Winners of Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge announced

The winners of the entrepreneurship competition titled Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, organised by the EMK Centre, were announced on Saturday night.

Sudipta Kumar Das and Shihab Hasan of the Team Three were declared the winners of the competition through an online ceremony.

Asif Uddin Ahmed, acting director of EMK Centre, Manik Mahmood, head of Social Innovation Cluster of A2i, and Fayez Ahmed, investment manager of Startup Bangladesh Limited, were present on the occasion as judges.

The winning project is called "Buddhidipta", which is a brainstorming platform. Sudipta Das, who is a student of class XI of Bhola's Government Abdul Jabbab College and Shihab Hasan is a class XI student of Dhaka's Notre Dame College.

The Team One has been the runner-up. The team worked on a chatbot service called "Bartabot", which can operate on various websites and social media platforms.

The members of this team were Mahadi Khan, a tenth grader at SOS Hermann Gmeiner College in Dhaka, and Rezwanul Haque, a 12th grader at Hazera-Tazu University College in Chattogram.

Last year, EMK Centre organised Global Entrepreneur Week with the School of Business of the University of Liberal Arts. The event was had four themes: Education, Ecosystem, Inclusion, and Policy. About 46,000 young people from different districts participated in the month-long event, from which 560 people participated in the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

The Business Standard was the media partner of the event, which was jointly organised by EMK Centre and A2i. A total of four teams participated in the final stage of the event.

Asif Uddin Ahmed, acting director of EMK Centre, said, "We have a lot of talent in our country. And the EMK Centre will always support those who can do well."

Manik Mahmud, head of the Social Innovation Cluster at A2i, hoped that EMK Centre will work more to bring out ideas from the root level.

Fayez Ahmed, investment manager at Startup Bangladesh Limited, said, "Most people are scared of being an entrepreneur even after graduating from a university. I am glad that EMK Centre has encouraged these young people. I hope the EMK Centre will extend support for the young entrepreneurs even in the long run."