While delivering his keynote address at the TiE Entrepreneurial Summit in the capital on December 11, Mr Ahluwalia said, Our growth should be inclusive and for that entrepreneurs should look at business ideas that connect with the rural masses. As CK Prahalad has pointed out, right BOP ideas make money as well.

Thats the message from Commerce and Industry minister Mr Kamal Nath, while delivering the inaugural address at TiE Entrepreneurial Summit.

Said Mr Kamal Nath, India produces more entrepreneurs than any other country in the world. India is the epicenter of entrepreneurial activity. This is the place to be.

This intimate session saw audiences take to the floors, when the seats were filled up, and what followed was a tte--tte between the masters and the disciplines. The key thought that came from the speakers was that entrepreneurship is all about sweat and toil, but rewards more than meet the hardships. And while investing in a venture, investors put a premium on quality of the entrepreneur and the core team.

The seminar will be organized by MBA-Management of Services students on December 15-16, 2007, in Delhi. The seminar will draw insights from the leading corporate leader Mr Douglas Baillie, Managing Director & CEO, HUL.

The confrence will be heldin Chennai on December 21-22, 2007. The event is sponsored by Kotler-Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing at Great Lakes and co-chair by V Seenu Srinivasan of Stanford University and V. J. Sivakumar of NIT, Trichirappalli.

The sector, which now accounts for a meager 5% of the total market (worth US$ 280 billion, inclusive of unorganized sector), is projected to account for 30% of the market size in the next 10 years. This prognosis is held out by a FICCI-Ernst & Young Report on Winning with Intelligent Supply Chains.

To provide helping hand for such business plans, Abhiyan, the entrepreneurship club of IIM Lucknow is organizing a platform Start-up Showcase as a part of Nirvaan 2008 on January 13. The Start-up Showcase is being organized in association with Seedfund, NEA-IndoUS Ventures, GEN, TiE and Baring Private Equity Partners.

The conclave will draw on the international learnings and models in the area of skill development, an area that is attracting a lot of government and industry attention.

The event witnessed the coming together of some of the leading names in the industry with students from all premier B-schools of the country.

XLRI has signed up a MoU with French business school Audencia Nante School of Management. The French B-school is a triple accredited institution with accreditations from Equis, AMBA and AACSB.

This tie-up comes after XLRIs successful alliance with institutes AIM Philippine, UAMS Belgium, EM LYON France, Malardalen University Sweden, RMIT University, University of Victoria (Australia), University of Tulane (USA) and Loyola School of Business, Chicago.