International Conference on Entrepreneurship

'Catalysts of Entrepreneurship - Policies for Growth'

The First International Conference on Entrepreneurship policies is being held at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad on June 5-6, 2009 - The theme of the Conference is 'Catalysts of Entrepreneurship - Policies for Growth'. The Conference is organised by the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development at the Indian School of Business, in partnership with the RAND Corporation, US and Legatum Institute. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank working with several governments, private foundations, international organisations, and commercial organisations across the world. Legatum institute is an independent research, policy, and advisory organisation whose mission is to research and promote the principles that drive the creation of global prosperity and the expansion of human liberty.

The Conference addresses issues that affect multiple stakeholders – the government and policymakers, the entrepreneurial ecosystem (including educational institutions, financial institutions, and entrepreneurial networks), and researchers. The key areas of discussions are:

Policies and practices both at the state and central governments levels that encourage or discourage entrepreneurs in India
How have recent reforms, such as a single window clearance, fared? To what extent can this be adopted for creating new businesses across all states in India? What sector specific variations do we need, if any, especially in the education and infrastructure sectors?
Are the present regulatory regimes (financial, industrial and labor laws) supportive to entrepreneurs who focus on new enterprise creation and/or growing the existing enterprises especially SMEs.

While many of these questions are common across all industries and sectors, this Conference programme is designed to focus on entrepreneurial development in two sectors: Education and Infrastructure.

We believe that education as well as the infrastructure ecosystem, aided by appropriate policies, can generate the next wave of great entrepreneurial activity in India. This motivates the theme for the Conference.

The Conference provides a platform for policy makers, entrepreneurs, industry bodies and researchers to recognise the opportunities available and how an innovative policy regime can aid in taking advantage of these opportunities.