The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) announced the winners of the Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge (SAEC) 2024 at in New Delhi on May 31.
A team of five students representing Manava Bharati India International School, New Delhi, won the first prize and received a digital scholarship from Australia’s Blended Learning International (BLI), valued at AUD16,000 per student, to pursue a Diploma in Business. Austrade also presented them with an iPad each. This digital scholarship will enable students to gain credits at BLI’s partner universities in Australia, facilitating their path towards a degree in an Australian institution. The winning team’s project addressed themes related to Global Net Zero Goals, with their question focusing on ‘How can they use technology to conserve soil.’
SAEC 2024 was a 2-week immersive and hybrid event bringing together some of India’s brightest Grade 11 students working in multidisciplinary teams to build tech-enabled solutions to solve real-world problems on one of the two SAEC themes of Global Net Zero Goals and Artificial Intelligence.
SAEC 2024 featured participation from 33 student teams from premier institutions across India. Each team created a three-minute video pitch, evaluated by a panel of SAEC award sponsors, to select five finalists. To further assist the students, each team was assigned a mentor from Australian academia and business, guiding their video pitches as well as networking opportunities for future academic and professional endeavours.
The five finalists presented their ideas at an in-person event at the finale in New Delhi.
Team from Birla Open Minds International School, Hyderabad was announced as the first runners-up of SAEC 2024. Each student of the member team received AUD 3,000 scholarship given by Study NSW towards their academic journey in New South Wales (NSW) and INR 10,000 gift card to each student of the team given by Australia’s Macquarie University to assist in their entrepreneurial journey. Students will have till 30 April 2027 to apply in an NSW education institution to avail the scholarship.
Swaraj India Public School, Kanpur team of five students was announced as the second runners-up of SAEC 2024. Each student of the team received a cash prize of AUD100 given by Australia’s MyCareerMatch.
Dr Monica Kennedy, Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner, Austrade, who was also a part of the panel of judges said: “We had Incredible, engaged brilliant bright minds with fabulous ideas that will really make a difference to the future of both Australia and India. We had five Incredibly competitive groups out of the initial group of 31 presenting on all things to do with Global Net Zero Goals or Artificial Intelligence. The groups presented great ideas in a well-executed manner. The pitches were incredibly polished with a professional approach to development of the business model and sharp communication of what their product will do! The judges had an enormous amount of difficulty finding the winner because all the ideas and pitches were impressive!”
Information about Study Australia and the support for Indian students is available at https://www.studyaustralia.gov.au/india
