Next Great Entrepreneur contest for NCR students.
Bureau Report
CHENNAI: The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the U.S. Embassy, and the Indian Angel Network have come together to organize a business plan competition in the National Capital Region in India for undergraduates.
The contest, named as Next Great Entrepreneur, encourages sustainable and scalable business plans in the field of green business, general business and women empowerment.
The winner of the each category will be awarded a cash price of Rs. 1 lakh ($1,842) and the first 10 finalists in the three categories will be mentored by business leaders from leading companies of India and the U.S.
The move comes amidst an estimated addition of 500 million new jobs in India between 2007 and 2022. FICCI, US Embassy and Indian Angel Network hope the talent hunt will help new graduates in the wake of challenges to stay competitive and thrive in the tough economic environment. This requires new entrepreneurs willing to probe new initiatives and come out with a workable solution to face the multiple challenges, FICCI believes.
While the contest aspires to promote business relations between India and the U.S. and build on the shared values of entrepreneurship and innovation, the initiative is expected to offer youths challenging assignments in the competitive business scenario.
Commenting on the initiative, FICCI Secretary General A Didar Singh said, “It is pertinent to infuse a spirit of entrepreneurship in our education. Creating entrepreneurship at the undergraduate level will to a great extent help tackle the challenge of 500 million new job seekers by 2022. We need job creators more than job seekers now.â€