Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust, a non-profit social sector organization tied-up with Bank of Baroda, a premier Nationalised Bank for identifying, training, funding, and mentoring of young first generation entrepreneurs of western India under the Public Private Partnership model.

followed by the felicitation of accredited mentors.  The accredited mentors are those senior business professional who have completed 10 hours of volunteer services in BYST by providing mentoring support to budding entrepreneurs and have completed and pass all the modules of the six-hour Mentor online course.   The mentors are accredited by City & Guilds (C & G), UK’s largest and best known vocational awarding body. Mentors have been the backbone of BYST’s success – helping young entrepreneurs in the urban and rural areas at the start-up stage to scale new heights.  It is strongly believed that this accreditation will give universal recognition to the mentors and instill a sense of pride in them.  Mentoring is a valuable skill in today’s world, wherein there is a huge demand for certified mentors.     

Gist of speeches by the Speakers:-

Dr N G Hegde, welcomed all the members and guests on the Dais.

This was followed by sharing of experiences by one of the many successful mentor-mentee pairs in BYST, Mr .Harshvardhan Ranade (mentor) and Mr Sachin Patil (Entrepreneur) on : how they got together, planned together and worked together to achieve success. (Sachin Patil, BYST Entrepreneur started his business of computer training Institute with a turnover of around Rs 50,000 and today makes a annual turnover of Rs.25 lakhs per annum and employs 10 people.)

Following this, Mr. S P Agarwal, G M, (SME & WM), Bank of Baroda spoke on Public-Private Partnership business model. This experiment would be unique in more than one ways. Till now, Banking system identified / selected their borrowers on their own and provided finance. But, thereafter, the responsibility of the Bank ended and the repayment obligation of the customer was the key determinant of the future relationships. Thus, there has been no focussed mechanism for handholding of the entrepreneur who struggles to get a foothold in the business.

Now, with this partnership, there is a focused mechanism to handhold and guide the entrepreneur towards his success. Mentoring is there to take care of his professional and emotional needs which are of paramount importance for a new person in business, said Mr Agarwal. He said that he was confident of the model which will not only help the identified customers of the bank but also keep a watch on any difficulty faced by them.

Mr Agarwal said that time was not far when such models would include risk and reward sharing in such endeavours between the existing partners.

Mr S K Das, Zonal Head, Bank of Baroda, Maharshtra & Goa Zone said that the process so initiated will create vibrant entrepreneurs and they shall be the future face of the emerging India. He further said that he believed so much in this model that he had taken little time to formalize this tie-up. He reminded the audience that the power and potential of enterprise could be gauged from the fact that promoters and their enterprises like Reliance, Infosys, Airtel were not known or even existed merely a decade or two back. But, with right approach, focus, guidance, innovation and adaptation, they have reached such heights that they are envied by all across the world.

This was followed by address by Mr Prataprao Pawar, MD, Sakal Papers Ltd. He stressed upon the role of media in promoting entrepreneurship. He appreciated the partnership model of BYST-BOB for supporting the people from less privileged background. He said, this will help a lot in bringing these people to the mainstream of the society. He motivated the mentors and entrepreneurs too in his talk and appreciated specially the selfless work of the mentors.

This was followed by the address by Ms Anu Aga, Director Thermax. She said that this model which is launched today by BYST & BOB is a blessing for the aspiring entrepreneurs from poor background and new year gift for them can not be better than this. This appreciated bank of Baroda and said, that BOB is a leading nationalized back, which is very progressive in its thought and applications. She congratulated and thanked the ED of BOB and all the officials of BOB for agreeing to partner with BYST and hence making difference to the life’s of the deprived youth. She said, this gesture from BOB’s side will go a long way in upliftment of poor and hence in nation building. She was overwhelmed by the BOBs thought of refereeing mentors too from BOB for development of these entrepreneurs. She said, that if all the banks will start thinking in the way BOB thinks, then problem of un-employment especially in the disorganized sector could be reduced to quite a big extent.

Ms Aga congratulated all the entrepreneurs who were supported under this model and said, that you are the 1st one to be supported under this model and we would like you to become role models for other entrepreneurs. She wished them luck for their future.

She thanked and congratulated all the mentors of BYST, specially the accredited mentors, for giving their selfless services in mentoring these entrepreneurs and developing them to face the outer world. She said, that without mentors, support, it is impossible to think ahead.

The concluding remarks were given by Mr S V Joshi, Executive Chairman, Nichrome India Ltd.

The program was well attended by 150 senior delegates from corporate, FIs, government, media, BYST mentors & Entrepreneurs.