Dr. Shashi Tharoor flagged off the ‘I am an Entrepreneur’ Campaign

Union Minister for State External Affairs, Govt. of India, Dr.Shashi Tharoor, flagged off the ‘I am an Entrepreneur’ Campaign from Technopark on August 21, 2009. Ms. Sheela Thomas IAS, Principal Secretary, Kerala State presided over the official inaugural session. Prof. Jyothi John, Hon Chief Editor, TechnoFIRST Magazine and Mr.Haroon.S, Business Head- AIRCEL, Mr. Sanjay Vijayakumar, CEO , MobME Wireless were present for the function. Technopark CEO- Mr. Mervin Alexander welcomed the Chief Guest and Mr.K.C.C Nair, CFO and Programme Co-ordinator, New Initiatives, Technopark, gave away the vote of thanks.

The campaign, initiated by Technopark-TBI/TUC, in association with Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), executed by TechnoFIRST Magazine and sponsored by AIRCEL will be visiting all the engineering colleges and few arts and science colleges across Kerala. The campaign has its sole intention as to identify and promote entrepreneurial talents in the state, especially from student level.

The objective of this campaign is to ignite the young minds in the Engineering colleges and Business Schools, changing the Entrepreneurship climate of the state and get more innovators and find out more students start-ups right from college campuses. This campaign is carried in a motivational video which shares the experiences of some of the very successful entrepreneurs and visionaries in our state and which aspires to inspire the students to take up on new projects on their own. It will be an informative and inspiring video on Entrepreneurship and Incubation Awareness. The video contains inspirational talks from various personalities, including Mr.Kris Gopalakrishnan (CEO, Infosys), as a successful entrepreneur from Kerala, and Dr.Shashi Tharoor (Hon. Minister), as a well known visionary.

Dr.Shashi Tharoor said, after lighting the lamp, that Keralites spread outside the state has extraordinary success as businessman. He urged more and more Keralites to stand up and say that ‘I am an Entrepreneur’. He pointed out that failure as an entrepreneur is not something unacceptable, but it’s only a learning phase for budding entrepreneurship. He lauded the efforts of Technopark-TBI for creating a fertile eco-system for budding entrepreneurship in the state.

Ms. Sheela Thomas presided over the function and also read the wishes from Chief Minister Sri. V S Achudanandan that Govt is very happy with the ‘I am an Entrepreneur Campaign’ because of the fact that the Campaign is addressing the Arts and Science Colleges and Rural Innovators along with the Engineering Colleges and Polytechniques and she offered to extend all possible support for the success of the campaign.

“To encourage budding entrepreneurship we provide a fantastic system called Technopark-TBI. The Campaign will give the required motivation for the students to take up the entrepreneurial route” says Mr.Mervin Alexander, CEO-Technopark.