The Hult Prize, recognised by former US President Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine as one of the top five ideas changing the world, has made its way to Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Hult Prize @ IIM, Ahmedabad, will be held in the IIMA campus on November 28.
The Hult Prize is the world’s largest student competition and start-up platform aimed at doing social good. In partnership with former US President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, the crowdsourcing platform catalyses students to create and launch social ventures that aim to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. Student teams compete around the world for a chance to secure funding of $ 1 million for their start-up to launch a sustainable social enterprise. Ahmad Ashkar, CEO and Founder of the Hult Prize, attributes the success of the competition to the shift in the global economy and the millennial generation’s refusal to live in a world with inequality. “We are giving entrepreneurs from around the world a platform to innovate and revolutionise the way we think about servicing the poor,” Ashkar said.
The 2016 Hult Prize @ IIM Ahmedabad looks to solve the problem of Crowded Urban Spaces, and will see 52 teams competing. These teams are a part of IIMA’s MBA, PhD and executive MBA programmes and will look to test their grit in building a viable solution to the issue in hand. Judges for the Hult Prize @ IIMA comprise of V Ravichandran, Founder, Alive Consulting, Rajendra Joshi, Founder Trustee, Saath Charitable Trust, Rajesh Shah, Founder, Sabras, Save and Sahyog Ltd and Sunil Shah, Chairman, Gujarat Innovation Society. The event is being promoted by IIMA’s incubation centre CIIE - a conduit for entrepreneurship across India and is being organised by Entre Cell, a student body to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship within IIMA.
Prof Ankur Sarin and Prof Mukesh Sud, faculty advisors for the event believe that the event has tremendous potential to get students more interested in social entrepreneurship and take it up as a full-fledged career option. “Over the last month we have seen unprecedented enthusiasm from the entire student community about this event. We are committed to helping students create socially sustainable business models, thus paving the path for an entire new industry in the 21st century,” Bipul Saha, Campus Director of the Hult Prize @ IIMA said.