Spread across 30 cities and towns in India, this third E Week India had participation from over 3,50,000 people across the country, almost doubling that of last year. During the week more than 3000 entrepreneurship events and activities were hosted showcasing the energy and drive amongst students and professionals from across the country. Over 1,00,000 people took the E Week India 2009 nation-wide aPledgea to support entrepreneurship in India.

Students participated in an array of entrepreneurial activities, from green business plans, awareness marathons and rallies to talks and panel discussions on innovation based entrepreneurship, as well as, village yatras, where voluntary student scouts compiled information on local and grass root level livelihood means, all with the aim to support green and alternative business opportunities.

In addition to the student activities, E Week India also saw corporate and association partners actively support E Week awareness campaigns and efforts. E Week India 2009 Hosts included IBM, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Proto.in, Indian Angel Networks, New Ventures India, Chennai Open Coffee Club, Venturewoods, WATBlog and Mumbai Angels.

This yearas E-Week India National Championship Awards were bagged by seven colleges: ISBR Business School – Bangalore; Sri Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain College a Bangalore, for whom this is the second consecutive year as Champion; Bengal College of Engineering & Technology a Durgapur; IPS Academy a Indore; Muffakham Jah College of Engineering & Technology a Hyderabad; Institute of Engineering & Management – Kolkata and Heritage Institute of Technology – Kolkata

In addition, Bangaloreas Mount Carmel College and Jyoti Nivas College were among the nine institutes that were declared Runners Up nationwide, while IFIM Business School and MS Ramaiah Inst of Technology made it to the E Week Honor Roll along with seven other institutes. The Nilima Rovshen Creativity and Innovation Award was awarded to Atharva College of Engineering a Mumbai, while the Most Effective Public Awareness Campaign Awards was bagged by IPS Academy a Indore.

Delivering the keynote address, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon said, aThe global economic crisis has created a challenging environment for business. This is a defining time for young entrepreneurs as they address opportunities that are strongly linked to global challenges of ensuring sustainability in all fields a be it transportation, networks, healthcare, food or energy dependency for the future. I congratulate E Week India, which is empowering young minds with the entrepreneurial spirit to solve the greatest problems of today.a Other chief guests at the Awards Ceremony included Chetan Maini, Deputy Chairman and CTO, Reva Electric Car Company and Mohanjit Jolly, Executive Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson.