Times News Network / Kolkata
Not everyday does one hear of such an international level competition, in this city. All the six Indian Institutes of Management, the Xavier's Labour Relations Institute and other top-bracket Indian business schools are going to rub shoulders in the city with business schools from Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Michigan, London and Hongkong and pit their brains to formulate unique business ideas that can revolutionise rural India.
The unique contest, aptly named 'Mera Gaon Mera Desh' by organiser ITC, has already had confirmation of participation from the B-schools from abroad. The entrants have also started sending their business plans for appraisal to the company's headquarters in the city, where coordinators are receiving these entries and clarifying doubts.
About 1,200 B-school teams have registered for the contest and the finals are slated here for January 15, 2005.
"This is perhaps the first time that a business-plan contest of such a grand proportion is being planned keeping rural India as the focus and students are, naturally, excited. Moreover, the opportunity to participate and excel in an international contest has also resulted in so many students coming forward with their business plans," said senior professor at IIMBangalore and coordinator for his institute Rajeev Gowda. A large number of entries from this B-school are looking at supply-chain problems, logistics of distribution and food processing. All entries are being sent online, from which the top 10 entries from each campus will be selected
"A team of judges will then visit each of our national campuses and select the top two. There are 15 campuses participating so there will be 30 teams from the country participating in the contest. In case of foreign entries, the best entries will be selected online and there will be no campus visit," the official added. The best two entries from each campus, that make it to the final round, will be awarded cash prizes of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000, respectively. At the final round in the city, however, the stakes are much higher as the prizes are worth approximately Rs 6 lakh (US $1,300), Rs 4.50 lakh (US $10,000) and Rs 3 lakh (US $6,666).
"The rush for entering this contest goes against the myth that management students are only interested in cushy corporate jobs, preferably abroad. Our student teams have visited villages trying to identify agricultural produce or rural problems to which they can give a solution. From IIM-Lucknow alone there will be around 300 participating teams," said IIM-Lucknow teacher Srinivasan. From the Tata Institute of Social Sciences-Mumbai, students have not only visited Maharashtra but also villages of Gujarat and Saharanpur (in Uttar Pradesh) to identify indigenous products that they can adopt for business ventures.