New Entrepreneurs Network (NEN), co-founded by leading academic institutes in India and the Wadhwani Foundation is now persuading students of biotechnology and pharma to take on entrepreneurship as a novel career option.

In this connection, it has teamed up with 50 institutes in Bangalore (IIIT-B, IIM-B, RV College of Engineering, Mount Carmel, St. Josephs, National Law School, MS Ramaiah, Sir MVIT, NCBS and IBAB ), Mumbai (Sadar Patel College of Engineering, SNDT, NITIE, SP Jain and IIT-Bombay) and Pune (Symbiosis and PICT) to introduce a comprehensive and effective entrepreneurship programme on their campuses which are common to India and other international instituteslike Stanford, MIT and UC Berkeley. This is helps students who have an intention to start a company after graduation to network and succeed.

The initiative, a first-of-its-kind to tap entrepreneurship on campuses has received tremendous response. "We are associated only through referrals and focus only on top tier institutes in India. These institute heads are now keen to make their students capitalize on the opportunities to hone entrepreneurial skills," informed Laura Parkin, executive director, Wadhwani Foundation & NEN.

Through NEN, IIM-A students have opted out of placements to start companies. At IBAB, 10% graduates chose to start companies rather than take up jobs. The programme has also generated interest from institutions in Asian countries.

The key objective of NEN is to motivate and educate students to take on entrepreneurship, which will in-turn create new jobs. Never before has the economic environment been so conducive for entrepreneurship in India where innovations in technology and new government policies are making it easier to start companies. Not only that successful first generation entrepreneurs are inspiring others to follow their examples and young graduates have more options open to them, stated Dr Gayatri Saberwal, NEN leader, IBAB.

NEN's co-founding academic institutions are IIT-Bombay, IIM-Ahmedabad,BITS Pilani, SP Jain Management Institute, IBAB Bangalore and IndianSchool of Business.

The NEN Advisors are Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon; Naina Lal Kidwai,HSBC; Harsh Mariwala, Marico Industries; Romesh Wadhwani, Group; Prof. Howard Stevenson, Senior Associate ProvostHarvard University; Jerry Engel, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, UC Berkeley; and Randy Komisar, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins,Caufield & Byers, and Adjunct Faculty, Stanford University.

In 2007, NEN will expand to Chennai, Delhi and other regions and have around 150 institutes across 6 regions. NEN founded in 2002, is a not-for profit venture funded by the Wadhwani Foundation, whose head Dr Romesh Wadhwani, a graduate from IIT-Bombay and a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon, who is presently an IT entrepreneur at the Silicon Valley, now building SymphonyTechnology Group, his fourth company.