Hult Prize
Hult Prize BHU Makes it to №1 in India, Top 20 in the World beats Harvard, CMU, etc
Rightly said by Robert Swan,
“The greatest threat to planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
In today’s world of revolution, each one of us is uniquely equipped with prowess which can be used to change the face of this entire world. Also, in the dynamic era of the present, the challenges that are being posed to us by the mother nature as well as by our fellow social beings are tremendous in number and are equally tough. We can overcome these obstacles and pave way for a bright future only when the development is sustainable in nature and its fruits are available to all the earthlings.
Certainly, the need of the hour is for us, the young people- the people who can go beyond the traditional classrooms bounded by four walls and make the world itself as their classroom and its problems as their subjects. This requires an ideology which calls for a blending of the curious minds that looks forward to quenching its thirst to solve problems with the one that searches for methods to slake the necessities for the transformation of the society. This is the exact perspective of a social entrepreneur and the philosophy behind Hult Prize BHU.
Starting from nowhere in the global rankings, denying all odds, beating the campus directors of Hult Prize teams of various prestigious institutes like Harvard, Carnegie Melon, IIT Kharagpur, IIM Calcutta and F.M.S. Delhi, the campus director of Hult Prize BHU, Parth Sharma from third year Department of Civil Engineering, IIT (BHU) Varanasi has been ranked in top 20 in the world among 1,000+ campuses, 10,000 people, making IIT BHU the no.1 and the only institute representing India on the global billboard.
Hult Prize is an internationally acclaimed social entrepreneurship program which focuses on nurturing entrepreneurs with revolutionary ideas that can impact the billions of lives in our society. It is a start-up accelerator for impact entrepreneurship which brings together the brightest college and university students from around the globe to solve the world’s most pressing issues through pitching ideas and launching companies. It’s the biggest and most prestigious start-up event in the world, and awards millions of dollars in investment capital to young budding entrepreneurs, including a grand prize of USD1Million. It is sponsored by the Hult Foundation, The Clinton Global Foundation and The United Nations. This year’s Hult challenge was ‘Harvesting the power of energy to transform the lives of 10 Million people’.
Our institute was selected to host the prestigious on campus event for second year in a row. To achieve the objectives of Hult Prize BHU, after a series of vigorous interviews, a team of around 15 people was selected who by their firm dedication and mere perseverance were able to host this mega event and scaled dizzy heights across the globe.
In order to train the students participating and to facilitate transformation of ideas into business models, there were series of vivid discussions regarding the problem statement for the participants with the mentors of the Malviya Centre for Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship (MCIIE).
The response to the event was overwhelming with around 100 teams from all over BHU registering for the event. After the ideation and case cracking sessions, the teams were asked to submit their abstracts which were evaluated by the Business Advisory Committee of MCIIE. Out of those top teams were selected for the Pre-Pitching round in which they were required to present their ideas in form of a business model presentation in front of a panel of esteemed judges invited for the event. The panel selected 10 teams for the Hult Prize BHU Finals.
The finals were held on November 11, 2017. In the Final Round, each participating team had been given a time of 6 minutes to pitch their idea and another 4 minutes for the question and answer session. The event was graced by a highly renowned panel of judges consisting of honourable dignitaries, social entrepreneurs pioneering in their fields and CEOs of various top-notch start-ups and associations. The 10 teams presented their ideas with conviction. The ideas ranged from a startup that would deal with the Municipal Dump to those startups that had the vision to bring science to the masses. The judges analysed the ideas with precision and discussed the feasibility of each idea and also suggested various other elements that could be added further to those. The judges and participants applauded the efforts of the Hult Prize BHU Team.
Team Khadzana won the on-campus round of Hult Prize BHU. They were given a tough competition by Team Darwin which had stood in the second place.
Coming to the organisation team, the SNTC, Technical and Rural Outreach Club (TROC) and Club of Economics and Finance played an instrumental role in transforming the ideas of the event into reality. With an objective of promoting social entrepreneurship in the field of technology to build a sustainable India, they have been a part of this huge event and have been successful in kindling enthusiasm and zeal amongst the young minds. The organizing team has deep gratitude for MCIIE and Students’ Gymkhana, IIT (BHU) Varanasi for their valuable cooperation and support.
The on campus winners (Team Khadzaana) and another team (team Oorja) led by campus director, Parth, made it to the race to Global Regionals. Team Oorja (Priyanshi Porwal, Aanshi Mehta, Kirti Singh and Parth Sharma) made the institute proud by making it to top 6 amongst universities across the globe at Hult Prize Dubai Regionals.
Being ranked as the number 1 Campus Director, featuring among top 20 Hult Prize events across the globe and team Oorja making it to top 6 at Dubai are feats of glory and we hope and wish the team the best, to nurture more budding entrepreneurs and achieve more triumphs and accomplishments in the years to come.
