At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our community. This week we invited Dr Manisha Acharya – CEO at Indigram Labs Foundation, for an interview with us to understand more about her journey so far. Dr Manisha is a Thought Leader, Startup Mentor, Change Enabler and is actively involved in the growth of the startup ecosystem. Let’s read about her inspiring journey and the way forward!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Urvisha:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I was born in a very small town in Odisha, a state in the Eastern part of India and completed my education up to post-graduation in Odisha itself. After receiving a fellowship from DST, I came to Lucknow for a PhD at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany.
After this, due to the transferrable nature of my husband’s job, I moved to different parts of India like Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad etc. In the beginning of my working life, there came a moment when I had to devote full time to working for home.”
Hence, I took a voluntary sabbatical of about 7 years to see through the raising of my son. However, I was using this time to acquire new skill sets in IT, IPR issues etc which later came to supplement my professional venture into the challenging field of Innovation and Incubation management. I started my corporate career with a USA based company dealing with Nutraceutical and Botanical products. Since 2011 though, I changed paths and now am into Innovation and Incubation Management. Presently I am the CEO of Indigram Labs Foundation: A technology business incubator supported by DST, GoI located in New Delhi.
In 2019, I received the Chevening fellowship in Research, Science and Innovation [CRISP] awarded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth office, which included a 10-week program at the University of Oxford.
Before that I was nominated by DST, GoI to be a part of an Indian delegation to study, interact and network with the Startup ecosystem at Silicon Valley, USA in 2018 under the Women Entrepreneurship Quest program.”
I was also nominated as a country representative for “Experience-sharing Workshop of Incubation Centres from the Asia-Pacific” at Taipei, Taiwan, 2014. I have also had the opportunity to be invited to various other national and international conferences as a speaker.
For me, this journey from a small town in Odisha to different parts of India and abroad was definitely not easy. Further, switching from a research background to business and incubation was also very challenging. But I knew that I should not succumb to my apprehensions. Continuing to strive forward, and putting sincere efforts, with the empowering support from my family, made things a lot easier.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
I am in the innovation, incubation and start-up management field. In my current organisation, we deal with start-ups whose primary focus is on Agri-tech, food-tech, clean-tech and rural healthcare. As would be evident, all of these are urgent needs of our country. Now though, the CoVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges for the entire start-up ecosystem of India. The Government of India has joined hands with various stakeholders, in order to offer support to start-ups.
As an incubator, our role is immensely important, as we not only facilitate start-ups to develop solutions to deal with the current crisis, but also prepare the country to deal with improving the economy after the crisis.”
Given our focus, my area has the ability to provide solutions that shall directly benefit rural India. Rural India already holds the majority of our population, and with the recent influx of returning labourers, rapid development of the local economy, along with infrastructure to provide facilities like healthcare and education are immensely important. Being part of an industry that has the potential to do such a crucial task is something I take pride in.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
My source of motivation are my start-ups. I want to see the success of all the start-ups to whom we provide support and that makes me work harder every day.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Being a student from a vernacular medium as well as being from a small town, it was initially quite challenging to develop the abilities and confidence needed to work, communicate and interact at the national and international level. However, it was a great motivation as well, as I was eager to learn and push my boundaries. In a leadership role, being a woman has quite honestly, always been a challenge. But things are changing in our society, and I hope I am making a small contribution in the same.
Lastly, in my initial years in Innovation and Incubation management, it was quite difficult to develop the necessary methodologies to motivate people in entrepreneurship.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
For me, the choice is obvious. Emotions come first. It is necessary to develop an emotional connection with my team members, as well as the start-ups we support. This connection can aid in fostering a happy and empathetic work environment, that has the ability to motivate people to work harder and thus eventually, earn money. This helps in the success of our incubator, as well as the start-ups.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Pressure feeds on chaos. So to handle the pressure, I ensure a systematic approach. Quite simply, this means that I carefully assess each task and assign it a priority and a time and follow it as closely as possible.
For relieving stress, I find regular meditation, spending time with my family, gardening and redecorating my house to be quite helpful.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
I think the best way to sum it up as a “strategy” would be self-belief. Self-belief encompasses multiple factors, most important being a recognition of what our abilities are. While it is true that none of us are perfect, we must be aware of our strengths and utilise them. Having faith in our abilities is the first step towards success. Recognition of our strengths means that we must also be aware of our shortcomings, or things that we don’t know about. Here, I must stress on the necessity of being open to learning from others, to make up for what we don’t know. This world provides us with teachers from all walks of life. Even a small child may be a source of some profound realisation.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
While there are multiple things necessary for success, like an absolute devotion to achieving our goals, identifying and overcoming obstacles, and developing discipline, courage and strength, I believe it is one attribute that primarily serves as the “key” to success. And that is optimism. To keep moving forward in the face of adversity, to come up with innovative solutions when traditional methods fail, and to focus on the good instead of the bad helps us in achieving excellence. And success of course, is just a by-product of excellence.
What next? What do you desire to work on, in the future?
I wish to work for women entrepreneurs. Even as India has climbed up to become the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world, the contribution of female entrepreneurs rarely makes the headlines. As per the Sixth Economic Census conducted in 2014 by the Indian government, only 14% of Indian women own or run businesses in India.
However, I believe that with motivation and provision of a proper direction, women entrepreneurs can do wonders. Women are adept at multitasking, balancing work and family life expectations, along with wider contributions to the society as a whole. The systematic approach to balance these multiple requirements, as well as the focus on interpersonal relationships give them a disposition that can make them good leaders. Thus if the number of women entrepreneurs goes up, it is expected that the economic condition of India shall also improve vastly. Further, we must remember that investing our time and money for a woman entrepreneur is an investment in a family, and thus the society at large. So we must provide at least the same support to women, as we do to men, during difficult times, and assist them in capitalising on their strengths.
To sum up, I wish to propagate this message, and work on making more women entrepreneurs succeed in establishing their businesses.”
Follow Dr ManishaAt:
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/DrManishaAcharya
Follow Indigram Labs Foundation At:
Website – www.indigramlabs.org
People Also Read: Interview with Dr Manisha Acharya | Thought Leader | Mentor | CEO at Indigram Labs Foundation
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BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
