CoEP will help aspiring entrepreneur, Laid foundation stone for Institute

The College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) on the auspicious day of Dassera laid the foundation stone for Bhau Institute for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership that will help students cultivate entrepreneurship qualities and support them to set up a new company till its board in formed. Founder-chairman of Kale Consultants Narendra Kale and founder of Flucon Equipments Sanjay Inamdar, both schoolfriends, will open the institute at the CoEP. They have invested Rs one crore each as seed money for it, without expecting any return. The foundation stone was laid by renowned scientist Raghunath Mashelkar and entrepreneur Nikhil Jakatdar. Director of CoEP Anil Sahasrabuddhe welcomed the guests.

"We started the entrepreneurship course in 2007 as an elective (optional subject) for the final year students. So far, 150 students have taken the course. Considering the response to the course, we decided to start a dedicated institute on the suggestion of F C Kohli, chairman of board of governance of CoEP," said Narendra Kale , Founder – Chairman of Kale consultants. So far, the course has produced two companies -- one deals with the waste water management and has already got contracts from various organisation, including the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, while the other is a coaching class. The course will be offered as a part of the curriculum for last year and students will not have to pay anything extra for the course. "The institute will be built on 21,000 sq ft land on the CoEP campus and would house an incubation centre. The structure will be complete in a year," said Kale.

"The incubation centre will help students during the initial stages after starting a company. When Kale and I started our companies, there was no one to guide us. Now, we want to share our experience with budding entrepreneurs. This is just like doing the duty of a big brother and that is why we have named the institute as Bhau," said Inamdar. "The institute will also run a three to six month certificate courses for budding entrepreneurs and second generation entrepreneurs who may not be CoEP students. But they will be charged for the courses," he said. "We have selected three more projects that will help the students to start their own company. Of these, one group of students has made notebook printer, second has created an instrument for bomb detection and the third one has designed a structure that won't need air conditioners but still keep the temperature inside a room relatively low," said Kale.