TATA First Dot Powered by NEN - A Unique Mentoring Platform for Student Startups

The Tata group, launched the 3rd edition of Tata First Dot powered by NEN, India’s decisive platform for student entrepreneurship, supporting and accelerating high-potential entrepreneurship across the country. This initiative seeks to carry forward the Tata group’s commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship to India’s next generation of leaders. Adding 5 more cities this year – Raipur, Guwahati, Ranchi, Nagpur, and Srinagar, Tata First Dot workshops will be held across 20 cities in India.

Announcing the initiative, Mr. Atul Agrawal, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Tata Services, said, “We are delighted to launch the third edition of Tata First Dot powered by NEN. With this initiative, the Tata group endeavors to provide a platform to develop and nurture entrepreneurial spirit among the young promising business minds through a multi-phase programme with workshops, competitions, peer-networking, seminars and mentorship. Being in the early stage of their entrepreneurial journey, we are hopeful that the students will find this program useful and enriching.”

Mr. K Srikrishna, Executive Director of National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), said, “Entrepreneurship amongst students is showing steady year-on-year growth, mirroring the growth of the Tata First Dot conference and showcase. Tata and NEN’s partnership, now in its third year will bring its knowledge and skill building workshops to twenty cities. We will mentor, showcase and support an even greater number of startups through the January conference and beyond.”

Regional workshops of the Tata First Dot 2013 for desirous students and student entrepreneurs will start from 28th September 2013 at Ahmedabad and then move on to Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Indore, Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Nagpur, New Delhi, Srinagar, Trivandrum, Bangalore and Coimbatore. The workshops will feature business-modeling, panel discussions and entrepreneur interactions.

Nominations for the second component of the program – the Tata First Dot National Competition for best Student Start-ups will open on 1st December 2013. Five winners will be selected by an eminent panel of business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs. Contestants will also participate in the online voting-based student competition, the Tata First Dot People’s Choice Competition. All validated start-ups will have information posted online, and everyone will be invited to vote for their favourite start-ups. The five contestants with the maximum validated votes will be declared People’s Choice winners.

Winners of the competitions will be felicitated during the fourth phase of the programme – the 2 day Tata First Dot Conference to be held in Bangalore in early 2014. The conference will feature interactive sessions with entrepreneurs while also including opportunities to network and have discussions with business leaders, 1:1 mentoring sessions, an exhibition of the winning start-ups and simulation games.

Tata First Dot 2012 had attracted over 400 entries from across multiple sectors including education, manufacturing, IT/Software, hospitality/travel, retail, biotech, etc. The entries were received from all over India including metros, major cities and also smaller cities.

About Tata First Dot powered by NEN:

Tata First Dot powered by NEN is a unique and innovative platform for the student entrepreneurs to access more knowledge, networks, resources and recognition for their businesses and the first of its kind which is focused on creating an environment to support the student entrepreneurship. This is in sync with the Tata Group’s commitment to foster entrepreneurial culture and innovation amongst young generation.

Tata First Dot powered by NEN comprises five components which entail:

Workshops designed to define, develop and shape their business models.
A nationally judged competition.
An online “people’s choice” competition.
A two-day conference with mentoring, exhibitions and conferencing including an award ceremony.
Ongoing mentoring and networking support for the winners through NEN network.

Please log onto www.tatafirstdot.com for more details. You may also follow https://twitter.com/TataFirstDot and https://www.facebook.com/tatafirstdot for regular updates.

About Tata group:

The Tata group comprises over 100 operating companies in seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. The group has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents, and its companies export products and services to 85 countries.

The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $100.09 billion (around Rs 475,721 crore) in 2011-12, with 58 percent of this coming from business outside India. Tata companies employ over 450,000 people worldwide. The Tata name has been respected in India for more than 140 years for its adherence to strong values and business ethics. Every Tata company or enterprise operates independently. Each of these companies has its own board of directors and shareholders, to whom it is answerable. There are 32 publicly listed Tata enterprises and they have a combined market capitalisation of about $97.33 billion (as on September 26, 2013), and a shareholder base of 3.9 million. The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan, Tata Communications and Indian Hotels.

About NEN:

National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) inspires, educates and supports high-potential entrepreneurs to create high-value jobs. NEN does this by building institutional capacity and a robust entrepreneurial eco-system. Today, it represents India’s largest and most vibrant entrepreneurial community. The backbone of the NEN Community comprises of more than 550 member academic institutes with 1200 entrepreneurship faculty and 400 student E Cells; NEN E Clubs, driven by the NEN Alumni and open to the public. These bodies organize an astonishing breadth and depth of programs across the country that create and support entrepreneurs. In addition, the NEN members support each other individually to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions. For more information, visit www.nenonline.org