It was part of IIM-K’s annual 3-day cultural festival ‘Backwater 2007’, sponsored by Reliance Industries. White Knight invited aspiring business leaders to bring forward their vision and entrepreneurship spirit for the cause of inclusive growth in our country.
Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad won the top honors for coming out with the best social business plan for inclusive growth, while S P Jain Institute of Management and Research Mumbai (SPJIMR) came second.
Now, it seems that even the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has shown interest and will review the presentations -- given the theme of ‘inclusive growth’! So well done ISB, and well done SPJIMR!
ISB’s award-winning Project Maruya seeks to usher in ‘Golden Revolution’, is founded on the principle of small-scale enterprise, industrial growth, entrepreneurship and technology. According to the project summary, it presents India’s past, mirroring the Golden Age ushered in by Ashoka. SPJIMR presented a project aimed at correcting lopsided growth and investments.
Both these winners walked away with a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh; another Rs 1 lakh is going to be donated to a charity of their choice. Their projects will now be presented to the PMO so that policy makers of the country can make use of them.
Out of hundreds of entries, the panel of eminent scholars had short listed ten institutes. Besides the two winners, the other eight teams included one from IIM Bangalore, two from FMS Delhi, one from IIM Lucknow, one from Indian Business Academy Bangalore and three from IIM Ahmedabad. The competition had three stages. The first stage started on 9th December with the submission of the three-page reports. These reports were further evaluated by elite panel of academicians and experts actually involved in the development of India. The final selection was based on objectivity, scalability and sustainability. At the last stage, the teams got ten days to present their final comprehensive plan.
White Knight, the organizers said, was aimed to leverage the ‘Indian Entrepreneurial Genius’ in creating inclusive growth over the years.
Hundreds of students from various business schools across the country were to be seen at ‘Backwater 2007’. And interestingly, other than take part in serious contests like White Knight, students also participated in fun things like 'antakshari'! Talk about mixing business with pleasure!
