Probably places like Goa too could use concepts like this. FN Indian employment trust ropes in Prince Charles as mentor
By Hindol Sengupta, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) Prince Charles patronizes it, some of the biggest names of Indian business are associated with it and the daughter of a former Indian president heads it. It's called the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), a silent crusader organisation that is one of the main hosts of the New Delhi leg of the nine-day Indian tour of Britain's Prince Charles, who arrived Tuesday. The prince, patron of more than 270 organisations worldwide, decided to start his official visit addressing a summit on young entrepreneurship and employment that BYST is holding in the Parliament complex. "We are honoured and privileged that the prince has chosen to associate with us," said BYST founding trustee Lakshmi V. Venkatesan, daughter of former president R. Venkataraman. "He, like us, is extremely keen to promote employment and entrepreneurship." The trust, now working in around 20 countries, provides seed capital and management guidance to young people (between the ages of 18-35) wanting to set up shop. "We believe that you cannot forever believe that someone else would provide you employment. You have to believe that you can do it for yourself -- entrepreneurship is lucrative and the most powerful form of employment," said Venkatesan. "Everything is in your hands, you do what you want." Born and brought up in Chennai, Venkatesan was a system engineer for Bell Labs in New Jersey for 10 years. Then she returned to India and started BYST to help the burgeoning numbers of unemployed in India. The founding mentors of the trust were Indian business giants like the late J.R.D Tata and H.P. Nanda. At present, automobile magnate Rahul Bajaj regularly assists the foundation that supports any business from doll making to desktop publishing. "We provide capital of upto Rs. 50,000 as loan without asking for collateral, but more importantly we teach our entrepreneurs how to turn great ideas into great business models," said Venkatesan. "And we pick the brightest and best people to support. We can proudly say that five percent of the entrepreneurs we've supported at BYST have become millionaires and almost all have found a good, decent living." There are about 300 million unemployed youth in Asia, of which India alone accounts for about 10 percent. To reduce that number, BYST is having seminars across the region to plant the seed of micro-entrepreneurship. "Our model has worked and now we are spreading it across the region. Next we plan to go to Latin America and Africa," said Venkatesan. --Indo-Asian News Service ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
