Chennai : Great Lakes Institute of Management, one of the leading B-schools in India, founded by Professor Bala V. Balachandran organized its third International Entrepreneurship Conference under the aegis of Orchid PharmaCenter for Excellence in Technology, Innovation and Technopreneurship (OPCET) to further the cause of Entrepreneurship in India. Dr. Dan Papp, President, Kennesaw State University, was the Chief Guest and inaugurated the one day conference, today. Shri B.S.Raghavan, IAS (rtd), former chief secretary WB; Mr. Mohan Lakhamraju, Director, Educomp; Mr. Kishore, Founder, Everonn Group of companies were some of the other speakers at the conference.

The theme of the 3rd International Entrepreneurship Conference was “Entrepreneurship in Education” and it focused on the Entrepreneurial opportunities in Indian Education, on various facets of Indian Education including Public Private Partnership Model. The conference also show-cased the various successes as inspiring illustrations besides enquiring into other innovative models in education both from an opportunity and from the addressing a need perspective.

During the conference there were a number of topics discussed, one of them was on the higher education segment which constitutes 22% of the education system and has seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Few renowned higher education institutes in India are indeed making the world turn its attention towards India with the quality of education they impart. In spite of about 26,213 higher education institutes, the demand for quality higher education is outstripping the supply and there is a mammoth opportunity in this space. While the higher education segment is developing at an incredible rate, the same cannot be said by the K-12 segment. While India is predicted to be the world leader in population, the illiteracy rate is at an alarming rate of 61%. Despite the Government’s willingness to spend, the Government schooling system, with only 37% of net enrollment, has not succeeded. It was felt that besides Government’s various initiatives such as “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan”, initiatives of Private – Public partnerships would help to address this critical issue. There is a window of opportunity for private players in this space and PPP can truly make a difference.

Befitting the theme of the conference, 41 young class XII students of PS Senior Secondary High School Chennai, received passing out certificates being the inaugural class of Great Lakes PSS initiative called GLPSS Entrepreneurship & Management introducing principles of Entrepreneurship & Management at the High School level.

Dr. Bala V. Balachandran, Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management said, “There is a strong need for entrepreneurial ventures in the city today.” He stressed on the need for a focused MBA program for entrepreneurship in the various sectors in the country. He added, “Entrepreneurship is at the heart of economic growth of any nation, and India must also create and nurture entrepreneurs in large numbers to reach the global economic leadership status that it is expecting to achieve. In this endeavor business schools have a significant role to play, by developing and disseminating the requisite knowledge, models, methods and processes, besides training and developing entrepreneurs.“