Conquest drew over 300 entries from business schools across the world. Conquest 2009, the final round of International Business Plan competition, organized by Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership, BITS Pilani was inaugurated on August 8, 2009. The two-day event witnessed participation from leading business schools, entrepreneurs, experts and venture capitalists apart from presentations by the five finalists chosen from over 300 entries received from different countries.

Inaugurating the sixth International Business Plan competition, Vice Chancellor of BITS, Prof LK Maheshwari called upon the business schools to produce entrepreneurs and leaders, he cited the example of Harvard Business School and said that every batch of 1,000 graduates produces 500 entrepreneurs. Prof Maheshwari said, “Such competitions encourage young minds to start entrepreneurship, however, the real success will be measured when we see the participants becoming entrepreneurs and serving the society at large.”

Speaking on how the spirit of entrepreneurship is being encouraged at BITS, Prof Maheshwari said “ 300 BITSians are leading entrepreneurs of the country and I am glad the Conquest 2009 is being held right in the beginning of the academic year.”

The Faculty Adviser, Prof Arya Kumar of BITS said, “A candidate needs guts and courage to be different and should have the ability to execute. We are glad that out of 10 business plans which won in the previous competitions, seven have already been launched.”

In its sixth edition, Conquest drew over 300 entries from business schools across the world. The teams that made it to the finals are from BITS, Pilani; Brown University (US); NITIE, Mumbai; SJMSOM, IIT Bombay; IIT Roorkee; ISB Hyderabad and IIM Bangalore.

Speakers at the event include Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm; Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 20/20 Web Tech; Raj Gollamudi, Co-founder, Blue Stream Ventures; Prajakt Raut, Founder, Orange Cross; Naren Dubey, Chief Operating Officer, Scan Café; Shashikant Khandelwal, Founding Member, TheFind Inc; Rahul Chandra, Co-founder, Helion Venture Partners; Mukul Singhal, Associate, Canaan Ventures; and Gayatri Rath, Vice President, Corporate Communications GE.