A lively presentation on a social business idea centering on providing low cost biodegradable sanitary napkins for sanitation and sustainable income for refugees stole the hearts of the judges and was awarded as the winner of “Refugees - Reawakening Human Potential” challenge of Hult Prize 2017 @ BRACU. The winning team of students got a seed capital of BDT 1 lakh from City Bank Limited at the auditorium of BRAC University’s Mohakhali campus today (Thursday, 1 December 2016).
Pioneering the initiative to encourage students to compete in business competitions, Chief Guest and BRAC University Vice Chancellor Syed Saad Andaleeb, Ph.D. presented the award to the winning team comprising BBA students Rafyet Khan, Ivana Asfara and Naziba Wafa and Mashiyat Rahman of economics.
After the initial rounds, at the Grand Finale top five teams comprising of students from different disciplines in each group presented their disruptive, scalable and marketable social business ideas to address the most pressing issue globally. The Hult Prize Foundation is a start-up accelerator for social business ideas of budding young entrepreneurs. Winners receive USD 1 Million as seed capital. Further information on HULT prize is available at http://www.hultprize.org/.
BRAC University will be sending today’s winners to Taiwan in March 2017 for the regional stage to compete against top teams from Dubai, Shanghai, San Francisco, Boston and London. The top five teams from these regions will be competing for the HULT Prize Global finale in Clinton Global Initiative in New York later in 2017.
The jury board at today’s program comprised Nazmul Karim Chowdhury, Senior Vice President and Head of Brands, City Bank Limited; Frédéric Jeanjean, Second Secretary, Australian High Commission, Dhaka-Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Romena Parvin, Program Manager (Development Cooperation), Australian High Commission, Dhaka-Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; M.K. Aaref, Director, Edward M Kennedy Center for Public Service and the Arts (EMK Center); crocodile farmer Mushtaq Ahmed, Managing Director, BAN Croc Ltd and COO, CHobiChai.com; and the chair Reaz Ahmed, Assignment Editor, The Daily Star.