Enterprise evangelist

During the past half century in which post-independence India indulged in a dangerous liaison with Soviet-style socialism, the native tradition of business entrepreneurship was pushed to the point of extinction by ubiquitous licence-permit-quota raj. But fortunately in 1991 when the country was on the brink of defaulting on its international debt payment obligations, the then incumbent Narasimha Rao government mandated a sharp right turn in economic policy management, and abolished the licence-permit-quota regime in principle.

The most significant impact of liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy has been the resurr-ection of the hitherto dormant spirit of entrepreneurship within the populace, and youth in particular. Suddenly a growing number of the brightest and best graduates of the country’s top B-schools are turning down six-figure start-up pay packages in favour of the ardu-ous road to entrepreneurial success.

This development is excellent news for the Bangalore-based National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), a not-for-profit initiative promoted by the US-based Wadhwani Foundation to inspire, educate and support new and future entrepreneurs across India. "NEN’s goal is to help launch thousands of new entrepreneurs who will in turn create hundreds of thousands of much-needed jobs for India," says Laura Parkin a biology and biochem alumna of Harvard University who took to the entrepreneurial path immediately after graduation, selling life insurance door-to-door in the US. In 2002 she signed up with the Wadhwani Foundation promoted by US-based IT industry entrepreneur Romesh Wadhwani.

In her capacity as the Bangalore-based executive director of NEN, Parkin has brought over 20 years of experience of successfully founding and funding start-up ventures, for-profit and non-profit, to the foundation. Prior to signing up with the Wadhwani Foundation and co-founding NEN, Parkin was a vice president of the Ashoka Foundation (promoted by globally renowned social entrepreneur Bill Drayton in 1980), which is active in over 40 countries.

To rekindle the dormant native spirit of enterprise in Indian society, Parkin is targeting campus India. NEN which has 23 high-powered employees on its payroll countrywide (annual budget: Rs.4.5 crore), is preaching the virtues of and celebrating entrepreneurship. "Currently we have enrolled 167 colleges and universities countrywide as member institutions and over 200,000 student members. Our consultancy practice helps them with mapping and developing entrepreneurship education programmes," says Parkin.

Recently NEN celebrated the period February 24-March 3 as Entrepre-neurship Week nationwide. "Our E Week initiative attracted leading corporates, associations and over 160 academic institutions across 25 cities and towns who planned a variety of activities to propagate the socially beneficial virtues of entrepreneurship. This encouraging response to the E Week initiative has proved that there is resurgent interest in private enterprise and entrepre-neurship, which augurs well for the Indian economy," says Parkin.

Wind beneath your wings!

Dilip Thakore (Bangalore)

Abilympics champ

His extraordinary ability with the camera triumphs over his disability which has never been a hindrance in the pursuit of success. In fact, polio-challenged Saikrishnan considers himself lucky that he can move around freely unlike many other physically challenged people, and indulge in his passion — photography. His talent was first acknowledged when he bagged the gold medal for photography at the Southern Zone Abilympics (olympic style games for the differently-abled to demonstrate their vocational skills) conducted by Vidyasagar, Chennai (a society established in 1985 to train spastic children to become independent) in January 2006. Consequently he qualified to participate in the national competition conducted by the National Abilympics Association of India (NAAI) in New Delhi in February 2007, where he struck gold again. Recently Saikrishnan was selected to represent India at the 7th International Abilympics to be held in Shizuoka, Japan in mid November this year.

"I’m delighted to represent India at the International Abilympics. I’ve learned to rise above my physical handicap and hope my success will inspire challenged people to overcome their disadvantages and strive for success in their chosen fields," says this cheerful 33-year-old, a physics graduate of Madras University, a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer from NIIT with a diploma in computer hardware maintenance from Vidya Peeth Shramik, New Delhi. Currently Saikrishnan is employed as a hardware engineer in HCL Infosystems which has lent him corporate support to indulge his passion for photography.

In turn Saikrishnan is very supportive of the Abilympics movement which provides opportunity for gifted but physically challenged people to demonstrate their vocational skills in disparate vocations such as jewellery design, basket weaving, tailoring, computer programming, wood carving, photography, poster design, among other skills. The first International Abilympics was held in Tokyo in 1981 and its success led to the formation of the International Abilympic Federation (IAF) in 1991 which conducts the Abilympics every four years. Its Indian affiliate, NAAI, was registered in 2001 by the Union ministries of social justice and empowerment and human resource development to conduct the Abilympics throughout India.

A keen ham radio operator and amateur member of the Tamil Nadu Astronomy Association, Saikrishnan believes there’s a wealth of untapped potential in India’s huge population of people with disabilities whose number is estimated at a massive 40 million. "We should have a few top-grade vocational institutions on the lines of the IITs, to train gifted people with disabilities. Sponsorships and support from the government and private sector organisations could help them realise their potential and become fully contributing members of society," says Saikrishnan who is himself looking for sponsorship to participate in the International Abilympics.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Doshi’s bridge

In a country where the legitimate education needs of children are routinely neglected, the mainstreaming of physically and/or mentally challenged children is almost completely off the national agenda. But there is a minority of activists who are champions of the country’s differently abled people (including children) whose number is estimated at a mind-boggling 40 million countrywide.

Minal Doshi, founder/ managing trustee of the Setu Developmental Intervention Centre (SDIC), Ahmedabad, is an activist championing the cause of India’s neglected challenged children. SDIC is perhaps the country’s sole education/development organisation involved in early intervention and remedial education for disabled children under age 12.

SDIC operates from a compact two-storied, well-lit and ventilated building equipped with eight classrooms/ work spaces in a quiet, green residential area of Ahmedabad. The centre supports children with development disorders such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, etc and also educates their parents. Registered as a public charitable trust, SDIC is accredited by the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with CP (cerebral palsy), MR (mental retardation), autism and multiple disabilities; Rehabilitation Council of India and ministry of social justice and empowerment, New Delhi.

A home science graduate and child development postgraduate of M.S. University, Baroda, Doshi pressed on to acquire a diploma in special education from Thanku Hariprasad Institute, Hyderabad. She began her career as a teacher with the Anandalaya Education Society, Ahmedabad in 1993 where her work in the inclusive education sector was recognised and she was elected a fellow of the famous US-based Ashoka Foundation. In 2006 Doshi was invited to serve a short stint of three months as a visiting scholar at the department of studies of human rights at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York.

"Setu in most Indian languages means ‘bridge’. The aim of the Setu Development Intervention Centre is to serve as the bridge which will help challenged children and their families to cross over to hope and normalcy. We encourage families to accept responsibilty and help their children overcome disadvantages flowing from disabilities. Keeping this in mind, we have made it mandatory for mothers to attend our centres daily, together with their children. Exposure to therapeutic intervention helps mothers work with challenged children at home," explains Doshi. Currently the student enrollment at SDIC is 45, but over 450 have graduated from the centre and of them over 86 percent have enrolled in mainstream schools.

Given that the great majority of India’s children with disabilities are left to fend for themselves, Doshi is anxious to expand SDIC operations to other cities in Gujarat initially and later countrywide. "Unless development assessments and early intervention become as common a concept as vaccination in the vocabulary of the government, medical professionals and families, these children have no future. My future efforts will be in this direction," she declares.

The force be with you!

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Ahmedabad)

Anupam Kher branches out

Within the span of two years since it was established, Bollywood actor Anupam Kher’s acting school christened Actor Prepares (estb. 2005) is branching out. Following its booming success in Mumbai, where its eighth batch of students is learning the cinema thespian’s art, Kher signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the Chandigarh civic administration last month to set up an acting school in this Le Corbusier designed city (pop. 900,000). Actor Prepares has signed up with the Society for Tourism and Entertainment Promotion in Chandigarh (STEPS) under the aegis of the Punjab state government’s department of tourism, to promote Chandigarh as a destination for feature film producers. There is a sentimental angle to the choice of Chandigarh as the venue of Actor Prepares’ first branch. Chandigarh was where Kher informally learned the actor’s craft way back in the 1960s. The institute which will admit its first batch of 30 students on May 1, will initially be sited on the premises of Chandigarh’s Central Craft Institute.

Kher has drawn ambitious plans for Actor Prepares. Additional (franchised) branches are scheduled to become operational in Ahmedabad (August); Benaras, Dubai, London and Los Angeles by 2008. "The entertainment, particularly movie industry, is on the threshold of a massive boom worldwide. This will create a huge demand for trained professionals, particularly actors. So we are careful about the antecedents and commitments of our franchisees," says Kher.

The five-strong faculty of Actor Prepares in Mumbai is inspired by Kher’s active association with the school. "There is a huge demand for trained actors from the cinema, television and music video industries. The ‘crossover film’ industry has also grown considerably, opening new avenues for actors in foreign markets as well," says Hemendra Bhatia, dean of Actor Prepares.

An alumnus of NSD (1978), Kher bagged his first movie role in 1982 in Aagman. Since then he has acted in more than 350 feature films, and served as chairman of NSD (2001-05), and the Central Board of Film Certification (2003-04). During his widely acclaimed career in cinema, he has won eight Filmfare awards and has acquired an international profile for his sensitive portrayals in crossover films like Bend it like Beckham (2002) and Bride and Prejudice (2004).

Arun Srivastav (Mumbai)

Sharma’s new oeuvre

Commonly acknowledged as one of the most recorded (for advertising shorts) voices of India, actor-playwright and thespian Pratap Sharma’s latest venture — a solo recording of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a literary tour de force. It makes for spell-binding listening as he holds the stage all alone, lending each character a completely distinctive tone and nuance. This recording marketed in Mumbai on compact discs (CDs) is particularly remarkable, since Sharma was on oxygen at all times to combat emphycema, a lung ailment from which he has been suffering for the past few months.

A man of many parts and facets, in his 47-year career as a playwright, novelist, author of children’s books, commentator, actor and documentary film-maker — among the plays authored by him were Sammy and Begum Sumroo — Sharma’s accolades include a national award for his rendition of the lead role in the feature film Phir Bhi (1971) and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2004) with a ‘voice of India’ citation from 35 associations of professional cine workers representing the Indian film industry.

Unsurprisingly, Sharma has invested all this experience in his latest recording Julius Caesar which has generated considerable enthusiasm among students, parents and educators in India’s commercial capital. The first batch of 50 CDs placed at Mumbai’s popular music store Rhythm House in January sold out overnight. Since then the order for the first edition has been increased to 1,000. "My secretary told me about her neighbour’s child who just wouldn’t take to Shakespeare, and was getting bad grades in school. Julius Caesar was his English lit text. I thought the best recourse was to read it to him. When I did, his attention was rivetted by the ebb and flow and stirring public addresses that distinguish this Shakespearean epic. Therefore his mother pressed me to record it," he recalls.

At the time the suggestion was shelved for future consideration. But the idea came back to him when he was laid up in the intensive care unit of Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. Thus was born the Golden Voice Series ICU Entertainment from Indo Studio. Sharma began recording for Julius Caesar on January 4 and completed it on January 15. The CD of this durable Shakespearean epic was launched at a reading in Mumbai shortly thereafter by advertising and theatre legend Alyque Padamsee who commented: "This CD will be a treasure for all lovers of literature and even students who hate Shakespeare. It will open not just eyes but ears as well because Shakespeare exists in the space between the actor’s mouth and the audience’s ear. Children learn Shakespeare by reading, which is wrong. He should be acted out."

Quite obviously even though he is down, Sharma is far from out.

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Record breaking skydiver