As in the last two years, the third edition of the southern region emerging entrepreneur awards given by the Confederation of Indian Industry – Southern Region in association with The Hindu Business Line attracted a sizeable number of applications.

More than 200 first-generation entrepreneurs from the southern region sent in their nominations for the award. The process for the awards began during the last quarter of 2013. This time round, road shows were held in smaller towns such as Karur, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Erode to spread the message among entrepreneurs in these places. The response was good.

The applications went through a two-stage screening process, with the knowledge and due diligence partners BCG and Grant Thornton sieving the applications. The initial screening left 55 in the race.

Then, the awards committee screened these entrepreneurs and came up with a shortlist of 17 for the final stage, after which a jury committee headed by B Santhanam, Chairman, CII-SR, and Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Glass India, selected the winners. “It was indeed a challenging task to be the chairman of the jury committee,” says Santhanam. The jury evaluated the entrepreneurs on key parameters such as vision, execution excellence, ability to build an institution, personal leadership, innovativeness in business model and scalability.

According to Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman, Entrepreneurship sub-committee, CII-SR, these young entrepreneurs may be just a glimmer in the dark, but “we are confident that these entrepreneurs will be the glow of dawn for the nation.”

Business Line profiles the eight winners of the CII-SR Emerging Entrepreneurs awards.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW