Sikkim: Entrepreneurship World Cup regional finals held at SMIT

Gangtok: The finale of the East India edition of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) was organised by Atal Incubation Centre-Sikkim Manipal University Technology Business Incubation Foundation (AIC-SMU) in Majitar, East Sikkim, on Monday.

Eventuate Innovations (for Ezy Spit) from Nagpur was declared the winner of the Sikkim leg. Pavingplus and Primary Health Tech received special mention from the jury during the event.

With around 30,000 registrations from across the nation and seven cities hosting the regional finals, 20 teams were selected for each regional round. The winning teams from each region will proceed to the national finals in New Delhi on August 3, 2019. The winner in New Delhi would represent India at the global finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on November 12, 2019 with prizes worth $5 million.

There were 16 start-ups participating in the event that were judged by five judges from around the nation. The startups were evaluated by a team comprising EastMojo editor-in-chief Karma Paljor; Karma Bhutia, Founder/CEO of iShippo, MeGoYo, Niko; Krishanu Seal, CTO/founder member of Smarter Specs, Singapore; Rupesh Mishra, vice-president (legal), Executive Capital; and Debasis Chakraborty, mentor-cum-programme director, at inQ innovation.

The inaugural ceremony saw the presence of SMU vice-chancellor Venkatesh as the chief guest and Sikkim science and technology minister Karma Loday Bhutia as the chief guest for the second half of the day. N Jaswant, joint secretary, commerce and industries department, was the guest of honour, for the event.

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The event was hosted by Khushboo Gurung and Nikola Okero of The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF). While addressing the function, the SMU V-C said that the day was be historic and praised the enthusiasm of all the participants to come all the way to Sikkim for the event.

The first half of the day saw the pitching competition where all the startups ranging from ideation stage to established ones presented their ideas to the audience.

The second half saw a simultaneous 1st Cohort screening done for the entrepreneurs of Sikkim for AIC-SMU Technology Business Incubation Foundation (SMUTBI), Majitar.