soil or ecology).
- Handicrafts and Cottage Industries: Empowering artisans to scale their businesses and reach wider markets, including overseas.
- Renewable Energy: Developing solutions like solar energy, biofuels, and wind energy for rural areas.
- Rural Tourism: Promoting eco-tourism and cultural tourism to attract visitors and generate income for local communities.
- Health and related Services: Entrepreneurship in affordable healthcare, telemedicine, and education for rural areas.
Emerging Businesses
Located in the vicinity of the Aerospace Park and the Hardware Park in Bangalore, the students, cutting across schools, would be motivated to setup their ventures that can provide goods, products, and services to the larger organizations in the park and elsewhere. Potential areas of entrepreneurship include:
- Manufacturing: Manufacturing precision components as well as prototyping, quality assurance and testing services to companies based in the park.
- Supply chain management: Offering logistics, warehousing/inventory management support for raw materials as well as finished components required by companies operating out of the parks.
Women in Entrepreneurship
Women in entrepreneurship continue to play a critical role in shaping the Indian economy. Women bring fresh perspectives, diverse problem-solving approaches, and new ideas to the market. Their participation drives innovation and creates more inclusive products and services. Their success can encourage other women to pursue their ambitions. This would not only promote gender equality but also inspire younger generations to take up entrepreneurship. The contributions of women entrepreneurs have steadily increased over the years across sectors. However, they still face challenges in starting their own ventures. Chanakya University can help women eliminate their challenges in this area.
While all the previously mentioned areas are good for women entrepreneurs, the following would specifically attract women entrepreneurs:
- FemTech: An emerging sector that focuses on products and services related to women’s health, such as menstrual health, pregnancy, menopause, and sexual wellness.
- Fashion and Beauty: Women are often at the forefront of innovation in the fashion, beauty, and skincare industries, understanding consumer needs and driving trends.
- Childcare and Family Services: Many women entrepreneurs innovate in family-oriented services, such as daycare centers, after-school programs, and products designed for working parents.
- Blogging and Influencer Marketing: Women can focus on becoming influencers or content creators in areas such as fashion, wellness, motherhood, travel, and entrepreneurship.
- Lifestyle: There’s significant demand for women’s lifestyle-related products and services, such as fitness programs, nutrition coaching, mental health apps, and self-care products.
The centre would also focus on designing programs that will enable rural women in finding out newer ways in which they can add to the financial stability of their families while being at home to take care of their home too. The centre should be a gateway for the women entrepreneurs to find their way into mainstream business.
KEY ACTIVITIES OF THE CENTRE
Key activities to enable entrepreneurship include
A foundation course on entrepreneurship would be offered to all UG and PG students of Chanakya University. This course will enable them to learn the process of creating an effective business plan, covering ideation, market research, financial planning, and execution. Modules on social entrepreneurship and microfinancing would also be included as part of the course.
Workshops. For those that are at an advanced stage of initiating a business, the centre would be able to conduct focused sessions on acquiring essential skills such as pitching, negotiation, product life cycle management, team building, leadership, and project management.
Competitions and hackathons. Students will be invited to work intensively over a short period to solve real-world problems with innovative solutions
Creation of a body of knowledge (BoK). A body of knowledge in the area of entrepreneurial practices, specifically focused on Indian Micro Small and Medium businesses, is vital for creating an ecosystem. The centre resources will be applied to create such a body of knowledge, that will include success stories of Indian entrepreneurs. This has the potential to be standard textbook for entrepreneurship courses across the nation.
Panel discussions/talks with industry and successful entrepreneurs / experts from diverse domains. Successful entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals would be invited to share their experiences, challenges, and insights with the students. We may call this as the Entrepreneurship Day @ Chanakya. The Centre would need to come up with an annual calendar. Awareness on funding related issues must also part of such discussions/talks.
Student ideation: One day in a month (possibly converging with the Entrepreneurship@Chanakya day) may be identified to allow students to make a presentation on ideas they would want to work along.
Awareness in Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG): Students would need to be made aware of the ESG right from the beginning.
Mentorship. For those students that are wanting additional help in realizing their dreams, mentorship may be offered. As part of this a student (or a group of students) would be paired with a successful entrepreneur, or an industry expert, for guidance and advise.
Annual Conference. Papers would be solicited to generate ideas for entrepreneurship. Such conferences may also be the source for enhancing the curriculum of the Chanakya University MBA program. This conference may also include invitations to national and state level policy makers as well as global thought leaders.
Skill-based training. The centre may partner with social organizations that can provide requisite training to students in areas of social interest.
Resource base. Entrepreneurs in Bangalore would have great ideas but may not have the required resources to get some work done. They can sponsor real-life projects that can be executed by our students which may be of great value when the students themselves start their ventures.
Research. The Centre can take up research activities on topics including innovation, startup ecosystems, business models, funding strategies, market trends, and entrepreneurial leadership development. In addition to doing in-house research, the Centre may also invite practice papers from academia as well as practitioners.
A combination of the above activities will help build a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem within the university, preparing students to launch their own ventures or excel in innovation-driven careers. The Centre would support students from the ideation stage to funding where possible.
OUTCOMES AND IMPACT OF THE CENTRE
This section will be updated soon.