A two-day-long summit, EYSS - Eco Youth Start-up Competition and Summit 2022, was organised by CMR University, Bengaluru, in association with Paryavaran Gatividhi and Rainmatter Foundation. The summit aimed to create an ecosystem in India for an environmentally sustainable future. The competition saw registration from over 200 participants across India. The ceremony was graced by Thaawar Chand Gehlot - Governor of Karnataka, Rickey Kej, a Grammy Award-winning music composer, Mr. Gopal Arya - All India Convenor from Paryavaran Sanrakshan Gathividhi, and Shri KC Ramamurthy - Former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, and Chairman of CMR Group of Institutions.
Over 200 environment-friendly startup ideas were submitted from Southern India at the entry-level. On the 1st day of The Eco Youth Summit, 71 semi-finalists presented their startup ideas to panel members comprising venture capitalists and angel investors. Two teams from JAIN (Deemed-to-be University) headed by Dr. S. A. Sheshadri and Dr. Monojit Bhattacharjee were among the semi-finalists. Dr. Sheshadri’s team of six students from the Department of Life Sciences of the School of Sciences (Ms. Avantika Tiwari, Ms. Harshadha N Reddy, Ms. Meghana N, Mr. Gaurav Mallikarjun, Ms. Hansini Wijekoon, and Ms. Swikruti Das) were among the six teams who got selected for the finals. On 20th August 2022, the six finalists presented their eco-friendly ideas to the jury members who are associated with venture capital firms and incubators and three winners were selected from the categories of Ideation, Product, and Go-to-market.
Dr. Sheshadri’s team was adjudged as the winner in the category of Ideation and presented Rs. 1,00,000 by the Rainmatter Foundation. The winners were felicitated by Prashanth Prakash of Accel Partners and Naresh Narasimhan from Venkataraman Associates. Later, the winners were felicitated by the Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka in a high-tea hosted at the Raj Bhavan.
