JOIN USIt’s always a learning opportunity for students to interact with each other and compare aspirations and business plans. With this in mind, Presidency College recently hosted a national-level social entrepreneurship event titled ‘Prayatna 2014 – Creating possibilities without limits’.
The competition was held as a means of finding the nation’s most promising would-be social entrepreneurs among management students.
The first-of-its-kind event was well attended and achieved its goal of identifying and actively encouraging young thinkers to set up social enterprises.
Being open to all under-graduate and post-graduate students across the country, the event required ideas that could bring in a change in the lives of the under-privileged or differently-abled. In keeping with this theme, the business plans presented by the students were judged based on the ‘Five S’ model – Social Relevance, Scalability, Sustainability, Societal Value Creation and Safety.
Even non-participants attended and keenly listened to the presentations being made by participants from colleges like BITS Pilani, BMS College of Engineering, Christ University and PES University to name a few.
The ideas by Saurabh from BITS Pilani and Syed Afzal from PES University appealed to the jury members and they were selected to receive mentoring and the seed capital of Rs five lakh each to become successful social entrepreneurs.
The jury comprised of some of the best brains in business, including Ram Krishna NK, founder, Rang De; Ajay Bagepalli, ex-marketing head, Autodesk; Uday Vijayan, Namma Bengaluru award winner; and Saket Kumar Singh, head of operations, SEMAC.
The event was organised by the college students themselves under the guidance of Supriyo Guharoy, CEO, Presidency Group of Institutions and Anupama Sanjeev, head of admissions and marketing.
“We have organised cultural fests and management fests but it’s the first time that we’ve been a part of a social entrepreneurship event. It makes me feel proud as a Presidencian to have contributed in making this event possible. I’m glad that the college had faith in us and give us an opportunity to interact with young innovative minds through this,” said Nihal, an organiser.
Lopamudra, an organiser and participant, added, “Prayatna 2014 has provided the young innovators of today a platform to put forward their business plans which will not only be profitable but also socially visible. It gave me an opportunity to interact with biggies in the business and get their feedback on the way I choose to approach the business world.”