Bhubaneswar, July 10: Start-ups was the buzzword at a number of events hosted in the city today to encourage students to pursue their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs.

Girl students from various engineering schools and technical institutes across the state who want to build their own companies attended workshops hosted by the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industries (UCCI).

The event began with the girl students pitching their ideas for start-ups. The top 25 selected business plans will be given free skill development training in the respective sectors by the state micro, small and medium enterprises department.

"Women of today are not just pursing nine-to-five jobs; they are keen on building their own ventures. The workshop aims to teach them the basics of starting a business such as how to utilise skills, gather funds and use their resources effectively," said Ramesh Mohapatra, president of UCCI.

The participants had a number of ideas in various fields such as fashion technology, jewellery designing, handloom and handicrafts, hotel and restaurant, dairy, agriculture, food processing and so on.

"I want to start a design studio that would bring together traditional weavers from Odisha and young designers. Being on one platform would benefit both the designers and the artisans. At the workshop, I found out about Angel Investors and how to reach out to them," said Subhashree Mishra, an MBA graduate.

XSeed, the idea and initiative cell of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), also organised an entrepreneurship awareness drive. Experts spoke about the various schemes provided the state government and how to avail themselves of the benefits.

Managing director of Odisha Small Industries Corporation and IAS officer Partha Sarithi Mishra attended the event and spoke about the Odisha Youth Innovation Fund, a scheme that was meant to motivate and encourage young minds to come up with innovative ideas and become entrepreneurs.

A number of successful entrepreneurs interacted with the students. Ankur Mathur from Socrates Foundation said entrepreneurs were not "risk seekers" but "risk mitigators".

"Budding entrepreneurs need to be flexible as they will go through a number of changes from the initial idea to the final product," he said. A number of aspiring entrepreneurs from XIMB took part in the event.