'Mentor' India teaches business to China

Hyderabad: The Indian School of Business (ISB) will groom the winning teams from China, Thailand and Singapore at the Asia semi-final of a high profile global competition for scripting innovative business plans and setting up social ventures.

The Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship (WCED) at the ISB will mentor them to strengthen their business plans by revising their strategy, refocus on the plan and network with people in the relevant industry, said a statement by ISB on Wednesday.

The Asia semi-final of the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) held at the ISB, had 215 registrations with a total of 118 business plans sent in from 25 schools in China, Taipei, Singapore, Dubai and Thailand.

GSVC is one of the most high profile competitions in the world for scripting innovative business plans and setting up social ventures that have clear and quantifiable social objectives and are financially sustainable.

It began in 1999 and is a student-led initiative pioneered by the Haas School of Business, Columbia Business School and the London Business School.

"Social ventures have the power to not only promote entrepreneurship but also make a high social impact. Some of the projects mentored by us in the last two years have won various types of resource support and are currently being implemented," said executive director, WCED, V Chandrasekar.

Teams "Doctor Seed" from China and "Verdacure" from Thailand were announced as the winners.

The plan submitted by the Chinese team was on deployment of a plasma seed processor that would result in higher germination rate, resilient plants and higher yields of crops. The Thai team proposed a project for the production of high quality affordable medicines developed from herbs available in Thailand with an oral care product being the first to be developed.

The award for the most innovative social return on investment analysis was given to the team from Singapore "Sarvodaya" for its proposal of facilitating cultivation of Aloe Vera in marginalised lands through self-help groups and non-government organisations, setting up processing facilities, thereby ensuring viability of model and increased income for marginalised farmers.