CII Innovation Club holds workshop to boost young entrepreneurs

The CII Innovation Club has decided to set a target to help students of engineering and management institutes in the state.

The CII on Wednesday organised the workshop ‘Think Beyond What You Think’ for encouraging start-up initiatives.

As many as 22 ideas were pitched by the students of CII Innovation Clubs, set up in premier academic institutions.

Sauvik Banerjjee, Global CTA & Innovation Lead of SAP, suggested that “no strings are attached, nor are 

there any material expectations from our side. This is just a sincere and honest effort to create a spark of 

innovation, start-up and entrepreneurship in a state where such things have not taken off in a big way. 

We belong to this place and want to give something back to our state.”

He also said: “All of us have gathered here to get big ideas from the students. The mentors who are here are resolute to make West Bengal the next hub of innovation and ideas.”

“We are here to support, incubate, mentor, and also help them in pitching. We are also teaching them about revenue model, how to structure, and above all generate curiosity,” Banerjjee added.

The workshop featured students of leading institutes, notably IIEST-Shibpur, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University, Heritage Business School, Amity University, JIS College of Engineering, Seacom Skills University, Institute of Engineering and Management.

“The idea is to spread the spirit of innovation in the state with participation of all – incubators, fund people, industry leaders, counsellors, and also successful innovators. CII thinks that innovation should be a tool kit in academic curricula in engineering and other courses,” said Aloke Mookherjea, Chairman, CII Eastern Region, Innovation Taskforce.

Smita Pandit Chakraborty, Chairperson, CII Eastern Region Manufacturing, Quality & Technology Subcommittee said: “In our work in the manufacturing space, we see the critical impact of innovation up close every day. It’s one sector where innovation has a dramatic impact on not just the bottom-line of individual companies, but also on the productivity of entire sectors like mining, construction or agriculture. And it has a telling impact on company competitiveness.

“Technology is driving disruption into the manufacturing marketplace at breakneck speed. In the wake of disruption, everyone in manufacturing is facing new decisions, competitors, workflows, challenges and opportunities.”