168
Step 1:
The seeds of TIE, the association of entrepreneurs backed by Indian NRIs
have been sown in Gujarat. The onus of taking Gujarat into the Internet age
now rests on bodies such as these. TIE will have to assume a leadership role in
promoting entrepreneurship within the state. It will have to look at ways and means of
encouraging and guiding “green behind the gill” businesses, and lead them to safe
dotcom havens.
By organizing workshops, dotcom
melas,
and Venture Capital (VC)
clinics, TIE could reach out to dotcom aspirants and guide them on how
to go about setting up their infant ventures/start-ups. All across Rajkot,
Bharuch, Bhavnagar, Mehsana, Godhra, Anand, Vadodara, Ahmedabad
and Surat, young men and women with excellent credentials and novel ideas are
seeking hand-holding to put in place their dotcom blueprints.
Step 2:
The Gujarat government can set up a Website which can serve as a complete
window to the dotcom world. Here potential dotcom hopefuls can ventilate their
concerns, get their queries answered and receive counseling from stalwarts in the
game. The portal could also serve as a meeting point for venture capitalists and the
“
ideas” people, where both could come together to pool their strengths and create
the relevant dotcorn chemistry.
Step 3:
There is an immediate need to set up incubation centers in at least 10 cities
and towns in Gujarat. Incubators are mostly entrepreneurial entities that provide
value-added advisory, information and support infrastructure, including a productive
office environment, finance and complementary resources. Incubators can be
promoted by the government, professional organization or even NRIs and
leading industrialists. The government of Gujarat should also consider providing
infrastructural support and other incentives, including tax sops for the
promotion of incubators.
Step 4:
By March 2001, Gujarat should take a “smart ideas road show”
to the US. Young, bright minds, brimming with smart ideas could be
taken to the country where entrepreneurship is the name of the game to get a taste of just
how the model works.
A new dotcom world is opening up to the state of Gujarat. The state has to align
itself with this movement, otherwise, it will simply find itself standing by the
sidelines, watching economic prosperity go by.
n
There is an immediate need to
set up incubation centers in
at least 10 cities and towns in
Gujarat.
