IIM-C hunts for 50 solutions that can transform country

New Delhi Sep 20 (IANS) The Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta (IIM-C) on Wednesday launched an innovation hunt project to identify and fund 50 cutting-edge start-up projects that will target the socio-economic transformation of the country.

Conceptualised in association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) the Smart Fifty -- 50 Solutions to Transform India will accept entries nationally and internationally for the next six months. It will filter them at every step with a simultaneous increase in the funding corpus as it narrows entries.

The IIM-C Innovation Project (IIMCIP) will help the selected few in real life know-how of sustaining their ventures and fundraising while the DST will provide access to the start-up ecosystem and seed fund for prototyping.

"We encourage sustainable motivating affordable responsible transformative or smart ideas and provide them necessary support so that they may create a positive impact in the country. We will provide mentorship visibility and access to funds to the participants that will help them to take their venture to the next level " IIMCIP Director Ashok Banerjee said at the launch here.

The top 50 business ideas will get a seed grant of Rs 4 lakh each and the top 10 will use a total grant of Rs 10 crore among themselves.

Ten of such ideas will be selected from Singapore and North America.

--IANS
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