The Director General laid down the foundation stone for the Entrepreneur Development Centre (EDC), which XLRI is seting up. The objectives of the Entrepreneur Development Cell (EDC) include training entrepreneurs through long term courses, offering short term courses in various functional areas for entrepreneurs and the employees of SME and conducting research, to identify opportunities and pursuing them.

The EDC will seek to help students from all over India with their business plans and aims to provide a platform for budding entrepreneurs to sell their ideas to venture capitalists.

XLRI is also setting up an incubation cell, which will help young entrepreneurs along with a Social Entrepreneurs Trust (SET) set up by alumni which will identify and provide angel capital for start ups.

Dr Kandeh Yumkella, in his inspiring talk to students, spoke about his experiences right from his undergraduate days in Sierra Leone, his study at Cornell University right to the trying experiences of elections for the Director General of UNIDO. Recollecting his college days, Dr Kandeh Yumkella was nostalgic and spoke at length about entrepreneurship and how he views an entrepreneur as an agent bringing about change for the better. His short visit to India, where he is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister and other ministers, is for strengthening Afro- Indian relations and he spoke with glowing praise about India’s poverty alleviation programs. He was also full of praise for the recently concluded Tata- Corus deal and said that it was time India took its rightful place in the skies.