4,300 student entrepreneurs converge for Asia's largest summit

Kochi (PTI): As many as 4,300 student entrepreneurs converged in Thrissur district on Saturday at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre Summit, billed as Asia's largest such conclave, heralding their active next level participation in the startup ecosystem of Kerala.

Aspiring entrepreneurs from the student community should have the courage to experiment, research and go ahead in their ventures without worrying about the outcome, speakers said at the summit, held at the Sahrdaya College of Engineering and Technology in Thrissur district. The field of business is riddled with problems, but it requires innovative skills to resolve them, speakers noted.

Organised by the Kerala Startup Mission, the day-long proceedings of the fourth edition of IEDC saw 4,300 delegates and 100 startups at Kodakara, 60 km north of Thrissur.

At the inaugural session, KSUM Chief Executive Officer Saji Gopinath noted that entrepreneurship is in itself primarily driven by peoples knowledge and passion for innovation. "The major secret behind the success of entrepreneurships like Facebook and Amazon is that they addressed hidden problems that had been there for years," he remarked while speaking on 'Fuelling Innovation through IEDCs'. "IEDC is a platform where one can experiment immensely," Gopinath noted.

Rajasree M S, Vice-Chancellor, A P J Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram, called for refining the countrys higher education system, considering the 'disruptive changes' around the world.

"Budding entrepreneurs should explore global opportunities and think about how their innovation can pay back to their state and country," she said.

With 'Accelerating Ideas to Industry 4.0' as the theme, the summit seeks to give IEDCs a chance to play a significant role in exposing students to the needs and aspirations of society propped up by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the release said.With a separate session on success stories, the conclave featured 25 speakers and a string of technical workshops.

The event, under KSUM as the Kerala governments nodal agency to develop the state's technology startup ecosystem, gave student delegates from across Kerala an opportunity to express their entrepreneurial ideas and get in touch with experts attending it from different parts of the world.

Organisers noted that a key determinant of a country's competitiveness is its students' talent pool: their skills, knowledge and experience, overall known as the 'soft capital'.