Five best entries to vie for B-School Award today

Finals to decide winner and two runners-up of the coveted BS Best B-School Project Award

Five best entries, shortlisted by a power-packed jury, will now compete for the coveted Business Standard Best B-School Project Award 2016, in the final round to be held on January 25.

The jury included Nishi Vasudeva, former chairman and managing director, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (chairperson of the jury); Hasit Joshipura, head (corporate centre) at Larsen & Toubro; Santoshkumar Phulpagar, head, learning and development and HR analytics, Crompton Greaves, and Sandeep Chandola, managing director, Deloitte Support Services.

The shortlisted projects include business development plan for solving parking problems at events and at corporate parks by Ragini Jain of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras; a project on supply chain optimisation at Tata Steel by Supreme Koustuv of Indian Institute of Management, Trichy; and improving efficiency standard of engineering stores by Ravi Chouhan of IIT, Bombay. The other two projects that impressed the jury include the expansion strategy for McCain Foods by Chirag Patil of IIT, Kharagpur and improvement of warehouse performance at Snapdeal by Mohanish Khairnar of National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai.

The criteria used by the jury to shortlist the projects included the quality of research and analysis, issues being addressed, practicality of the solution and the extent of innovation, apart from the problem being addressed.

Jury members also looked into whether the business would benefit from the solutions offered and the tools used to arrive at a solution.

The jury applauded the efforts of the students who had the courage to tackle big problems, which were often unconventional. Business Standard had received 175 projects for evaluation in 2016. The field was then narrowed to the final 11 shortlisted by Business Standard's knowledge partner Deloitte Support Services. Each of these winners will make a presentation to the jury members at the awards function and finally the top three would be picked.

Business Standard instituted these awards in 2007 to honour excellence among students from India's best B-schools.

“Students have looked at a wide variety of business challenges this year and have come with solutions that will impact businesses positively. This award is the best platform to showcase their talent,” said jury chairperson Nishi Vasudeva.

A national-level competition, the award is an opportunity for B-schools to nominate one project done by their students as part of their academics. And, only the best get nominated for this prestigious honour.

Around 7,500 students from the Indian Institutes of Management and other B-Schools vie for the Business Standard Best B-School Project Award.

With each passing year, Business Standard has raised the level of the competition.

Starting with 68 entries in the first year, the number of projects has steadily grown to 175 entries this year.