New initiative at GDL: Developing Entrepreneurship

Dear GDL Blog readers,

This is my first entry (4 months into my time here!) so I should introduce myself.. My name is Pulkit Agrawal and I am one of the trinity of Indicorps Aug 08 fellows that are currently at GDL. I shall leave the others to give more details about themselves, but I have come with the aim of working to tackle youth unemployment, a significant issue here and other rural areas, during my 1 year at GDL..

Born not too far from here, in Jaipur, I’ve spent almost all my life abroad, mainly the UK and now live in London with my parents and younger sister. I’ve just graduated with a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University this year and wanted to spend some time living and understanding India as well as doing something constructive before moving into the world of employment.

From tomorrow I shall begin classes to encourage entrepreneurship amongst youth here, as a means of self-employment. I hope to teach my students basic business skills through practical activities and develop their confidence in their own ability to successfully start and run a small rural enterprise. I will primarily be using the MOVE (Market Oriented Value Enhancement) manual - by Dr. M S Subhas (Kousali Institute of Management Studies, Karnatak University) - and Barefoot MBA - by Katherine Boas and Scott Raymond (two Stanford Business School graduates) - along with other individual sources. I hope to foster various soft/life skills alongside and foster a culture of civic responsibility amongst the participants. The first (pilot) batch will run for 2 hours/day and 6 days/week for 1 month, as a preliminary to a more developed strategy.

I am looking for a trainer to work with me in developing the course and to continue after I reach of my time here. In addition there are many aspects of this project that crave input and resources, so if there are any volunteers that would like to spend time developing this concept and start-up course then please get in touch at pulkit@gdl.org.in.

In addition the website is now undergoing some updates, after being pretty redundant for some time, so watch this space!