Tag: IIM-C

Unique ideas to flood Mamata reality show ‘Egiye Bangla’

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From a mechanism to clean river surfaces to a mobile app for ordering lip-smacking home-cooked food and a mobile app for tailor-made Dokra and other handicrafts – a variety of innovative ideas will be contesting for the top prize as 40 entrepreneurs across the state will appear in a novel TV reality show conceived by chief minister Mamata Banerjee and anchored by Sourav Ganguly and Jisshu Sengupta.

The format

The first episode of the show, titled Egiye Bangla, and funded by the state government, will be aired on December 6. Nine episodes, including the grand finale, will be aired on a private TV channel every Sunday evening.

This is the first business reality show in the country to be funded by any government.

The first phase of the reality show will feature 40 entrepreneurs in eight episodes. A panel of three judges – Bandhan Bank founder Chandra Sekhar Ghosh, restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee and IIM Calcutta professor Ashok Banerjee – will chose a winner from every episode.

The eight winners will appear in the grand finale. The champion, besides other assistance, would get equity funding worth nearly Rs 1 crore from the state government’s venture capital fund.

Promoting talent

  • Among the 40 contestants are a group of young passouts from Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur. They have invented a mechanism to clean the surface of rivers and other water bodies, using inflatable technology. In this mechanism, a balloon sucks in the garbage on river surface.
  • Another young man from Bankura’s Bikna village, known for the Dokra craft, has come up with an app that helps Dokra craftsmen improve on their designs and deliver tailor-made products for customers who can connect with the artisans through the app. He is also consulting professors at IIT Kharagpur to make the Dokra crafts lead-free. The crafts do not get orders from abroad only because it contains lead.
  • A group of Kolkata-based youths have come up with a mobile app to connect homemakers and foodies who want to avoid sinful street food or items from restaurants. In this app, a collection of homemakers will announce what they will cook for the day and for how many individuals. The food will be delivered to the customer’s doorstep by those who have launched the app.
  • Another young man in the show will offer to install solar panels at your home/ office with the promise of realising the cost of solar panels and installation over a period of time. He will also promise that the monthly bill will be less than the current power bills.

Reality show to promote entrepreneurs ‘Egiye Bangla’ to go on air on 6 December

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A plan to create greenery in and around urban homes, a logical reasoning module to strengthen mathematical skills of schoolkids and a chain of stores selling fresh juice that retains all the goodness of fruits.

Young entrepreneurs in Kolkata have such innovative business ideas and much more that could indeed help Bengal make a mark in the field of start-up enterprise.

Start-up plans such as these have come up in the business reality show ‘Egiye Bangla’, to be telecast every Sunday from December 6. A joint ini tiative of IIM-Calcutta and the state government the show aims at unearthing start-up ideas for entrepreneurship in business-starved Bengal.

An investor committee on the show will be as sessing the proposals, suggesting changes and eventually supporting the venture. Eight proposals have been shortlisted for the first two episodes being hosted by former India captain Saurav Ganguly and actor Jisshu Sengupta. They have left the panel of investors and those associated with the project mightily impressed.

The screening committee has already suggested certain changes to strengthen the modules and make the proposals business-friendly. The reality show will be telecast on Zee Bangla and will end with a final round in early February. More than 1,500 applications were received for the show from aspiring entrepreneurs across the state.

IIM-C will join hands with the state to identify prospective start-up entrepreneurs through the programme. As one of the top B-schools in the country , IIM-C will also help the winners set up incubation facilities in the innovation park on campus. The seed funding for the business plans identified as having prospects in future will be given by the MSME department.

IIM Calcutta to associate with State MSME Dept for ‘Egiye Bangla’

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The West Bengal government is planning to focus on encouraging start-ups. As the first step, a television show has been lined up with a prominent channel which will be hosted by former skipper and Bengal’s icon Sourav Ganguly. The Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) will join hands with the state to identify prospective start up entrepreneurs through the programme.

As one of the top B-schools in the country, IIM-C will also help the winners set up incubation facilities inside the innovation park on campus. The seed funding for the business plans identified as having prospects in future will be given by the MSME department.

More than 1,500 applications from across the state have been received. One of the criterion for selection was that the applicant needed to be based in Bengal. A business proposal that has been implemented and has an existing unit not more than three years old can also apply. The applications will be evaluated by a team comprising faculty members from IIM-C, along with industrialists. Those shortlisted will be asked to demonstrate the business proposal in person before the panel of judges. A final list of participants will then be drawn up.

In the show –Egiye Bangla -participants will showcase their business plans on which they will be judged by a panel consisting of members from the business fraternity.

Participants can make business proposals on any industry apart from gambling, tobacco, liquor, explosives and fire arms. The parameters on which the applicants will be judged will include novelty of the business plan. Any other existing company which may have implemented a similar business idea will also be judged. The idea of the show is to offer a platform to budding entrepreneurs.

In 2013, the MSME department and IIM-C had signed an agreement during the synergy meet, where the B-school agreed to be a knowledge partner in the entire journey of Shilpa Karun Bangla Gorun. Egiye Bangla is the culmination of a combined effort.

Youths from Bengal prefer to go outside the state for their higher education. People here do not take entrepreneurship as a feasible option. Historically, we prefer desk jobs or a stable job with the government sector over taking the adventurous route in career. Hence, IIM-C wanted to collaborate with the state government to inculcate aspirations among the youth, bringing entrepreneurship in as another option apart from the regular jobs.

The reality show is scheduled to be telecast from December.