Cluster Pulse to hold ‘Mentor on Road’ mission to help SMEs across 22 states

New Delhi, Apr 19 (KNN) Cluster Pulse’s ambitious ‘Mentor on Road’ mission, that aims at supporting SMEs, rural enterprises, startups and young professionals who seek guidance and network support for their businesses, will begin its final leg from May 2nd, 2016.

Mentor on Road is an economic development agency, and an international trade advisory firm.

The mission will cover 22 states and 35 cities, mentoring 10000+ companies by travelling cross country. It has already covered a distance of over 9400 km covering cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Nashik, Pune, Belgaum, Panaji, Mangaluru, Calicut, Kochi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Mysore, Vijayawada, Vizag, Nellore, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Patna, Varanasi, Kanpur, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Delhi & Jaipur. 

The first leg of the tour took the mentor from Ahmedabad to Coimbatore while the second leg of the tour covered from Ahmedabad to Kolkata & north eastern part of India while traveling 6400+ km. The third and final leg of the tour will flag off on 2nd May, 2016 from Kolkata and conclude in Coimbatore on 17th May, 2016.

During the course of the road trip, the Chief mentor, Jagat Shah, Founder and Chief Mentor, Cluster Pulse, an economic development agency, travels by road, across the country meeting SMEs, rural enterprises, young entrepreneurs, startups, professionals, industry associations, academic partners and local community leaders to guide and support the businesses for international market linkage and Make in India / start up India campaign.

He also shares real successful and unsuccessful stories of Skill India, Clean India (Swachha Bharat), Digital India and Smart India (cities) and the innovative inter linkage of all six mission mode initiatives of GOI.

The third leg of the journey will also see the mentor setting up an Industrial and Technical Training Institute (ITI) within Jail premises of eight cities for the benefit of the jail inmates. Over and above setting up the ITI, Shah would also understand the basic essential needs of 60 plus life age group inmates who may be in need of wheelchairs, walking aids, hearing aids, etc. Previously, such ITI has been set up in Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad as well & also given these amenities.

As a part of this mission, a local mentor from each state / city will join the tour and will be with the chief mentor for two days. He/she will be equipped with mentoring tools & processes for continuity of mentoring in the state / city for one year. Mentors will connect companies to global value chains abroad and to supply chains in India.

As part of the tour, the mentor will visit and meet social institutions like orphanages, old age homes, institutions working for specially abled and women empowerment institutions. He will understand their challenges of operations as well as their funding requirements and then try to get them funding from India & abroad.

Social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram are being used to promote the project. The project also has mentors from three countries: Manitoba - Canada, Germany & USA who will support the trip in-between several geographic segments of 35 cities.

Government officials in each of the 35 locations will inaugurate the event where the mentor-on-road team will do a presentation on Make in India & start up India and take questions on paint points of industry. At the end of the tour a report will be submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office.