Innovation Mission Punjab’s kickstarted its first Monthly Innovation Challenge at Lovely Professional University

Jalandhar, May 2, 2022: Innovation Mission Punjab (IMPunjab), a unique private-public partnership that aims to build, empower and act as a catalyst for local startup communities in Punjab, conducted an open idea pitch challenge at the Lovely Professional University in the city. The challenge was a part of IMPunjab’s Monthly Innovation Challenge being organized in Universities of Punjab to build a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and support innovative ideas and founders from Punjab. 

Over 50+ ideas were shortlisted as finalists from the overall participation by the students in the open idea pitch challenge by submitting a 1 minute ‘Pitch Tape’ of their idea. The pitched ideas were shortlisted based on their Originality & Innovativeness, Commercial Viability & Feasibility, and Business Modeland presented to the appointed jury at Lovely Professional University.

The jury consisted of Somveer Anand - CEO & Mission Director, Punjab; Abhishek Purohit - Head, Accelerator, IMPunjab; Shubhanand Das - CEO, NIT-TBI, Jalandhar; and Dr. Kanishka Jha - Associate Professor & Asst. Dean Entrepreneurship Cell, Lovely Professional University. 

Sahil Aurora - Founder, Shescooty, from Jalandhar City, Tanveer Naushad -  Founder, Spidrone & Riya Roy - Founder, Alokita from Lovely Professional University were the winners of the open idea pitch. The three winners received a cash prize of INR 10000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand) each, along with an opportunity to be showcased to local incubators for ‘Supported Incubation’ at centers’ of excellence. The winners will also get the opportunity to participate in the annual ROAR Finale Ideathon. The most Innovative women-led Idea by Rupal Mathur from Simplify was also incentivized with a special reward. Apart from the rewards, the winner will get internship opportunities at existing startups to provide more exposure and hands-on experience in building companies. They will also have the chance to evaluate and commercialize technologies being developed at leading research institutions in the region, including IISER, NABI, and IIT Ropar. 

Talking about the challenge, Somveer Anand - CEO & Mission Director, IMPunjab, “With over 8,50,000 students and 14,000,000 working professionals, the state of Punjab has a large pool of potential Youngpreneurs. Punjab is an entrepreneurial state with a strong footprint of entrepreneurs worldwide and in India. IMPunjab aims to create a wave of innovation that echoes throughout Punjab through a series of monthly idea pitch competitions targeting Youngpreneurs. 

Dr. Kanishka Jha - Associate Professor & Asst. Dean Entrepreneurship Cell, Lovely Professional University, highlighting the participation numbers, said, “As an institute, building leaders of tomorrow, we at Lovely Professional University, are the catalyst to help our students Startup. By forming the right foundation, in terms of assisting with Business Development mentors and conducting capacity-building workshops and sessions, we provide various entrepreneurial avenues to our budding entrepreneurs. We are pleased to have participated and receive an overwhelming response to IMPunjab’s monthly innovation challenge in the city.”