Maxell Foundation Announces Three Point Agenda to Develop Entrepreneurship for 'Make in Maharashtra' and Generate Large Scale Employment

MUMBAI, May 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Maxell Foundation held its fourth Annual Maxell Awards function in Nehru Center, Mumbai over the weekend. Maxell - Maharashtra Corporate Excellence Awards are aimed at creating awareness and inspiring generation next to translate their vision into reality, and transform their potential into performance. Senior ministers from the Government of Maharashtra namely Shri Subhash Desai, Minister of Industries, and Shri Vinod Tawde, Minister of Education, attended the function as Chief Guests.

Unveiling the three point agenda to develop entrepreneurship, Shri. Nitin Potdar, Founder Trustee of Maxell Foundation said, "I am delighted to be at the fourth successful year of Maxell Business Awards 2015. Maxell Foundation aims to recognize the entrepreneurial zeal and award the innovative entrepreneurs across Maharashtra. We are pleased to announce our three point action points to develop an ecosystem through education that would create a wave of entrepreneurship for 'Make in Maharashtra' that would also generate large scale employment, without the need of any large investments/projects. All that we need is 'One Generation of Young Entrepreneur' that would engage our younger generation in creating productive assets."

Shri Desai, Minister of Industry, emphasized the need for work experience in the form of internship along with education qualification to get a job. "The state of Maharashtra has educated manpower and an English speaking population which attracts global companies to our state." Recognizing the importance of entrepreneurship, he added that, "The Government of Maharashtra has joined SIDBI to set up a Rs 200-crore venture capital fund with a view to providing easy financing options to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs), which traditionally face hurdles in formal sources of funding."

Shri Vinod Tawde, Minister of Education, said, "Education in Maharashtra needs a total overhaul. And entrepreneurship needs to be cultivated at grass roots level and early in schools and not just a mere subject in colleges. Investment in education is investment in future and his Government is committed to bring about a revolution in the education system."  He said that, "Programs like Maxplore should be taken in colleges across Maharashtra. They have already introduced tablets instead of text books to facilitate interactive learning and enriching the syllabus will be the next logical step."

Maxell foundation's vision is to help create an ecosystem that would encourage next generation to take full advantage of the 'knowledge based economy', be creative and build productive assets, for which it has announced three point agenda outlined below:

1. Develop the Ecosystem for Entrepreneurship : To begin with, last year Maxell Foundation undertook an introductory program on entrepreneurship called "Maxplore - Exploring Entrepreneurship " in association with the University of Mumbai - Department of Life Long Learning & Extension. The program helped students to introspect, ideate and implement business ideas. In the first year itself, Maxplore has reached out to 1200 students from 30 colleges across Mumbai. This year, the foundation has tied up with Welingkars' We School and would scale up across the state of Maharashtra. Maxell Foundation has set an ambitious target of reaching out to critical colleges and a minimum of 5000 students across colleges from the rest of Maharashtra including Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Ahmednagar, Kolhapur and the Konkan region.

2. Engaging with Ministry of Education: Maxell Foundation is currently working on a broad syllabus on entrepreneurship that can be part of the text books on entrepreneurship in schools and Colleges. Including entrepreneurship as a part of the curriculum subjects like History, Geography and Science in schools and colleges would be a revolutionary step and first-of-its-kind in India. It would help students to be more creative and participate constructively in building productive assets.

3. Engagement with Ministry of Industry: There is an urgent need to connect the educational system with the industry and this is possible only through an intense state-wide internship program. This would have multiple effects - firstly, it would provide opportunity to the students to learn direct skills in the relevant industry; secondly, it will offer them employment and the industry will get already trained/skilled people. Maxell Foundation is more than willing to engage with the Ministry of Industry to create legislation for 'Internship Act' as a part of the Maharashtra's 'Industrial Laws'.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Maharashtra : Maharashtra has a population of 10 crores (100 million) which translates to approximately 2 crore families. Even if the ecosystem is able to develop one entrepreneur per 1000 families, it would give Maharashtra 20,000 new entrepreneurs in the next 3 to 5 years. Even if they employ on an average 50 employees it has the potential of creating 10 lakhs new employment.

Maxell Foundation continues with its tradition of recognising the entrepreneurial sprit since 2012 and has awarded the following eminent personalities this year:

• Excellence in Business Leadership - Milind Barve, Managing Director - HDFC Asset Management Company
• Excellence in Entrepreneurship - Ashok Khade, Managing Director, DAS Offshore Engineering Ltd.
• Social Entrepreneurship - Dr. Medha Purao Samant, Founder - Annapurna Parivar
• Young Entrepreneur - Akshai Varde, Founder MD - Vardenchi Motorcycles
• Excellence in Innovation - Mangesh Kale, Managing Director - Precision Automation & Robotics India (PARI)
• Emerging Excellence - Shivani Dani, Director - MoneyBee Institute Pvt. Ltd.
• Maxell Life Time Achievement - Ashok Korgaonkar, Founder, Managing Partner - Arch Group Consultants

Maxell Awards Function 2015 was sponsored by LIC and Welingkar's - We school.

For further information, please visit: http://www.maxellfoundation.org

About Maxell Foundation

Maxell Foundation is a non-profit making registered charitable trust formed to confer - Maharashtra Corporate Excellence Awards (Maxell). Maxell is a movement committed to recognize and reward the architects of change, those who dared to dream big and look beyond the horizon. Maxell Awards are aimed at creating awareness and inspiring generation next to translate their vision into reality, and transform their potential into performance. 

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Setu Shah

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