Samadhan 09 from The Entrepreneurship Development Cell of STEP, IIT Roorkee concludes with much fanfare

Monday November 09, 2009 , 3 min Read

In its fourth edition, Samadhan ’09 saw an overwhelming response from colleges all over India. The Social Entrepreneurship Competition, organized by the Entrepreneurship Development Cell (EDC), IITR under the aegis of STEP (Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park) with a theme ‘Youth Empowerment’, attracted over 100 entries covering a wide range of thrust areas. With ONGC as the platinum sponsor, Samadhan ’09 offered teams with a large number of opportunities including intensive mentoring, attractive prize money and corporate exposure.

Eight teams made the final round of the event, with teams travelling to Roorkee from as far away as Goa. ‘Spornado’, ‘Disha’, ‘Avakyam’, ‘Shilp Sangam’, ‘Art Think’, ‘Books Yatra’ and ‘Grooming Gears’ presented path breaking solutions to various problems under the broad field of empowering youth. From protecting local arts and rental and sales of used books to food colours production from temple flowers and sports development in the grass-root level, the B-Plans held the audience rapt with attention.

Samadhan also comprised of the ‘Start-Up Showcase’, where many IIT Roorkee’s own entrepreneurial ventures were thrown into the limelight. ‘Zigndog’, ‘Ambicales’, ‘3s Consultancy’ and ‘Techbuddy Consulting’ were the four start-ups which participated in the event.

The elite panel of judges comprised of Mr. Manoj Sharma, who is a Consultant in the Social Service arena and has done several UNDP projects, Mr. M K Bhagwani, who has more than two decades of experience in working with the Government of India, UNICEF and other reputed organizations, and Mr. Rahul Arora, who is presently the country director of Acara Institute. The chief guest of the event was Dr. H O Gupta, Dean of Academic Research, IIT Roorkee. Also present at the event was Prof. Devdutta Das, Coordinator STEP, whose guidance was essential for the success of the event.

The Entrepreneurship Development Cell of STEP, IIT Roorkee was created with the aims of creating, nurturing and fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship within the campus as well as all over the country. Samadhan 2009 has proven to be yet another valuable step in achieving these noble targets. The total prize money of Samadhan was INR 30000. ONGC was the platinum sponsor of the event. The other associates of Samadhan 2009 were ET Now, PagalGuy.Com, MBAUniverse.Com, CareersIndia, YourStory.In, IndyaRocks.Com, IdeaWicket.Com and CollegeKhabar with JAM Mag being the print media partner.

‘Avakyam’ of MDI Gurgaon won the main honours of Samadhan 2009. ‘Spornado’, Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee and ‘Disha’, Department of Management Studies, Goa University were the first and second runner ups respectively.

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