JAMMU: To inculcate significance of enterprise creation among the students, the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) conducted a two-day awareness program with management students of the Central University, Jammu (CUJ) here.
Around 65 students of MBA Human Resource Management and Organisation Behaviour (HRM and OB) and Tourism and Travel Management (TTM) departments attended the Entrepreneurship Awareness Program (eSAP), a spokesperson of the EDI said.
“The management students were exposed to a powerful experiential learning around the key issues of business establishment and conduct through a simulatory mode. The powerful game-like simulation of real life business pitched student participants directly into the rigours of enterprise creation,” the spokesperson said. “The specially designed simulation is highly interactive and recreates the world of small business in a training room wherein participants gain practical experience of business planning and decision making.”
The programme, which laid the foundation of a committed tie-up between JKEDI and Central University, Jammu, was conducted by a four-member EDI team.
“This is the beginning of a new relationship,” said Ashok Aima, who heads the HRM and OB of the university.
Aima stressed that the tie-up will herald into a new beginning to foster the culture of entrepreneurship among youth of the state beset with huge problem of unemployment.
Ranjeet Kumar Raman, assistant professor of department of TTM, pointed out the importance of such programmes in creating alternative employment opportunities for the youth of the state.
“This joint endeavour between JKEDI and CUJ (Central University, Jammu) is vital to our students as tourism has a tremendous potential to sustain enterprise creation and generate employment in the state of Jammu and Kashmir,” Raman said.
Student participants sounded equally upbeat about what they said was “better way of learning with fun”.
“It is a phenomenal programme and personally I learnt a lot and my interest got developed in entrepreneurship just because of this single visit by the JKEDI team,” said Shivalika Sharma, one of the student participants.
Her classmate Vikas Sawhney said the programme helped him in “knowing more about entrepreneurship. “I want such exercises to happen every month in our university.”
Shaphali Jain, another participant, said the learning was “excellent”. “We got to apply classroom knowledge in practical situations,” she said.
Meanwhile, as part of its youth outreach policy, the institute conducted a similar day-long awareness programme at Dak Bungalow Baramulla in which more than 165 candidates participated.
The participants were briefed about different entrepreneurship development schemes being implemented by the institute like Seed Capital Fund Scheme (SCFS), Youth Start-up Loan Scheme (YSLS) and Term Loan scheme of National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC).

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