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Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt

Aditya Birla Group

Aditya Birla Group's flagship HR competition for emerging HR professionals. Round 1: business simulation (20 Jul, team leader plays a real-life HR problem). Round 2: case study — 2-slide executive summary (PDF) + video presentation with all members, due 27 Jul. Round 3: Grand Finale in Mumbai on 18 Aug — top 6 teams pitch to ABG HR leadership with assigned mentors. Registration closes 19 Jul 2026, 11:59 PM IST.

Applications open

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Register on the official site before the deadline closes. Forms usually fill fast.

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Most case comps are team events · find your co-founder early.

Usual Season

July

Prize & Perks

₹9L prize pool (₹5L / ₹3L / ₹1L) + iPads + PPO/PPI for top 3 teams

Eligibility

Full-time MBA/PGDM students with HR specialization (0–36 months work-ex) from 6 eligible campuses only. Teams of exactly 3, all from the same year. HeadstaRt 2025 finalists not eligible.

Format

Corporate Comp

Host with CaseCompass

Run your own case competition free — page, registrations, teams, submissions, CSV.

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Why this competition matters

PPO / PPI opportunity · top finishers get a pre-placement offer or interview, bypassing the regular shortlist.

Resume signal · recognised by recruiters across consulting, FMCG, tech, and finance recruiters.

Real-world problem · cases mirror live business issues from Aditya Birla Group, not textbook exercises.

₹9L prize pool (₹5L / ₹3L / ₹1L) + iPads + PPO/PPI for top 3 teams · prize and recognition that travel on your resume for years.

Your prep checklist

  1. 1Read the brief 3x. Note the exact ask · don't solve the problem you wish was asked.
  2. 2Pick 2 frameworks max · Market Entry, Profitability, or GTM cover 80% of hr cases.
  3. 3Run a 30-min hypothesis sprint with your team before opening Excel.
  4. 4Build your deck back-to-front: recommendation first, then evidence, then appendix.
  5. 5Stress test: have one teammate red-team your numbers and assumptions.
  6. 6Rehearse the 60-second pitch · judges decide in the first slide.

Topics & themes

#hr#business-simulation#case-study

Eligible institutes

MDI GurgaonSCMHRD PuneSIBM PuneTISS MumbaiXLRI Jamshedpur (HRM only)XIM University Bhubaneswar

Frequently asked questions

What is Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt?

Aditya Birla Group's flagship HR competition for emerging HR professionals. Round 1: business simulation (20 Jul, team leader plays a real-life HR problem). Round 2: case study — 2-slide executive summary (PDF) + video presentation with all members, due 27 Jul. Round 3: Grand Finale in Mumbai on 18 Aug — top 6 teams pitch to ABG HR leadership with assigned mentors. Registration closes 19 Jul 2026, 11:59 PM IST.

Who is eligible for Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt?

Full-time MBA/PGDM students with HR specialization (0–36 months work-ex) from 6 eligible campuses only. Teams of exactly 3, all from the same year. HeadstaRt 2025 finalists not eligible. Participating institutes: MDI Gurgaon, SCMHRD Pune, SIBM Pune, TISS Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur (HRM only), XIM University Bhubaneswar.

What is the Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt registration deadline?

Registration for Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt closes on 19 July 2026.

What are the prizes and rewards for Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt?

₹9L prize pool (₹5L / ₹3L / ₹1L) + iPads + PPO/PPI for top 3 teams

Does Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt offer a PPO or PPI?

Yes — Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt offers pre-placement offer (PPO) / pre-placement interview (PPI) opportunities with Aditya Birla Group.

How do I register for Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt?

Open Aditya Birla Group HeadstaRt on CaseCompass and sign in to get the official registration link, plus a prep checklist and free AI practice cases.

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Register on the official Aditya Birla Group page — use the button below to continue.

The Indian MBA case competition directory

We track 76 case competitions open to Indian MBA and PGDM students — corporate flagships, B-school club events and platform-hosted challenges — and keep each listing current with its registration deadline, eligibility, team size, prize pool and whether it has historically converted into a pre-placement offer or interview. 15 are accepting registrations right now. Listings are refreshed daily from organiser announcements; nothing here sits behind a paywall or a sign-up.

What is a case competition, and why do MBA students chase them?

A case competition is a time-boxed business problem set by a company or B-school club. Teams of two to four get a real brief — a declining category, a new market, a broken supply chain — and a few days to build a recommendation, then defend it on slides in front of a jury of managers. For an MBA student in India they matter for three reasons: national finalists routinely convert into pre-placement interviews or offers, the prize money is real, and a shortlist on your CV signals structured problem-solving in a way coursework cannot.

Which competitions actually offer a PPO or PPI?

Corporate flagships are where the interview conversions sit — the ones run directly by companies rather than by student clubs. We flag every listing that has historically offered a pre-placement offer or interview with a PPO/PPI badge, and you can filter the directory down to just those. Club-run competitions are still worth entering for the practice and the prize pool, but treat the PPO tag as the signal if placement conversion is your goal.

Who is eligible?

Most corporate competitions are open to first- and second-year students of full-time MBA/PGDM programmes, and many restrict entry to a named list of campuses. A few are open to any postgraduate student, and some run separate undergraduate tracks. Every listing here carries its own eligibility line and, where the organiser publishes one, the list of colleges allowed — check it before you build a team, because campus restrictions are the single most common reason a registration gets rejected.

When do they open?

The Indian case-competition calendar clusters around the academic year. The heaviest run is roughly July through November, when corporates launch their flagship seasons ahead of final placements, with a second wave from January to March aimed at first-years. Deadlines are short — often two to three weeks from announcement to first-round submission — which is why the directory lists a usual month for recurring competitions and a live deadline countdown for the ones currently open.

How should I prepare?

The judged skill is the same one consulting interviews test: break an ambiguous problem into parts, size the parts, pick the one that moves the number, and say it in a way a busy executive can act on. That is trainable. Work through structured frameworks so your first slide is not improvised, drill guesstimates so your market sizing holds up under questioning, and run live cases against our AI interviewer, which pushes back on loose logic the way a jury does.

Every competition we track

Practice a caseFramework libraryDeadline calendarNew to case prep?