Wharton School Presents Wharton Business Plan Competition to Test India’s Entrepreneurship Prowess
Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, Knowledge@Wharton and the Economic Times Bring Leading Global University Contest to India

Philadelphia and Mumbai, Sept. 19, 2006 -- India’s aspiring business leaders have an opportunity to showcase their entrepreneurial skills by participating in a special India version of the renowned Wharton Business Plan Competition (Wharton BPC) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Since it began accepting submissions in August, the competition has received an overwhelming response of more than 600 individual entries from current students studying at business schools and colleges across India.

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.

With the submission phase now closed, participating students are focused on moving on to the next rounds culminating in an awards ceremony for the finalists Nov. 1 in Mumbai at the launch event celebrating the debut of India Knowledge@Wharton. Knowledge@Wharton is the online business analysis journal produced by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Wharton BPC is among the leading global university-run business plan competitions. It was launched in 1998 by the Wharton Entrepreneurship Club and is now part of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs (WEP), which co-manages the event with a specially selected student committee. Over the years, numerous student teams have gone on to become successful businesses including PayMyBills.com, BuySafe, NetConversions, Stata Labs, DealMaven, Verge Solutions and MicroMRI.

During the course of the competition submissions will undergo scrutiny from a host of entrepreneurs, management experts and venture capitalists drawn from executives with the competition’s media partner, the Economic Times and its sponsors: Motorola, Norwest Venture Partners and AppLabs Technologies. In addition, Wharton’s large alumni base in India will take an active role. Students will be judged on the viability and soundness of their business ideas and management fundamentals. The 600 competing entries will eventually be reduced to 25 semi-finalists and then to five finalists.

Under the stewardship of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, finalists will receive mentoring from seasoned entrepreneurs and business managers in order to hone their entries. In addition participants will have access to a wealth of educational tools including videotaped workshops and articles from Knowledge @ Wharton and WEP’s “Get it Started!” e-newsletter. Finalist presentations will take place before a panel of high level judges including sponsors on Nov. 1 followed by an awards ceremony and press conference announcing the grand prize winning team, all part of the many activities at the day-long India Knowledge @ Wharton launch event. The winners will also receive acknowledgement at the student-run Wharton India Economic Forum held in Philadelphia, Nov. 11.

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 nearly 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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