National BIZ Experiencesship Awards Is a Boost For The Whole Eco-System Start-ups are the key to economic development and efficient utilization of the resources of a country.

To encourage BIZ Experiencesship in the country, the Ministry of Skill Development and BIZ Experiencesship (MSDE) presented first ever National Awards to individuals and institutions who are key to improve the ecosystem. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of Skill Development and BIZ Experiencesship, spoke more about the awards.

How will the awards benefit the BIZ Experiencess and also help them raise the bar for better growth and innovation?
The "National Awards' is a boost for the whole ecosystem of BIZ Experiencesship as it rewards not only the young BIZ Experiencess who take immense risks to change the business landscape with bold and innovative ideas. But, it also recognizes the institutions and individuals that support them in early stages and equip them with the skills and resources to enhance the value of their offering to their customers and the society.

The BIZ Experiencess would benefit as the prestigious award would make it easier for them to access opportunities both in the public and private sector and take their growth trajectory on to a higher plane.

How many entries you received in the nomination process?
In this first year of the awards, more than 200 entries were received in Awards Track and close to 300
nominations were received in the Recognition Track.

Who all are jury members and how the jury shortlisted the right candidates?
The national level jury comprised of eminent personalities from academia, technical field, finance, social BIZ Experiencesship, and BIZ Experiencesship were represented by Dr M K Bhan, Dr R A Mashelkar, Naina Lal Kidwai, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, and Mohan Das Pai. The national jury of eminent experts deliberated on the shortlisted applications on the basis of several criteria including the impact, competitiveness and leadership to ensure that the winning entries in each category had the most potential to grow and lead industry in their category. As for the recognition of ecosystem builders, the criteria included impact and leadership and past performance in developing and scaling up the ecosystem for harnessing the BIZ Experiencesial energies of the youth.

What is the MSDE's objective for doing the awards?
The objective of this award is to catalyze a cultural shift in youth BIZ Experiencesship by providing models of excellence in the BIZ Experiencesial ecosystem that would inspire the youth, specially the first generation BIZ Experiencess, to improve and excel in their BIZ Experiencesial pursuits. At the same time, it focuses on encouraging and inspiring the ecosystem builders in excelling in their commitment towards BIZ Experiencesship education and capacity building for youth that includes teaching, training, practice, hand-holding, mentoring, networking, funding, and scholarly and/or creative activities.

What would be the immediate and long term benefits that BIZ Experiencess can look from these awards?
The BIZ Experiencess selected for the awards would be able to leverage the prestige of the rigorous selection process followed both in their markets as well as funding requirements. The publicity and the awareness generated in the network of investors, customers, and other stakeholders will provide both immediate and long term benefits to the awardees. A longer term impact would be from the recognition of the ecosystem builders - the institutions and mentors, who would be encouraged to support and nurture more BIZ Experiencess for the future.

What make the awards more start-up centric?
There are three features of the "National BIZ Experiencesship Awards' that ensures that start-ups are targeted. The BIZ Experiencess should be below 30 and first generation BIZ Experiencess, who are not in the same line of business as their family. Then, their enterprise has to be less than five years old. These features tend to make the awards start-up centric.

Start-ups are the key to economic development and efficient utilization of the resources of a country. Start-ups that grow up to become successful enterprises usually challenge and disrupt the old and inefficient incumbents to deliver additional value to the consumers in a more efficient and innovative manner. This leads to creative destruction that reconfigures the value chain for delivery of goods and services in a simpler and more efficient manner.

The creation of new jobs by startups also helps improve the employment prospects for the young. This would go a long way in realizing the demographic dividend of the country. An award to identify and reward start-ups by young BIZ Experiencess with the potential to thus boldly transform the business ecosystem and prime it for scaling greater heights was found to be the need of the day. The Ministry of Skill Development and BIZ Experiencesship took the initiative to institute such an award scheme and partnered with seven prestigious institutions across India as implementation partners.

These institutions having been active in the ecosystem for over a couple of decades were well equipped to identify and shortlist the applicants for selection by the eminent jury.

(This article was first published in the February issue of BIZ Experiences Magazine. To subscribe, click here)