Concipio: Business Ideas competition

Concipio, the Business Ideas competition organized annually by IIT Kharagpur has come a long way in its endeavor to transform great ideas into successful start-ups. The past years have witnessed start-ups like P2 Power Solutions (P) Ltd. and Intinno Technologies Pvt. Ltd. leave a strong impression in the field of entrepreneurship. This Year, Concipio’08 was launched with an aim to continue the competition’s successful run on a much larger scale. The year 2008 has witnessed as many as 43 submissions in the competition. There has also been participation from the alumni and professors
of IIT Kharagpur.
The first round of the competition involved ideation, with the participants submitting the executive summaries of their ideas. The results of the first round submission were declared on October 1, 2008. 11 teams have made the cut for the final round.
The selected entries are undergoing a mentoring process under the professors of the institute, venture capitalists and distinguished personalities from the business institutions and corporate world. The number of submissions has increased, but the overall quality of submissions still requires some improvement if having more than one start-up a year is what this competition aims at. One of the mentors of the competition has sent the following message across to the students: “The quality of ideas is amazing, but the candidates need to get acquainted with the various facets of business
models. I sincerely believe that major steps need to be taken round the year for students to get acquainted with the entrepreneurship process. Various facets of startups need to be evangelized to the students so that they are better aware and prepared.”
This year, E-Cell organized two workshops specifically for Concipio participants: one by Concipio’ 07 winners, Team Intinno and Concipio’05 winner, Mr. Shwetank Jain ( CEO of the P2 Power Solutions (P) Ltd. ) and another on Business Plan writing by the associate members of the Entrepreneurship
Cell. E-Cell is also planning to develop a concrete program devoted to the development of the elements of entrepreneurship so as to help the participants give a refining touch to their business ideas. The final round judging of Concipio’08 will take place on November 13, 2008.The winners get an opportunity to opt for Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS) funding up to I.N.R 15 Lakhs.