India National Competition Highlights

• August 19, 2015
• By: Tona Rowett

With 1,169 supporters in attendance and 55 competing teams, this year’s Enactus India National Competition had all the elements of a successful competition, celebrating the impact made across the country over the past year and recognizing all involved for their support and hard work in advancing our mission. In the weeks leading up to the event, the Enactus India team launched an effective grassroots social media campaign to build awareness of and excitement for the event, growing their follower base and increasing engagement. The updates continued throughout the competition, and their fans were excited about what was shared, liking and commenting on posts as well as sharing them with their personal networks. The competition itself included all the components that make an Enactus competition so special: impressive keynote speakers, engaging panel discussions, numerous award presentations, and of course, the competition itself that inspired students and executives alike.

The event took place on 21-22 July at The Leela Ambience in Gurgaon, and was sponsored by an impressive list of companies: KPMG in India, Syntel, HP, Tata Chemicals, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Blue Dart, Unilever, Sealed Air, W.R Grace, Cargill India Pvt Ltd, Walmart India Pvt Ltd, CHEP, Helion, Coca Cola India Pvt Ltd, BNY Mellon, Zensar Technologies. Many of these companies went above and beyond in their support, with KPMG India live tweeting throughout the event and Syntel issuing press releases before and after the competition to promote the organization. Many of the sponsor companies top level executives participated as judges, keynote speakers and panelists, and a number of them sponsored special awards and competitions including Walmart, Unilever and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

The cornerstone of the two-day event was, of course, the competition, where the teams proudly presented the results of their outreach projects in hopes of winning the national title. In the first two rounds, 130 executives serving as judges evaluated the teams’ presentations until at last the final three were named, and presented on the main stage in front of all attendees and 21 final round judges. In the end, the team from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi was named national champion and earned the right to represent India at the Enactus World Cup this October in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Project Excelsior was one of the initiatives presented by the team, where they have created a sustainable value chain linking Kabadiwala, or waste paper donors, directly to leading paper mills with the overall goal of increasing the income potential of the Kabadiawala while providing educational resources to underprivileged children. Through a system of successive donations of waste paper, the mills recycle the waste paper into high quality notebooks and notepads, which are then distributed in government schools. The team also designed and developed an innovative study desk and school bag for the students made entirely out of discarded cardboard called Amaze.

Attendees were treated to remarks from two impressive keynote speakers. The first, D. Shivakumar, CEO of Pepsico Pvt Ltd., opened the event with his thoughts on success and advice for the students in the audience. The closing keynote speaker was Venkatesh Kini, CEO of Coca Cola India Pvt Ltd., who spoke about the future of youth in India and why Coca-Cola supports Enactus globally. You can watch his speech here.

There were also two engaging and informative panel discussions during the event moderated by Mini Menon, Executive Editor, Bloomberg TV India. The first explored how young leaders are transforming India and featured Akhil Bansal, Deputy CEO of KPMG in India; Preet Dhupar, CFO of IKEA India; Avani Davda, CEO of Tata Starbucks India; Punit Goenka, CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd GK; Swamy Purkal from Youth Development Society; and Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director-India, South & Central Asia for Facebook. The second focused on the future of youth in India and included Richard Rekhy, CEO of KPMG in India; Sanjiv Mehta, CEO & MD of Hindustan Unilever Ltd; Anita Arjundas, MD & CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces; Krish Iyer, CEO, Walmart India Pvt Ltd; and Siraj Chaudhry, Chairman of Cargill India Pvt Ltd. You can watch this panel discussion here.

Thanks in large part to Enactus India’s outreach efforts, the competition received significant media coverage before, during and after the event in publications including The Times of India, DNA India, and Business India. Thanks to the support of board member Mini Menon, Executive Editor at Bloomberg TV, parts of the event were broadcast on television including this live telecast clip, and you can find many clips of the media coverage on Enactus India’s YouTube channel.

Check out Enactus India’s flashback video for highlights from this inspiring event!