Amrita University, Coimbatore organised a full-time residential Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on Entrepreneurship from 14 – 25 December, 2015. The FDP, organised by Amrita Centre for Entrepreneurship (ACE), Corporate and Industry Relations (CIR) department, was funded by National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, and routed through EDI India, Ahmedabad.
The participants were all faculty members - mainly H.O.Ds, Assistant Professors and Faculty in-charge of ED cells in their respective institutions. Outstation participants were from AVS College of Technology – Salem, Nadar Saraswathi College of Engg. & Technology – Theni, Sree Saraswathi Thyagaraja College – Pollachi and Amrita University, Bangalore. The Coimbatore-based faculty members belonged to PSG College of Arts & Science, Sankara College of Science & Commerce, JCT College of Engineering & Technology, Nehru Group (N.I.E.T. & N.I.T.) and Amrita University.
In his inaugural address, the chief guest, Dr. A. Selvakumar, President, TiE, Coimbatore, spoke about the new government proposals and encouraged every institution to do something w.r.t. entrepreneurship. Although not every student has to be an entrepreneur, he said institutions could leverage the alumni connection and work jointly through networking. “ED cells can become the prominent change agents in the campus – as powerful, if not more than Placement cells”, he said. Sachi Komarasamy, Co-Founder of TiE Coimbatore Chapter, who accompanied him spoke about the possible initiatives like newsletters, associating with Indian Angel network, and working with start-ups that could enrich the entrepreneurial eco-system in campuses. Prof. C. Parameswaran, Director, Corporate & Industry Relations (CIR), Amrita University welcomed all the participants and expressed the hope that the FDP would meet everyone’s expectations.
The illustrious line-up of resource persons from various organisations included: Dr. A. Selvakumar, President, TiE – Coimbatore; Mr. N. Sridhar, Managing Partner, Innovatus Systems; Mr. S.R.P. Sinha, AGM, SIDBI; Mr. Shanmuga Siva, AD, DIC; Mr. Palanivel, Dy. Director, MSME; Dr. L.S. Ganesh, Dean, IIT-Madras; Mr. Vasudevan Uppili, Founder & CEO, GyanNext & Haritham Technologies; Mr. V.L. Devaraj, Auditor, VL Management Services; Mr. Neeraj Kumar, AGM, ESAF Microfinance; Mr. B. Sai Perumal, Director, mFin$treet; Mr. B. Krishnamurthy, CEO, Best Known Methods and Solutions; Dr. Suresh Kumar, GM, PSG STEP; Mr. V S Sukumaran, EDI; Mr. R. Krishna Murthi CEO, I2 Projects; Prof. Krishna Kumar, HOD – International Marketing & ED Cell, PSGCAS; and Ms. Hema A, Founder & MD, Ampere Vehicles (along with a factory visit to their manufacturing plant in Sulur).
Apart from external sources, speakers from CIR, Amrita University included Mr. M.S. Nair, Wing Cdr. A. Balachandran, Mr. N.R. Mohanan, Dr. K. A. Narayanankutty, Mr. V. P. SoundaraRajan, Dr. Madhu Menon, Mr. Pradeep Menon, Ms. R. Sunitha Kumari and Mr. R. Krishnan.
The response from the faculty members was overwhelming. Dr. P. Mari Selvam, Sree Saraswathi Thyagaraja College, Pollachi, who attended the FDP, said, “Excellent hospitality and punctuality: excellent time management, all speakers were excellent; finally factory visit was very amazing”. Prof. Joslin Vijaya D, JCT College of Engineering & Technology, Pichanur mentioned that all the speakers were eminent and that he was really fascinated by their speeches. Mr. N. Sureshkumar, Nehru Institute of Technology said “Amrita the brand has shown no compromise...Excellent speakers like Ganesan Sir...Each speaker is very much useful for our future. Food and everything – superb! Today’s factory visit, feedback and game – everything is done with smartness”. According to Dr. V.Uma, Sankara College of Science & Commerce – Coimbatore, “I feel proud for having attended such a wonderful programme. For sure, I’ll take all the inputs given and this will help me to take my college students to become great entrepreneurs in future”. 
Yet another participant from PSG College of Arts & Science, Ms. Rekhapriyadharshini, opined “There are lot of things that I learnt from here, not only on entrepreneurship but on various things like organisational skills, which I found here was excellent...It was wonderful! There was also lot of knowledge sharing that happened with faculty members from other colleges”. Mr. P. Senthilkumar, Nehru Institute of Engg. & Technology mentioned: “I feel happy because engineering-focused FDPs are less, especially since we require more entrepreneurs to create more employment”. Mr. P.G. Siva Sharma Karthick, Nadar Saraswathi College of Engg. & Technology, Theni said, “After finishing this programme, I feel very excited...I thought of starting my business from next week onwards”. Mr. K. Saravanan, AVS College of Technology, Salem, said this was his second FDP in Entrepreneurship, and he enjoyed excellent hospitality at Amrita.
ACE was established in June 2011 to promote entrepreneurship among students. With over 560 members registered under the ACE club and institutional links through ICTACT, TiE, and CODISSIA, it is one of the dynamic wings under Corporate & Industry Relations department of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. ACE has a separate library, lab and workshop facility to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs in innovative idea generation and product prototyping. Apart from this FDP, it regularly conducts Entrepreneurship Awareness Camps (EACs) under EDI’s DST-NIMAT project and business events of Anokha Tech-fest. It has also participated in a Programme on Breakthrough Innovation by UC, Berkeley.
