Dena Bank funds Social Entrepreneurs at XLRI

Dena Bank funds Social Entrepreneurs at XLRI
http://www.agencyfaqs.com/perl/news/company_briefs/index.html?id=20226

Company Brief
Jamshedpur, October 08, 2007

Dena bank has offered to wholly fund a business plan about community health, developed by Debayan Sinha, Rochak Agarwal and Amit Amitabh, second year students at XLRI Jamshedpur. This novel business idea proposed the distribution of packaged health food delivered to corporates in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, etc.

The plan came into focus at the Social Entrepreneurship Fair held at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The fair aims to encourage entrepreneurs who would act as agents of change in society and is a meeting point for active social entrepreneurs, emerging social entrepreneurs and venture funds. The entry from XLRI was made in the community health category and addressed the need of a healthy India. After making the initial cut of 22 proposals, their business plan was evaluated by none other than Padmashree Anil Gupta and was selected to be one of the 8 teams who would present their proposal to an eminent panel of 12 judges which included the top brass of Dena Bank, venture capitalists, Social Entrepreneurs and Faculty from Indian and Foreign B-Schools.

Impressed by its innovativeness and feasibility the judges awarded the trio from XLRI the first prize which included a cash award of Rs. 25000.

Dena Bank, which has an active interest in building new ventures, were so impressed that they went a step further and offered to wholly fund the project. Debayan, Rochak and Amit were called for a separate meeting and the offer was made to them, along with the communication of the terms and the additional parameters that Dena Bank was interested in.