College to help women with start-ups

Patna: City’s Magadh Mahila College will now train its students to become lady entrepreneurs.

The premiere girl’s college of Patna University on Tuesday started an entrepreneur’s incubation centre in which experts from various organisations will train girl students about entrepreneurship skills.

College principal Shashi Sharma, whose brainchild the incubation centre is, said the college will also help students get funding from the state government to help them with their own start-ups. Sharma said the centre will not only guide students by making necessary amendments in their business plan to suit the market but also guide them on how to apply for state government funding for their business idea.

Sharma claimed her institution was the only college in the state to have started an incubation centre to promote women-centric start-ups.

Industries minister Jai Kumar Singh formally inaugurated the centre at a programme attended by Patna mayor Sita Sahu, Patna University vice-chancellor Rash Bihari Prasad Singh and pro vice-chancellor of Patna University Dolly Sinha among others.

Singh told students to become job-creators and not job-seekers. He hailed the college for starting the centre.

College principal Sharma said: “We have already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship Development, Patna, and will soon tie up with some other organisations whose experts will come to guide students.”

She said the college will enroll Part-III students in the entrepreneurship related training. “Part-I and Part-II students are not very mature. Students of all streams can register but we will promote Arts student because commerce and science students have more employment opportunities. They will be guided in a way that even if they don’t qualify for National Eligibility Test or other competitive exam, they can become job creators after college,” she said.

She said that a nominal registration fee will be charged for registration. “We will decide about the nominal registration fee at a meeting soon. We will have to give certain honorarium to the experts who guide the students,” she said.

Sharma said that an innovation club, started by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), will also run parallel to the entrepreneur’s incubation centre to help students ideate innovative business plans.

Courtesy: The Telegraph