Entrepreneurship meet to see colleges battle it out

In a celebration of today's opportunities, Bangalore will witness over 1,000 entrepreneurship events hosted by 15 colleges, engaging over 20,000 students in the city. By sheer numbers, Bangalore looks like it will outmatch the other participating 29 cities in entrepreneurial fervour.

E Week India (February 2-9, 2008), being run at the initiation of the not-for-profit organisation, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is a week-long public awareness campaign, aimed at celebrating the opportunities in today's India and improving the ecosystem for entrepreneurship in the country. Participation in this second-ever E Week India, will total about 200,000 across the country, double that of last year.

Bangalore's E Week participants include many of the city's top colleges Mount Carmel, Jyothi Nivas, Mahaveer Jain, St Joseph's, Sir MVIT, IIMB, IIIT-B, MSRIT, MES and IFIM.

"Never before have students, with full support of faculty and administration, turned campuses so completely inside-out. It's a clear indication of a revolution in young people's outlooks," said Laura Parkin, NEN's Executive Director.

St. Joseph's and Mahaveer Jain College are clearly targeting National Championships, conducting almost 500 and 300 events respectively during E Week. Last year Champion Mount Carmel College is running over 70 events making sure that it's an informative and exciting week in college.

The variety of events is extraordinary, and many are open to the public. Project 'Mission Jagriti' by students from St Joseph's involves 15 of the unaided colleges of Bangalore, with activities such as team building, creativity and business plan workshops.

MCC's kitty of events includes an interactive session with unusual entrepreneurs; a fashion show put on by student designers judged by the talented duo from Folio and Namrata G; as well as 'Cooking with Constraints' yet another unique entrepreneurial intercollegiate event where participants come up with innovative recipes using a limited set of ingredients.

The final results of the Cooking contest will be judged by by Vikram Kirloskar and Arjun Sajnani of Sunny's.

In Jain College, EWeek celebrations have close to 200 student organizers conducting more than 300 events during the week. Each day of the week is assigned a different theme including micro entrepreneurs, green day, leaders and visionaries and each theme a different color to depict the various facets of an entrepreneur.

Sameerkanth, NEN Consultant, Bangalore, explains, "The awareness of entrepreneurship and maturity level amongst students is pretty high in Bangalore. What also makes Bangalore exciting is the fierce competition in the city amongst colleges with institutes gunning for E Week recognition "" they are literally fighting with each other!"

NEN will be honoring the 'Champion' institutes at the National E Week Closing Ceremony on Feb 9th in Bangalore.

NEN is co-hosting E Week 2008 with over 270 members.