1. Assam Down Town University is hosting a regional business idea contest called "Manthan" in partnership with several organizations to promote entrepreneurship among youth. 2. The contest will have seven stages over a period of one month, including submitting business plans, screening top plans, capacity building, pitches to judges, and selecting winners who will receive seed funding and incubation support. 3. Top business plans will be selected to receive up to 10 lakhs in seed funding and 50 lakhs in potential VC funding to establish their ideas as startups through Assam Down Town University's incubation center.

1. ADTU’s Business Idea Contest: Manthan
About Manthan:
Assam Down Town University (ADTU) has established a Business Incubation Centre named
‘down town Venture Labs’, an initiative of Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad to
provide operational and training support to the staff and work as an associate in
implementing entrepreneurship development programmes. Currently dtVL is nurturing 10
startup ideas ideated by the students.
To take the initiative to the next level and to promote entrepreneurship culture amongst
the youth we are conducting a regional level business idea contest “Manthan” in association
with Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), Deutsche Gesellschaft
Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GMBH, CII-Young Indians and Indian Institute of
Entrepreneurship.
The media associations for the event are:
1. Print Media Partner: Asomiya Pratidin
2. Electronic Media Partner: Pratidin Times
3. Magazine Partner: Eclectic
4. Tabloid Partner: GPlus
5. Outdoor Media Partner: Outreach Advertising Pvt. Ltd.
6. Radio Partner: Red FM
“Manthan” is one of its kind business idea contest targeted to release sustainable innovative
business ideas. Manthan Business Idea Contest has seven stages-
1. Announcement of “Manthan” (23rd May 2015): The announcement of Manthan will
be done via press conference by the representatives of above mentioned
stakeholders to spread the news across length and breadth of the region. The
announcement will be reinforced through print, electronic and other communication
mediums.
2. Submission of business plan (23rd May to 17th June 2015): A period of twenty five
days will be reserved for collection of entries. The entries will be accepted in PPT
format through e-mail, office drop-ins, hard or soft copy through post or courier
subject to delivery before deadline.
Business plan should consist -
a. Description of business idea
b. Target group (customer segment) for the product/ service
c. Existing competitors/ substitutes
d. Unique Selling Preposition
e. Individual/Team competency

2. f. Sources of revenue
g. Identified resource requirements
3. Evaluation and screening (18th June to 20th June 2015): A period of three days will
be kept to evaluate the business plans by the panel of judges. A maximum of ten
business plans will be screened for pitch presentation.
The probable panel of judges can be as under subject to their consent and
availability-
a. Mr. M.K. Das (Director- Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship)
b. Mr. Uddhab Bharali (Technology innovator)
c. Mr. Ashwin Joshi (VP- Ecosystem Development- CIIE, IIM A)
d. Mr. Kannan Narayanaswamy (Mentor & Faculty- IIM A)
e. Ms. Katharina Kuehn (Advisor, GIZ)
f. Dr. B. G. Unni {Director – (Research- Biological Sciences) Assam down town
University}
Note: Panel of judges may be revised during the course depending on future associations
and convenience.
4. Capacity building of screened business plans (27th June 2015): A one day capacity
building workshop will be conducted for the members of screened business pan
wherein experts from CIIE will be present to guide them.
5. Pitch Presentation (29th June 2015): After the capacity building workshop there will
be a gap of one day for the fine tuning of presentations. On the third day the pitch
presentation will take place in front of the panel of judges.
6. Final selection (29th June 2015): Out of the ten, five best business plans will be
considered as winners and will be incubated in Assamdown town Venture Labs.
7. Incubation and seed funding (1st July 2015): The five best business plans to be
incubated in Assamdown town Venture Labs will be rewarded with-
a. Upto 10 lakhs of seed fund to establish the idea into business from dtVL
b. Access to 50 lakhs of VC and angel funding
c. Guidance of Mentors from industry as well as from academics
d. Provision of Office space in Assam down town Venture Labs with furniture &
fixtures, networking & IT facilities etc.
e. Access to use of labs and sophisticated equipments of engineering,
pharmacy, biotech, hospitality etc. if required.
f. Human resource support in multiple disciplines
g. Feature in publications