Hyderabad/Mohali, September 13, 2012:  The Indian School of Business (ISB) announces ISB iDiya, a nationwide idea competition for working professionals interested in setting up ventures that have the potential to create social impact.  Started by students of the Net Impact Club at the ISB, iDiya has   become a platform for social entrepreneurship with participation from professionals from diverse backgrounds, leading VCs, and some of the best minds from the social sector, since it was launched in 2009.

More Support, More Funding

ISB iDiya has been witnessing a steady growth with around 1700 teams registering for the event over the last three years. Encouraged by this growth, institutions such as NABARD, Upaya Social Ventures, Ckinetics, Villgro and Ennovent have committed to provide funding support to these aspiring entrepreneurs.  As a result, the total investment opportunity for the ideas selected through ISB iDiya this year has increased by four times to Rs. 1.725 crores.

Every year, the winners  have been funded and mentored by some of the prominent names in the industry such as Acumen fund, Intellecap, Unitus capital, Grey Matters Capital, Mumbai Angels, India quotient, Seed Fund, Canaan Partners, Dasra, Unltd India, GVFL, Venture east, Bharti Foundation, Edelgive Foundation, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development at ISB, SONG Advisors and Caspian Advisors.

Ideas that made a Social Impact

The competition seeks to promote scalable and sustainable businesses in the fields of agri-business, health, education, energy, environment, women’s empowerment, disability etc. Last year’s ISB iDiya Challenge winner was ‘SMV Wheels’, a venture based in Varanasi that helps rickshaw pullers to fulfill their dreams to become self employed.

Inviting entrepreneurs aspiring to make a Change

Participation for the 4^th ISB iDiya Challenge is now open. Interested professionals can submit their ideas online at www.isb.edu/iDiya. The last date for submitting the applications is September 30, 2012.

The evaluation of ideas will be based on three main criteria –

·         Measurable quantitative and qualitative social impact

·         Ease of implementation and economic feasibility of the idea

·         Scalability and sustainability of the idea.

The best ideas will be chosen by a panel of venture capitalists, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and ISB faculty. The competition culminates into a fully paid week-long boot camp in the first week of December 2012 at the ISB – an event designed to mentor and refine business plans of the winners, addressing challenges they face and also allow a networking opportunity with VCs and other funding institutions.

This year’s ISB iDiya Challenge is being organised by students of the Class of 2013 at the ISB. The Class comprises of 767 professionals from diverse backgrounds - educational, geographical, ethnic, cultural and social.

About the Indian School of Business (ISB)

 The ISB was established in 2001 with an aspiration to put India on the global map of management education. Over the years, the ISB has successfully pioneered several new trends in management education in India, and has firmly established itself as a world-class management institution. In 2008, the ISB became the youngest institution to be ranked among the Top 20, in the Global B-school Rankings by the Financial Times, London, and since then has been ranked consistently among the top B-schools globally. Recently, the ISB earned the distinction of becoming the first South Asian B-school to receive the AACSB accreditation. Chartering its next phase of growth, the ISB flagged off its second campus at Mohali, Punjab in April 2012. Though located at Hyderabad and Mohali, the School will function as one entity with a seamless integration across both the campuses.

 A strong pool of research-oriented resident and international faculty from reputed B-schools has been a key factor that helped the ISB to emerge as one of the leading B Schools with its cutting edge research and pedagogy. It has set up eight research centres serving as a bridge between the industry and the academia and carry forward its research agenda as well as promote education in areas critical to India’s development. The ISB offers its flagship one year Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) besides the Post Graduate Programme in Management for Senior Executives (PGPMAX) and a bouquet of Executive Education Programmes that cater to top and middle management. The school also recently launched its Fellow Programme in Management (FPM). The school has over 4200+ PGP Alumni and 13,000+ Executive Education Alumni spread across over 25 countries making an impact on the business and society. For more information, visit www.isb.edu

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