'NEN E Week 2018' felicitates educators, Institutes and successful startups
New Delhi : After a highly intense E Week campaign covering 45 cities, 5000 events and 8,00,000 participants, the 10th Edition of Asia’s biggest entrepreneurship event, E Week 2018 today culminated into a mega finale and awards ceremony at Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi. The gathering of 1000 odd participants at the ceremony comprised of students, faculty, mentors, E-Cell members, E-Leaders, other representatives of the entrepreneurial community, and the media.
The theme of E-Week 2018 was “Live your Entrepreneurial Dream - Break Barriers. Create Wealth. Change India”, reflecting the entrepreneurial spirit to never give up, go after dreams and nothing swaying the focus to change the world for the better, and challenging aspiring entrepreneurs to look within and without, dig deep into the wells of creativity, put on the hats of reason to solve country’s problem that seems insurmountable and in turn give themselves the opportunity to create wealth and become job creators. E Week 2018, therefore, calls on all dreamers, doers, innovators and entrepreneurs to live their entrepreneurial dream. If you have an idea to start a venture, NOW is the time to start. If you have ideas to scale your venture, NOW is the time to act.
The event was marked by two keynotes, one by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, Silicon Valley based entrepreneur and Founder & Chairman of the Wadhwani Foundation, and the other by Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog.
Two high powered panel discussions on “ACCELERATING STARTUP AND SME GROWTH THROUGH ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS” and “ENABLING LARGE SCALE CREATION OF STARTUPS IN INDIA” moderated by Lakshmi Pratury, Founder, INK Talks enthralled the audience with rich insights and meaningful exchange between Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, Founder & Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation, Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog, G V Ravishankar, MD, Sequoia Capital, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Co-founder, Naukri.com, Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director-IIT Delhi and Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) –IIM Ahmedabad.
While reflecting on a successful 10th edition of E-Week 2018, Dr Ajay Kela, President and CEO, Wadhwani Foundation said, “With over a million-youth entering the workforce every month, India needs thousands of our brightest youth to become job creators rather than job seekers. We need bold entrepreneurs now more than ever. It isn’t enough to start just another venture but to widen the reach of our ambition and try to solve tough problems and scale companies. E week 2018 has successfully instilled this sentiment. We are elated with the overwhelming response and participation witnessed throughout the journey of this event”.
The E Week consists of activities like competitions, expositions, educational movie screenings, and leadership and motivation talks with successful entrepreneurs, panel discussions, business plan and skill-building workshops, business and tech bazaars, awareness campaigns and much more. The week-long efforts culminate into awards. This being the 10th edition of E Week, there were ‘decade awards’ too.
1. NEN Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Awards
• NEN Mentor of the Decade: Mr. Deepak Khaitan, Kolkata
• NEN Faculty of the Decade: Prof. Atul Bharat, Acropolis North Campus and Dr Abha Rishi, BIMTEC, Noida
• NEN Startups of the Decade:
o Shashank N D, Co-founder & CEO, Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
o Swati Bondia, CLAP (previously Om Shanti Traders)
o Subrat Kar, Vidooly Media Tech Pvt Ltd
o Abhishek Humbad & Richa Bajpai, Goodera (Previously NextGen)
o Santosh Palavesh, Founder, UMM Studios
o Eshwar Vikas, Mukunda Foods
2. NEN E-Week Awards
• NEN E-Cell of the Year Award: Prof. Avijit Bose, Institute of Engineering & Management (Engineering Campus), Kolkata
• NEN E-Leader of the Year Award: Abdul Aziz Talib, Muffakham Jah College of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad
• NEN E-Week Star Awards
o Acropolis North Campus, Indore
o Vasavi College of Engineering, Hyderabad
o Muffakham Jah College of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad
o Institute of Engineering & Management (Engineering Campus), Kolkata
For more details on E-Week, please visit https://eweek.wfnen.org/
About Wadhwani Foundation:
Wadhwani Foundation was founded in 2000 by Dr Romesh Wadhwani with the primary mission of accelerating economic development in emerging economies through large-scale job creation. The Foundation is present in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, East Africa and Latin America operating in association with governments, corporates, mentors, investors and educational institutes. Its four Initiatives are driving job creation through entrepreneurship, skills development and innovation.
National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) inspires, educates, and supports student entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs for creating high-value jobs. NEN has also ventured into creating city-based entrepreneurial ecosystems consisting of mentors, investors, and incubators supporting startups and SMEs.
Global Innovation Network (GIN) aims to create world-class research institutes addressing challenges in emerging economies that also lead to the creation of global organizations.
Global Skills Network (GSN) aims to equip non-college-bound high school graduates with sufficient work-skills to command family-supporting wages.
Policy Research Network (PRN) provides data-driven research inputs for informed policy action focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, skills development and employment aimed at accelerating economic growth.
