GITAM to hold SmartIDEAthon-2022

Visakhapatnam: GITAM Venture Development Centre (VDC) is organising a national-level idea pitching competition 'SmartIDEAthon – 2022' in August.

The event, scheduled from August 10th to 11th, is held in association with the Northeastern University Centre for Entrepreneurship Education (NUCEE), Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University (NUCEM), Startup India, and Invest India, informed the institution's chief innovation officer N Krish.

Sharing details, he informed that the core focus of the event is to encourage students to work on startups that help build sustainable and resilient communities through social innovation. He announced that the winning team will get cash and grants (including a fully/partly sponsored trip to Boston, USA) up to Rs 30 lakh. Six students (founders/co-founders) will be sponsored to visit Boston, USA, to attend the 'India@75 event 2022' and an Immersion programme at Northeastern University.

VDC deputy director Manesh Varrier mentioned that the SmartIDEAthon is open to all current students enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate programme in any educational institution across India and also to recent graduates (not earlier than 2020) and there is no registration fee. He further informed that the ideas need to be from food and agriculture, clean/green technology, waste management, health tech & assistive technology, water management domain and has to be submitted at https://bit.ly/3O3IjMX before July 10.

Further, he informed that the short-listed applicants will have to pitch their ideas as a team of two to a panel. He said that the contest itself will be intertwined with bootcamp-style coaching for the top 100 contestants and one–on-one coaching for the semi-finalists and finalists. The top 32 teams will present their ideas on 10th and 11th of August at GITAM. "This year we have also created two special categories focusing on social innovators and women entrepreneurs," the deputy director added.

The institution's e-Club president Likhit Alamanda, vice-president Y Namrata briefed about the year-long activities and requested the students' community to participate in the national level SmartIDEAthon-2022 and enhance their entrepreneurship knowledge.