Students in Amritsar turn post-pandemic scenario into biz model

Neha Saini

Tribune news service

Amritsar, November 23

Self-care post-pandemic tops everybody’s priority list. Three students from the city turned the opportunity into a post-pandemic business plan and ranked first at the ‘Studentpreneur Challenge 2020’. The competition was conducted by University of Arizona in association with Education USA for pan India high schools.

Out of 160 schools that participated, three students of Senior Study II managed to impress a panel of judges in five minutes on how to run a successful business model post-pandemic.

Gurjot Kaur, Wishavdeep Singh and Mayur Kandhari, came up with a grooming-on-wheels concept termed ‘Trakme’.

Wishvadeep, a commerce student, said, “India has a lot of long route trains with its extensive railway network. Not many people are opting for public transport system, which is affecting the revenue. As the Indian Railways has invited public-private partnerships, we came out with an idea of collaboration between Lakme’ and the Indian Railways. It is a model, which offers beauty and grooming services on long-route trains to make people opt for public transport post- pandemic.”

Gurjot Kaur, who aspires to become a Civil Servant, said, “We were just given five minutes to pitch our idea. I believe that any business model that targets women as customers has the ability to work. Post-pandemic, there is a need to attract people back to using public transport. We combined the concept of ‘Vocal for Local’ and post- pandemic scenario to create a realistic plan.”

One of the highlights of this model was to opt for recycling old railway coaches and turn them into grooming compartments on wheels. “It’s economically viable. We worked out all the aspects, including funding, resource management and overheads. It was exhaustive task,” said Gurjot.

Mayur Kandhari, who wants to be an entrepreneur, said, “The key was social responsibility along with profit making. It was a challenge for us to present our idea and convince judges online. But our team was confident.”

The trio has won $40,000 scholarship, eight-week mentorship with Prof Carlos J Alsua, Senior Lecturer, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona.

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