Pongal 4-days end with the fourth day of Sankranti/Pongal – Bhogi, Sankranti, Kanuma, Mukkanuma. Kanu Pongal.
A 14,740 sq.ft. state-of-the-art Soil Testing Resource Centre (STRC) has been launched in Kalivemula village, Sangareddy, a collaboration between Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Dr. Reddy’s Foundation. It can process up to 200,000 soil samples annually. A useful addition to agroecology research and learning infrastructure in the country, in Telangana in particular.
Start-ups. With clear intention to grow beyond the founder(s). Founder; or co-founders. Start-ups begin lean with a solution for some problem. This solution is improved, fine-tuned with clients, market. Through various ways including surveys, cold calls, emails, sample research, piloting. And engaging customers to understand their specific needs, preferences, priorities. Agility, flexibility embedded to ensure that options remain open, not locked up in a particular way. We can be incremental, or disruptive. Or a hybrid of the two. We need partners to take these forward.
Most start-ups close shop in less than 24 months. Some may drag for 36 months. Most fail because: co-founders are not prepared enough, and lack required stamina; overconfidence; consumer disinterest; cash problems; HR problems; team issues; no or poor plans; competition; pricing. A mere 10-15% go the long way. High speed learners, minimum viable product builders last longer. This product should be something people want, no matter how innovative, great the idea, model is. The team of vision-strategy, technology/product/service, market, finance, IT would be required.
Start-up ecosystem includes individuals – entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, mentors, advisors; institutions and organizations – research universities and institutes, business schools. non-profit support organizations, entrepreneurial firms and startups, funding organizations – seed capital, equity, loans; mechanisms – crowdfunding, competitions, studios, platforms, rounds and various ways of financial support, human resources and capacity building support, technical support, management and leadership support, legal support, systems and audit; Does Indian cities, areas, states have these ecosystems?
More than 150,000 registered start-ups in India in the last 10 years. Is it a million? Gender parity is increasing in the start-up arena. MUDRA loans, Jan Dhan schemes helped in this. Increasing tendency towards enterprises. Discussions and explorations have been increasing. Digital hygiene of the country is helping in enterprise development. Education, Physical and e-connectivity is helping. 1.5 million engineers every year. 65% of the population is below 35 years. Consumers are driving demand across sectors. However, enterprises are not uniformly growing across the country. Majority is in 4-5 cities and states. Start-ups contribute some 5% GDP.
Will start-ups work in social, socio-economic, political space? Livelihoods, employment, enterprise, collective space of the PVM? Policy and support space? Or are some variants of start-ups tailored to these spaces possible? Can we have more social individuals, enterprises, start-ups, and collectives, collective enterprises, collective start-ups? For the PVM, by the PVM, of the PVM.
Yes, we can. If we coexist, keep flowing. With new lasting flows. In N? Udyamayoga for 7L.
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