SCAI invites you to participate in DISHA, the annual business plan contest of National Innovation Foundation, organized this year by the students of IIM Ahmedabad. 

What this is all about:

It presents the ultimate challenge of converting an innovation into a workable business proposition. This will push you to the limits. Tough but extremely rewarding too. It is time you put those classroom theories into practice and dirty your hands by coming to the field. You bring your intellect, your thought process and give a shape to an innovation. 

The How To:

Provisional Registration

Deadline for provisional registration is 11:59 pm, 20th September 2003
The group shall consist of maximum four members. It is advisable that at the time of registration you send us (mail to: 2nehaa@iimahd.ernet.in) names of only two members of the team with the following details:

Name
Institution
Year of Study
Postal Address
Email
Phone (optional) 

The registered teams shall be provided with an abstract of the innovation, which they are expected to work upon, and frame a business plan to commercialize the same. The innovations shall be allocated on the basis of the proximity of the student groups to the innovator, as the students will have to meet the innovator at times for details with respect to the business plan. 

Teams will be assigned innovations from our database by 23rd September 2003. 

Final Registration 

The other two team members can be registered with us after the assignment of the topic of the innovation. This may be required considering the diverse mix of grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge in our database from the following sectors:

Agriculture (e.g. new plant varieties, farm implements, herbal formulations etc.)
Forestry 
Veterinary products
Engineering equipments 
Urban and rural transportation
Household applications (e.g. food processing, applied nutrition, equipments etc.)
Human health practices (e.g. herbal products, traditional practices etc.)
Natural Resource Management (e.g. pollution control practices) 
Energy conservation and generation

You might wish to include students from the relevant background in your teams. Please note, all four members need not be from the same institution. They may be students from neighboring educational institutions (from engineering, medicine, pharmacy, agriculture or any other stream). 

Send us your confirmation of participation in the B Plan contest by:

11:59 pm, 25th September (mail to: 2nehaa@iimahd.ernet.in) 


Deadline for submission

11:59 pm, 25th November 2003 (mail to: 2nehaa@iimahd.ernet.in)

Evaluation 

Bringing an innovation to the market can be broadly through new venture planning or through technology transfer (exclusive or non-exclusive rights, either to an entrepreneur or a business house). 

The B Plan will be evaluated on its

1. Applicability 
2. Depth of Analysis 
3. Real market data
4. Options explored (different scales, different business models)
5. Methodology
6. Innovative approach (e.g. product bundling, viral marketing, piggy-backing established supply chains etc.) 

The ten best teams will be invited to IIM Ahmedabad to present in front of our distinguished panel of judges. 

The Booty: 

First Prize: Rs. 40,000
Second prize: Rs. 20,000
Third prize: Rs. 15,000
5 Consolation prizes: Rs. 3,000 each
Special prize*: Rs. 10,000 


* For the team, which will successfully implement its business plan in the most effective manner (be able to bring an innovation to the market through a technology transfer or setting up an enterprise). In this case, the time limit can be extended till the end of current financial year (31st March, 2004). 

In case of any dispute, jury's decision will be final. 



No classes, no theory, it is a live project in today's cutthroat competitive market. 

And Darwinism prevails here. 

Only the finest shall survive this test of endurance.