Recognition for best student start-ups

The 2-day national conference  of Tata First Dot powered by NEN, India’s first national recognition and mentoring platform for student startups, saw the felicitation of the national winners of Tata First Dot Judge’s Choice competition (six winners) and Tata First Dot People's Choice competition (five winners).

These start-ups will receive unique professional mentoring from various entrepreneurs, angel investors, mentors, experts and other student start-ups via the NEN Mentoring Platform.

The two-day national conference was held at IIT-Madras, Chennai from January 20-21, 2013. Overall top 29 promising ventures, including the 11 winning entries, were selected from a pool of 400+ entries from across multiple sectors namely education, manufacturing, IT/software, hospitality/travel, retail, pharma/
healthcare, biotech, energy, services among others.

Pan-India

The entries received were from across India including large metro like Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to major cities like Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad to smaller cities and towns like Hubli-Dharwad, Shimoga, Coimbatore and Cuttack.

Besides the 11 winners, the remaining 18 short-listed promising start-ups  from the top 29 will also receive recognition and mentoring through the Tata First Dot initiative They would be given an opportunity to network with entrepreneurs, angel investors, mentors, experts and fellow student start-ups.

The initiative has been conceived to support these young entrepreneurs, help them build their companies, and to inspire more young people across the country to follow their lead.

The six national winners of the Tata First Dot Judge’s Choice Competition were selected by a panel of eminent jury members comprising of successful entrepreneurs, angel investors and senior Tata leaders.
The entries were evaluated on criteria like milestones achieved (investment obtained, track record), business model, innovativeness and distinctive competence, passion and growth potential.

The winning entries included ventures like Anaerobic workstation for research, experiential learning tools for educational institutions, mobile app testing platform, search engine for e-commerce, automated food equipment and online courses.