The Centre for Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Development (CEED), along with the deAsra
Centre of Excellence in Nano Entrepreneurship, is an entrepreneurship policy research and
advocacy centre at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
Considering entrepreneurs as an integral part of India’s business and employment ecosystem, CEED aspires to study the factors enabling and inhibiting the growth of entrepreneurship in India. Currently, there is no standard definition of nano enterprises or nano entrepreneurs. The deAsra Centre aims to provide a formal definition and create awareness about this category’s existence. Nano enterprises are typically small shops providing goods and services, operating hyper-locally and catering to their neighbourhood areas. Heterogeneity and fragmentation are distinct features of nano enterprises, but they form 95% of the micro-enterprise sector in India.
A diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning community of academics, practitioners, entrepreneurs, experts, and students from around the world, CEED aims to bring together a host of stakeholders such as academicians, policymakers, market and industry professionals to undertake research and training activities with a general focus on small businesses, and a particular focus on nano enterprises.
Mission
Centre for Excellence in Entrepreneurship & Development aspires to be a knowledge hub to strengthen the potential of entrepreneurship as an alternative to dependent employment as a priority for India’s economic development.
deAsra Centre of Excellence in Nano Entrepreneurship aims to increase awareness about issues of nano entrepreneurs, and envisions building a better ecosystem for nano entrepreneurs through policy advice and advocacy.
Legacy
CEED has been founded with a unique confluence of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics and deAsra Foundation.
The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, established in 1930, has been one of the pioneering research institutions in India known for its contribution to empirical research methods, policy advocacy, and seminal contributions to policymaking for nearly a century.
deAsra Foundation is a non-profit organization which enables entrepreneurs to start, manage, & grow small businesses successfully. To this end, deAsra offers a platform wherein, setting up, managing & growing a small business is made simple & entrepreneur friendly through a broad array of support services. Each of deAsra’s services is simplified, benchmarked, tech-enabled, expert-led, with customer-friendly functionality, convenience & speed.
Mentors
Dr. Anand Deshpande
Founder & President, Persistent Systems, and Board Member, Gokhale Institute
Anand holds a B.Tech. with Honours in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indiana University, US. Prior to founding Persistent Systems, he worked at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in California. Anand is committed to making a broader impact and is focused on data, higher education, and entrepreneurship.
Dr. Ajit Ranade
Vice-Chancellor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics
Ajit is a noted economist. His 32-year career has spanned both academic and corporate assignments. He was the Group Executive President and Chief Economist with the Aditya Birla Group, and has taught in universities in India and the US. He has served as a member of several committees of the Reserve Bank of India. He has been a former member of the Board of Management at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
Research Advisory Committee
Dr. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
Executive Director – Research and Strategy, Artha Global
Dr. Niranjan’s research interests include macroeconomics, political economy and economic history. Prior to this, he was the Research Director and a Senior Fellow at the IDFC Institute. He provides direction to Artha’s research programmes. Previously, he was Executive Editor of Mint, a financial daily, where he managed the opinion section, wrote the daily editorials and the award-winning Cafe Economics column.
Dr. Sumita Kale
CEO and Senior Fellow at Indicus Foundation
Team
Pradnya Godbole
Director, CEED
Ms. Pradnya Godbole, is the CEO of deAsra Foundation, a not-for-profit company formed to contribute to social welfare by enabling entrepreneurship. Her vision is to simplify the whole entrepreneurial process by helping entrepreneurs to think about business in a more structured manner, before executing it. In 2013, after having spent sixteen years in the IT industry, she decided to explore social entrepreneurship in India, and took on the responsibility to manage deAsra as its CEO.
Dr. Kiran Limaye
Assistant Professor (Research)
Kiran Limaye has a PhD in Economics from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. He has been teaching Microeconomics and Econometrics for the last 10 years and has worked as consultant for the last 3 years for PRADAN and IRMA where he worked on sampling, design of quantitative impact assessment and analysis of survey data.
Neha Ghatpande
Senior Program Officer
An academic and communication professional, she is currently a Doctoral Scholar at the Research Centre for Women’s Studies, St. Mira’s College, Savitribai Phule Pune University. In her professional career, she has worked as a Journalist and multimedia content creator with leading news organisations.
Shalmali Solomon Akhade
Project Co-Ordinator
Shalmali is a Program lead at CEED. She holds a Master of Science in Economics degree from Symbiosis School of Economics and specialises in Development Studies. She has previously worked at MCCIA and her areas of interest are entrepreneurship, education, unemployment and socio economic development.
Prakhar Garg
Communications Assistant
A trained journalist, keenly interested in socio-political scenarios around the world. He has worked in newspapers, magazines, advertising, and marketing, and writes occasionally for premier publications in India.
Surender Kaur
Research Associate
Surender Kaur is currently pursuing a PhD from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics and holds an M.Sc. from Symbiosis School of Economics. She has worked on various research projects, including studies on socioeconomic linkages, judicial pendency, and economic theory. Her areas of interest include financial modelling and international trade, where she aims to contribute to meaningful insights and advancements in these fields.
Surabhi Sharma
Research Assistant
Surabhi has a Master’s degree from the Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics. She has worked as an economics researcher on marketing strategies at IIT, Mumbai, and also has experience in primary-level field surveys at Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR). She has also worked with large datasets and recently presented her “Research Paper” at the 58th Annual Conference of The Indian Econometric Society (TIES).
Pranita Kadam
Consultant
Pranita Kadam is an Agricultural Engineer with two master’s specialisation in Environment Management and Agriculture Extension Management. Being a Research Assistant with Gokhale Institute, she has fieldwork experience as a Block Technology Manager with the Government of Maharashtra in the Department of Agriculture, Kolhapur. She also has a keen interest in agribusiness management and coordination of experiential learning programs.
Supreet Jojawar
Research Assistant
A research enthusiast, she is a doctoral student at Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune. Her areas of interest include understanding environmental, wastewater and institutional governance and policy framework, She has experience of teaching administration and research at Ahmedabad University and IRMA.
Minal Pawar
Research Assistant
Minal holds a Masters Degree from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics and has extensive experience as a Research Assistant on an ICSSR project. She represented India at the IIFT Model WTO 2022 Conference, debating issues like COVID-19, vaccine patent waivers, and the TRIPS Agreement. She also presented her research on Energy Economics at the 2nd National Energy Conclave at Banaras Hindu University.
Interns
