INNOSPARK 2023

School of Management and School of Engineering & Sciences, GD Goenka University jointly
organised its First Entrepreneurship Competition “Inno-spark 2023” on Wednesday, May 10 th , 2023.

The event began with an entrepreneurial orientation for all the students and participants and was
inaugurated with Sarasvati Vandana and lighting of the lamps by the dignitaries. In the beginning,
Prof. (Dr.) Alok Pandey, Dean, School of Management addressed the audience with a motivational
quote “the best way to predict a future is, to create it” and talked about how businesses and
entrepreneurs are creating the future of India. Moreover, he highlighted saying that entrepreneurs
create theories when they work in real business environment.

Furthermore, honourable Chief Guest Dr. Ajit Shankar, Managing Director & CEO, Ardom Towergen Pvt. Ltd., presented his address and talked about how government and private sectors offer good financial positions but entrepreneurship provides a platform for stream of cash inflows with high potential of growth and overall development of the person as each day is a new challenge that needs to be overcome with an entrepreneurial mind-set. Also, he mentioned about knowing the right time to launch the business idea and bring in innovation and knowing if the person is ready to start with sufficient knowledge of industry and business ecosystem and highlighted the significance of being at the right place at the right time. In addition he mentioned about compliance to regulatory norms, ensure maintenance of liquidity with a conservative approach of preparing daily cash flow statement. He talked about seeking the right investor (financial or operational) and also mentioned to trust the instincts as one rule does not fit all.

The next address was given by guest of honour Mr. Giriraj Singh Chundawat, senior manager,
Startup Banking, IDFC Bank talked about the challenges that start-ups face and how the institutions like IDFC Bank, GD Goenka can help the start-ups in their 0 to 1 journey, which is more difficult than the journey from 1 to 10. He mentioned how India has become the third largest hub for start-ups and more than 90000 start-ups have been registered with UPI ID. Also, he mentioned how 25% of the economy will be run by start-ups in coming years.

Next, the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour were felicitated with a memento by Pr. (Dr.) Alok Pandey and Prof. (Dr.) Manish Prateek. The Orientation session was followed by the Spark - Tank (the business plan competition) where all the participants from within and outside GD Goenka University presented their ideas and prototypes in front of the panel of judges. The session included 70 teams with dynamic business ideas like, the smart office bags, unexplored Itineraries of Travel business, agro business, red revolution with sanitary pad vending machine and so on.

After the Spark Tank session, the valedictory address was presented by Dr. Prerna who announced
all the winning teams as follows:-

For Excellence

Team 1 -: Yograj Rundhanker, Rohan Mathur, Mohit Yaduvanshi, Shubham Shakti, Devam Shrivashtava

For Joint Winners

Team 2 : Yashika Gupta, Harshit Saini, Ishika Hans, and Khushi Gupt

Team 3 - Mueed Qadri, Kabeer, Ammar, Nahid khan, Vaseem Khan

Team 4 - Anaya Dhingra, Manya Goel, Yashika Purohit, Dev Pratap singh, Vedaant Krishan Bali.

Team 5 - Neha Devi, Harshita Vishnoi, Aradhya Kumari.

The event was ended with a vote of thanks presented by Dr. Karina Kakkar and Dr. Ashu Gautam The event was indeed a great success that provided insights into the world of start-ups and entrepreneurship and motivated students to build an entrepreneurial mind-set.