By Rahul Nainwal 

India is steadily moving towards its next phase of development, quickly becoming the start-up hub of the future. According to the Economic Survey 2021-22, India has become the third largest startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China with a record of 44 startups turning unicorns in 2021 and with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Atmanirbhar Bharat, the start-up ecosystem has become even more lucrative for Indian startups. 

Emerging as a popular career choice amongst students and working professionals in India, entrepreneurship and micro entrepreneurship have proved to have a huge potential. Today, India has immense opportunities for entrepreneurs to grow and hone their skills and elevate as leaders. 

One can now easily aspire to launch their own venture, produce innovative and affordable products locally and flourish. But to succeed in this driven environment, students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship need to stay a step ahead of the competition. The trending TV show, Shark Tank India, has left a mark on every budding entrepreneur and innovator’s mind, to start and run a ‘successful’ business. However, it is important to understand that gaining the right skills and expertise that makes one more confident and ready, in line with the industry needs, is essential for professional success. 

Keeping in mind, today’s young graduates need to have an experience how to operate in a productive manner as entrepreneurs, MBA programs in Start-up and Entrepreneurship have become very useful providing a solid foundation for entrepreneurship, offering valuable business knowledge, skills, and insights to alleviate failures and escalate the likelihood of success.

What the program offers:

The Program ensures an intensive and holistic guidance to students who want to create their own start-up or work in corporate and social innovation, a two-year full-time postgraduate program will help the students understand the nuances of entrepreneurship and learn to grow their business. The curriculum is focused on imparting knowledge related to marketing, human resources, finance, operations, strategy and all other functions that are required to run a business. Aspiring students will learn the innovation process and how to yield a competitive advantage to help the organization exceed strategic objectives. The students will be provided insights on the implementation of new processes, ideas, services or products by companies with the goal of boosting the bottom line.

Many B schools offering this course also help students apply the classroom learning to hone expertise and guidance through the incubation and acceleration centres on campus. This also provides the students with an opportunity to meet potential investors to raise funds for their start-ups. 

Through a carefully crafted curriculum and faculty of the highest academic expertise, the students are prepared to:

  • Understand emerging technologies and leading markets.
  • Hone skills like influence, empathy,and building business strategies, hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs.
  • Strengthen the foundational understanding of entrepreneurship with the help of on-campus expertise and guidance in start-up or innovation labs.
  • Gives credibility and accelerates the pace of professional development with a global perspective.
  • Expand and diversify the professional network through incubation and acceleration centres, interactions with industry-leaders. 

Eligibility criteria

MBA in Start-up and Entrepreneurship is one the most sought-after courses which can be attained by students of any stream. A student must hold a bachelor’s degree in any relevant field from a recognized college or university with a minimum aggregate of 50% and then you can enroll on the basis of the score obtained in an entrance exam.

Some of the well accepted all India management entrance exams that are conducted in order to shortlist students for providing admission into the course are CAT, XAT, NMAT, MAT, SNAP, CMAT, etc. Apart from these entrance tests, many business schools conduct an aptitude test individually which qualifies candidates for that particular business school. 

The author is dean, UPES School of Business.