Ideas that won hearts
A group of young students have come up with innovative ideas that suggest they would go on to become dynamic leaders in the business world.
They showcased their ideas in the third edition of 'Rise High Bangladesh', a joint initiative of Crown Cement and The Daily Star.
Rise High Bangladesh is a project that aims to inspire the youth of Bangladesh to come up with ideas and convert them into commercially feasible products and services.
The final round of the competition took place on Saturday at International Convention City, Bashundhara in Dhaka.
A total of 150 teams from different public and private universities participated this year. Five were invited to present their ideas in the final round, out of which three were chosen as winners by a panel of judges.
The Wildlings from the Dhaka University's Institute of Business Administration was chosen the champion. Misfits from the Bangladesh University of Professionals was adjudicated the runner-up, followed by Con Artists of North South University.
Naser Ezaz Bijoy, chief executive officer of the Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh; Syed Ferhat Anwar, a professor at IBA; and Rubaba Dowla, president of non-profit organisation TiE Dhaka, were the judges.
MOSQUITO REPELLENT MAVERICK
The Wildings proposed a mosquito repellent, for both the local and international markets, from a hormone found in chicken skin that effectively wards off the insect, a nuisance for rural and urban dwellers alike.
A total of 1.02 million tonnes of chicken skin is wasted in Bangladesh every year, which could be processed into a spray or an ointment.
The market size for the mosquito repellent would hit $5 billion by 2023, they said in the presentation.
The Wildings wants take the advantage of the competitive labour costs in Bangladesh and the country's preferential trade agreements to implement the business idea.
Assuming the operation of the business by 2020, they expect to grab 11 percent of the ASEAN markets by 2025 with initial investment of Tk 68.18 crore.
The Wildings is hopeful that they would be able to grab 45 percent of the total global market for the product segment.
CHAMPIONING BIODEGRADABLE CUTLERIES
Misfits from Bangladesh University of Professionals became the runner up for their idea of making biodegradable cutleries from banana trees to replace single-use plastic ones.
Bangladesh is the 14th largest producer of bananas and has low labour costs, both of which work in Misfits' favour.
Misfits will collect banana wastes, leaves and stems from growers in Narsingdi and Bogra. They will process those in factories and export them mainly to the EU, US and Africa.
In Bangladesh they are expecting sales of Tk 458.96 million in 2019 and Tk 896.09 million by 2023.
The team is expecting net profit at Tk 17.56 million in 2019 and Tk 95.56 million in 2023.
MINTING RICE HUSK
Con Artists from North South University bagged the third position with their idea of producing silica from incinerating rice husk.
The global silica market in 2016 was $2.66 billion and it is expected to grow to $4.43 billion by 2022, they said.
One kilogramme of rice has 28 percent husk and 25 percent rice husk ash, which contains 85 to 90 percent silica.
Con Artists will collect rice husk from different districts in Rajshahi division and crystallise them in a factory.
Primarily, they will invest Tk 28.30 crore and is hopeful of breaking even by two years and three months.
The Rise High Bangladesh will inspire the youth to turn to business as the country needs more young and talented entrepreneurs, said Jahangir Alam, chairman of Crown Cement, which initiated the tournament in 2016.
“Bangladesh is full of opportunities,” he said, while urging the prime minister to establish a separate ministry on human resources development to leverage the country's vast skilled human resources.
Comments