VISAKHAPATNAM: Giving an opportunity to the budding entrepreneurs in Andhra Pradesh, the first edition of ClimateLauchpad kick-started its boot camp in Visakhapatnam with nine members as a part of the Global Green Business Ideas competition. The camp has teams from various cities - each one having one innovate idea to solve the increasing environmental problems. The two-day boot camp will be followed by coaching for three months to pick up the best entrepreneur for the finals. The world’s top 10 ideas win access to the Climate-KIC’s Accelerator, a programme focused on cleantech commercialisation.
ClimateLaunchpad, a European Union programme, is the largest early-stage climate incubator in the world. After piloting the green business ideas competition in Mumbai last year, a similar competition is now launched in Vizag to support early-stage climate and cleantech start-ups in Andhra Pradesh. After three months of coaching, there will be South Asia Regional finals in September and European Finals in November.
“We have received 37 applications from Visakhapatnam and listed nine of them for the competition. The budding entrepreneurs have come up with different ideas and for three months we shall witness quality of workmanship and mentors will help shape ideas to solve sustainable issues across the world,” said Pratap of ClimateLaunchpad who would train in the boot camp. While the competition focuses on innovations in renewable energy, energy efficiency, food and agriculture, water, transportation, industrial technology or any other way to tackle climate change, they were members who had come up with environment-friendly ideas from Vizag, Odisha, Punjab and Hyderabad. One of them is from Sankethika College, Vizag.
“Our idea is about oil spill recovery in ships. Usually when a layer of oil is on water, fishes do not get proper oxygen. So we hit upon an idea of separating oil and water using plastic with the help of technology,” said B Divya, the team member and a student of Sankethika College. With such an idea, the team is a part of the competition who will be trained and given more support to implement their idea.
These boot camps are also being held in other cities, including Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. “The top nine participants in South Asia will compete in the Global Grand Final in November, 2018 with 35 countries. The world’s top 10 ideas will win access to the Climate-KIC’s Accelerator, a programme focused on cleantech commercialisation. The overall winner of the Grand Final also receives a cash prize of `10,000,” Pratap added.
The camp is held with the support of PR Climate Studio (Mumbai), SM Renergy (P) Limited (Visakhapatnam) and StartAP.