Progressive ideas need a comprehensive effort to create a platform to convert vision into reality. Recognising entrepreneurship development as one of the stepping stones to a progressive economy to compete with other advanced economies of the world, is the need of the hour.

By and large, many educational systems are geared towards creating employees, not entrepreneurs. To change this dynamic, Intel Higher Education (India), in association with National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science and Technology, organised ‘DST-Intel India Innovation Pioneers Challenge,’ an innovative business plan competition for educational institutions, organisations and entrepreneurs across India.

This competition was launched in August 2006 with an objective to provide a forum for aspiring entrepreneurs to realise their dreams of commercialisation. It invited entries in three categories:

Wild Cards: Open for faculty, young entrepreneurs from India’s leading business incubators, scientists in research and development labs and working executives.

Champion of Champions: Open only for student teams that have held top 3 positions at prominent business plan competitions held in India in the last 2 years.

Scholar Sparks: Open for students with new technology business plans from engineering colleges, polytechnics, universities, science colleges and B-Schools.

As many as 98 executive summaries (for Scholar Sparks) and 64 executive summaries (under Wild Cards) were submitted under the technology areas of the competition.

Shortlisted teams were given an opportunity to work with the industry and academia experts who mentored the teams to help them fine-tune their business ideas and come out with a final business plan.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Rahul Bedi Director of Corporate Affairs, South Asia and Business Operations Manager, Intel India, conveyed the need to tackle closed mindsets of peers, parents and students. He said their focus was also the training faculty who were in a position to train the uncoming entrepreneurs with the right skills. That is also where business incubators come in handy, according to Manav Subodh, Intel Higher Education Manager. Explaining the functions of a Technology Business Incubator (TBI), he said the need for instruments such as TBI had been recognised the world over for initiating technology led and knowledge driven enterprises.
 The following two teams were selected from the Wild Cards category (entrepreneurs) and given honourary recognition.

Business Plan: Applied Fiction
Participant: Aparna Rao
About the plan: Applied Fiction is an interaction design studio based in Bangalore, founded by Aparna Rao in 2006. “Our business idea is to spend 80 per cent of our time on developing design IP around self-inspired products and applications, which we believe will be successful internationally. We want to remain in the concept, prototyping and IP generation business only (except in the case of demonstrating evidence of IP value through the sale of limited editions).

So once we create and demonstrate a realistic, convincing prototype of our idea, we would like to sell or license it out to bigger companies who are highly competent in manufacturing, marketing and retaining on a global level.”
“The remaining 20 per cent of our time will be spent in doing client commissioned work for the dual purposes of building a financial buffer to resource our R&D; and to keep a finger on the pulse of emerging technologies, market trends and consumer behaviour,”' explained Aparna.

Business Plan: Ability
Participant: Bipin B Agravat
About the plan: “Willager Inc is ready to begin software development and marketing with an exciting, useful, new solution targetted to bridge the disability divide. Aim is to bridge the disability divide digitally for the deaf and mute through our interactive cost-effective, user-friendly software development and the sales of software, to generate the revenue by serving as a social entrepreneur. Successful demonstration has been deployed in two institutes and the company has acquired the ‘go ahead’ for the development of the professional product in the market to capture the 50 million industry.”

“The complete product will be a text to speech, speech to text - sign language converter, in 22 languages for Indian users and 15 language interface for international users. It will be used as a platform to communicate between people with special ability.”The ‘DST-Intel India Innovation Pioneers Challenge 2006’ showcased business plans that made integral use of technology that addressed issues like novelty, feasibility, utility aspects and applicability to dis-advantaged people, rural areas and to improving the societal lifestyle.
DST, Government of India, Intel and Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in March 2007 collectively to invest Rs 2.11 crore in the biggest public-private partnership model of Intel’s university programmes across the world.

Dr Smriti Trikha, Science Officer, IUSSTF, reiterated the success of the India Innovation Pioneers Challenge and said the support provided to the student innovators was not just in terms of the cash award, but more importantly, mentoring, networking, and incubation support to present their business plan at University of California, Berkeley.

Handholding to crystalize idea
 The competition is supported with technology incubation managers from NSTEDB, DST, who take the teams through a programme that exposes them to various aspects of setting up and managing technology ventures-including identifying proper space, pain points, necessary solutions etc and bring them to a stage where they are in a position to create a business plan and incubation proposal.

 Judges for the competition included Prof Sundarrajan, Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore; Prof  K Rajanikanth, Principal, MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore; G V Gurunatham, Managing Director, Electro Systems Associates Pvt Ltd; DA Mohan, General Manager, Bharat Electronics Ltd; Mahendra Pratap, Integra Microsystems Pvt Ltd; Dr Bhaskar Harita, Motorola India; Dr C Subramanian, CEO, BAeHAL Software Ltd and Ms Sarayu Srinivasan, Director, Intel Capital.