New Delhi : As an important step to catalyse a cultural shift in youth for entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has instituted the National Entrepreneurship Awards (NEA) to recognize and honour outstanding young first generation entrepreneurs and their Ecosystem Builders for their outstanding contribution in entrepreneurship development.
A total of 43 Awards under NEA2018 have been carefully considered to enable participation of young achievers below the age of 40 years and their ecosystem builders across sectors, geographies and socio-economic background through the process of nomination. The purpose is to highlight models of excellence for others to emulate and improve upon.
Awards: Awards will be presented under the following Award Categories:
— Award Category A: Enterprise Awards – 39 Awards– Award Types under Category A1 i.e. initial investment up to ₹ 1 L
— Award Types under Categories A2 and A3 i.e. initial investment above ₹1 L to ₹ 10 L and Initial investment above ₹10 L to ₹1 Cr
— Award Category B: Ecosystem Builders Award- 4 Awards
Sector Awards with investment up to ₹ 1L (9 Nos.)
Textile, textile articles, leather and related goods
Agriculture, food processing and forestry – also includes vegetable products, vegetable fats, prepared foodstuffs and agri-tech
Chemicals, pharma, bio and others
Retail Trade
Renewable energy and waste management
Handicrafts
Healthcare
Hospitality, Tourism & Travel
Logistics, transports, e-commerce & other services
Special Category Award with investment up to ₹ 1L (4 Nos.)
Women Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs from SC/ST
Entrepreneur from PwDs Category
Entrepreneurs from Difficult Areas
Sector Awards with investment above ₹ 1L to ₹ 10L (9 Nos.) and above ₹ 10L to ₹ 1Cr (9 Nos.)
Textile, textile articles, leather and related goods
Agriculture, food processing and forestry – also includes vegetable products, vegetable fats, prepared foodstuffs and agri-tech
Chemicals, pharma, bio and others
Engineering systems, base metals & articles, machinery & mechanical appliances and medical devices
Renewable energy and waste management
Handicrafts
Healthcare
Hospitality, Tourism & Travel
Logistics, transports, e-commerce & other services
Special Category Awards with investment above ₹ 1L to ₹ 10L (4 Nos.) and above ₹ 10L to ₹ 1Cr (4 Nos.)
Women Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs from SC/ST Category
Entrepreneur from PwDs Category
Entrepreneurs from Difficult Areas
Award types under Ecosystem Builders Category:
Entrepreneurship Development Institutes/ Organisations
Incubation Centres
Mentors
Promoters Rural Producer Group Enterprise
IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISM
Candidates are being mobilised through nominations, and undergoing a three-level rigorous evaluation process, wherein, at the last step the National Jury of eminent persons drawn from academia/research, industry, social sector, banking etc selects the winners. To ensure excellence of the National Award, the Jury has the power to not award any applicant in a given category, if applications are found unsatisfactory.
AWARD CEREMONY
The winners will be awarded in a high profile Award Ceremony in third week of December 2018.
ELIGIBILITY
Considering the uniqueness of all Award categories, separate eligibility criteria for each category are given below.
Category A1 (Initial investment up to ₹1 L)
1. Entrepreneur’s age should be below the age of 40 years as on April 1st 2018.
2. The candidate should be a First-Generation Entrepreneur/s. The definition of a first-generation entrepreneur for the scheme is “An entrepreneur who is not in the same line of business as his/her parent. They should have started the enterprise on their own initiative, idea or innovation”.
3. The enterprise must be a young enterprise started within last 6 years, i.e., on or after April 1st 2012
4. The initial investment of the enterprise should not exceed ₹ 1 Lakh
5. The enterprise may be a formal or an informal entity
6. The entrepreneur must be a founder/co-founder of an enterprise/sole proprietorship firm/ partnership/ own account enterprise
A2 Category (Initial investment above ₹1 L to ₹ 10 L)
1. The initial investment of the enterprise should be greater than ₹ 1 Lakh but should not exceed ₹ 10 Lakh
2. The Enterprise may be a formal or an informal entity, however, the Enterprise must provide evidence of its. Some of the examples of such evidence could be:
a. In the case of an informal entity: the entity can be a sole proprietorship firm/partnership/ own account enterprise but having one of the following: Bank Account, Registration with a Government/Non-Governmental Organizations
b. In the case of a formal entity: the entity can be registered under Companies or Cooperative Act, or a Partnership/Producer Company/ Limited Liability Partnership firm or an entity having a formal Memorandum of Association and/or Articles of Association
3. It is desirable but not mandated that the enterprise have some necessary industry certifications (example: CE, FSSAI, MSME, etc.) and/or a dedicated current or savings bank account, or registered with the Governmental and Non-Governmental organisation.
A3 ( Initial investment above ₹ 10 L to ₹ 1 Cr )
1. The initial investment of the enterprise should be greater than ₹ 10 Lakh but should not exceed ₹ 1 Cr. In addition, the enterprise should fulfil the following two criteria:
a. The enterprise must mandatorily have any one of statutory documents (Audited Balance Sheet or P&L Account, Incorporation Certificate, etc.) or trade-specific registrations (example: CE, FSSAI, MSME, GST Registration, etc.)
b. The enterprise must not have defaulted to any lenders in the past 4 years (FY 14-15, 15-16, 16-17, 17-18) nor by its group entities or its promoters. No defaults and delays in paying the statutory dues.
For respective Award Category (A1/ A2/ A3) given above
Special Category Awards
Such nominations will be evaluated separately (if they are already not shortlisted under respective Award categories (A1, A2 & A3)).
Eligibility for ‘Eco-System Builder Award’ Category
Eligibility criteria of Eco-System Builder Award Category for (a) Entrepreneurship Development Institutes/ Organisations; (b) Incubation Centres; (c) Mentors; (d) Promoters Rural Producer Group Enterprise should have completed a minimum six years of service in their respective field as on April 1st, 2018. They should be well established and recognised in their field and Entrepreneurship Promotion and Development. The trainees, incubates, mentees and enterprises (hereinafter referred to as candidates) supported by them should have made significant progress in their ventures due to the efforts of such Eco-System Builders. Such Eco-System Builders will have to provide references of such candidates.
Winners will be facilitated in a high profile Award Ceremony and will be presented
— Trophy
— Certificate
— Cash Prize worth 2.3 Cr.
— Enterprise/ Individuals – ₹5 lakh
— Organisations/ Institutions – ₹10 lakh
Important Dates : Nominations are invited from 17th October to 16th November 2018
Rules for Participating in NEA 2018 :
- All Support Agency(s), Lead Partner, Regional Partners, will sign (physically or digitally), a non-disclosure agreement with the MSDE.
Participation in the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2018 is voluntary. - Applications for the NEA 2018 awards will be invited only by nominations.
- Limits for Individuals:
a maximum of 5 nominations for the Enterprise Award
a maximum of 2 nominations for the Ecosystem Builders Award
Limits for Institutions/Organizations:
a maximum of 10 nominations for the Enterprise Award
a maximum of 4 nominations for the Ecosystem Builders Award - A single Nominee may not be Nominated for more than two Industry sectors in the Enterprise Awards category. However, the final evaluation and selection will be done only in one category in which the Nominee’s candidature is be found most suitable.
- The Core Committee Institutions are not eligible to nominate candidates for the awards.
- Only nominations that are submitted within the cut-off time for nomination as per the NEA announcement and meet all eligibility requirements will be considered for National Entrepreneurship Awards. Any late nominations will not be considered.
- The decisions of the Jury and the implementation committee will be final and binding.
- Finalists maybe subject to a legal due diligence review by our Implementing Partners. If the organization refuses to such a request, MSDE holds the right to select the Jury’s next highest score outcome to receive the benefits and/or Award.
- By participating in the National Entrepreneurship Awards, the enterprise, Nominator, Nominee agrees to Government of India’s and its partners’ use of its name, URL, photos and videos for promotional purposes on its website and in other promotional material.
Any false information provided within the context of National Entrepreneurship Awards by any enterprise concerning identity, mailing address, telephone number, email address, ownership of right, or non-compliance with these rules or any terms and conditions or the like may result in the immediate elimination of the candidate from the Awards process. - MSDE and GoI reserve the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the National Entrepreneurship Awards.
- MSDE and GoI further reserves the right to disqualify any candidate that tampers with the submission process, commits fraud or is in violation of criminal and/or civil laws.
- Nominations are to be filled in English only.
- Nominations for Women Entrepreneurs, SC/ST, Persons with Disability (PwD) and Difficult Areas (North east/ J&K/ islands/ backward area as notified by GoI/ rural enterprises) will be considered under both the Sector Awards as well as Special Awards category.
- A single nominee may be nominated for Special Category Awards along with the Sector Category Award as a general candidate; however, the final selection for award will be done only in one category either in special category or in general category where the nominee’s candidature is found most deserving.
- A single nominee may be nominated in maximum two Special Category Awards at a time; however, the selection for award will be done only in one Special where the nominee’s candidature is found most deserving.
- The Partner Institutes will be eligible to apply for the award except the Lead Partner. However, mentors associated with all the partner institutions can apply.
- By applying to National Entrepreneurship Awards, the Nominator, Nominee, Enterprise provides its full consent and acceptance of the above terms and conditions.
- The Award winner will be allowed the following facilities in order to attend the Award Ceremony.
- Travel Expense – Travel expense usually includes roundtrip plane (economy), train or bus fare [as determined by Government of India] for the representatives to travel from the major airport/train/bus station closest to the individual’s residence to the event venue.
- Accommodation – Double occupancy lodging and food facilities for two nights.
Kindly note that (1) in case of winning enterprises, all the co-founders (maximum up to three) along with one companion each will be paid for travel and boarding expenses. No personal and incidental expenses will be borne by the Ministry.
(2) In case of winning Individuals/ organisations, one representative from the organisation along with one companion will be paid for travel and boarding expenses. No personal and incidental expenses will be borne by the Ministry.
How to Apply : Visit http://neas.gov.in/ to apply online
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