V-Guard Announces Winners of Big Idea Business Plan & Tech Design Contest

KOCHI:
Winners of V-Guard Annual Big Idea Contests for engineering and B-school students were announced on Saturday, 19th November 2022. This year’s Big Idea Business Plan and Big Idea Tech design contest finals were held on 17th, 18th and 19th November 2022 and witnessed more than 300 entries from top business schools and engineering colleges from across the country.

Sanchit Nagpal, Aayush Lohi, and Burhanuddin from Indian Institute of Management- Nagpur won the first prize in Business Plan contest and Satyam Munot, Sujeet Chaubey, and Srishti Bhat from Indian Institute of Management- Bodh Gaya and Khushal Narendrakumar Agarwal from Indian Institute of Management- Nagpur were declared first and second runners up respectively in the contest from a total of 20 teams shortlisted for the grand finale. Alekhya Chilukuri, Ramanathan M, and Anurag Baruah from IMT Ghaziabad and Rithuvanthi B, Praveenkumar Santhanam, Saravanan S K from Indian Institute of Management- Nagpur qualified for the special jury award.

Nagesh Agrawal and Ketaki Anil Shinde from Nirma University has bagged first prize in Big Idea Tech design contest. R Darshan, G M Chindananda Swamy, and Muzammil Bagewadi hailing from MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology and Laveena Wels, Nandu Rajeev, and Sayooj V S from Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science were declared first & second runner up respectively. Krishna Prasad P S, Tomin V J, and Abhinu Sundaran from Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science qualified for the special jury award.

This year’s competition theme was “The Next Big Leap”. Finalists were asked to present insightful and innovative ideas for business growth in alignment with the business strategy of V-Guard. The Business Plan contest winners were awarded cash prizes worth Rs. 2,00,000, Rs. 1,00,000, Rs. 50,000 for the top three positions respectively along with trophies and certificates of appreciation. Big Idea tech winners received cash prize worth Rs.100,000, Rs. 50,000, Rs. 25,000 for the first three positions respectively. Two teams qualified for special jury in Business Plan contest and received prize worth Rs.25,000. Shortlisted teams presented their competitive ideas and plans in the grand event held in Radisson Blu, Kochi over a span of 3 days.

The Four-member Jury Committee who chose the B Plan winners was headed by Mr. Rajesh Nair, Business Leader, EY LLP, Kochi along with V. Ramachandran, Director & COO, V-Guard, Sudarshan Kasturi, Sr. Vice President & CFO, V-Guard and Arif Mohammad Kooliyat, VP – New Product Development, V-Guard Industries Ltd.. The ideas presented by the participants were judged on parameters such as ingenuity, practicality of application, feasibility, simplicity and the positive impact it can have on V-Guard’s business and its consumers. Mithun Chittilappilly, Managing Director, V-Guard Industries Ltd. graced the valedictory function and awarded the winners.

The presentations for Tech Design contest for engineering and design students were evaluated by Biju Pramod P – Vice President – Mechanical & Electrical Division, Arif Mohammad Kooliyat, VP – New Product Development, Prasad Sudhakar Teni – Sr. General Manager – Home Appliances and James M Varghese – GM – R&D (Industrial Design) from V-Guard Industries Ltd.

The event has created a platform for interaction with top leaders of V-Guard, wherein the young minds can discuss and understand the business challenges to fine tune their thought process and foster a spirit of innovation in them.