Maruti Suzuki Idea Hunt Grand Finale 2023 Winners

The grand finale of the Maruti Suzuki NURTURE Idea Hunt, in association with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, was organised at the IIM Calcutta Campus on June 27, 2023, marking the grand culmination of the contest. The top 12 startups selected from the regional editions in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya competed for the winner’s title. Finally, 6 winners were selected for an exclusive pre-incubation program with Maruti Suzuki and prize money of Rs. 50K each.

IIMCIP and Maruti Suzuki congratulate these incredible minds for their innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. The winners will now prepare for an extraordinary journey with Maruti Suzuki! During the pre-incubation program, the 6 winning startups will get the opportunity to collaborate with industry experts, receive mentorship from Maruti Suzuki’s top leaders and refine their ideas to transform them into viable businesses.

The Maruti Nurture Grand Finale was an exhilarating event filled with groundbreaking concepts, insightful discussions, fireside-chat and inspiring stories. The day opened with open pitching. It was followed by an insightful fireside chat with industry experts like Mr. Sanjay Gupta – Country Head & VP, Google India (IIMCIP Chairman); Mr. Rajesh Uppal – Member, Executive Board (HR, IT, Safety, DE) Maruti Suzuki; Mr. T.N. Hari- Co-founder Artha School of Entrepreneurship (IIMCIP Board Member); Mr. Aditya Aggarwal – EVP, Head-Digital Enterprise, Maruti Suzuki; Mr. Bharat Salhotra – Co-founder and President, Insightzz; and Mr. Rohan Chhatwal – Head-Innovation Centre of Excellence, Maruti Suzuki. The program ended with a closing speech by Dr. Subhrangshu Sanyal – CEO, IIMCIP.

DST PRAGATI Accelerator Program – The Investor Pitching Day

The DST PRAGATI Accelerator Program culminated with a Demo Day on April 28, 2023, where eight top-performing startups pitched to Angel Investors from different parts of the country.

The day was packed with crucial learnings and an understanding of business and investment nuances. The quality and impact of the event were augmented by the presence of Ramaswamy Sankar, CEO, The Chennai Angels; Gantavya Kshatree, Investment & Portfolio Management, Social Alpha; Ankur Shah, VP, Patni Financial Advisors; Neha Aggarwal, Principal Investment, Mumbai Angels Network; and Naresh Priyadarshi, CEO, IIITD Innovation and Incubation Center.

16 social impact startups were selected for the 6-month DST Pragati Accelerator Program, to provide them with targeted handholding and networking support, and consequently make them ready to pitch for investment by the end of the program.

Startup Investment Management Program for 16 officials (Batch 1) of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)

First round of Challenge Fund under NRETP Incubator Program conducted in Assam

The curtains to the first round of the Challenge Fund under NRETP Incubator Program (Assam) were pulled down on 21 July 2022, following 3 days of vivacious exhibition of entrepreneurial spirit by the enterprising women of rural Assam.

150 women-led rural enterprises were divided into 3 batches to participate in the Pitch Training Camp organized by IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. Post the training, each batch pitched before a panel of experts that comprised of IIMCIP mentors, subject matter experts and high officials from National Rural Livelihood Mission.

The vibrant gamut of products dealt in by the entrepreneurs represented the quintessential colours and flavours of Assam, and were sights to behold. The stories of these entrepreneurs are true blue examples of passion and perseverance. Almost everyone had stories to tell about the massive challenges in meeting the needs of daily life. Yet, their optimism and tenacity to look right into the eyes of the challenges and pursue entrepreneurship to dismantle those challenges, are qualities that everyone can take a leaf from.

Six months of extensive outreach across Assam, 7000 plus applications, screening, orientation programs, and field verification had led to the first round of the Challenge Fund. The second round with another 100 women-led rural enterprises in Assam will be held in September this year. Subsequently, 150 of these enterprises will be selected to receive funding in the form of grant and interest-free loans, along with incubation support from IIM Calcutta Innovation Park.

Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator Program

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park joins the focused effort of the Government of Mizoram to take entrepreneurship activity to the next level by helping scale business enterprises in the state.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park joins the focused effort of the Government of Mizoram to take entrepreneurship activity to the next level by helping scale business enterprises in the state.

IIMCIP partnered with the Government of Mizoram and MEDMOC to kickstart the one-year-long Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator programme in the state of Mizoram on December 21, 2020. Pu Lalrikhuma Sailo, the Principal Advisor cum Additional Secretary, Planning & Programme Implementation Department, Govt. of Mizoram, inaugurated the program online, which was followed by the first boot camp attended by 20 entrepreneurs from the state. The Accelerator aims to identify promising start-ups with proven business models in revenue stage and provide them with intense handholding and mentoring through a structured programme to achieve sustainability and scale operations within and outside the state.

The Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator looks at structured intervention that ranges from capacity building to mentoring and from market linkage to funding support. This coupled with intense mentoring support and handholding will help startups align with their growth aspirations. Additionally, entrepreneurs in the North East also need to build capacities and widen their knowledge base especially in business processes, customer identification and acquisition. This fast track accelerator with multiple cohorts is in line with the Mizoram Government’s Startup Policy. In addition to mentorship and investment opportunities, the Accelerator aims to facilitate access to logistical and technical resources as well as shared office space. in collaboration with other incubation centres. The selection of businesses/start-ups for acceleration was competition based.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, with its large network of mentors, investors, market and startup connects, will facilitate customized need-based engagements for these entrepreneurs. The accelerator will consist of two cohorts – Growth Certification Cohort and Growth Mentoring Cohort. For 20 of those start-ups supported by various Govt. programmes/schemes, a curriculum-based structured certification programme has been designed on various aspects of attaining sustainability and scaling up and presented in a blended virtual and physical 6-month programme. Out of these 20 startups from the Growth Certification Cohort, IIMCIP will select 10-12 of the most promising start-ups and offer them dedicated mentoring, handholding and acceleration support over the next 6 months, to enable faster scale-up.

With the growing interest in entrepreneurship, the active support provided by an equally growing entrepreneurial ecosystem and the able backing of Mizoram State Entrepreneurship Development and Monitoring Committee (MEDMOC), this year-long accelerator aims to take entrepreneurship up the next step on the “Kailawn” (ladder in Mizo).

HACKATHON – PATNA

The Patna edition of the hackathon was in association with Bihar Entrepreneurs Association (BEA) and saw 11 teams participating. In the fifth position was a start-up Chickenwala, a business selling online hygienic chicken. In the fourth place a start-up which provided traceability of food from farm to plate by the usage of blockchain technology thereby bringing transparency in the food supply chain. In the third place was Luggage Star, a start-up which provided tracking tokens, travel insurance and safe custody of an individual’s luggage for a day’s travel. In the Second place was placed a start-up Course an ICT platform that conducted courses for skill development and corporate industry agnostic programs increasing the employability quotient of an applicant. Finally Mitti, a start-up in the supply chain management from farm to retail market had developed their platform which eliminated levels of middle men thereby reducing the retail price of produce and providing a better remuneration to the farmers.

HACKATHON – SILCHAR

The hackathon was held at National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Silchar with 49 participants. The winners were Team View, a driver friendly mechanism to avoid road mishaps and accidents because of drowsy driving. The runners up were Web Nerds with their idea to keep a digital check on vaccines that a baby gets and Unnamed Creators with their smart farming monitoring system with automated watering and fertilization. Other notable ideas were that of Drop scaling which focused on selling baby carrier bags for working mothers on e-commerce platforms and Einstein Bergs, a software based program to track flights.

HACKATHON – Tezpur

The hackathon was held at Tezpur University and saw over 6 mentors and 33 participants. The winners of the hackathon were Clinical Bots with an automated solution for inborn injuries, accidents and disabilities. The runner ups were Power Step with their solution to convert pressure energy to electrical energy, and SQUARE, a smart farming monitoring system. Other notable ones were Ethnica which promoted NorthEast India’s indigenous culture on e-commerce platforms and Analyse.io which was a centralised marketing recommender system.

DARR KE AAGE JEET HAI

One of the most inspirational talks organised by IIMCIP, Darr ke Aage Jeet Hai saw a large number of attendees. Satyarup Siddhanta, an ace mountaineer with a Guiness World Book Record, spoke about how Mountaineering and Entrepreneurship are similar in a lot of ways. Recognised as the youngest mountaineer to have climbed the Seven Summits and the only Indian to have climbed the Seven Volcanic peaks, he motivated the listeners to look at the ultimate goal, be determined, go through every weather condition, but still reach the goal.

CORONATIC CHANGES IN COMPANY LAWS INCLUDING COMPANIES FRESH START SCHEME

CA Pankaj Periwal, Senior Manager at V. Singhi & Associates, and CA Ansul Agarwal, Manager at V. Singhi & Associates, discussed the special Measures under Companies Act and LLP Act in view of COVID-19 outbreak. They focussed on the relaxation in KYC NORMS and the amendments related to board meetings

PIVOT TO ADAPT

The inspirational Nagaraja Prakasam, Founder Chairman of NativeLead Foundation and Partner at Acumen Fund, spoke about how social enterprises should look at pivoting and look at this crisis as an opportunity. If an industry is non-essential, they should be able to communicate with your customers to understand them better. Also stressing on the importance of employees, he asked startups to ensure that employees are given the minimum because laying off is easy but hiring is tough. Additionally, this is an opportunity to build a more equitable society, based on fair chances, innovations, focus on necessary problems and build a cadre of social entrepreneurs who would take pride in building India.

DECODING STARTUP CHALLENGES IN COVID TIMES

Amit Antony Alex, India Country Director of Upaya Social Ventures, leads all efforts in identifying, coaching and investing in early stage startups while also working with social entrepreneurs to solve global development issues through a market-based approach. During the webinar, he highlighted the need for entrepreneurs to assess situations more closely and include a lot more short term planning at least in the next 2 years. Moreover, consumers in general will become more ecologically conscious which can impact businesses and this, entrepreneurs should immediately improve their cash flows. He stressed on the fact that collaborations and partnerships in these unprecedented times can be a win-win situation.

A PEEK INTO THE MIND OF A SEASONED INVESTOR

This webinar was particularly insightful for startups. Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner at IvyCap Advisors Venture Private Limited, was live in conversation with Chandradeep Mitra, a mentor at IIMCIP. Vikram Gupta has over 22 years of experience in private equity, business consulting and M&A, and has held leadership positions in various organisations in India and abroad.

For the webinar, he focused on how the pandemic crisis has impacted startups, and how digitization is the way forward. Startups working in these digital sectors will have the opportunity to scale up their businesses substantially by making sure that they are targeting the right customer segments and the products are aligned with the demands.Also, investors will now look at different ways to invest and will change their strategies accordingly.

COVID 19 VS INDIAN STARTUPS

When the startup world was adapting to the new ways of working, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organised a webinar with Rohit Jain – Senior Associate at Singhania & Associates, New Delhi. Startup founders took away expert advice about employment contracts and relaxations rolled out by the Government Of India for Startups.

HACKATHON – GUWAHATI

The hackathon at Guwahati University saw 75 participants and 5 mentors. The top 5 included Nyrize and Bachelor, with their innovative solution to automate farming activities like irrigation and fertilization through Android apps. Runner up TechHack came up with a solution for local sports players to showcase their talent on a digital platform. VidyaZone is another A to Z solution for online education and to manage attendance digitally. A notable idea was that of Technos, that came up with a smart quality detection of food productivity

8th edition of Tata Social Enterprise Challenge draws curtains in style

The Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2019-2020 drew curtains following an elaborate grand finale program on 4th January 2020 at the IIM Calcutta Auditorium.

The 8th edition of India’s biggest exposure platform for social entrepreneurs witnessed some flabbergasting social startups from India and beyond battle it out to claim the coveted winner’s title. As many as 450+ applications were received from social entrepreneurs in myriad sectors, including healthcare, agriculture and food, clean technology, education and skills development, handicrafts, among others.

Following the screening of the applications, 4 regional rounds were conducted out of which 20 teams were shortlisted to pitch before the jury in the semi-finals on 3rd January. 3 entrepreneurs from Germany were also selected for the semi-finals. Top four social entrepreneurs were duly awarded in a scintillating Grand Finale on 4th January.

Trestle Labs was declared the winner of the Tata Social Entrepreneurship Challenge 2019-2020. PadCare Labs was adjudged the Runner Up, while Aerobiosys Innovations and Greenikk jointly took away the Second Runners Up title.

Apart from the prize distribution ceremony, the finale witnessed valuable keynote address from talismanic speakers like Ms. Shanti Raghavan (Social Entrepreneur of the year 2019), Mr. Abhay Jere (CIO, MHRD), Mr. Nagaraja Prakasam (Angel Investor), Mr. Satyarup Siddhanta (Alpinist), Mr. Ashish Gupta (MD, TMILL – Tata Steel subsidiary) and Mr. Julian Zix (Head – GINSEP).

Dr. Subhrangshu Sanyal, CEO, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, expressed his gladness at the success of the 8th edition of TSEC. He assured of a continuous effort to scaleup the program so that more and more social enterprises could find a platform for recognition, thereby spurring social entrepreneurship in the country for the overall development of the quality of life of its people.
The finale ended with refreshing rendition of Baul gaan and a stunning Chhau performance by the folk artists of Bengal.