CHENNAI: Team Aquaregia from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras emerged victorious in a fiercely-contested, closed-room competition among 10 teams, in the fifth edition of GENESIS 2011.The socio-business entrepreneurship competition is conducted by C-TIDES (Cell for Technology Innovation, Development and Entrepreneurship Support), the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT-Madras, in association with the Chennai-based conglomerate SIVA Group. This flagship event of IIT-Madras aims to promote social entrepreneurship by bringing about a confluence of students, corporates, entrepreneurs, NGOs, innovators, incubators and venture capitalists.Lohit Vankina, a member of the winning team, says that there is water in abundance in villages, but it is not fit for drinking. “We came up with the concept over a year ago, and spent time figuring out the issues. We found that the concept of clean water was not being marketed properly to the villagers,” he said. Lohit added that they were working on a prototype of a filter, and have visited a village 60 km from Chennai to study the ground situation.“The filter will be sold to a local entrepreneur in each street of the village. He, in turn, can supply his neighbours with water at 25 paise per litre. This will be an alternative source of income to him and will also involve a one-time, lesser investment of, say `400,” said the members of Aquaregia. Once they conclude their pilot study and see the response it garners, the project will be taken forward.Team BAFF comprising students from Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing, Kancheepuram, was adjudged the runner-up for their presentation on biofuels as future fuels. Swagat Sarma, a member of the team, said, “No one thinks of a solution for biofuels in urban areas. Kitchen waste has a lot of energy content, and utilising that, we hope to have created a substitute for LPG.”With a much lower price range, the team also hopes to entice commercial players to their market. Swagat said, “We will be applying for a patent soon. We will not be focusing on the rural market because so many players are already thinking of solutions for that area.” They also hope to combat black market sale of LPG.The 10 finalists, chosen from 80 entries, were guided through a carefully-designed mentorship programme, with industry professionals as dedicated mentors, which helped them to mould and refine their projects that could attract seed funding from angel investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.Distributing the prizes, worth up to `4 lakh, president of SIVA Group, P Swaminathan said, “I congratulate all the participants for enriching GENESIS with their enthusiastic participation and presentation of progressive ideas and I reiterate SIVA Group’s commitment to continue nurturing socially responsible entrepreneurs and future thought leaders through this unique knowledge platform in association with IIT-Madras and C-TIDES.”“Over the past five years, GENESIS has evolved from just being a competition to a knowledge eco-system that helps aspiring student entrepreneurs to convert their ideas, potential and talents into commercially feasible, but socially responsible businesses,” said Dr Ashwin Mahalingam, Faculty Advisor, C-TIDES. “The fact that some past contestants of GENESIS have gone on to establish companies successfully is a testimony to the growing stature of the competition,” he added.
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