In a bid to unlock India’s inventive potential, the Entrepreneurship Cell of Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore hosted the final leg of the National Business Plan Competition 2019 on December 2. The competition aimed at identifying disruptive ideas and focused to stimulate young minds to think creatively and work towards innovative business ideas and solutions for the country’s most promising segments.

More than 100 entries were received from the premier business schools across India for the regional levels of National Business Plan Competition 2019. The first prize was awarded to Vartika Tripathi from SIBM, Pune who presented her potential business idea on a go-to care partner for pet parents in India. The first runner up was Sivaprakash from Kongu Arts and Science College, Erode presenting his idea on low-cost hearing aid, followed by the second runner up Chinmaya Naik from G.H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur presenting his idea on affordable digital classroom solutions for the students in visually impaired community. The first, second and third positioned teams will get free incubation with XIME, besides other exciting prizes and cash prize of Rs. 2 Lakh, Rs. 1 Lakh and Rs. 50,000 respectively.

Prominent panel of judges, Dr. Ravi Gururaj, Founder & CEO, QikPod, Dr. Sridhar Mitta, director, NextWealth Entrepreneurs, Sanjay Anandaram, member, NSRCEL Review Committee, IIMB and Dr. Mathew Manimala, former professor of IIM-B, Entrepreneurship and Strategy selected the winners based on selection criteria that included innovation, creativity and scalability of the idea.

Commenting on her achievement, Vartika said, “I am excited to win XIME B-Plan Competition 2019. I sincerely thank XIME for providing us this opportunity and platform to present our business ideas. It was an enriching experience to get this exposure where we could receive productive feedback not only from the jury panel but also from the co-participants. It was really great listening to the other business ideas as they were really innovative. Overall, it has been an amazing experience being a part of XIME National B Plan Competition 2019.”

The grand finale of the multi-legged competition saw the best six teams competing against each other with smart and innovative ideas that could be potential solutions to several challenges that our country is currently facing today. The final leg had institutions like Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, G.H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur, Kongu Arts and Science College, Erode, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune, K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai and NIIT University, Neemrana.

Speaking at the event, Dr. J Alexander, IAS (Retired), former chief secretary, Government of Karnataka and chief guest at XIME Business Plan Competition 2019 said, “B-plan aims at bringing out people who can be leaders and wake up the dreamer inside oneself. I wish everyone present here big successes in life. Initiatives like The National Business Plan Competition 2019 will help such talented students to transform their innovative ideas into potential businesses.”

Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) is India’s premier private business school with three fully residential campuses in Bengaluru, Kochi and Chennai in India.