Business Plan of "Meal For Poor @ 5 Rs." Wins US$ 10000 Award or NMIMS' Ahaar: Meal For Poor At Ten Cents Wins Global Competition
The Ahaar: Meal for poor at ten cents, project of students from NMIMS University, Mumbai went on to bag the top honours by winning the grand first prize of $10,000 in the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition, at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. The team of SVKM's NMIMS University, led by N G Sreejith, was a cross functional one with Mr. Ankit Jain, Mr. Sidharth Bedi and Mr. Rahul Kumar Aggarwal, all specializing in varied fields of management. Their product was a full nutritious meal for slum dwellers containing rice, lentils, vegetable, vegetable peels and jaggery at the price of 10 cents.
-- The Ahaar: Meal for poor at ten cents, project of students from NMIMS University, Mumbai went on to bag the top honours by winning the grand first prize of $10,000 in the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition, at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. The team of SVKM’s NMIMS University, led by N G Sreejith, was a cross functional one with Mr. Ankit Jain, Mr. Sidharth Bedi and Mr. Rahul Kumar Aggarwal, all specializing in varied fields of management. Their product was a full nutritious meal for slum dwellers containing rice, lentils, vegetable, vegetable peels and jaggery at the price of 10 cents.
Arriving like a well-timed tonic on the heels of "Slumdog Millionaire", entrepreneurs came to Seattle with ideas for how to improve life in those same Mumbai slums and prove that businesses having social purposes can work. Fourteen teams from prestigious business schools were pitching creative and commercially sustainable ways to address problems of poverty in developing countries.
The NMIMS team had been short listed from among 70 entries from 16 countries. However, it was not be an easy ride, as they pitted their brains against prestigious teams from Kellogs Business School, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, University of Alberta, Singapore Management University, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; University of Buckingham (UK); University of British Columbia; University of Washington, Seattle, USA, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and few others. The grueling event spread over three days from 25th February to 27th February, 2009 tested the team’s mettle in analysis, business strategy and presentation skills. It was the ultimate test of managerial ability where the students had to create an innovative product, develop a new business model to market it and get it validated from the world’s foremost experts in management. In their acceptance speech, the NMIMS team thanked their teachers at their alma mater for honing their abilities to perfection thus enabling them to pitch our national flag in the global arena. The team had previously won laurels at various Business plan competitions at institutions such as IIM-Indore, SPJIMR, SCMHRD, etc.
According to the team members, it was both an enriching and enlightening experience signifying the high point of their MBA at NMIMS. The education imparted to them along with a bent of social consciousness would help them to apply their skills to the long term development issues facing the country and create both shareholder as well as societal value. ---- ENDS----
Notes to Editor
About SVKM’s NMIMS University
Established in 1981, as a Management Institute, NMIMS has now transformed itself into a University, with 8 Schools, over 150 full-time faculty members, 42000 books and over 2500 students enrolling every year, transforming from an Institute of single management faculty to a University with many faculty areas. The University is also transforming from a Teaching Institute to Research-Consultancy-Training & Teaching Institute.
NMIMS has taken many new academic initiatives under various Schools like
- School of business Management
- Mukesh Patel School of technology Management & Engineering
- School of Pharmacy & Technology Management
- Balwant Sheth School of Architecture
- School of Commerce
- School of Science
- School of Distance Learning
- Institute of Intellectual Property Studies
Number of innovative Graduate, Post Graduate and Doctorate level programs, meeting the Industry/Business requirement under each school.
Achievements:
- Golden Pecock Award for innovation 2006 & 2007
- BMA Best Management Institute of the Year Award 2004-05 & 2006-07
- BMA Best teacher of Management of the Year Award 2004-05 & 2005-06
- Dr. J J Irani Award for Best Management Institute 2005
- Gurukuljyoti Award for Excellence in Education 2006
- The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has accredited an ‘A’ grade with a score between 85-90%.
- Ranked amongst top 10 B-School in Business Today- Nielsen Best B-School Survey 2007 and Outlook-C fore Best B-School Survey 2007
- Ranked amongst Super League B-School in AIMA-Indian Management Best B-School Survey 2007.
NMIMS also be launching Off-Campus Centres at Shirpur, Hyderabad, Bangluru soon.
For further details please visit www.nmims.edu