The Tata group has launched the third edition of Tata First Dot, a platform for student entrepreneurship, supporting and accelerating potential entrepreneurs across the country. Adding five more cities this year — Raipur, Guwahati, Ranchi, Nagpur, and Srinagar — Tata First Dot workshops are to be held across 20 cities in India.

Announcing the initiative, Atul Agrawal, Vice-President, Tata Services, said, “With this initiative, the Tata group endeavours to provide a platform to develop and nurture entrepreneurial spirit among young promising business minds through a multi-phase programme with workshops, competitions, peer networking, seminars and mentorship.”

The workshops are powered by the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN). K Srikrishna, Executive Director of NEN said, “Entrepreneurship amongst students is showing steady year-on-year growth, mirroring the growth of the Tata First Dot conference. We will mentor, showcase and support an even greater number of start-ups this year.”

Regional workshops are to start from September 28 at Ahmedabad, and then move on to Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Indore, Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Nagpur, New Delhi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Coimbatore. The workshops will feature business modelling, panel discussions and entrepreneur interactions.

Nominations for the second component of the programme, the Tata First Dot national competition for best student start-ups, will open on December 1.

>amritanair.ghaswalla@thehindu.co.in