Conquest 2009 inaugurated at BITS Pilani

Pilani (Rajasthan): Conquest 2009 - the final round of International Business Plan Competition organized by Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership, BITS Pilani was inaugurated on Saturday 8th August 2009. The two day event being held on 8-9 August will provide opportunities to interact with several entrepreneurs, experts and venture capitalists apart from presentations by the five finalists which were chosen from over 300 entries received from different countries.

Inaugurating the event, Vice Chancellor of BITS, Prof L K Maheshwari said that this is the sixth International Business Plan competition being organized by the CEL. Calling upon the educational institutions to produce entrepreneurs and leaders, he cited the example of Harvard Business School and said that every batch of 1000 graduates produces 500 entrepreneurs.

He said that such competitions would encourage young minds to start entrepreneurship, however, the real success will be measured when we see the participants becoming entrepreneurs and serving the society at large.

He called upon he students to work with a mission and they need to develop the spirit to succeed. Speaking on how the spirit of entrepreneurship is being encouraged at BITS,

Prof Maheshwari said " 300 BITSians are leading entrepreneurs of the country and I am glad the Conquest 2009 is being held right in the beginning of the academic year"

Later, speaking to newsmen, the Faculty Adviser, Prof Arya Kumar of BITS said, "International Business Competition focuses on ideas. Besides this, the candidate needs guts and courage to be different and should have the ability to execute. We are glad that out of 10 business plans which won in the previous Business Plan competitions, 7 have already been launched. This makes the Conquest different than other business plan competitions".

In its 6th edition, Conquest drew over 300 entries from across the world. Following intensive mentoring sessions, 5 young teams from coveted colleges will be pitting against each other at the finals that would also witness the confluence of several speakers and delegates. The teams that have made it to the finals are from BITS, Pilani, Brown University (US), NITIE, Mumbai, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay, IIT Roorkee, ISB Hyderabad and IIM Bangalore.

The gold sponsors for the event are Incredible India and SAIL ,Oracle and Greenesol Power Systems Pvt. Ltd are the Silver sponsors whereas BITSA, NEN, Myntra , YourStory.in.and Shiksha.com are the partners.

The distinguished speakers include Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group, Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm, Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 20/20 Web Tech, Raj Gollamudi, Co-founder, Blue Stream Ventures, Prajakt Raut, Founder, Orange Cross, Naren Dubey, Chief Operating Officer, Scan Café, Shashikant Khandelwal, Founding Member, TheFind Inc, Rahul Chandra, Co-founder, Helion Venture Partners, Mukul Singhal, Associate, Canaan Ventures, Gayatri Rath, Vice President, Corporate Communications GE.