The Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell) of IIT Madras has unveiled Elevate 8.0, the 8th edition of its flagship national startup competition. Aimed at fostering entrepreneurial spirit and nurturing groundbreaking ideas, Elevate has emerged as a springboard for startups looking to make a name in the competitive business world.

About IIT Madras E-Cell – Driving Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Madras is a student-driven organisation that plays a pivotal role in shaping India’s innovation landscape. Known for nurturing cutting-edge ideas and empowering budding entrepreneurs, E-Cell has consistently provided crucial mentorship, resources, and a thriving investor network. Elevate is one of its marquee initiatives, enabling startups to connect with investors, industry leaders, and mentors, solidifying E-Cell’s reputation as a beacon of innovation and excellence.

Introducing New Tracks for 2025

Elevate 8.0 comes with exciting new opportunities for startups by introducing two specialised tracks:

• Tech Track – Dedicated exclusively to technology-driven startups.
• Sector-Agnostic Track – Open to startups across various industries (excluding tech).

These tracks ensure that both tech pioneers and innovative startups from other sectors receive tailored guidance, fostering growth across the entrepreneurial spectrum.

What Participants Can Gain – The Prizes and Perks

Startups competing in Elevate 8.0 stand a chance to unlock life-changing opportunities:

• Investment Pool – Over ₹30 crores in potential funding from IIT Madras’ expansive investor network.
• Cash Prizes – A ₹3 lakh prize pool rewarding innovation and excellence.
• Startup Incentives – Support from Awfis, MSG91, and CleverTap, offering access to co-working spaces, communication platforms, and analytics tools.
• Travel Perks – Abhibus and Ease My Trip provide travel benefits to ensure smooth participation.
• Live Product Showcase – A rare opportunity to pitch products to a national audience and capture attention from investors and industry leaders.

Three Phases of the Competition

The competition follows a structured three-phase model:

1. Online Screening (7th Jan to 20th Jan) – Initial evaluation of applications.
2. Zonal Rounds (1st Feb to 10th Feb) – Conducted in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai.
3. Grand Finale (28th Feb to 2nd March) – Top startups will pitch their ideas live to investors and mentors.

Unparalleled Mentorship and Industry Connections

Participants in Elevate 8.0 will receive invaluable mentorship from seasoned entrepreneurs and industry leaders. VCs from renowned firms like Antler VC, Kalaari Capital, Titan Capital, and Equanimity will be part of the judging panel. Startups will also gain insights and guidance from top angel investors, ensuring they are well-equipped to refine their strategies and scale operations.

Celebrating Success – Past Winners’ Journey

Elevate has consistently produced successful startups that have left a mark in various sectors. Previous winners, including UR Advanced Tech, Evoride, Monkoodog, and Hesa Technologies, have achieved significant milestones, showcasing the competition’s effectiveness in nurturing promising startups.

Who Can Apply?

Elevate 8.0 is open to startups from across India, with a focus on innovative businesses that possess a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or are market-ready. Whether you’re in tech or another domain, this is the perfect platform to take your startup to the next level.

How to Register

Registrations for Elevate 8.0 are now open. Startups can apply through the Elevate website or via Unstop. Secure your spot and take the next big leap in your entrepreneurial journey.

Elevate Your Startup Journey

Seize this unparalleled opportunity to scale your business, connect with industry leaders, and elevate your startup’s growth trajectory. Don’t miss out – register now and take the first step toward transforming your vision into reality.

When you pull the plug, the lights go off. Thankfully, in the “analogue world”, a backup power supply kicks in so that essential services can continue normally while we try to resolve the issue at hand.

When it comes to the digital world, things are not that simple.

The backup plan

When a simple programming error wreaked havoc in IT systems worldwide and India during the CrowdStrike global IT outage, the company was able to quickly provide a remedy, albeit an unscalable remedy that required a manual reboot of affected machines.

Imagine a scenario where they were still struggling to identify the cause of the issue. How would customers mitigate the issues? Do they have “digital backup power”?

Our smartphones have multiple chat, messaging, email, banking, and browser apps. But why? If one goes down, we can quickly switch to another without downtime. What we are doing is building digital resiliency on our mobile devices.

What is digital resilience?

Digital resilience refers to an organisation’s ability to adapt, recover, and maintain its essential functions and integrity in the face of challenges, disruptions, and cyber threats in the digital environment.

In today’s hyper-connected world, when technology fails, we encounter major problems such as losing access to banking services, air travel disruptions, being unable to perform regular chores like purchasing groceries, etc. With a population of 1.4 billion people, the scale of the problems increases significantly, leading to increased costs.

According to a report, the median cost of IT outages at Indian organisations stands at around Rs 520 crore per year.

What can compromise an organisation’s digital resilience?

There are a variety of threats that can disrupt IT services. Outages can result from power failures, hardware issues, software glitches, and human errors. Cybersecurity attacks, such as software supply chain exploits, paid “as-a-service” attacks, and Gen AI-based attacks, can also bring down IT services. Finally, disruptions can also result from issues with cloud providers or third-party vendors.

Role of the government in preserving business continuity

Governments worldwide are setting up various regulations and acts to prioritise digital resilience.

On April 30, 2024, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released an updated Guidance Note on operational risk management and operational resilience. The guidance emphasises the importance of sound operational risk management for financial institutions, stressing the need for proactive identification, assessment, and management to strengthen operation resilience, and safeguard against potential risks and losses.

Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has business continuity management guidelines to help financial institutions be resilient against service disruptions arising from IT outages, pandemic outbreaks, cyberattacks and physical threats.

Singapore also has a Cybersecurity (Amendment) Bill, which requires the owners of critical services to report a wide range of cybersecurity incidents.

In Europe, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a regulatory framework for the financial sector on digital operational resilience, whereby all financial firms need to ensure they can withstand, respond to, and recover from all types of IT-related disruptions and threats.

In the US, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has a Resilience Services Branch that provides guidance to secure and enhance the resilience of the nation’s critical infrastructure systems.

However, regulations alone can’t fully ensure business continuity. Organisations must also make informed IT decisions when developing their IT strategy.

What can organisations do to improve their digital resilience posture?

First and foremost, organisations need to be able to make IT choices with ease. Consolidating with one IT vendor can ease engagement and perhaps, reduce costs. However, it can also increase software concentration risk, since you have put all your eggs in one basket.

A smarter choice would be to adopt a multi-vendor strategy for key software infrastructure powering your essential services, for example, leveraging more than one type of Operating System for your servers or using more than one distribution of Kubernetes for your containerized applications.

In this way, you can quickly switch to alternate solutions during disruptions.

Secondly, organisations should leverage open, interoperable, and vendor-agnostic solutions that provide flexibility to adopt different vendor solutions and not be locked in to a particular vendor. It enables them to create IT architectures that support digital resiliency.

Thirdly, ensure that your infrastructure is sized appropriately. For example, the RBI has emphasised the need for banks to invest adequately in IT infrastructure as per business growth and transaction volume to reduce the frequency of IT outages. 

Next, frameworks must be established to identify mission-critical services and operations and develop an alternative technology stack for them.

Finally, ensure that there is ready access to technical expertise to support the IT infrastructures.

IT outages are part and parcel of the digital world. What’s important is that organisations have sufficient IT choices that enable them to respond quickly and withstand such disruptions.

Vishal Ghariwala is the Senior Director and CTO – Asia Pacific at SUSE.

Ever feel like you’re constantly putting things off? Like there’s always tomorrow to start that project, pursue your passion, or finally tackle that daunting to-do list? You’re not alone. Procrastination is a habit many of us struggle with, often leaving us stuck in a cycle of delay and regret.

Enter Do It Today by Darius Foroux – a book that feels like a supportive friend giving you a nudge toward action. Unlike most productivity books that overwhelm you with rigid systems, this one offers practical, straightforward advice to help you stop procrastinating and start living intentionally.

Foroux doesn’t just focus on getting more done; he goes deeper, teaching readers how to align their daily habits with their long-term goals. His insights are relatable, easy to apply, and, most importantly, empowering. Whether you’re looking to overcome procrastination, make better use of your time, or finally take action on your dreams, the lessons in this book will resonate deeply.

5 life-changing lessons from the book Do It Today

Here are five life-changing lessons from Do It Today that can inspire you to start making meaningful changes—right now.

1. Your actions shape your identity

Foroux emphasises that every small action you take contributes to the person you’re becoming. Instead of waiting for motivation, act now, even in small ways. For example, if you want to be a writer, write daily—even if it’s just one sentence. Your consistent actions will solidify your identity and create momentum.

Key takeaway: Stop waiting for the “right time” to start. Take action today to become the person you want to be.

2. Eliminate unnecessary decisions

Decision fatigue is real, and it’s one of the biggest culprits behind procrastination. Foroux suggests simplifying your life by creating routines and minimising trivial decisions. For instance, decide your breakfast the night before or set a specific time for focused work daily.

Key takeaway: Save your mental energy for meaningful work by eliminating unimportant decisions.

3. Progress beats perfection

Many people delay taking action because they fear failure or not doing things perfectly. Foroux reminds us that progress, however small, is more valuable than aiming for perfection. Imperfections teach us lessons, while procrastination keeps us stuck.

Key takeaway: Focus on progress. Perfection will follow naturally as you improve with time and effort.

4. Procrastination is a habit, not a personality trait

Foroux argues that procrastination isn’t part of who you are—it’s simply a habit you’ve developed. And like any habit, it can be replaced with a better one. Identify your triggers, replace distractions with productive habits, and hold yourself accountable.

Key takeaway: You have the power to unlearn procrastination. Treat it as a habit you can change, not an unchangeable flaw.

5. Time is your greatest asset

The book emphasises the irreplaceable value of time. Foroux encourages readers to think about their time as an investment. Spend it wisely on activities that bring fulfillment and align with your goals, rather than on distractions.

Key takeaway: Use your time intentionally. Every wasted moment is a missed opportunity to build the life you want.

Do It Today by Darius Foroux is more than just a guide to tackling procrastination; it’s a blueprint for intentional living. Each lesson pushes you to reflect on how you use your time and the choices you make daily. By implementing these lessons, you can move closer to the life you’ve always envisioned—starting today.

So, why wait? Begin your transformation now. As Foroux says, “Don’t wait for tomorrow to do what you can do today.”