Three Entrepreneurs from Karnataka Win National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 for Efforts in Building Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in India

The fourth edition of National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 recognized 30 Young Entrepreneurs and 6 Organizations / Individuals building Entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country

* The awards were presented to honor outstanding contributions in entrepreneurship development and included a trophy, a certificate and prize money of up to Rs 10 lakhs
* The winners from Karnataka were awarded under two categories: Agriculture and Renewables

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) conferred awards to 30 Young entrepreneurs and six organizations and individuals who have contributed in entrepreneurship development during the fourth edition of the National Entrepreneurship Awards (NEA). The awards are part of the government’s initiatives to encourage entrepreneurship in the country.

The winners from Karnataka include Aspartika Biotech Pvt. Ltd. and Neo Systek that received awards under the ‘Renewables category’ and won prize money of Rs. Five Lakhs each and Future Bio Tech that received an award under ‘Agriculture category’ and won prize money of Rs. Five Lakhs as well.

The award ceremony was held at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, New Delhi on November 9th and was graced by Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon’ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, who has been spearheading the Ministry’s vision and focusing extensively on encouraging young skilled youth to take up entrepreneurship bringing the shift from being a job seeker to a job giver.

Speaking on the entrepreneurial growth culture in India, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon’ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, said, "Today, India is at a threshold of startup boom, as we are world’s third fastest growing startup eco-system. With 7,200 startups, India is closely behind UK with 11,864 startups and catching up to US which had 41,500 startups as of 2018. India is changing and soar the aspirations of its people. It is an evidence of drastic improvement in the business environment, Of course fueled by the innovative modules of business that we are witnessing from the youth of the country. It is our priority that we give the right kind of support to the aspiring talent and nurture and encourage our young minds to dream big and achieve bigger.”

“NEA is a great platform to encourage young aspiring entrepreneurs and recognize the exemplary work that they have done adding to their professional and nation’s overall growth. I wish all of them the very best for their future and hope they further motivate many more to be a part of India’s growth story,” he further added.

Due to the concerted ground level effort, this year, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship witnessed a sharp increase not only in the total number of applications, but also in terms of completed applications from a variety of businesses. These ground level initiatives were in the form of targeted meetings, focused workshops, specialized gatherings like MSME meets, seminars at alumni gatherings of various business schools, One-on-One interaction with Entrepreneurs during Fairs and Exhibitions etc. All these collectively could create resounding effect to bring seriousness for completing applications although it meant some amount of hard work by the applicants. The number of completed applications grew from 2379 last year to 4134 this year. This 73% growth of successful entrepreneurs completing their application for National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 is reflection of the increasing seriousness of young entrepreneurs for the coveted National Entrepreneurship Awards.

About the winners

Shri Srinivas BV( Founder) and Sunjeet Kumar Ghosh ( co-founder) from Bengaluru established a startup named Aspartika Biotech Pvt. Ltd. The startup aims at utilizing locally generated wastes and by-products of agro-industries and develop value added products omega-3 fatty acids for human and animal application and feed additives for aqua, poultry, cattle and swine.

The second startup named Future Bio Tech is run by Shri. Manjunath R (Founder and CEO) and Mr. CB Karimani (Co-founder) from Dharwad. The startup aims to provide sustainable solutions to Indian agriculture, which in-turn will improve soil fertility, productivity and improve life of farmers by bringing more profitability to their produce. Future biotech is a leading manufacturers, marketers and exporters of micronutrients, organic manures, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides and plant growth promoters. Their products are biodegradable, environment-friendly and protect crops naturally.

Shri Goutam Surana (Founder) incorporated Neo Systek with an aim to safeguard the future of the generations to come by offering premium water saving solutions and other Eco-friendly raw materials and equipment in India. It offers green products and services which can be implemented and followed easily. Our product range includes Waterless Urinals, Low Flow Toilets(WC), Microbial Culture, Neo Flow Restrictors, Bio Urinal Cakes, Waste Heat Exchanger, Ozonators etc. The cater to leading companies like Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, TCS, SAP Lab, Goldman Sach, GE, Mindtree, Yahoo, L&T etc.

For the successful execution of the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019, MSDE partnered with twelve premier institutes and organization which are spread across the country,  including IIT Madras (Lead Partner), IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, XLRI, TISS, NSIC, IIT Guwahati, IRMA, MANAGE, NIF (Co-Lead), NABARD, and RSETI. These institutions were responsible for mobilizing nominations and evaluation process.

The winners were selected by an eminent panel of National level Jury members comprising of Dr. R A Mashelkar, Former Director-General, CSIR; Mr. Milind Kamble, Founder, DICCI; Ms. Neelam Chibber, MD & Managing Trustee Industree Foundation; Mr. Arun Tyagi, Director, Induslnd Bank Limited; Shri Harish Hande, Founder SELCO India Foundation and Mr. Vinayak Nath, Managing Partner, Venture Catalysts.     

The National Entrepreneurship Awards (NEA) was instituted by the Ministry of Skill Development &Entrepreneurship in 2016 to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship across the country and honoring the Young Entrepreneurs and Eco-System Builders for their outstanding efforts in entrepreneurship development.  The Awards ceremony witnessed attendance from senior officials of the ministry, members of the Skill Sector Councils, corporate leaders; successful and budding entrepreneurs among others.