IIM Bodh Gaya Successfully Conducted The 3rd Edition Of Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (YES 2022) – A Sustainable Way

Envision, the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Industrial Relations, IIM Bodh Gaya organised the third edition of its flagship event - Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (YES) 2022- A sustainable way, on 5th and 6th March 2022. This venture sought to provide a platform for early-age startups and young entrepreneurs to enrich and prove their mettle even in uncertain times. The title sponsor of the event, NABARD, with DACE, BCube Ventures LLP Group as Co-Title Sponsors, The Startup Lab as Outreach Partner and Learning While Travelling as the Knowledge Partner played a big role in organizing the event.  The event was held under the guidance of Dr. Vinita S Sahay, Director, IIM Bodh Gaya; Dr. Srividya Raghavan, Chairperson, Envision Cell and Dr. Amresh Kumar, BoD, IIMBG INSPIRE. YES’22 was inaugurated by the esteemed chief guest Dr. G R Chintala, Chairman, NABARD India along with other NABARD delegates which included Dr. Sunil Kumar, CGM, NABARD Bihar; Dr. Gopakumaran Nair, CGM, NABARD Jharkhand; Shri Mrinal Ranjan, DGM, NABARD Bihar; Shri Uday Kumar, DDM, NABARD Gaya. Brief welcoming session was followed by a virtual tour of the campus. The chief guest, Dr. G R Chintala, officially launched the website of INSPIRE. The acronym INSPIRE stands for Incubation Centre to Support Innovation, Research and Entrepreneurship. IIMBG INSPIRE, the recently established Section 8 company, aims to be a centre of excellence that engenders entrepreneurs and enterprises which generate values for its shareholders, stakeholders, and society by being successful, sustainable, and socially responsible. 

Apart from the website inauguration, the summit's first day hosted a keynote speech by DR. G R Chintala, Chairman, NABARD India, and a panel discussion with Ms. Haritha Menon as the moderator. The event commenced with a welcome address by Dr. Sahay talking about the culture of startups in India; she added, "In a nation where the thought of getting things done is embedded in us from the very start, the thought we call, "Jugaad," we are innovative and creative from the very start of our lives, and the Incubation Centre means to give a strong platform to such innovators and creators." She also talked about how YES 2020 alongside INSPIRE was an initial step towards the various entrepreneurship ventures that have been planned to be laid out by the institute. The keynote speech delivered by Dr. G R Chintala addressed how the curiosity and the innovativeness of the current generation of Agri-tech startups and their movement towards changing the agricultural scenarios through their innovativeness are exemplary. He also said, "The manner in which resources are being utilised by startups that rose from very humble beginnings is remarkable and will surely drive the required change in Agri-Industry." He also spoke about the significance of NABARD's contribution towards making India self-sufficient and how, from its baby steps, it grew into what it is today, greatly rewarding the citizens as well as our country. This was followed by a panel discussion which hosted an esteemed panel of 4 including Mr. Amit Kumar Agarwal, Founder & CEO, NoBroker.com; Mikhil Innani, MD & CEO, Apollo Finvest; Rahul Abraham Mamman, Founder, Haeal; Anil Joshi, Founder & Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures and moderated by Ms. Haritha Menon, Co-founder, Finish Factory. Aligning with the theme of YES 2022- A sustainable way, Mr. Agarwal said, "It is essential to understand when to prioritise profits as, in the end, it is the purpose of any business, and it won't be right if we are sacrificing the demands of a customer for a superficial pursuit." He was followed by Mr. Innani, who spoke about how justifying a product's or idea's value has become important in today's scenario. He also emphasised the fact that the golden area for value addition lies in building something that gives outstanding value and has a sustainable dimension too. The moderator, Ms. Menon, through her skillful words, led the discussion to focus on how vital it is to examine if Sustainability aids that purpose or if Sustainability can be that purpose. Mr. Abraham Mamman said, "Sustainability has become important for a lot of people, so it should be important for businesses too. Also, it does make sense on a granular level as it is better and more efficient to choose sustainable options than unsustainable ones." Further ahead in the discussion, Mr. Joshi inspired the young upcoming entrepreneurs through his words. He asked them not to be scared of failure and to take risks to promote their ideas if they believe in their greater potential.

The evening session on the inaugural day saw the finalists of Pitch Perfect, a business plan competition held in connection with YES 2022, battle it out with each other. The presentations were judged by Mr. Arun Antony, Founder, YE Stack, and MD, Transform Group; and Ms. Sarit Prajna Sahu, Founder of Adihuman and Co-Founder and  Director of Marketing and Communications  UUO Innovation Private Limited.

The second day of the event was kicked off with a keynote session by Mr. Deepak Pareek, CEO, AgriWatch & Technology Pioneer, World Economic Forum. He addressed the difficulties faced by the Indian agricultural sector during the pandemic and went on to say, “ if the Indian economy has to be pulled up one has to understand the rural agri as well as systematic “. you will never understand the pain of the farmer unless you have tried it yourself.” He also talked about the issues caused by migration and climate change in the agri business. The latter half of the morning session hosted Mr. Vikram Kaleeswaran, Director- Sales & Marketing, DACE, BCube Ventures LLP Group. He spoke about how technology has become the need of the hour and about the growing rate of dependency on IOT to make machines smarter for an easier and convenient lifestyle. This was followed by the final round of Business War, a case study competition held as a part of YES’22. It was judged by a panel of 3 including Mr. Kaleeswaran; Mr. Balasubramaniam, Director-Technical, DACE, BCube Ventures LLP Group and Dr. Amresh Kumar. After a brief talk session, Shri Mrinal Ranjan, DGM, NABARD Bihar gave away the prizes to the winners of Pitch Perfect and Business War.

Dr. Srividya Raghavan extended a heartfelt vote of thanks to the guests and participants as well as the team for their efforts and hardwork. The 2 day event was concluded successfully on 6th March 2022.