Rajeev Chandrasekhar Mentors Northeast Youth To Become Entrepreneurs

The lush, verdant hills of North-East India conceal not only immense natural beauty but also untapped potential in terms of entrepreneurial skills among its youth. Historically and geographically separated from the rest of India, the north-east has seen its fair share of insurgency,unemployment and economic underdevelopment. Nonetheless, the region shows potential in terms of its resources, especially human resources.

With progress in the level of education among the youth as well as with exposure and awareness of economic and market environments, it is time for the young generation of north east to resist the urge to move to the mainland, look beyond government jobs and adopt a radical mindset shift in their choice of vocations. Youngsters from the north east are keen to break the mould of their traditional society and exercise their creativity, innovation and enterprising skills to bring prosperity to their land.

Giving wings to their dreams is the Impact 5000 by 18 Campaign launched by Youthnet in partnership with the Government of Nagaland. The objective of the campaign is to impact a target of 5000 young Nagas with entrepreneurial and employability skills by 2018. Mentored by Dr. Krishna Tanuku, Executive Director, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED), Indian School of Business, the campaign aims to foster a healthy private sector and thereby facilitate socio-economic prosperity of the youth and the state.

The first program of the Impact 5000 by 18 campaign is the ongoing initiative titled 'The Entrepreneur', designed to enhance business skills of 20 top emerging young entrepreneurs in Nagaland who have the ambition and potential to generate substantial growth in their businesses.To help convert their ideas into action, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament, Visionary Entreprenuer and Chairman of Jupiter Capital, a venture capital firm will be the Chief Mentor of The Entrepreneur program. As the founder of BPL Mobile and one of the first investors in the early 90's to develop India's first and largest green field telecom infrastructure, Rajeev Chandrasekhar is the dream mentor one can have.

The program will be held from August 30 to October 3 and will consist of several modules each concentrating on different aspects of business growth. The modules will be designed especially taking into account the local business environment and the businesses of the 20 participants. The emphasis throughout is on learning that is practically applicable in participants' businesses. Besides this each of the 20 participants will develop their 'business growth plan' and the winner of the 'business growth plan competition' will get 5 lakhs.

Other faculty members of the program include Dr. Rahul Mirchandani (Executive Director of Aries Agro Limited), Neichute Doulo (CEO of Entrepreneurs Associates, a microfinance firm based in Nagaland) and business professionals Rohan Abraham and Hemant Nitturkar.

By fostering entrepreneurial culture and creating an eco-system of business savvy youth through initiatives like 'The Entrepreneur', the North East can soon become the new hub for budding entrepreneurs in India.

To know more about Rajeev Chandrasekhar and 'The Entrepreneur' program visit http://impact5000by18.com