AMRITSAR: Mr. Michiel Westermann, a Dutch serial entrepreneur and a senior expert from PUM (Programma Uitzending Managers) Netherlands visited Golden Jubilee Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Infinity), an incubation centre of Guru Nanak Dev University. Mr. Michiel Westermann is one of the pioneer entrepreneurs of the world, who was involved in setting up many companies in the Netherlands. Pink, Elephant, Twinning, DIH International, Motek Entertainment, Motek Medical were some of the companies setup by Mr. Westermann.
During his visit to the University Incubation Centre, Mr. Westermann interacted with the faculty, council and club members of this centre. He gave a detailed description of his experience in the startup industry, inspiring all budding entrepreneurs to become job creators rather than job seekers. He focused on several strategies to become a successful entrepreneur and stated that an entrepreneur should be ready for all types of challenges and failures. During this interactive session, students also asked questions about good networking skills and strategies for fundraising. Students from various departments of the university also demonstrated their technical projects to Mr. Westermann.
Talking about the initiatives taken by this university incubation centre, Prof. (Dr.) Pratap Kumar Pati said that presently there has been a growing interest among start-ups to join this centre. Interested students or working professionals from diverse backgrounds are approaching this centre to incubate their ideas related to precision agriculture, textile industry, biotechnology, software development, food technology and electronics product development etc. Many students and teachers from different schools and colleges visit the centre and learn entrepreneurship skills. This centre has a strong association with several ecosystem enablers – Punjab State Council of Science and Technology, Startup Punjab, Innovation Mission Punjab and PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CII) for entrepreneurial skill development, startup initiatives and industry linkage. Several activities like Idea pitching competitions, sensitization programs, startup bootcamps, interactive sessions and E-Spotlight chat show with successful entrepreneurs are organized at this centre regularly.
Mr. Michiel Westermann appraised all these initiatives and said that this incubation centre has made rapid and impressive progresswithin a very short period. He assuredly said that this incubation centre will be a model incubation centre for Punjab through its efforts of developing an entrepreneurship ecosystem.
It is pertinent to say that the Golden Jubilee Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Infinity), an incubation centre of Guru Nanak Dev University developed under component 4 of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA2.0), always focuses on developing an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation among the students. Since its inception in 2019, this incubation centre has taken many initiatives in developing the culture of entrepreneurship, startups, exchange of ideas and innovations among youth under the able guidance of Prof. (Dr.) Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Honourable Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University and the continuous efforts of Prof. (Dr.) Partap Kumar Pati, Coordinator of the centre.