Varun Alagh, co-founder Mama Earth, inaugurated the PGDM Innovation Entrepreneurship & Venture Creation, at XLRI, in the Presence of Fr Paul Fernandes, Director, XLRI Jamshedpur, and Fr George Sebastian, Director XLRI, Delhi-BCR.
This was a momentous occasion for XLRI as it was the third time in the history of the oldest B-School in India and Asia, that a full time 2-year PGDM programme has been launched. The HR programme was launched 1954 and the Business Management Programme was launched in 1968. Both happened over 50 years back. This is an important step towards XLRI’s steps towards a more contemporary approach to business education. During the inauguration, there were talks by representatives of many of XLRI’s ecosystem partners including Indian Angel Network (IAN) Jagriti Yatra, Microsoft, VakilSearch, Lawyered, Qapita, Fundenable, Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) and others.
The importance of entrepreneurship in an economy has been realized by all countries and the entrepreneurial ecosystem has been growing by leaps and bounds the past few years. The educational institutions have also been important contributors by setting up incubators in several campuses including IITs and IIMs. One missing piece in this puzzle has been an effective educational programme in entrepreneurship. While the IEV programme has been offered by several other institutes, this is the first time it has been offered by such a highly ranked institution. Speaking about the programme, Varun said, “This MBA gives an unprecedented opportunity for startup founders to take a measured step towards their own business”.
It is a full time AICTE approved course in entrepreneurship which offers structured long-term support for aspiring entrepreneurs by combining management education with incubation/acceleration. It approaches management education from the viewpoint of startups and it is designed to deliver learning which is relevant and useful to entrepreneurs. As a result of this progressive and integrative approach, an aspiring entrepreneur/student doesn’t have to choose between an MBA and starting their own venture. Fr Paul mentioned, “This programme is meticulously designed to maximize experiential learning for aspiring entrepreneurs”.
This just might be the beginning of the next big thing in entrepreneurship and in business education.