Wharton India Business Plan Competition Chooses Five Finalists
Five teams of entrepreneurs named finalists with concepts including eco-friendly fuels, etiquette training for housewives and robot-building training kits

MUMBAI & PHILADELPHIA, PA, Oct. 11, 2006 -- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has announced it has chosen its five finalists for a special India version of the renowned Wharton Business Plan Competition. These students are vying for prizes worth 180,000 rupees (about US$4,000) as well as the chance to gain valuable feedback from some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the world at the finals, Nov. 1 in Mumbai.

The Competition finals and awards ceremony are part of a day-long launch event celebrating the debut of India Knowledge@Wharton. Knowledge@Wharton is the online business analysis journal produced by the Wharton School.

The submissions, which include eco-friendly fuels, etiquette training for housewives and robot-building training kits, reflect India’s enormous growth and impact on the world economy. The finalists are:

Team Name	Description	Business School
Bio Diesel	Low cost, eco-friendly fuels from plants	Nasree Monjee Institute of Management Studies
ERP Construction	Enterprise software for construction industry	Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
Nav Nari	Business-etiquette, fashion tips for Indian housewives	XLRI Jamshedpur
DuraFibre	Carbon fibre materials for autos, buildings	Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
TRI Technologies	Robot building kits for schools, workshops	IIT Bombay

“The quality of these submissions bodes well for the finalists but now they must develop their executive summaries into full business plans,” said Megan Mitchell, senior associate director for Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs.

She added that under the stewardship of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, finalists will receive mentoring from seasoned entrepreneurs and business managers in order to hone their entries. “All teams will receive a mentor to assist them yet, in the end, the finished business plan and the presentations made to judges Nov. 1 are in the hands of each individual team.”

The Competition is made possible by its media partner, the Economic Times and its corporate sponsors, including Motorola, Norwest Venture Partners and AppLabs Technologies. Each corporate sponsor is sending representatives to judge the finals on Nov. 1 as follows:

• Motorola: Lloyd Mathias, Marketing Director, Motorola India
• AppLabs: Dipto Chakravarty, VP Engineering, Novell
• Norwest Venture Partners: Promod Haque, Managing Partner

About Knowledge @ Wharton and the Wharton School
Knowledge@Wharton is a free biweekly online resource that captures knowledge generated at Wharton through such channels as research papers, conferences, books, and interviews with faculty on current business topics, and distributes that knowledge online to a global business audience. The Knowledge@ Wharton network includes more than 700,000 subscribers and contains more than 2,000 articles and research papers in its database with more added every week.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania -- founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school -- is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The school has more than 4,600 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 8,000 annual participants in executive education programs; and an alumni network of more than 81,000 graduates.

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