India’s potential beyond 118 unicorns: Department of Science and Technology

Dr Rajendra Jagdale, Head of the Science and Technology park, Department of Science and Technology Govt of India, organized a workshop on Business Planning at the eco-friendly Chitra Meadows Resort at Dapoli.

“India has produced more than 118 unicorns. But its potential is much more. Entrepreneurship is the defining factor in the India story,” said Dr Jagdale, inaugurating the event.” At the Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park (STEP), we have incubated 1000 start ups and invested in 250 entrepreneurs ourselves.”

The discussion was kicked off by a self- introduction from 20+ mature start-ups. From solar powered application builders to mushroom tech to banana plant based leather to Edtech companies and even a company that is retrofitting autos, making them run on electricity, a variety of start-ups sought scaling-up advice at the event. The mentors for the session, curated by Dr Jagdale were

1. Dheeraj Gupta, Founder of the QSR major Jumboking, a leading voice in Indian business voice for franchising as a mode to broadbase entrepreneurship to a larger base with lesser risk.

2. Professor Andrew Wong, CEO of E3 Hubs Sdn. Bhd, a man with over a quarter of a century in entrepreneurship, and an advocate for the development of and nurturing of SMEs and startups. Dr Wong is at the forefront of fostering entrepreneurial success in Malaysia’s dynamic business landscape.

3. Dr Anil Lamba, financial literacy activist and author of 8 books on finance.

“Finance management is the ability to understand how your action impacts the bottomline, not everyone is an accounts person but we all are finance people,” said Dr Anil Lamba. He took the entrepreneurs through a practical lesson in finance, explaining that 95% of businesses fail on account of financial mismanagement.

“The goal of every entrepreneur is to maximise ROCE. In the franchising business, once you get the formulae right, your ROCE is infinite, isn’t that something really exciting”, asked Dheeraj Gupta, who inspired several questions from entrepreneurs about how to grow the company. Jumboking’s story of focus to become a 12 city brand in India in 2025 at a 42% CAGR, was an eye-opener for the audience.

“Your customers are your investors,” explained Professor Andrew Wong, speaking to the audience. “A simple view of your capitalization table over time will reveal when you lost control. Alternatively, it will tell you how many shares you must own to stay in control in the long term.”

The program was an engaging immersion into the world of entrepreneurship.