Mentor Edge is an initiaitive from CIIE (Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entreprenuership), which was set-up in IIM Ahemdabad and is supported by Government of Gujarat and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Each participating city has a dedicated “City Coordinator” to link Start-ups with a pre-selected groups of Mentors from a variety of domains and verticals.

So far, successful events have been conducted at Ahemdabad, Bangalore & Mumbai. Upcoming events are listed below:

Thursday, November 26, 2009. Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. Day 1 of Franchise India 2009. Continued from Franchise India – Entrepreneurship Summit 2009 – Specialty Retail.

Another interesting session was “Business Opportunities in Food & Beverage Sector”. The speakers were:

- Mahmood Khan, Hospitality Expert Virginia Tech, USA
- Pavan Gandhok, CEO, Litebite Foods
- Gary Moore, MD,The Pizza Co., Thailand
- Rakhee Nagpal, MD & Chairperson of DVS (Moderator)
- Luis Daniel, General Manager, KRR International
- Ankur Sharma, General Manager Business Development , Yo China

Thursday, November 26, 2009. Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. Day 1 of Franchise India 2009 saw scores of enthusiastic entrepreneurs eagerly evaluating various franchise opportunities (300 brands) in India.

Billed as “Asia’s Biggest Franchise Show”, the event came alive in various sections – Brand License 2009, Entrepreneurship Summit ‘09, Food & Beverage, Fashion franchising, Knowledge Series, Licensing and Retail.

What aroused our curiosity was the “Entrepreneurship Summit 2009″ conference series. Some of the speakers at “Business Opportunities : Specialty Retail” session were:

- Aloke Banerjee, CEO, Rosebys
- Vivek Bali, Group President, Spice Hotspot
- S.Ravikant, COO, Titan Eyewear
- N.P. Singh, Director, Samsonite
- Rajiv Agarwal, The Mobile Store
- Naveen Rakhecha, CEO, Cartridge World

The India Global Summit on MSMEs gets underway on Friday, November 20, 2009 at Hotel The Lalit, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi.

Expect the discussions to revolve around “Building the next generation of MSMEs”, the theme for the summit.

Shri Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, is one of the speakers (he was present at the launch of B2B web portal www.nsicindia.com for MSME’s as shown in picture). Other speakers include:

* Arun Maira: Member, Planning Commission
* Pravir Kumar: Joint Secretary, Ministry of MSME
* H P kumar: Chairman & MD, NSIC
* Rakesh Rewari: Deputy MD, SIDBI
* Rana Hasan: Principal Economist, ADB
* Rakesh Singh: Head SMEs, Standard Chartered Bank