TATA NEN Awards has more hiccups
In one of my earlier post, I had mentioned about my site KidsandBibs.com being nominated for TATA NEN Awards. And I was equally excited about the same, however after a few days only, the excitemnet died and there are more questions and queries.
On top of that, the emails from the NEN team really makes us wonder, if the awards are going to be fair or not.
Here is the email from the NEN Team which highlights how they just started without any planning, allowing people to register without verifying email addresses and letting them vote for the companies. Now also if they hire auditors, and engage them to look into the suspicious data, are they going to send emails to each and every registered user to make sure that the user really exists and the votes are valid.. ?? A big question mark 
“Thank you for your interest in TATA NEN Hottest Startups.
It’s come to our attention that some people – a small minority – are cheating to get votes.
Hottest Startups is designed to be a fair, healthy and effective platform to showcase startups in India. Therefore, unethical behaviour cannot be allowed. And only by dealing with such behaviour can we preserve and build the value of what we are creating together.What is unethical behaviour?
Unethical behaviour includes but is not limited to the following:
• Putting false information on your Nomination Form
• Voting on someone’s behalf
• Causing someone to vote without them knowing that they are voting
• Buying votes
What’s included in buying votes? Let’s make this black and white: no one should get an incentive for voting for a specific company. This means: no Rs. 100 coupons; no prizes for voting for a particular startup; no give-aways.
• Hiring individuals or firms that engage in any of the above behaviours.No Nominee may engage in the above behaviour either directly or indirectly.
Ultimately, a voter must be:
• Voting on his/her own behalf
• Informed about the contest and making a conscious choice to vote for a company
• Not getting “paid” to vote for a company
Breaching any of these requirements in order to get votes is unethical and therefore unacceptable.Auditing Processes
As of now, we are putting the following processes in place:
• Identifying and purging false id’s from the system, along with all their votes
• Verifying new registrations before allowing voting
• Researching IP addresses for unexplained spikes or other suspicious voting patterns
• Researching questionable practices that have come to our attention
• Engaging an external auditor to verify the selection processes, and verify information provided by short-listed Nominees.We plan to work with an External Auditor on an ongoing basis, so that, together, we all can continue to build a strong platform for entrepreneurs.
What are the consequences of cheating?
Disqualification from Hottest Startups.
At this point:
Because we had not posted these rules on ethical conduct earlier (frankly, we thought it was obvious), we will contact those companies whose practices are questionable, and see if we can find a solution that includes eliminating votes, rather than barring the companies.However, going forward, anyone found to be violating the Ethical Conduct Rules will be barred from competing.
We once again thank you for your participation, and look forward to your feedback and suggestions.Regards,
NEN Team “
I hope that the external auditors should do a good job.Read about TATA NEN Awards early hiccups.
KidsandBibs nominated for TATA NEN Hottest Startup
After submitting the form on 9th September, finally on 17th September (Rojit’s birthday), I got the email that KidsandBibs has been nominated and is now listed online on the TATA NEN Award website for voting. The voting process is simple, ie you register on their website and Vote for KidsandBibs OR you just SMS HOT 204 to 56767.
I have been reading a lot of criticism about these awards as well, as the voting process has already started long time back. So for some of the companies who got nominated earlier, they get an advantage and they do rank high. This is the main concern among most of the nominees or the companies, who have withdrawn their nominations. Anyway I feel, it’s OK.. as long as you have people to vote for you. Since the award allows only one vote per user/mobile number, it should not make much of a difference.
So guys, do vote for my cute venture and help me get some more traffic to my website KidsandBibs.com
VOTE FOR KIDSANDBIBS . You can also vote by simply sending an SMS from your mobile phone. HOT 204 to 56767.
Thanks for your votes.
Tata NEN Award for Hottest Startups in India
There is great news for all the startup companies in India. TATA NEN is giving India’s first ever people’s choice awards for startup companies. There are various categories for companies and the requirement is that it should be 5 or fewer years old, based in India and a standalone company. There is an expert panel who gives their expert rating but as the name says, it is people’s choice awards, so the winners will be selected by the people through votes.
. One of the experts says...