22nd March 2024: The Department of Commerce and Entrepreneurship Development Cell organized a visit on 22nd March 2024 to the CEDMAP Incubation Centre, which is located at Arera Hills, Bhopal. This visit was organized in respect of the MoU signed between The Bhopal School of Social Sciences and the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Madhya Pradesh (CEDMAP). Nineteen students from the Department of Commerce and those who have enrolled for the Essentials of Entrepreneurship Development course were accompanied by Mr. Arun Panicker in charge of the Entrepreneurship Development Cell.
After reaching there, the team at CEDMAP led by Dr. V.P. Singh (PMU Head, CEDMAP) welcomed the students to their facility. He introduced his team members which consisted of Dr. Sandhya Joshi, in charge of their Incubation Centre which specialises in Food Processing and Mr Arun who is responsible for public relations. Dr. Singh thereafter introduced the CEDMAP to the students and explained in detail the workings of their organization for the Development of Entrepreneurship in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He detailed the history and achievements of CEDMAP in its thirty-five years of existence.
They discussed different programs through which they develop and support entrepreneurship in the state and also provide support to entrepreneurs in HR, Finance, IT, marketing, etc. They also have a couple of programs to orient and train faculties through FDP in colleges and ITIs. There is also a Development Orientation Program for recent higher education pass-outs, as they have the knowledge and by training them on entrepreneurship they can be empowered and also create employment for others. In their programs, they also share success stories of self-made entrepreneurs such as those of Shri Karsanbhai Patel founder of Nirma group of companies, who started his entrepreneurial journey by mixing of detergents in his backyard and selling them door to door. Also, Shri Brijmohan Lall Munjal who is the founder of Hero Group once used to repair tyres.
CEDMAP also has a magazine Udhyamita Samachar Patr through which they orient people on Entrepreneurship. The magazine is published digitally and has around one lakh readers. Another publication is there for farmers, through which the objective is to promote growth in income of farmers. CEDMAP has organized more than One Thousand Udhyamita Vikas Karyakram through which they have trained more than forty lakh youths, of which many have established their industry. The main objective of the program is to train them on profit optimization by cost reduction while maintaining the value of the product.
After discussing their operations and programs, he discussed startups and opportunities that exist for those who want to be an entrepreneur with the resources in the state of Madhya Pradesh which are Agriculture, livestock, forest land, mineral, solar energy, etc. With the discussion on Startup, he introduced Dr. Sandhya Joshi who had a further discussion with the visiting students. She introduced herself and her job roles at CEDMAP which include research work, officers attaining, medical plant, along different central and government projects. She also discussed how their department is a self-sustained department without any government aid. With the finish of the brief discussion by Dr. Joshi, she took the students to visit their Incubation Centre which specializes in food processing. She introduced the students to various food processing machines that are available to them which are daal mill, dalia plant, fruit and vegetable pulp processing, potato chips plant, tomato ketchup, bakery, ice-cream unit and packaging. These machines are used to train those who are interested in the food processing business and also they support them in building their business or startup.
The officials at CEDMAP invited the students who want to pursue entrepreneurship to visit them in the future and promised their support and assistance to them. The visit ended with Mr. Arun Panicker proposing the vote of thanks to the team of CEDMAP who took out time of their busy schedule to interact with the future entrepreneurs from The Bhopal School of Social Sciences.