Ashok Pandey, a school dropout, started his career as an assistant helper at Agro Engineering Works, Faridabad in 1995. Due to an accident in the factory, he lost his thumb and index finger of left hand. A pension of Rs 100 (now Rs 500) was not enough to support his family. He resumed work after two or three years and simultaneously started attended evening coaching classes for electronics. Today he owns his own business and earns four to five lakh per annum.

Mohammed Fayaz Rais does not have any spoken or written English skills and has been working in a battery manufacturing factory since 1978. In 1991, he started his own business. Today, his annual turnover is Rs 36 lakh and he has invested Rs 12 lakh to start a factory for manufacturing batteries. Riyazuddin, a carpenter residing in east Delhi has struggled from being a daily wage earner to an entrepreneur. He earns some Rs 12, 00, 000 to Rs 15, 00, 000 per annum from his business and has also invested 1.5 lakh in the printing business.

V V Singh, MBA, LLB, started his career as a customer care executive in HSBC and later worked as a project assistant for Citizen Co-operative Bank. After which, he had nothing to do. He started his own business of making menthol crystals and today earns about Rs 1,50, 00,000 per annum.

All self-made young entrepreneurs?job seekers turned into job creators. But one thing that is common for all of them is the support of Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST). Founded by the late JRD Tata, the organisation has in the last 15 years assisted at least 1,600 to 2,000 people from weak economic backgrounds turn entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship is not everyone?s cup of tea. It needs sufficient education, qualification, skill and expertise to start a business. ?But in a country like India where the unemployment and poverty rate is as high as 1.2 billion and 70% of the youth is unemployed, self-employment and making of entrepreneurs at the grassroot level alone can improve the state of the country,? says Lakshmi V Venkateshan, founding trustee and executive vice-president, BYST. The entrepreneurs at BYST range from school drop outs to well-qualified but unemployed and underprivileged youth in the age group of 18-35 years. Finance is all that they need and ?paper work at the bank is so complicated that most young entrepreneurs give up even before they start off, says Venkateshan.

Besides, a loan of Rs 50,000, BYST also provides mentors for building up the confidence level. T Ray, a management consultant with BYST says, ?Teaching them the tricks of trade is the first step. They have to be told how to manufacture at low cost but at high efficiency rate. They have to know their market and client segment before they start on their own.?

Similarly, M M Bhasin, a chartered accountant provides financial services to the entrepreneurs at BYST. ?It is very difficult to handle uneducated entrepreneurs as they do not have the basic understanding of debit and credit. Neither have can correctly articulate tax rules and regulations of the government. But I do my best to teach them handling the cash,? says Bhasin.

The efforts have fructified and to commemorate their success, JRD Tata Young Entrepreneur Award will be given out to the most successful entrepreneur on April 28. It is not the success story alone that has been judged while honouring them. It is essential that they have also helped in developing the society around and creating jobs for others. The target for every entrepreneur is to create at least 10 jobs.

Beside this, BYST is also going to hold the Business Idea Contest for youth in rural Haryana in the age group of 18-35 years through which they would be encouraged to come up with viable ideas that could be converted into dynamic micro-enterprises.

BYST will also launch an online portal for training of the mentors too. As providing aid to the entrepreneurs is a tough task, so BYST has joined hands with New York-based vocational awarding body, City and Guilds, to provide training and online courses to its mentors.

Moreover, now they will lend loans up to Rs 4 lakh with help of their partners ?Bank of Baroda and Indian Bank.