Being self employed is not easy; being self employed the first time (or during the first few years) is even less easy. My own foray into entrepreneurship happened not too long ago and it would have helped me greatly, had I access to a resource or network that could lend out a helping hand during those formative days.

The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is a non-profit organisation and its mandate is to promote high-growth entrepreneurship in India. NEN was set up in 2004 as an initiative from the Wadhwani Foudation (led by a Silicon Valley based tech entrepreneur of Indian origin) and its co-founders include five of India’s premier academic institutions: IIT Bombay; IIM Ahmedabad; SP Jain Institute, Bombay; IBAB, Bangalore and BITS Pilani. NEN’s ultimate goal is to help launch thousands of new entrepreneurs, who in turn will create hundreds of thousands of much-needed valuable jobs for India.

NEN’s website is a treasure trove for entrepreneurs and I think it is specially relevant to first time entrepreneurs. NEN’s activities includes events, resources, people, investors- all of whom are important stakeholders in the tech ecosystem. You can join the discussion forums on their website, read up their collection of useful resources on business planning, raising funds, marketing etc or check out videos, audio, presentations etc. As a sample, check out this write-up that explains the business model of venture capitalists (yes, VCs also have to explain their business model to their investors). Or download some sample terms sheets here (login reqd). NEN has an active yearly calendar of activities, that spans across India in organizing various entrepreneurship focused lectures, talks, competitions etc. NEN is actively supported by some of the prominent VC firms operating in India. NEN’s testbed are educational institutions and it has memberships from 230 engg colleges, MBA institutes etc.

Overall level, NEN looks a great initiative and (let me say again at the risk of repeating myself) a very useful resource for first-time & future budding entrepreneurs. Make the best of it!

MapMyIndia has rolled out a refurbished version of its mapping application that includes some much needed improvements. Top of the list is enhanced map readability (and usability), something that I always thought was its achilees heel. The new maps look cleaner and are easier to read. The second big improvement is in the driving directions- detailed, landmark based, anywhere to anywhere in India, driving time estimate etc. The third major announcement is the release of FREE web APIs for third party internet and mobile application developers. I tried out the driving directions functionality and it worked well. Its not as intuitive as what RouteGuru gives you (for Delhi/NCR) but a definite improvement over what they had earlier.

The online mapping space is seeing a fair bit of action with multiple players- YahooMaps, Google Maps, RouteGuru, OnYoMo etc, each of which has a slight twist in the way they approach the problem. For MapMyIndia which has till now largely been a vendor of GIS data to other companies, MMI ver2008 may be their yet biggest step towards interfacing the user directly than through their clients.