New Delhi: After the incredible success of Kejriwal Government’s Business Blasters in the first year, students have performed phenomenally well in the Business Blasters second edition as well. Under this student entrepreneurship program, the selection of the top 100 startups who will compete in the Investment Expo was completed on Thursday from amongst 2 lakh students. On Thursday, Education Minister Ms. Atishi visited Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Rouse Avenue to learn about the business ideas of students and participate in discussions with them.
After undergoing a selection process at various levels, the 995 Business Blasters teams from Delhi Government schools presented their business ideas in front of 165 panels at 33 locations at a district level on the 19th and 20th of April. Out of these, the selection of 100 startups was undertaken for the Investment Expo. Now, students who are part of these 100 startups will present their business ideas for seed capital to investors from across the country at the Investment Expo.
It is to be mentioned here that these teams have been coached by experienced entrepreneurs for the last 4-5 weeks, and in the final round, their ideas were assessed based on a rubric designed by an expert committee.
Appreciating the efforts of all the students who participated in Business Blasters, Education Minister Ms. Atishi said, “The response to Business Blasters has been overwhelming. We are thrilled to see the level of enthusiasm and creativity demonstrated by students from various schools in Delhi, including Delhi government schools. The EMC and Business Blasters are designed to encourage and equip our students to become successful entrepreneurs and make them capable of dealing better with everyday challenges.”
The Education Minister said it is great to know that children are transforming their academic learning into business ideas. She said, “This is a proud moment for us. It is also an example of how our schools are providing children with the necessary skills to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.”
She further said, “Under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi government is focusing on developing professionals who can be job providers to the masses instead of job seekers. Over the last 2-3 years, the EMC and Business Blasters have helped students of Delhi government schools develop skills such as communication & active listening, risk management, leadership, networking, critical thinking, problem-solving and financial skills. These student entrepreneurs from Delhi schools emerging through Business Blasters will become founders and leaders of MNCs around the world in the future.”
During the visit, the Education Minister said, “As the Business Blasters has completed two years now, a remarkable development could be seen in the thought process of students of Delhi government schools. This is a dream come true for Team Education which has worked round the clock to open new avenues of success for students from varied socio-economic backgrounds and help them be financially independent.”
She added that from here on, the doors of seven state government universities would be opened for selected student entrepreneurs in 100 teams. These student entrepreneurs would be eligible for admission to state universities, including NSUT, IIIT-D, DTU, IGDTUW, Ambedkar University, DSEU, and DPSRU. For this, 200 seats have been kept reserved for them.
For selecting 100 final startups, a total of 165 panellists, including members of the Directorate of Education and representatives of universities, were part of the panel. The selected teams will receive a certificate and an opportunity to join the incubation cell set up at the Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University.
On this occasion, a student shared with the Education Minister that Business Blasters has given students the confidence to become financially independent and improve their lives with skills learned through this program. She explained that today, due to this program, they have left the dream of getting a job and have started giving jobs to many women around them by becoming job providers.
The Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum (EMC) has been running in all schools of DoE since 2019. Its practical component Business Blasters was launched in 2021 for classes XI and XII, under which participating students are given seed money of Rs. 2000 to come up with a business idea and implement it in their neighbourhoods to earn profit or solve a social problem applying their entrepreneurial mindset in real life. This year over 2 lakh students from Delhi government schools and some private schools of Delhi participated in this program.
