Voting on for the TATA First Dot Competition for best student entrepreneurs

Voting on for the TATA First Dot Competition for best student entrepreneurs

15 student ventures from Indore compete in the Tata First Dot powered by NEN platform for recognizing and mentoring student entrepreneurs

Indore: 'TATA First Dot, powered by NEN' is India's first national mentoring and recognition platform for student startups. The program has already attracted 200 case studies including business ventures in Technology, Science, Hospitality and Theatre and Arts.

As a part of this multi-strand initiative, two competitions for the Top 5 Student Ventures each will run nationally in parallel.  The first competition is Tata First Dot National Competition where a panel of eminent judges will judge the venture on business parameters and select 5 best student ventures after a process of validation and short-listing by NEN experts. The eminent judges include successful entrepreneurs, angel investors and Tata leaders.

The second competition is a People’s Choice competition based on national level online voting for determining 5 winners of Tata First Dot People’s Choice competition. The program values public opinion and their sentiments and encourages their valuable inputs to decide the winner through online voting. The detailed profiles of all the student ventures have been featured on The Tata First Dot website for voting, which is scheduled to end on December 15, 2011. People can log onto www.tatafirstdot.com to cast votes and support, so that these young student entrepreneur realize their passions.

Out of the 200+ validated nominations, 15 ventures are from the enterprising students of Indore across multiple sectors namely Education, IT/Software/Internet, Media/Entertainment, Agriculture and Clean Tech amongst others.

Speaking about the initiative Mr. Atul Agrawal, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Tata Service said, “At the Tata Group we are committed to foster an entrepreneurial culture and innovation amongst the young generation. Tata First Dot recognizes and respects the brilliance of the young minds of India and we are happy to provide a launch-pad to these young entrepreneurs to turn their dreams and ideas into successful business ventures.”

Laura Parkin, CEO and co-founder, National Entrepreneurship Network said, “Driven by the growing number of opportunities opening up in the country, and supported by the entrepreneurship programs available on campus, more and more students in India are turning to entrepreneurship. If India is to grow into a strong, entrepreneurial nation, these efforts need to be encouraged and recognized. TATA First Dot powered by NEN, aims to uncover, showcase and support these young entrepreneurs and is off to great start with the tremendous response we've received nationwide.”

Winners of the competition will be provided professional mentorship via the NEN Mentoring platform for a period of 12 months and will also get networking opportunity with Entrepreneurs, Angel investors, mentors, experts and other student start-ups. Winners will be felicitated in an award ceremony at the Tata First Dot Conference scheduled to be held in Chennai on 9^th-10th January, 2012. The Conference will feature talks by business leaders, mentoring sessions, and exhibition of business ideas, amongst others. 

For more information about the initiative and contestants, and to vote log on to www.tatafirstdot.com

For Further Information please contact:

Sudatta Banerjee

022- 4353 0206