Darsana is a global Diaspora of Engineers who have established a common platform for discourse, discoveries, and interventions on challenging issues in social/engineering avenues in Kerala. Along with sharing a common academic lineage as alumni of the N.S.S. College of Engineering, Palakkad, we also share the vision of an equitable society and are striving to achieve it through our programs. One of our objectives is to act as an eco-system for nurturing innovation and promote startups in Kerala, thereby driving socially relevant ventures and social enterprises.

In December 2020, Darsana launched IGNITE, a platform aimed at being a springboard for budding technologists and entrepreneurs. Our goal is to make our innovation platform available to students, technologists, and all inquisitive minds on an ongoing manner to experiment, create, revise, and evolve along with our panel of technical experts and mentors.

Key objectives of IGNITE:

1. Conduct innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and challenges aimed at student community to inculcate a culture of inquiry and seed thoughts on social enterprises.
2. Conduct events focussed on rural innovation, to identify innovations made by practitioners through their experiences. Help improve existing models, recognise such inventions, and popularise them.
3. Allow use of our platform to store, showcase and popularise social enterprises and rural inventions.
4. Create a B2B and B2C marketplace for social enterprises and rural innovators to launch their business or solution with a low-cost entry barrier.
5. Create a common eco system of various bodies like start-up mission, maker village, IRTC and all such bodies that work on similar goals.
6. Provide opportunity to onboard projects with social goals such as promoting Open-Source or open engineering and design.
7. Create a meeting place for investors, innovators, and social entrepreneurs.
8. Be a platform for knowledge sharing through trainings and workshops.

Participation in IGNITE 2023 is free and is open for the following people

• Students pursuing diploma, graduate & postgraduate degrees with engineering or polytechnic colleges in Kerala.
• Students pursuing graduate & postgraduate degrees with arts and science colleges or universities in Kerala.
• Students pursuing graduate & postgraduate degrees with medical and allied courses in Kerala.
• Students pursuing management degrees from institutes in Kerala.
• Students pursuing various courses in Agricultural universities or colleges in Kerala
• Students in the above streams, who have completed their course in the academic year 2021-22 from Kerala.
• Immediate family members of darsana pursuing any diploma/degree/post-graduation globally.

• Free and open to all category of Diploma/Graduate/Post Graduate students from the state of Kerala.
• Immediate family members of darsana pursuing any diploma/degree/post-graduation globally.
• Registration is mandatory to participate in the competition.
• Details of all the team members should be entered at the time of registration
• A letter from your institution head or dept. HOD confirming that you are a student may have to be furnished at an appropriate step in the competition.
• In case you have completed the course in 2022, a course completion certificate will have to be furnished.
• Only one entry is allowed per team but the individual members can be part of other teams.

• Registration opens – 05 March 2023

During registration itself, you will have to provide the details of the project as per a detailed questionnaire. Start working on your project right away. All entries as per eligibility criteria will be accepted

• Registration closes – 30 April 2023

The received details will be screened for completeness and quality of submission. So, it is important to ensure that all the required inputs are included as per what is requested in the registration form.

• Announcement of shortlisted proposals after first round – 15 May 2023

All the shortlisted proposals will receive feedback on what all should be completed before the next round (Virtual meeting). The rejected projects will receive a reason for rejection.

• Last date for submission of project proposal with panel suggested changes incorporated – 30 June 2023

The shortlisted projects from this round will be called for a physical event at Palakkad in the first week of August, to present your project Infront of a judging panel. 5 best projects will be selected as winners. You may be required to present the MVP, prototype, business plan etc in a concise and impressive manner.

• Final round and announcement of winners – 13 August 2023.

Step 1: Team Leader to create a login id and password to start the process by visiting https://ignite.darsana.in/.

Step 2: Register for IGNITE 2023 at https://ignite.darsana.in/ and complete the details. Upload a detailed technical and business feasibility proposal. Proposal to be uploaded as a readable pdf document and a presentation. Please upload a 10-minute (maximum) video explaining the key aspects of your project to your google drive and share a downloadable link.

Step 3: The proposals submitted will first be screened by a technical team to ensure entry qualifications and basic quality of submission. The screened proposals will be reviewed by a panel of technical and business experts. They will shortlist the projects that are to be called for a virtual meeting.

Step 4: The next round will be a virtual meeting round where the shortlisted projects from Step 3 will present their project through a virtual meeting platform.

Step 5: The shortlisted projects from step 4 will be called for a final round. This will be a physical meeting and the contestants will have to pitch their projects in front of a judging panel. This panel will declare the winners. The final event will happen at Palakkad. The exact venue details will be shared in the due course. During this meeting the participants will have to present their MVP, prototypes and business plan and defend the same.

A closing ceremony will be held with the participation of dignitaries to hand over the prizes and certificates.

The criteria for selection of best project will be based on the following

• Technical and business feasibility
• Innovativeness
• Problem being addressed
• Social relevance

There will be special weightage for teams that are willing to opensource their ideas.

Prize money of Rs.25,000 and a certificate for each winner. Total 5 winners.

Conducted by Darsana, an organisation that has more than 1000 engineering professionals, many amongst them being in senior management roles and entrepreneurs. This provides potential for good visibility for raising angel funds.

Conducted in partnership with Kerala Technological University, Digital University Kerala, Kerala Start-up Mission and other major organisations driving innovation and entrepreneurship.

Wild card (direct) entry to the finals of idea fest conducted by Kerala Start-up Mission.

Our expert team shall provide insights into the preparing a good technical and commercial proposal, identify risks associated and potential to improve social relevance.

Proposals with potential for conversion to a startup will be provided incubation support. Support can be provided for both physical and virtual incubation. Workspace with shared office facilities like seating space, common meeting / conference room, teleconferencing facilities and access to library.

Similarly, such projects will be provided support of a mentoring team consisting of technical experts from different sectors and business experts who can provide business and marketing assistance.

Darsana shall provide technical assistance to file for IPR or patents if required.

Darsana will try to connect the startups under incubation with potential investors.

Ignite platform will be open for ongoing interactions even after the event is over. Our team will try and assist you as long as it is required to convert to a sustainable venture.

1. The Contest is held in English throughout. All relevant information, including the online registration form, is in English.
2. All prizes will be awarded and paid in INR to the Team Leader of a qualifying team. The Team Leader is obliged to distribute the applicable amount to each member of his or her team. The Organizers will not in any way be responsible for the division of the prizes among the members of the team.
3. Funds and Prizes Taxes are the sole responsibility of the teams receiving the prizes. Prizes may be subject to tax reporting and other purposes. Applicable team-members agree to supply Organizers with any necessary information to affect the same and to fully cooperate in fulfilling all applicable legal requirements.
4. By making a submission in the contest, all teams warrant and represent that to the best of their knowledge, their submission is original and does not violate or misappropriate any third-party trade secret, “know-how,” copyright, patent or other intellectual property right. Entrants also warrant and represent that there are no obligations of any nature, legal or otherwise, which would prohibit, restrict, or interfere with their participation in the Contest or submission of their design report, and agree to obtain any necessary clearances, authorizations and/or approvals prior to participation.
5. The Entrants agree that no information submitted by the Entrants will be treated by Organizers as confidential, including without limitation any of the information set forth in Section 7. For the avoidance of doubt, some information submitted by the Entrants may be considered proprietary, such as information that may attract intellectual property rights including without limitation, copyrights, trademarks and patents, any kind of inventions, innovation or novel ideas. However, by entering this Contest, the Entrants expressly waive their right to have this proprietary information kept confidential.
6. Each team and each Entrant hereby grant Organizers a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, and royalty-free right and license to publish their project reports, designs and other information submitted, or any portion or modification thereof. In case of Intellectual property rights, concurrence will be taken for the quantum of details publicised. The Organizers reserves the right to publish the designs without attribution. Except for these limited rights to publish, the Organizers does not obtain any other ownership, rights or licenses in any of the students’, team’s or University’s intellectual property or confidential information.
7. DATA PROTECTION, CONSENT TO THE USE OF PERSONAL DATA: Personal data (as hereinafter defined) provided by the Entrants and the Faculty Mentor during the Contest will be used by Organizers as well as by service providers (for e.g. website hosting services) engaged by Organizers as data processors, for the purpose of the Contest. The Entrants and all other participating parties including without limitation the Faculty Mentors, agree that any personal data, which shall mean any data identifying, without limitation, its owner, by name, NRIC number, correspondence address, email address and contact number (“Personal Data”) which is disclosed by any individual or obtained by the Organizers or its Contractual Partners, inclusive of their designated vendors (“Workers and Vendors”) prior to or during the course of performance of this Contest, shall be processed, maintained, disclosed or destroyed in accordance with the relevant terms of consent set out in the Contest Terms and Conditions. For the avoidance of doubt, every Entrant and individual who submits his or her data for the purpose of participating in this Contest shall be deemed to have given express consent for the processing, use, retention or disclosure of such Personal Data for the purposes set out above and in Section 6.
8. By entering the Contest, each Entrant agrees to release Organizers and its affiliates from and against any losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind arising from (i) an exclusion or disqualification of such Entrant pursuant to these Rules; (ii) late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to notify winners of any prize; (iii) forfeiture of a prize and the selection of an alternate winner; (iv) late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible or unintelligible entries; (v) telephone, electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures or difficulties of any kind; (vi) failed, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmissions; (vii) any condition caused by events beyond Organizer’s control that may cause the Contest to be disrupted or corrupted; and (viii) any injuries, losses or damages of any kind relating to participation in this Contest.
9. The Organizers reserve the right to cancel, terminate, modify or (temporarily) suspend this Contest where required by law or if there is an impediment to the performance of this contract due to a breach by any of the Organizer’s contractual partners, or a delay in funding, or a force majeure event, or it becomes technically corrupted or if for any reason the Internet portion of the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including infections by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond Organizer’s control, which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest. The organizers further reserve the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify anyone found to have manipulated the Contest or its operation. In addition, the organizers at its sole discretion may disqualify any Entrant at any stage of the Contest without being required to specify any reasons in that regard.
10. In respect of any suits, actions, proceedings, claims or disputes in relation to this contest, the courts situated at Palakkad, India shall enjoy sole jurisdiction.