Amartya Sen inaugurates TiE Summit

NEW DELHI, INDIA: TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2010, the annual summit of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) kicked off here today with eminent economist and Nobel Laureate Prof Amartya Sen inaugurating the three-day event.

The Nobel Laureate threw the gauntlet at the entrepreneurial community by calling upon them: “Ask not what money you will make but ask what good you will do to the society with your venture.” In his inaugural session, Prof Sen exhorted the e-community to think for themselves and not be led by the government.

Prof Sen said that while scams were always disturbing, it was very easy to over-estimate their impact.

“Scams are not special to India. India is stating that we are not just revealing the bad side, we are also doing something about it," he said. He said the media and the opposition are playing their role in this.

Sen said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a man of integrity and it would be bizarre to link his name to any corruption or scandal.

"Having known Manmohan Singh from college days, I can say that he is a man of integrity. Nobody can question that," the Nobel prize winner said.

In an interactive session with journalist Barkha Dutt, Prof Sen said that the government should withdraw from sector like healthcare but control infrastructure development.

The inaugural session of the TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2010 (TES) was attended by Chairman Saurabh Srivastava, TiE Delhi President Pradeep Gupta and Sridhar Iyengar, chair - TES Steering committee.

Infosys chief mentor, N.R. Narayana Murthy had to miss the inaugural session but would be speaking later today.

Addressing a session on innovation, Noted film maker Shekhar Kapur said: "Entrepreneurship comes out of nothing, so if we can force entrepreneurship down to the bottom of the pyramid, we can become a truly great nation."

Kapur said the real power of India is in how "we manage the bottom of the pyramid".

"The ‘I' in India should stand for innovation, and not for imitation," said R.A. Mashelkar, chairman of the National Innovation Foundation.

Emphasising the need for inclusive growth, Mashelkar said the new slogan around innovation is "More for less for more".

The event also witnessed a special session on sports, where champion shooter Gagan Narang spoke about the support parents need to give to children who are interested in taking up sports as their career.