Hyderabad: (Business Wire India)  Students of the Indian School of Business (ISB) launched the second ISB iDiya Challenge, a national competition of ideas for social ventures, on July 23, 2010. The competition aims to promote social entrepreneurship in India by inviting ideas from working professionals for profitable business models with measureable social impact. Ideas can be submitted online at www.isb.edu/iDiya.

Speaking about the need for such a competition, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB, said, “We at the ISB are committed to creating a large impact on the society through supporting sustainable social ventures. I am delighted that our students’ initiative ‘iDiya’ has received such a positive response and support from NASSCOM and other progressive institutions. I urge industry leaders to actively propagate this competition among their staff.”

Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM inaugurated the second edition of the challenge. Addressing the students on “Social Enterprise and Technology: A Winning Combination”, he said, “Inclusive growth [through business] has become a national imperative. The largest innovations will happen not by people who meet the market need but by those who create it.” Declaring NASSCOM’s support to ISB iDiya, Mittal announced that the best technology idea from among the winners of the ISB iDiya challenge will be showcased on the NASSCOM website.

Ideas can be submitted on or before September 19, 2010. The submissions will be evaluated on various criteria including measurable social impact, criticality of the social need and financial sustainability of the enterprise. The best ideas will be chosen by a panel of venture capitalists, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and ISB faculty.

Ideas are invited for all categories with agriculture, education, environment, health and sanitation being only a few examples In addition to cash prizes, special prizes may be sponsored by partner organisations for the best idea in specific categories. The winning teams will attend an all-expenses-paid bootcamp at the ISB campus with direct, ongoing mentoring from venture capitalists, partner organisations, entrepreneurs and experts. The top 20 ideas will be showcased on the ISB iDiya website.

The first ISB iDiya Challenge in 2009 brought in 125 idea submissions from all around the country. The winner, SourcePilani – a unique rural BPO business model, has since trained 25 villagers around Pilani and plans to grow twofold by the end of 2010.The bootcamp for the winners had distinguished speakers of the stature of S.Sivakumar, Chief Executive of Agribusiness, ITC, Atreya Rayaprolu, Vice President, Intellecap, and Sachin Malhan, Co-founder & CEO, Inclusive Planet.

The ISB iDiya Challenge is being organised by the Net Impact Club (Gold Chapter) at the ISB, the first in Asia. Net Impact began in 2003 when a network of new generation leaders committed themselves to using the power of business to improve the world.