FICCI

The Final round of Business plan competition of “The Next Generation Entrepreneur- 2013” was held at FICCI Headquarters on 23rd Mar 2013. Prof. TPN Singh, Advisor (R&D) attended the event which started at 11.30 am. There were three categories of Business plans namely General Category, Women Empowerment and Green Category. Out of nearly 600 projects received, ten in each category were shortlisted for the semi- final round.

Three projects from DGI, Greater Noida were shortlisted for the semifinals :-

1. E - Wheel Chair for General Category - Anand Kumar, Akhil Narayanan and Gagan Kohli from VI Sem ECE

2. Electronic Eye for General Category - Nitin Sharma from VIII Sem ECE

3. Kitchen for Slum Dweller’s - Dhruv Gupata from VI Sem ECE

The semi final round was held in the morning session.Three projects from ten shortlisted projects were to be selected from each category. E-wheel chair was shortlisted in the top three in the general category. The final round was scheduled at 4.00 pm wherein three projects shortlisted from each category would be evaluated. The following dignitaries graced the final selection round for evaluation:-

1. Mr. Sam Pitroda - Advisor to Prime Minister on Technical and Scientific matters.

2. Mr. Dean Thompson - US Consul General

3. Mr. Saurabh Srivasatava - Chairman IAN

4. Mr. Sidhart Birla - Senior Vice President, FICCI

5. Mr. Ajai Chowdhry - Founder Member, HCL

6. Dr. ADidar Singh - Secretary General, FICCI

7. Ms. Padmaja Ruparel - President, IAN

8. Mr. Ravi Chaudhry - Chairman, CeNext Consulting

Ms. Deepna Arora of FICCI welcomed the audience and congratulated all the participating teams. She explained in detail the origin of the event and the role of US and FICCI alongwith Indian Angel Networking in collaborating the program. She briefed on the workshops conducted for the 30 semifinalists by the mentors in preparing their business plans. The Consul general of US embassy, Mr. Dean Thompson, Dr. Didar Singh and Ms. Padmaja Ruparel rendered their incisive opinions and pragmatic views on the event. Mr. Ravi Chaudhri, Chairman CeNext Consulting averred that change begins with a dream and this dream should have a positive impact on others. The domain of entrepreneurship has a wide canvas of societal values. He mentioned four phases of entrepreneurship i.e. Big fish eating small fish, Fast fish eating slow fish, Intelligent fish eating dumb fish and Realistic fish eating non-realistic fish. He explained the concept of TRIPOD which is of wholeness, compassion and Transparency. These three tenets are required if a person wants wealth and happiness.

Mr. Sam Pitroda congratulated the US Embassy, FICCI and IAN for their fruitful symbiosis and remarked that these are exciting times and the present generation is very lucky to have the resources available. His National Innovation Council is budgeting one billion dollars for innovation to start from the bottom most level. He stated that on many fronts Western model is not suitable for India. One must not look for short term gains. He gave his own example of patenting the logic circuit of digital diary in 1973 and how it paid dividends after 10 years. India needs 50 million jobs and the goal of National Innovation Council is to create at least one lakh entrepreneurs for providing employability.

Mr. Dean Thompson, Consul General, US Embassy spoke on the meaningful partnership between India and US in scientific and technical area. He eulogized Sam Pitroda and showered encomiums on his stellar and unparallel contributions as an entrepreneur to the society. His bold and intrepid ventures and foray in telecom sector is a folklore today. Sam’s invincible spirit and belief in himself is a harbinger of quantum leaps in scientific and technical area for budding entrepreneurs.

The three projects in each category for the final roundwere announced and the teams were allowed a 5 minutes presentation on their business plans. E - Wheel chair of DGI, Greater Noida was listed in the top three of general business plan category. Mr. Gagan Agrawal of Indian Angel Networking congratulated the college team of DGI, Greater Noida for their E- Wheel chair business plan and informed that this will be taken up for incubation. He shall be contacting the college shortly to work out the modalities. This was a unique distinction conferred on the project team which has brought laurels to the Institute in no small measure.

The event came to an end at 8.30 pm which was followed by high tea.