New Delhi : The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) New Delhi, India, and The Foundation for a Sustainable Future, San Francisco, organized the fourth annual Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition for MBA and engineering students in India, with a focus on bringing new sustainable technologies to the market through entrepreneurship

The competition’s aim was to promote and encourage scalable business models and technologies on bringing new sustainable technologies to the market through entrepreneurship.

“We at IIFT have taken this initiative to support green-tech entrepreneurial education by encouraging technical and MBA graduate students to bring new sustainable technologies to the market through entrepreneurship. This is the fourth time that IIFT is organizing the Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition and the Institute takes great pride in organizing the same. We are aware that green-tech is the need of the future and we are committed to contributing our efforts to the cause, ” said Mr. K.T. Chacko, Director, IIFT.

The final presentations which selected ‘Angels’ team from Christ University of Management, as the India winner witnessed a participation of 8 teams from B- schools and engineering colleges across the country. The selected presentations included a wide variety of business plans that met not only traditional profitability and return on investment standards but also demonstrated eco- friendliness and eco- sensitivity by increasing sustainability. Many of these teams hoped to turn their eco dreams into reality and looked at this platform as an opportunity to move closer in that direction.

‘Angels’ team presented a plan on “ Recovery of Methane from Cattle waste by biomethanation process and grid connected power generation”, which was appreciated by the entire jury panel comprising eminent academicians, venture capitalists and business executives. The runner up team was Green Geeks team from IIFT New Delhi which presented a B- plan on ‘solar photovoltaic based devices manufacturing and assembling plant’.

The winner team and the runner ups from India have earned a chance to participate in the March 2011 Sustainable Track Global Competition hosted by Tepper School, Carnegie Mellon University and get cash awards of Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs. 70,000 respectively, towards roundtrip airfare travel to USA. These finalists will get an opportunity to interact directly with top- tier venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who can help turn their plans into reality.