4THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2008TIMES CITY

They took that risk and helped make a difference

Manash Pratim Gohain | TNN

It’s been long considered thepower capital — a city of ar-gumentative politicians andsuave government babus. Butsaddi Dilli is also known forits enterprising traders who

sell their ideas and products withpleasing tact and a little aggression.Not surprisingly, the city has seen

many out-of-the-box businessdreams turning into happy re-

ality. And that’s why 20% of433 nominations for an all-India contest that awards

startup ventures are from Delhi.Trying out never-tested and dar-

ing business ideas, they are faces ofcountry’s changing economic out-look and the emerging culture of en-trepreneurship in our rapidly trans-forming urban landscape. MeetVikas Verma, an alumnus of StStephen’s and Faculty of Manage-ment Studies. After working withthe corporate sector for 20 years, hestarted in Gurgaon India’s first chainof ‘paint your own pottery’ stores, aleisure activity retail concept whereyou can create your own designs onvarious ceramic items to make yourown customized pottery.

Thanking the city and its ad-joining regions for making more re-sources available for business, hesays: ‘‘The entire entrepreneurialecosystem has changed over theyears. There’s greater acceptance ofnew ideas in the city, infusing con-fidence among young businessmen.’’

Explaining how ideas of the westare now readily accepted in India,he says: ‘‘My wife was in Europe andI was working with Barista. I left myjob and joined my wife with the en-tire family for a break. There I sawthis concept and decided to be an en-trepreneur and emulate the same inIndia.’’

Paras Chopra, an alumnus of Del-hi College of Engineering, also findsDelhi a hot business destination forhis new company through which

he wants to fulfil socialresponsibility in

the form ofmusic. ‘‘The

city has manyrock bands and the

rock community isstrong here. It gives a boostto my project. The musicscene here is very hap-pening as the city hosts

many fests. So, I get tomeet many artists here.’’

Another nomineefrom Delhi, Annu Puriis also all praise for theCapital. ‘‘For a startupin healthcare sector,Delhi is very goodsince you need brands.Moreover, since I stud-ied here and workedas well, the network-ing has been con-

ducive for theb u s i n e s s .Also all thepromoters ofh e a l t h c a reare in Delhiwhich hasbeen helpfulfor us.’’

Similarlyanother nominee, Prashant Pitti, istrying to cash in on the Galli gameculture of the city. An alumnus ofIIT, Madras and a former employeeof HSBC, Chicago, Pitti’s concept‘India Khelo’ took birth after the In-dian cricket team was thrown out ofthe 2007 World Cup in first round. ‘‘Iwas really upset at India’s perform-ance. And when I saw so many kidsplaying in the rain on the streets, I

felt all the talent is going waste. SoI started this venture to promote lo-cal sportspersons. My ultimate vi-sion is to have India Khelo acade-my,’’ says Pitti.

The ability to take risks is notconfined to Delhi alone. In fact, Ban-galore has emerged as the startupcapital with 26% nominations fromthe IT city. Nalin Singh, who head-ed a global company in the US came

back to Bangalore and started hisventure, ‘India Tales Media’, to pro-mote Indian culture through ani-mation movies. ‘‘It’s a modern wayof promoting India culture. What’sbest is that the environment is get-ting better for an entrepreneur inIndia and people are appreciatinginnovative ideas,’’ he says.

The country’s financial capital isalso not far behind with 20% nomi-nations from Mumbai.

Ankur Vaid (25) translated theproblem of drunken driving onMumbai roads into an entrepre-neurship option for himself. A BComgraduate from HR College, Vaid says:‘‘Drinking and driving is a hugeproblem. We did some research andcame up with the concept of PartyHard Drivers (PHD) under which weprovide drivers after a long night ofpartying.’’

The data for the award suggeststhat 75% of startups are first gen-eration entrepreneurs and 39% ofthem are in their 20s. Laura Parkin,executive director of National En-trepreneurship Network (NEN), a

non-profit organisation working to-wards economic growth in India,says: ‘‘The most interesting trend isthat they are not rich people, not justfrom IITs or riding on a successfulfamily business. One third of thenominees are from small towns likeJaipur, Indore, Hubli, Baroda andGuwahati, among others. Anothertrend is that these young people arefrom tier I and II institutions settingup their own venture from their ownpocket. The number is pretty highat 69%.’’

In the sectoral break-up, IT/In-ternet is the leading sector occupy-ing 34% of the new projects followedby media and entertainment with a10% share in the nominations forthe Tata-NEN Hottest StartupsAward Contest 2008. Telecom and re-tail are in third place with 7% pieeach. ‘‘In this consumer-oriented ap-proach, we are seeing a lot of inno-vations and twists in their businessstrategy, but what is missing is start-up enterprise in manufacturing andenergy sector,’’ says Parkin.

manash.gohain@timesgroup.com

Reshma AnandWith an initiative to organise rural ar-

tisans and enable them to create mar-ketable quality products, package andprice them and promote them inurban markets under a commonshared brand, Reshma Anandstarted Earthy Goods from Del-

hi. An MBA from IIM, Bangalore, ReshmaAnand, a first generation entrepreneur,switched from mainstream corporate jobs

to start this venture to make a dif-ference to society.

She says: ‘‘I’ve worked inrural markets throughoutmy career. As I travelledaround the country, I met anumber of enterprisingwomen and farmers who

could make quality productsusing locally available natural

ingredients and traditional meth-ods handed over generations. However,

buyers would typically come to them forsporadic orders.

There was little effort to give them inputs in quality control, technology,packaging and marketing. This led to the idea to work with them and promote their products under a commonshared brand.’’

This had led to empowerment of ru-ral women, she claims. Many ruralwomen have found personal expressionand financial liberation as a result andhave gone on to further make a differ-ence to their village communities andfamilies. Their children go to schools,the families can afford better food andfor the first time in their lives, the womenhave savings and hold bank accounts.

Annu PuriTaking Indian healthcare abroad is the

focus of this graduate in radiology fromAll India Institute of Medical Sciences (AI-IMS). Annu Puri, a master’s in hospitaladministration, decided to drop out of hercorporate profile in healthcare sector tostart Indicure Health Tours. Puri says:‘‘Since healthcare is one sector where In-dia can offer a lot to foreign clients I de-cided to venture out into this field.’’

The focus of this enterprise is not onlyto promote Indian healthcare abroad, butalso to facilitate ticketing, travel and pro-viding best options in healthcare in India.Puri says: ‘‘Healthcare in India is almost10 times cheaper than any western coun-try. In the US, the number of uninsuredpeople is high while in the UK and Aus-tralia there’s a long waiting list of patients.In the middle east and African coun-tries, quality facilities are lacking.These factors place India in aunique position.’’

Vikas VermaVerma, an alumnus of St

Stephen’s and Faculty of Man-agement Studies of Delhi Univer-sity, has worked with corporate hous-es for over 20 years. But he always har-boured a desire to be an entrepreneur andwith his startup, ‘The Colour Factory’, he

realised his dream. Like many, his start-up too has a social message. ‘‘Entrepre-neurship is not just doing business, but itis also about creating jobs. Moreover, suchinitiatives help boost the confidence of theyoung generation waiting to take off ontheir own,’’ explains Verma.

Started in Gurgaon, his venture is In-dia’s first chain of paint-your-own-pottery

stores, a leisure activity re-tail concept that has spreadwings to Goa and Banga-lore. Verma says: ‘‘I was onvacation in Europe where

my wife was working. It wasthen I realised that in India

we don’t have many leisure op-tions for letting out our creativity.

Once I returned to India I decided to em-ulate this concept.’’

Sahil SuriSahil Suri’s startup, Script Hub, prom-

ises you the platform to unleash your cre-ative juices. A 23-year-old alumnus of DPSVasant Kunj, he started the project afterwitnessing the difficulties his associatesand friends encountered in the media andentertainment industry in selling theirscripts. The focus is not only to help writ-ers sell their scripts but also to assist pro-ducers in getting the right script for theirprojects. A graduate in media studies, Surihas been a camera buff since his teens.‘‘Apart from selling my own scripts, this isa platform for writers and producers tomeet and collaborate. Otherwise at an in-dividual level it is tough for a writer tocome in contact and showcase his/her cre-ativity,’’ says the young entrepreneur.

‘‘There was a need for a placewhere writers of all ages and allgenres, spread across different ge-ographical regions, unite, shareand sell their ideas. Producers orexecutives can choose from ourbank of ideas and convert it into re-ality,’’ he says.

Paras ChopraKroomsa is all about social responsi-

bility with a musical note. A startup en-terprise initiated by Paras Chopra, abiotech engineer from Delhi College of En-

gineering, the idea was to create a mutu-ally beneficial business model for inde-pendent artists and bands. The 21-year-oldentrepreneur says: ‘‘I was attending a par-ty listening to the music when the idea ofpopularising bands online through stream-ing videos and embedding them with ad-vertisements struck me. We are building

a database of songs andartists from all corners ofthe country and providing

them a platform. At presentwe have 60-odd original num-

bers from 30 artists.’’ Thesoundtracks, available for online

streaming and download, are embeddedwith advertisements. The revenue gener-ated on per-download and per-play basis isshared in a 40-40-20 ratio by the artist/band,Kroomsa and an NGO of listeners’ choice.

DELHI HIGH ONENTREPRENEURS

Graphic: Rajender

From music to pottery to rural marketing, they havesuccessfully turned daring, out-of-the-box business ideasinto reality. These entrepreneurs are the new faces of thecountry’s rapidly transforming urban landscape

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