IIMB and Chrysalis launch Bzz-wings 2001

Chrysalis Capital and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) have come together to conduct a nation-wide business plan contest, christened 'Bzz Wings 2001'. The contest will be conducted under the aegis of the Nadathur S Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), which is part of IIMB and will invite participation from premier educational institutes in India.

This is a pioneering stand taken by IIMB to identify entrepreneurs and provide them the direction and environment to translate their ideas into economically viable entities. Speaking to the press on the occasion of the launch N.S. Raghavan, chairman of the advisory council of NSRCEL and formerly the joint managing director of Infosys, said, "Indian Institutes possess a lot of entrepreneurial talent, which goes untapped due to lack of a stimulating environment and support. In fact less than 5 per cent of graduates from the IITs / IIMs set up their own businesses at present. The aim of the center is to progressively ramp this up to 30 per cent.Â"

Talking on why Chrysalis chose to partner with IIMB, Raj Kondur, director, Chrysalis Capital, said that anchoring of such a contest was best done at a management institute. And Bangalore being the IT capital of the country, IIMB was best suited for Chrysalis to partner with. In any case, he added that IIMB was already in the process of initiating a broad-based all India business plan contest. The partnership, therefore, was a foregone conclusion.

In its first year, the contest will be conducted across the IIMs, the IITs, XLRI and IISc. The participants for the contest, which will have a duration of about six months, will work in teams. The only stipulation in the team formation is that at least one of the team members must be from the final year of any of the programmes of the above institutes.

There is no stipulation on any of the other team members. The contest would be held annually and would in the future go on to cover other educational institutes as well.

The contest will be kicked off on June 29 at IIBM by the IIMB director Prof M.R. Rao. The launch will be completed at all the major institutes by early August, 2000. The first phase of the competition, involving submission of summary business proposals and their screening will be completed by early November 2000. The selected entries will then compete for the second round by preparing their detailed business plans, in which up to 40 of the best teams from the first round will participate.

In February 2001, the 12 best teams from the second round will make presentations to an eminent 12-member panel of judges, drawn equally from academics, angel investors, venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs.

The results for the all India contest will be declared by mid February, 2001, close to the graduation dates in these institutes, so that the winning teams can plan a serious entrepreneurial career, based on their winning

business plans. The winning team will be eligible for a prize in cash and kind, valued at about Rs 5 lakh, while the three runners up teams will get prizes valued at Rs 3 lakh each. The remaining 36 shortlisted teams of the various rounds will also be eligible for various prizes.

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