The all-girls team-Team Econominds from MITWPU University, Pune comprising of Nishita Bhattad, Jasmine Mehta, Samiksha Joshi, Shweta Karthik and Muskan Kashyap, were declared winners of the Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge (SAEC-2022) in Delhi on September 23, 2022 by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade- Australian Government agency). With this the team has won a Student Tour to Australia, which will take place in March 2023.During this tour the winners will get a glimpse of the Australian lifestyle and will get the chance to visit and learn more about Australian education institutions and Australian entrepreneurship ecosystem and start-up culture.
The first runners-up of SAEC 2022 are Team Ekta from NMIMS, Mumbai. They have won a $2000 scholarship each, sponsored by Study New South Wales – which the students will be able to use towards the tuition fee for a full-time postgraduate degree program at any NSW education provider.
The second runners-up of SAEC 2022 are Team Glovis Rise from Lovely Professional University, Punjab who bagged a cash prize of $500 each, sponsored by Study Queensland.
SAEC-2022 was announced in June this year where undergraduate student teams from Indian HEIs were invited to participate. This is the first time that Austrade came up with this version of a two-week challenge where student teams could explore Australia’s postgraduate education ecosystem through entrepreneurial ideas and build tech-enabled solutions to solve real-world problems on four key themes: Cybersecurity, Circular Economy, Digital Health, and Creative industries.
The challenge was held in a hybrid mode from August 22 with the orientation program and two summits in virtual mode followed by an in-person pitching event in India. In all 36 teams registered of which five moved to the final round.
Melissa Bank, Head of International Education Centre of Excellence, Austrade said, “Our goal behind setting up this competition was to help students learn about Australian entrepreneurship eco-system and its institutions. I am glad that all the participants were highly involved with this programme and we have been able to highlight the key differential factor that can make them an entrepreneur.”
The Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge was an initiative to engage highly-skilled students from the Indian higher education institutes who participated in a series of hybrid events, which were based on Ted X-meets-Hackathon. The participants formed multidisciplinary teams and participated in a two-week program showcasing the opportunities of Australia’s education sector and the Australian entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystems.
As part of the challenge, the teams created a 3-minute pitch video idea on the following challenge themes – Cybersecurity, Circular Economy, Digital Health, and Creative Industries. The participating teams also had access to mentors from Australian academia and industry who guided them in the development of their video pitches. They got in-depth understanding of their chosen topic during academic spotlights that were delivered by Australian academic experts, as well. The jury panel for the contest included Ms. Melissa Bank, Head of International Education Centre of Excellence, Austrade and Mr Sukhmeet Singh, Co-founder, A2P Energy.
Reacting to their win members of the Team Econominds, said they are very excited both for the upcoming tour of Australia and their idea. “After coming to know about the challenge from our college, we thought over and then one of our members suggested Indian fat wedding Big Fat Indian Wedding ends with a lot of clothes being just thrown off. So, we came up with the idea of redesigning these clothes for the customers so that they can wear them beyond this one occasion,” they said. On the question whether, they would pursue this idea in real life, they feel yes as it can solve a big problem faced particularly by women.
