IIT Delhi (Indian Institute of Technology) won Enactus India National Competition 2021
Mumbai: The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT Delhi) was declared the winner of the Enactus India National Competition 2021 on 21 August 2021. The Enactus team from IIT Delhi presented two highly enterprising projects titled ‘Arth’ and ‘Jhabua’. The team will now represent India at the Enactus World Cup to be held in October 2021. It will see tough competition from participating teams from over 37 countries.
Enactus is the world’s largest experiential learning platform dedicated to creating a better world while developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. The Enactus network of global business, academic and student leaders are unified by our vision—to create a better, more sustainable world. Guided by faculty advisors and business experts, participating students form teams on their campuses to create and implement community projects that seek to empower people in need. The national competition is an annual event that provides students a platform to showcase the exemplary work they do in communities and the winning team goes on to represent the country at the World Cup. This year, over 110 Enactus college teams in India worked on over 170 social entrepreneurship projects thereby directly impacting over 1.7 million lives. Over 80 teams participated in the competition this year which was organised virtually for the second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This, however, did not dissuade the students from showing the same level of energy and enthusiasm that they bring to the competition when physically present.
KPMG in India has identified ‘Lifelong Learning’ as the core area of focus for its Corporate Citizenship initiatives, which directly impacts the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) of Quality Education. The firm has been supporting Enactus India since 2008 and an important aspect of its support is through a mentorship programme where over 60 senior leaders mentor more than 65 Enactus college teams to successfully undertake their entrepreneurial projects. Despite the limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the mentors continued to support the college teams through online collaboration platforms. KPMG in India leaders use their multidisciplinary skills to help Enactus students reach strategic decisions and run sustainable businesses. While KPMG in India’s support of Enactus is directly aligned with SDG 4, it also enables the firm to drive sustainable growth in many other SDGs.
Over 4000 students from more than 80 colleges across the country participated in Enactus India National Competition 2021 to showcase their social entrepreneurship projects and participate in a series of 33-minute Industry-Academia-Social Impact dialogues. Enactus teams from across the country presented their projects before 200+ esteemed CEOs and senior executives from the corporate and social entrepreneurship world serving as judges. Arun M. Kumar, Chairman and CEO, KPMG in India and Chairman, Enactus India National Advisory Board and other eminent leaders also interacted with the participating students on topics such as the future of leadership, entrepreneurship, talent development and recruitment.
Quote of Shmita Ramkumar, Vice President and Chief Program Officer, Enactus India said, “We are indebted to our students, projects, faculty advisors and mentors for their resilience and passion this past year. Because of their dedication and commitment, Enactus India was able to continue and even strengthen the social impact we create. Our students rose to the challenge and developed over 140 COVID initiatives to support India and positively impacted over 1.7 million lives this year.”
Arun M. Kumar, Chairman & CEO, KPMG in India, said, “Enactus is a wonderful platform for students to impact the lives of others, while learning the nuances of entrepreneurship. These valuable learnings will equip students with socially conscious perspectives that are essential to leadership in today’s challenging world. The success of economies and businesses relies heavily on ethical business practices. Ethics is about taking responsibility to do the right things, in the right way, every day. Since 2014, we have supported the Business Ethics Grant for Enactus teams across India and we will continue to support the grant this year as well. The 2021 final was a tough competition and I extend my heartiest congratulations to the winning team from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
The winning team presented their projects to more than 50 C-suite executives from top firms in India who were invited as Final round judges. The teams were judged on the basis of their social entrepreneurship projects, their innovation and positive impact on society.
The Enactus team from IIT Delhi presented two interesting projects, first being project Arth that uses cow waste/dung to create innovative eco-friendly products such as logs that can be substituted for traditionally used wood logs during cremations, painted diyas that can be further used as manure for plants and handmade clocks that are painted by traditional Madhubani artists. Their second project is Jhabua, that encourages the use of biogas in communities and the business model helps provide tribal farmers with an additional source of income.
Enactus India National Competition 2021 was a resounding success and many students and prestigious business leaders across the country look forward to the next one.