'Vodafone Drive into the Big League’ is Back; To Promote SMEs

We have seen a massive success of the first Indian Grand Prix, and the countdown for the second season has begun! Vodafone India, one of India's leading telecommunications service providers, today commenced its activation to the second season of the motor racing event in India – Vodafone Drive into the Big League. It extends an enviable opportunity to small and medium enterprises (SME's) to get their logo placed on the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes cars that will race at the second Indian Grand Prix to be held in Delhi from October 26-28, 2012. Vodafone received a great response to the first season with close to 80,000 entries which resulted in M/s ABC Consultants taking centre stage with the race drivers and having its logo on the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes cars during the racing weekend.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with a turnover between INR 10 crores and INR 250 crores and an employee base of less than 1000 are eligible to participate. Shortlisted finalists get to present their cases to an esteemed panel of experts where they will debate on a television reality series for the coveted top spot. Says Naveen Chopra, Director –Vodafone Business Services, Vodafone India, “Vodafone Drive into the Big League gave an opportunity to small and medium enterprises to have their logo displayed on the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes race cars and supported them towards an easier path to growth. We are happy with the success of this initiative as it helped us making significant in-roads into the small and medium business community. Encouraged with the overwhelming response received last year, we are taking this initiative forward in an attempt to give more enterprises an opportunity to showcase how they have used technology to enhance growth.”

The call for entry started on July 11, 2012 for all SMEs across India, and will be open till August 20,2012. This year, an all new feature of wild card has been added to the contest. 3 SMEs will be chosen through a contest run on a social networking platform between August 1, 2012 and September 15, 2012. And out of the selected three, one will get a wild card entry directly into the grand finale. For the Grand Finale, 20 winners from the qualifying rounds and the wild card winner will debate on a reality show on a business channel all through September/October. The final winner will be chosen by an expert Jury who will evaluate the finalists giving them the real situations that each of their businesses can face, and effectively they tackle the situation.