Mentor on Road project for SMSE growth

KOLKATA : A grand ‘Mentor on Road’ mission aimed at supporting SME’s, rural enterprises, startups & young professionals who seek guidance & networking support for their business, talent & ideas, started with 3 legs on May 4, 2015. The mission covers 18 states, 27 cities, mentoring 6000+ companies by travelling cross country 9400+ kms cities to be covered under project include Ahmedabad, Surat, Nashik, Pune, Belgaum, Panaji, Mangaluru, Kochi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Mysore, Vijayawada, Vizag, Raipur, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Patna, Varanasi, Kanpur, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur and Indore.
The first leg of the tour took the Chief Mentor and creator of this pioneering initiative, Jagat Shah to Ahmedabad, Surat, Nashik, Pune, Belgaum, Panaji, Mangaluru, Kochi, Madurai & Coimbatore.
In the second leg, between December 1 and 19, the mentor is travelling to Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Kanpur, Varanasi, Patna and Kolkata covering 3400+ kms.
During the course of this initiative, Shah has travelled by road, across the country meeting SME’s, rural enterprises, young entrepreneurs, start ups, professionals, industry associations, academic partners, local community leaders etc. to guide and support the businesses for international market linkages and Make in India. He is also sharing actual success and failure stories of Skill India, Clean India (Swachh Bharat), Digital India & Smart India (Cities) and the innovative inter-linkage of all these five initiatives. As a part of the tour, the mentor is also visiting and meeting social institutions such as orphanages, old age homes, institutions working for differently-abled and women empowerment institutions. Shah will understand their challenges of operations as well as their funding requirements and then try to get them funding.
Social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Whatsapp and Instagram are being used to promote this ground-breaking initiative. This initiative also has mentors from three countries: Manitoba - Canada, Germany and USA who support the trip in-between several geographic segments of 27 cities.
In Kolkata, the initiative connected with the members of Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Actual success and failure stories of Skill India, Clean India (Swachh Bharat), Digital India, Smart India (Cities) and the innovative inter linkage across all the five initiatives were discussed.
With over 300 members from all walks of industry, trade and commerce representing various parts of East India, the BCCI has become the first port of call on matters of Central and State Government policies and legislation.
Discussions were also held at the Federation of Small and Medium Industries (FOSMI) where an animated interaction with the members was held. Mr. Shah shared numerous insights on innovative approaches to global markets. FOSMI members raised a variety of issues connected to production, technology, finance, marketing, exports, excise problems, GST, labor laws, land acquisition difficulties, lack of skilled and efficient manpower, IPR and innovation.
Interactions were also held at ELMA - the Electronics Manufacturers Association in Kolkata which works towards the common cause of development of the electronics industry and better service to end users.
The mentor also visited Shantipur in Nadia and met at least 2,000 handloom weavers whom he had met five years ago and reviewed their growth.