World's Largest Student Competition Comes to IIM Ahmedabad as Students Tackle President Clinton's Crowded Urban Spaces Challenge
Hult Prize at IIM Ahmedabad is taking place on 28th November at the IIMA Campus. Recognized by President Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine as one of the top five ideas changing the world for the better, IIM Ahmedabad is hosting its first ever Hult Prize@ event.
The Hult Prize is the world's largest student competition and start-up platform for social good. In partnership with President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, this innovative crowdsourcing platform catalyses students to create and launch disruptive and catalytic social ventures that aim to solve the planet's most pressing challenges. Student teams compete around the world for a chance to secure US$ 1 million in start-up funding 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 revolutionize the way we think about servicing the poor," Ashkar commented.
The 2016 Hult Prize challenge focuses on the problem of Crowded Urban Spaces and will see 52 teams competing. These teams are coming from IIM Ahmedabad's MBA, PhD and executive MBA programs to test their grit in building a viable solution to this global social issue. Judges for the Hult Prize at 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, student body to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship within IIMA.
Prof Ankur Sarin and Prof Mukesh Sud, faculty advisors for the event both believe that this 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" commented Bipul Saha, Campus Director of the Hult Prize at IIMA.
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