The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) will be launching a new postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) course in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Development to train up and coming entrepreneurs about innovative leadership, financial skills and business innovation planning. The course is AICTE-approved and is not just meant for students from science or engineering backgrounds. Any graduate with a desire to start something of their own can apply to this. EDII has plans to launch the course by the end of June this year and will be held at EDII's Ahmedabad campus.

"It is a first-of-its-kind course in India that completely focuses on innovation. There are several new start-ups coming up each day, but a lot of them shut down within 6-8 months due to various reasons such as lack of adequate start-up knowledge, how to run a business, understanding of the target audience. That's why this course is designed specifically to address these concerns and train them to do something that is feasible in the current market or at least has an idea of what they should focus on while starting their own businesses," Dr Raman Gujral, Director, Projects Corporate at EDII, who is spearheading the course tells us.

The course is a blend of management and innovation and thus the curriculum is outcome-oriented that enables students to validate ideas, innovate, test markets and build a successful technology-driven start-up. "The initial modules include an outline of what businesses are, later we will further train them how to think out-of-the-box, how innovations work and how they can be converted into profitable and unique enterprises. We will enable them to think on their own, the mentors will help them convert the ideas into successful start-ups," adds Dr Gujral.

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A few major features of the course include:
- It is designed keeping in mind the Government of India’s start-up initiative
- The course curriculum aims to facilitate the management of innovation and venture development from foundation to advanced stages
- The PGDM programme will also develop financial skills among entrepreneurs and help them in applying their entrepreneurial skills in real-life situations

EDII Ahmedabad was set up in 1983 as an autonomous and not-for-profit institute with the support of apex financial institutions like IDBI Bank, IFCI Ltd, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India. The Government of Gujarat had provided twenty-three acres of land on which the EDII's campus was built on.