Winners announced for the Australian Government’s Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge.

First prize bagged by Team Environmental Einsteins from Manava Bharati India International School

Hyderabad, 3rd June 2024: The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) announced the winners of the Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge (SAEC) 2024 at the Imperial Hotel in New Delhi on 31 May 2024.

SAEC 2024 was a 2-week immersive and hybrid event bringing together some of India’s brightest Grade 11 students working in multidisciplinary teams to build tech-enabled solutions to solve real-world problems on one of the two SAEC themes of Global Net Zero Goals and Artificial Intelligence.

SAEC 2024 featured participation from 33 student teams from premier institutions across India. Each team created a three-minute video pitch, evaluated by a panel of SAEC award sponsors, to select five finalists. To further assist the students, each team was assigned a mentor from Australian academia and business, guiding their video pitches as well as networking opportunities for future academic and professional endeavours.

The five finalists presented their ideas at an in-person event on Friday 31 May 2024 at the Imperial Hotel in New Delhi.

A team of 5 students representing Manava Bharati India International School, New Delhi, won the first prize and received a digital scholarship from Australia’s Blended Learning International (BLI), valued at AUD16,000 per student, to pursue a Diploma in Business. Austrade also presented them with an iPad each.

This digital scholarship will enable students to gain credits at BLI’s partner universities in Australia, facilitating their path towards a degree in an Australian institution. The winning team’s project addressed themes related to Global Net Zero Goals, with their question focusing on ‘How can they use technology to conserve soil.’

A team of 5 students representing Birla Open Minds International School, Hyderabad was announced as the first runners-up of SAEC 2024. Each student of the team received AUD 3,000 scholarship given by Study NSW towards their academic journey in New South Wales (NSW) and INR 10,000 gift card to each student of the team given by Australia’s Macquarie University to assist in their entrepreneurial journey. Students will have till 30 April 2027 to apply in an NSW education institution to avail the scholarship.

A team of 5 students representing Swaraj India Public School, Kanpur. was announced as the second runners-up of SAEC 2024. Each student of the team received a cash prize of AUD100 given by Australia’s MyCareerMatch.

Dr Monica Kennedy, Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner, Austrade, who was also a part of the panel of judges said: “At the Study Australia Entrepreneurial Challenge (SAEC) final gala event today, we had Incredible, engaged brilliant bright minds with fabulous ideas that will really make a difference to the future of both Australia and India. We had five Incredibly competitive groups out of the initial group of 31 presenting on all things to do with Global Net Zero Goals or Artificial Intelligence. The groups presented great ideas in a well-executed manner. The pitches were incredibly polished with a professional approach to development of the business model and sharp communication of what their product will do! The judges had an enormous amount of difficulty finding the winner because all the ideas and pitches were impressive!”

Austrade launched the first edition of SAEC in September 2022 where quality Indian undergraduate students from top 18 partner Indian universities participated in the challenge.

Australia remains a top destination for Indian students pursuing higher education abroad. As of December 2023, 163450 Indian students were enrolled in Australian Universities, which consistently rank high on the global stage.

The number is a 29% increase as compared to from December 2022.

More information about Study Australia and the support for Indian students is available at https://www.studyaustralia.gov.au/india