Shunit Roy, 29 Originally from Kolkata; Currently lives in Gurgaon with flatmates Work: Trained in hotel management; works at The Job Plus, a job portal for the service hospitality industry, which was created about a month ago; is also starting up an e-learning platform, with courses that are practically applicable.
Shunit Roy (in red shirt) with his colleagues at The Job Plus
An entrepreneurial instinct: [In my circles] there is a growing trend of people wanting to do something of value and something of their own. In the next 25 years, that will become an increasing trend. For a lot of these people that I’ve interacted with, it is not just about money. They want to add value to society. … [In my own circle] there has been absolute support and over time people have realized that if they let me do what I’d like to do, I’ll do it well. If tomorrow I want to expand to something else, there’s unlikely to be any resistance….
Education: There is scope to build a newer and larger workforce… on the education front, through college, we are taught a lot of things. But how much of that is practically applicable? A simple example is, when someone does hotel management, one of the things the college stresses on is a French 13-course menu. How many hotels do you see that in?... when people enter the workforce, in the first 3-4 years they are hit hard and have to pick up very quickly. So there is scope for advancement in education as well… A lot of us straight out of college struggled figuring out a lot of things—even something as basic as sending an email in a professional environment, basics on research and analysis—the practical side of what companies expect was never communicated.
If the school and college system is changed, it will accelerate the potential of students. That acceleration on an individual level can really boost the way anything is done in the country. They can benefit the individual and society at large.
Process: Paperwork, registration, getting small legal things done, getting small financing—but I guess that happens to any business that’s starting up. I don’t see that as a major problem. It’s bound to happen.
I hope that people continue to be very family centric and societal centric… that’s a key value when one is trying to expand further. We like to give a helping hand, to care for people. We should hold on to that.
I want to build something that has value, that adds value.
In the next 5 years, I would like to provide some value to those who are seeking jobs as well as those who are providing jobs. To be able to add value to the overall workforce atmosphere.
In the next 5-10 years there’s a lot of scope to [make education practical and help students understand things better]. If that happens, it gives rise to people being a lot more proactive in how they see expansion and potential—in how they can add value to the world at large.
India today is showing a very good growth pattern on certain fronts, where effort, creativity and innovation are concerned. Tomorrow, if everything works out, India will be very different in looking at the work that’s done. And overall, a very rapid growth in how systems change.
India has witnessed a fair bit of change. And also resistance to change on a lot of fronts. We have not evaluated the small tweaks and changes that could really benefit people at large… I am looking at this as a standard practice where people can share ideas, and work together… You never know what the outcomes might be unless you have those conversations… I think it’s happening at the startup level.
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