Sher-e-Kashmir University for Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) in collaboration with Lemon Ideas started an Entrepreneurship Development and Skill Building Program for the students of SKUAST-K. The inaugural event for the program happened on 24th July 2020 which was moderated by Lt Col Saurabh Shah (Retd) VP, BD& Partnerships at LSE. Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor of SKUAST-K Prof Nazeer Ahmed attended the event as the Chief guest. Other prominent guests were Prof Nazir Ahmed Ganai PI NAHEP, Mr. Deepak Menari CEO Lemon Ideas, Mr. Mukesh Ashar Director and Cofounder Lemon School of Entrepreneurship(LSE), Prof MF Baqual Associate Dean COTS Mirgund; Prof AH Hakeem Dean Agriculture, Dr. Farahnaaz Rasool, Dr. Naveed Bhatt . The event started with a welcome note by Dr.Farahnaaz Rasool followed by a brief overview of the program by Lt. Col. Saurabh Shah as under.
- Duration of the program is going to be 3 months.
- There will be 2 sessions each week on Thursday and Friday.
- Students will be encouraged to participate in What An Idea Competition both as an individual and group.
- Mentoring period will be of 120 minute.
- My Story session by entrepreneurs.
- Panel discussion of 120 min by industry experts and Entrepreneurs.
- E-certificate will be provided to all the participants.
- Assessment of the students will be done through real time assignments.
Further Takeaways from the program are:
- 30 candidates will be selected for advanced course.
- Prizes to top 5 in What An Idea contest from SKUAST-K.
- Direct entry to top 3 ideas in innopreneurs regional round.
- Leadership and volunteers will get special mention.
Further Information about the program:
- Total of 179 registrations were received out of which 85 were selected on the basis of EO Assessment and feedback received from faculties of SKUAST-K.
- Distribution
of the students:
- Bachelors-58%
- Masters-21%
- Ph.D-21%
The event was taken forward by Chief mentor of the program Mr. Mukesh Ashar, he specially mentioned that mentors can only provide information to students, it is up to students to process the information and turn it into knowledge. He gave the analogy of horse and jockey for the philosophy of Lemon Ideas, where the horse is the Idea and Jockey is a person who can turn it anyhow he/she wants, but he has to be very powerful.
The next person to address the event was Professor Baqual, Firstly he mentioned the problem of unavailability of jobs in all the markets due to the current crisis. He mentioned that the Entrepreneurship program by Lemon Ideas will help address the issue of sickle bleeding in the valley. Further event proceeded with the address from Mr. Deepak Maneria, CEO, Lemon Ideas. He appreciated SKUAST-K, for being futuristic and thanked them for coming up with all the arrangement in short span of time. He encouraged the students by telling them about his belief of turning the Lemon in the form of talent to the Lemonade in the form of self employment and entrepreneurship. He also told the students, that he hoped to meet them in the ” Phygital” form, which is a new termed coin due to thecurrent situation. He firmly believes that mentors can only play the role of catalyst in the development of the students and their talent. He also thanked Ministers in Government of India for their support.
Prof. Nazeer Ganaiwas next person to speak, he warm heartedly welcomed Lemon to SKUAT-K and showed full faith in their training and assessment. He also praised their students for enthusiastic participation even with 2G connectivity in Kashmir. He emphasized that SKUAT-K is the only agricultural university to win India Innovate Competition on National level. He told that their model is to connect research and knowledge feedback to the curriculum.
Vice Chancellor of SKUAST-K personally addressed the students and dignitaries present at the event. He showed the gratitude and appreciation for the structure three months program. He mentioned that the aim of university aligns with the aim of Honorable Prime Minister of India i.e to not only give them skills but also turn them into entrepreneurs, so that they can provide employment to others. He told that SKUAST-K is already developing patentable technology and aims at commercializing it.
The program concluded with the vote of thanks from Prof. Farooq . A. Zaki. He gave due credit to Vice Chancellor Nazeer for his vision and talked about life cycle of innovation, which starts from idea than turns into technology and then develops into innovation. He gave Lemon responsibility of turning ideas of their students into innovation. Quoting former President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, he told everyone present in the event that entrepreneurship depends on imagination.
With the closure of the program participants were encouraged to take up voluntary roles in the program, which will be on rotating basis, specifically to develop their interests. These roles are.
- Participation Manager- they will be in charge of making sure of everyone’s participation in activities.
- Activity Manager- They will be the charge of various activities that will take place in the duration of program.
- Social Media Manager- They will be in the charge of social media promotion of the campaign.
- Creative Manager- They will be in the charge of creating graphics for the program.
- Blogger- They will be in the charge of creating content for the promotion of the program.
- Happiness Manager- They will be in the charge of activities feedback.
Mr. Deepak Maneria gave analogy of Hot Chocolate on Vanilla ice-cream for this part of the program, comparing program to vanilla ice-cream and voluntary roles to hot chocolate.
