CII honours emerging entrepreneurs

CHENNAI: In a bid to encourage entrepreneurs from the Southern region, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) honoured five emerging entrepreneurs here on Friday.Speaking on the occasion, C K Ranganathan, CII chairman of the Task Force on Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Southern region and chairman and managing director of CavinKare Limited, said that 200 entries were received from across the Southern states. Of these, 36 entrepreneurs had been shortlisted by an eminent award panel based on the criteria laid down by the Knowledge Partner, Grant Thornton, and  five emerged as winners.Creator of Chotta Bheem and chief executive officer of Green Gold Animation Rajiv Chilakalapudi was felicitated with an Emerging Entrepreneur Award in concept and execution, while flipkart.com’s Sachin and Binny Bansal were honoured with the Strategy and Scaling up Award.The Niche Marketing Initiative Award was given to K K Karnan, chairman of KKR group, while Vishwanath Alluri, CEO, IMI Mobile, Hyderabad, was honoured with the International Business Award. Dr B S Ajaikumar, Chairman, Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd, Bengaluru, was also honoured. Earlier, N Kumar, chairman, Jury Committee, CII Regional Emerging Entrepreneur Award and vice-chairman, The Sanmar Group, said that entrepreneurs were of national requirement as growth came predominantly from the private sector.  Vice-president of CII and executive co-chairman of Infosys Limited S Gopalakrishnan stressed the need to nurture the students into entrepreneurship when they are in the college level. He stressed the need to create an incubator when students are in college. “It is an experiment worth trying… Right now, it is a good time to start entreprenuership ventures as a huge transformation is taking place,” he added. T T Ashok, Chairman, CII Southern Region, said  “innovation plays a major role in any entrepreneurship venture. We cannot create entrepreneurs without innovation”. He also mentioned that the Tamil Nadu Vision 2023 – released by the CM envisioned creating a conducive environment for Entrepreneurship Development in the State.