The Tata Social Enterprise Challenge is a joint initiative of the Tata Group with the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) started in 2012. The Challenge (B-Plan Contest) endeavors to identify, reward & support India’s most promising early-stage social enterprises, and create an ecosystem for social entrepreneurship – encouraging sustainable, scalable, and measurable social impact.

The Challenge invites social entrepreneurs who have an early-stage venture (not older than three years) or a promising idea with a plan that could create sustainable social impact in India. In addition, the enterprise is required to demonstrate significant social impact through results or proof of concept.

The Tata Social Enterprise Challenge is being supported by some of the biggest Venture Capitalists in the Social Entrepreneurship space.

The Challenge is held in Five stages

1. Application Round – In this round, teams are required to submit Impact Proposals through the Challenge website. The Impact Proposal is a detailed business plan format developed to capture the needs and the impact created by a social venture. The Top 100 Impact Proposals are selected for the next round.
2. Regional Rounds – Pitching Rounds are conducted in 5 regions across the country for the Top 100 teams shortlisted from the application round. The Top 20 teams are selected for the Semi-Final round.
3. International Round – An exclusive pitching session is conducted for the international teams participating in the Challenge, out of which the Top 4 teams are selected for the Semi-Finals.
4. Semi Final Round – The Top 24 teams selected from the Regional and International Rounds, are invited to pitch to a panel of esteemed judges from the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The Top 12 teams are selected for the next round.
5. The Grand Finale – The12 teams selected from the Semi Final Round make it to the Grand Finale and pitch to a panel of esteemed judges, consisting of TATA Business Leaders, CEOs/Founders of VCs, Social Entrepreneurs and faculty from IIM Calcutta.