Bengaluru : Tata Steel announces the winners of the third edition of TomorrowLAB, a unique business competition designed to proliferate entrepreneurial DNA amongst employees of Tata Steel and the student community for the future of India. The three-month-long competition, which included two separate tracks for business & technology school students and Tata Steel employees, concluded with a thrilling grand finale held virtually on March 8, 2024.
The winners were declared by the 4-member jury that included Ashish Anupam, Vice President, Long Products; Dr Debashish Bhattacharjee, Vice President, Technology and R&D; Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services and Peeyush Gupta, Vice President, TQM, Group Strategic Procurement & Supply Chain.
Team ‘Invictus’ from IIT Kharagpur emerged as the winner of the student track while Team ‘Juley Cabins’ from Nest-In bagged the top slot in the employee track.
The winning team from the student track were presented with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and the winning team from the employee track were presented with a cash prize of Rs 60,000. Mementoes and Certificates of Achievement were also presented to the national finalists.
Ashish Anupam, Vice President, Long Products, Tata Steel, said: “The third edition of TomorrowLAB saw a record number of enthusiastic participants with several compelling entries from students and Tata Steel employees. We congratulate all the winners and the participants for their spirited performance and making this edition a grand success. TomorrowLAB represents the true spirit of Tata Steel and our constant pursuit of innovation to strengthen the future of India. We look forward to the future editions of TomorrowLAB that will bring out the best ideas and business plans students and our employees can offer.”
The third edition of TomorrowLAB saw a total of ~25,000 participants including 155 employees from Tata Steel. The winners were selected from the three finalist teams from each of the two tracks – The Student track and the Employee track. The participants from both tracks had submitted their business plans around the three themes – Innovation for ‘infrastructure & building’, ‘energy & environment’, and ‘rural India’.
The competition was held in three rounds, from which 25 teams were shortlisted for the pre-finale. They were mentored by Tata Steel Innovent team members after which the ideas were presented to jury. Six ideas (3 from the employee track and 3 from the student track) out of 25 were selected for the National Grand Finale.
The competition was designed to generate breakthrough and innovative ideas that re-emphasise Tata Steel’s thrust on innovation, build the entrepreneurial DNA to meet future Indian market demands, strengthen Tata Steel’s overall positioning and idea pipeline, and open up new avenues for innovations.