New Delhi: In a unique attempt to nurture the entrepreneurial skills of spouses of its employees, GAIL (India) Limited on Tuesday launched an incubation cell which is first of its kind in the industry to educate them about the start-up environment and provide mentorship, training and assistance with the necessary tools to begin their own ventures. Christened ‘GAIL Abha’, the initiative was launched a day ahead of International Women’s Day by Shakun Gupta, the first lady of GAIL and Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Chairman & MD, GAIL in presence of R K Jain, Director (Finance), Deepak Gupta, Director (Projects), Ayush Gupta, Director (HR) and their spouses.
GAIL attracts employees of high caliber and most often, their spouses are also professionally qualified and talented. However, the presence of GAIL townships mostly at remote locations offers very little scope for such talented lot to utilise and exhibit their strength. While addressing this need, ‘GAIL Abha’ is expected to enable the spouses of employees to have a professionally satisfying experience and contribute to the economy and society in a positive way. Sandeep Kumar Gupta said, “This platform will help the spouses of our employees to realise their potential and capabilities and fulfil their dreams of being engaged in some professional or entrepreneurial venture.”
Ayush Gupta said, “GAIL has launched its unique Incubation Programme – a five layered program spread over 30 weeks, with the objective to build their ideas into flourishing businesses.” The initial weeks will focus on entrepreneurial workshops and bootcamps which will encourage participants to build ideas and evaluate their value proposition, which will be followed by rigorous 21 weeks of building ideas to business. During the period, fortnightly hand-holding sessions will be conducted and mentorship and assistance on seed-funding, registration of firm, facilitations like Startup India Seed Fund etc. will be done.
