Winning takes it all! Team Elixir Biomedical representing DJ Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai feels elated and humbled after winning Meraki 2014.

“We feel really excited and happy! We can’t wait to go back and work on improving the product and make it more marketable”, speaks a Team Member after receiving the cash prize and certificates. “We needed this fund to continue our activities as planned.”

Meraki is a Business Plan Competition organized by Fortune Institute of International Business at the Pan Asian level. It seeks to bring out the entrepreneurial zeal of the young and dynamic minds from the top colleges across Asia and reward the outstanding presentations. Choosing Winners of Meraki 2014, the 3rd edition of the Business Plan Competition was one tough decision for the Panel of Judges.

“We found inspiration for our Business Plan when we met our teacher’s mother, a nurse at a hospital in Mumbai. When she shared the common problems faced by a nurse, we were moved and decided to do something about it.” Their belief and determination soon gave birth to their brain child- an innovative venture idea to launch devices for improved health care administration. “Our product is going to be of great assistance to the nurse community. Furthermore, it is cost effective and has already gone through successful trials in hospitals.”

The spirit is insurmountable. According to Elixir Biomedicals, it is just the beginning. There are no illusions and besides, the feedback from the judges at Meraki has clarified many doubts- “The Judges diverted our attention to several aspects we hadn’t thought about earlier. Besides the product we have talked about in the competition, there are many other products in the pipeline as well. Their valuable feedback is going to help us to improve their quality.”

Judges at Meraki focused primarily on the strengths of the business model and the team’s ability to execute the B-plan that was presented. The Finalists had to face a number of questions from the Panel to prove the viability of their projects and 3 projects were awarded Meraki fellowships.

To promote the instruments of entrepreneurship, FIIB believes in empowering today’s young entrepreneurs. Providing assistance and mentor-ship to the winners in future- is one of the concrete objectives of Meraki. It is the youth today, who are going to be the prominent Entrepreneurs tomorrow.

Disclaimer: This article has been written by a member of Corporate Communications Team at Fortune Institute of International Business.