Mantra Awards:

The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) at BITS Pilani aims to create future leaders at BITS Pilani. CEL not only seeks to create all-round leaders, but also focuses specifically on students who break new grounds in the field of entrepreneurship, innovation and social ventures. In addition, CEL aims to empower and inspire BITSian women to play a significant leadership role.

The Mantra awards were instituted by CEL, in 2009, to recognize and reward outstanding students who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential and/or entrepreneurial initiative. Mr. Anupendra Sharma, Co-founder of CEL, Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital in Boston, and CEL Alumni Advisor had initiated the creation of the Four ‘Mantra Awards’ namely :

1. Mantra Award for Outstanding Leadership – 2 awards (1 male, 1 female): For outstanding achievement in areas of leadership, with a particular focus on at least 1 outstanding achievement in a chosen category, and consistent demonstration of all-round leadership potential. Rs. 5,000 each in prize money.
2. Mantra Entrepreneur of the Year Award: For outstanding achievement in entrepreneurship demonstrated during the stay at BITS, either in writing business plan(s), starting social or commercial ventures, or creating commercializable innovations on campus. Rs. 5,000 in prize money.
3. Mantra Award for Social Leadership: For demonstrating a commitment to social leadership either through the creation of sustainable ventures or for contribution in not-for-profit events on campus. Rs. 5,000 in prize money.
4. Mantra Innovator of the Year Award: For demonstrating an ability to invent or build innovative products or ideas in the labs. (Optional Award)

Eligibility:

These awards shall be open to all current, full-time students of BITS Pilani (on-campus or Practice School), excepting:

• CEL student member on the Award selection Panel
• Any past winner of Mantra Awards in that category
• Any student with a record of indiscipline and/or malpractice at BITS Pilani.

1. Cases where eligibility is not clear will be decided by the Award Panel.
2. CEL will also proactively seek out people to nominate as recipients of these awards.

The Panel:

• The Panel will include faculty members and students from all the four campuses.
• In order to ensure fairness, the identity of the student on the Panel shall be known only to the Panel members and the CEL Student President.
• The faculty members for the next year’s Panel will be decided by the Panel members, with advice from the CEL Faculty Coordinator and Student President.
• Faculty members may serve the Panel for more than one year. Student members may not serve for more than one year.

Calling for Nominations:

• The Panel would call for nominations beforehand by electronic submission.
• CEL should also proactively nominate deserving candidates.
• CEL student body would be responsible for coordinating the awards.
• Advertisements calling for nominations shall be put up on campus. They would also be marketed electronically, through email etc.

Please note: Currently we haven’t started inviting applications for this award

Selection Process

The selection process will be in two steps.

1. Candidates submit a short write-up on their achievements electronically.
2. If required, more information would be requested from the candidates

Winners would be announced at the event and all nominees would be invited.

Winners -2021-22

Category	Recipient(s)	ID number
Outstanding Leadership (Female) (Jointly)	Ayushi R Dubal Anagha Rajesh	2019A7PS0099G 2020B2PS1953G
Outstanding Leadership (Male)	Yash Lalit Maliwal	2019B3A70269G
Entrepreneur of the Year	Saransh Anand	2019A7PS0104G
Social Leadership	Shruti Rastogi	2019B4A32060G
Innovator of the year	Darshana Songara	2020A4PS1819G

Winners – 2020-2021

Category	Recipient(s)	ID number
Outstanding Leadership (Female) (Jointly)	Arya Agarwal Soumya Achamma Thomas	2017B1A10831G 2018B4AA0839G
Outstanding Leadership (Male)	Shashwat Madan	2016B2A40533G
Entrepreneur of the Year	Shreyans Sancheti	2018A3PS1008G
Social Leadership	Raghav Khandelwal	2019A8PS0541G
Innovator of the year	Kshitij Chhhabra	2017A8PS0691G

Winners – 2019-2020

Category	Recipient(s)	ID number
Outstanding Leadership (Female)	Nikita Sadhnani	2017B1AA0693G
Outstanding Leadership (Male)	RS Balajee	2017AAPS0212G
Entrepreneur of the Year	Shiv Kumar	2017B3A10585G
Social Leadership	Shikha Bhatt	2019A7PS0063G
Innovator of the year (Jointly)	Pranay Mathur Ashwani Kottapalli	2017A8PS0487G 2018B4A70646G

Winners -2018-19

Category	Recipient(s)	ID number
Outstanding Leadership (Male)	Naveen PS	2015A1B30716G
Entrepreneur of the Year	Shardul Walwadkar	2014B3A80798G
Social Leadership	Apoorv Anand	2015B1A30766g

Winners – 2017

Category	Recipient(s)	ID number
Outstanding Leadership (Female)	Heer Joisher	2014B1A30709G
Outstanding Leadership (Male)	Sarthak Singh	2014B2A80710G
Entrepreneur of the Year	Lokesh Garg	2015B3A30418G
Social Leadership	Vishwa Prakash	2014A1PS0635G
Innovator of the year	Siddhant Patil	2015A8PS0475G

Winners – 2016

Category	Recipient(s)	ID number
Outstanding Leadership (Female)	Neha Garg	2013A8PS417G
Outstanding Leadership (Male)	Sarvajot Singh	2014A1PS654G
Entrepreneur of the Year	Akshay Sonandkar	2013A4PS361G
Social Leadership	Naimil Shah	2013A7PS129G
Innovator of the year	Shubham Maheshwari	2013A4PS217G

Winners – 2015

Category	Recipient(s)	ID number
Outstanding Leadership	Anadi Rakesh	2012A3PS141G
Entrepreneur of the Year	Prakhar Sharma	2011B3A4436G
Social Leadership	Sanskriti Dawle	2012A7PS083G
Innovator of the year	Aman Karan Srivastava	2012A7PS126G

If you would like more information about this award, or have any questions / comments / suggestions, please send a mail to alumnirelations@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in.