UW News

March 12, 2009

Mumbai students win UW global social entrepreneurship competition

Bobbi Nodell
News & Community Relations


India’s slums play a huge part in another prize — not among top films, but top business plans.



A team of students from Mumbai, India, won first place in the worldwide Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition at the UW Michael G. Foster School of Business for their innovative idea to develop nutritious meals for slum dwellers made largely of vegetable peels.


The winning business plan, Aahar: Meals for Poor at 10 Cents, beat out 70 applicants from 16 countries to win the $10,000 grand prize.


Sustainable business plan

“The Aahar team showed a plan that could be implemented with little need for additional infrastructure,” said Judge Stan Emert, managing director of corporate social responsibility for Symetra Financial. “With more people in extreme poverty moving to cities, the higher population density of the world’s poor means the business is sustainable for years to come.”


In Mumbai, India, 60 percent of the population or 2.5 million people live in slums, as portrayed in the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire.” The four students from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies came up with a plan to provide full nutritious meals of 800 calories using vegetable peels from nearby hotels, along with rice, beans and sugarcane in ready-to-eat packets. As part of the plan, women in the slums will be hired to compile these packets and be given a higher wage rate and free food packets for their family.


$20,000 in prizes awarded

The competition, held at the UW Foster School Business from Feb. 25-27, invited student teams from around the world — and across fields of study — to find creative, sustainable solutions to problems of poverty in the developing world. Students not only needed to create an innovative product, but a business model to market it, and validations from some of the leading experts in business. Prizes totaling $20,000 were on the line, including the $10,000 grand prize sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation and two prizes sponsored by the UW Department of Global Health.


The global health first prize of $5,000 prize went to SolarCycle: Solar Oven Systems, a team from Brown University, for their plan to manufacture and distribute simple and sustainable solar ovens made from local waste materials. The global health second prize of $2,500 went to the West Africa Consumer-Protection Grid, a plan from IMANI in Ghana and Princeton University to stop counterfeit or fake pharmaceuticals in West Africa using a code that can be verified through a phone call. This plan also won the Investor’s Choice Award of $2,500, sponsored by the Peg and Rick Young Foundation.

The three-day competition featured 15 teams that were selected from a pool of 70 applicants. During the final round, the top five teams gave public presentations and fielded a battery of questions from a panel of seven judges. The winners were announced at a banquet Feb. 27.


Judy Wasserheit, vice chair of the UW Department of Global Health, said she was very impressed by the winning teams and looks forward to seeing their plans take root in the marketplace.


“Using local waste material to make clean water and smoke-free ovens is a wonderful example of using innovative ideas to support healthier lives,” said Wasserheit.


Other coverage: Scan TV covered the results. The Seattle Times wrote a supportive editorial and the Foster School of Business has a list detailing the team projects.