National seminar in Hybrid mode on “Fostering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Youth” was organized by School of Life & Basic Sciences and Entrepreneurship Development Innovation Incubation Cell in collaboration with Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute on February 27, 2024. Dr Meenal Rehman briefed the participants regarding the offline and online sessions of the seminar and the topics of the resource person.
Dr. Rahul Mishra, Director, KNHPI / State Director, KVIC, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India motivated the students to develop innovative thinking and explained the concept with common examples of entrepreneurship. He explained the significance of various student oriented seminars which will be beneficial for them. The resource persons present in the seminar were Prof Pratyoosh Shukla, School of Biotechnology, Centre for Bioinformatics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi who made the students aware of biotechnology based entrepreneurship ideas: Avenues and possibilities. He talked about student innovation mechanism and different funding opportunities for entrepreneurship. He motivated students towards future scope and applications in bioentrepreneurship as in the form of biofertilizer manufacturing unit for the production of bioinoculants for sustainable agriculture or creating a synthetic microbial consortium useful in tolerance against environment stress. He suggested books like Advances in Enzyme technology for new ideas on Entrepreneurship and Microbial enzymes & Biotechniques. Mr Abhishek Ranjan, Innovation Officer, Ministry of Education’s Innovation Officer, Govt. of India. New Delhi briefed the students regarding different government aided schemes for empowering youth in higher academic institutions. He emphasized that students should have definite end goals and should apply sustainable approach to innovation & entrepreneurship. Dr. Sunita Chauhan Biotech lab I/C, Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute delivered a talk on Recycling of waste paper and handmade papermaking- Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Sustainability. She described the scope of biotechnology & microbiology in various aspects of waste paper treatment. Different raw materials can be used for making handmade paper and waster paper recycling is one of the field for the starting small business start-ups.
The vote of thanks was given by Prof Divya Shrivastava in which she appreciated the guidance of administration and support of faculty members for making the seminar successful. Total 252 participants were present in the seminar. The seminar was organised in order to develop a holistic understanding of bioentrepreneurship among students and to motivate the mindset required to identify opportunities and innovation.