The “Spark the Rise” program is open to legal residents of India who are 18 years of age or older, who have resided in India for a full calendar year prior to submission of their application and who are currently residing in India during the time of submitting an application. You can register as a Participant or a User, but you cannot register as both a Participant and a User. Participants can be individuals, for profit organizations (Partnerships under Indian Partnership Act, 1932, Sole Proprietorships, Limited Liability Partnerships Public Sector Enterprise, Family Owned Business/ HUF, Companies registered under Companies Act, 1956) or non-profit organizations (Trust under Public Trusts Act of various states, Society under Societies Registration Act. 1960, Section-25 Company under Companies Act, 1956)

 

Employees of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., hereinafter referred to as “Mahindra”, and Mahindra subsidiaries, dealers, their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, divisions, distributors, suppliers, printers, and advertising, promotion, and judging agencies, and the immediate family members of such employees (parent, child, spouse, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin) and any other persons living in the same household as such employees (whether related or not) are eligible to participate in their individual capacity. They will be required to divulge their relationship with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. in their public profile page. We reserve all rights to refuse service and involvement.

 

Mahindra reserves all rights to refuse rights to participation, service and involvement at any time, with or without cause and with or without any prior notice for any violation of the Terms of Use. Upon such termination or suspension, the participant’s rights to access Spark the Rise will immediately cease. Once the Participant’s application is terminated, cancelled or suspended, any data that the participant had stored on the Website may not be retrieved later.

 

The Participants agree that Mahindra may under certain circumstances and without prior notice, immediately terminate the Participant’s access to the Website/Services. Causes for termination may include, but shall not be limited to requests by enforcement or government agencies, etc.

 

 

The opportunity to participate in the Spark the Rise grant program begins at 9:00 AM IST on August 17, 2011 (the first date/time you can submit an application) and ends on January 31, 2012 at 11:59:59 PM IST. During the Grant Period Program there will be periodic application cycles during which applications can be submitted. Each Application cycle will last between 10-15 days and will be followed by a voting period of similar duration. Please see the Application Entry Table below:
 

Cycle	Submission Period	Voting Period	Announcement of Winners
1	Up to 10th Sep 2011 11:59:59 PM IST	Monday, 12 Sep 9am IST–  Friday, 30 Sep 2011 11:59:59pm IST	Saturday, 1 Oct 2011
2	Up to 30th Sep 2011 11:59:59 PM IST	Saturday, 1 Oct 9am IST – Monday, 31 Oct 2011 11:59:59pm IST	Thursday, 3 Nov 2011
3	Up to 31st Oct 2011 11:59:59 PM IST	Tuesday, 1 Nov 9am IST– Wednesday 30 Nov 2011 11:59:59pm IST	Monday, 5 Dec 2011
4	Up to 30th Nov 2011 11:59:59 PM IST	Thursday, 1 Dec 9am IST – Saturday 31 Dec 2011 11:59:59pm IST	Wednesday, 4 Jan 2012
5	Up to 30th Dec 2011 11:59:59 PM IST	Monday, 2 Jan 9am IST – Tuesday, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:59pm IST	Tuesday, 7 Feb 2012
6	Up to 31st Jan 2012 11:59:59 PM IST	Wednesday, 1 Feb 9am IST – Saturday 25 Feb 2012 11:59:59pm IST	Thursday, 1 Mar 2012
Grand Finale		Monday, 2 April 9am IST – Sunday, 15 April 2012 11:59:59pm IST	Friday, 20 April 2012

 

*If Application submission and voting happen at the same time, then a person who’s project is being voted on will not be able to apply to the next application cycle (because the voting and next application cycle over-lap) because he will not yet know if his project has been voted to win.

 

Due to the size of some of the applications, which may be large and require a significant amount of time to upload depending on the Participant’s service provider, as well as the potential volume of the Participant’s related media (videos will have to be uploaded to YouTube prior to becoming viewable on the site and pictures will have to be uploaded to Flickr prior to being viewable on the site. This will require new users to these sites to create first time user IDs and login details. For further information, please visit www.YouTube.com and www.Flickr.com. The time to upload and finish submission of applications may take longer than anticipated. It is recommended that Participants take the above into consideration when planning to submit their application. Incomplete and partially uploaded applications will not be considered for posting for voting for such application period. Participants are solely responsible to take into consideration the time taken for uploading, bandwidth connectivity and/or any other internet issues during the submissions of applications. Posting videos and pictures to your profile via YouTube and Flickr are optional, but highly recommended. Mahindra will not be held liable for incomplete, partially uploaded or late entries for any reason whatsoever

 

All participants who satisfy the eligibility criteria and wishing to participate in the program may register their entries through the official website, www.sparktherise.com or through the offline route by filling up the printout of the registration form available on the website and sending the complete form to the official address, The Corporate Brand Council, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited 3rd Floor, Mahindra Towers, Dr.G.M.Bhosale Marg, Worli, Mumbai – 400 018 through ordinary post or speed post or courier service. Each individual, society or legal business entity is allowed to submit as many applications during each application cycle, provided the applications pertain to different projects or ideas. The same application can be submitted in subsequent application cycles, if the application was not refused on the basis of falsified information or not conforming to the criteria laid down and available on the website or if the Application has already won a grant. Participants with winning applications may however, submit a new and different application for a new Application Cycle if their idea/project is completely different from the one for which they won. During any Application Period duplicate Profiles, duplicate Projects (e.g. two people from the same community proposing to clean up their neighborhood streets), and duplicate applicants from the same organization will be rejected and/or removed from the site.

 

There is no entry fee for participation.
 

 

To be eligible for consideration for posting, the applicants profile must be complete and must comply with these Application Guidelines below.

The applications must:

Applications cannot in any way:

 

Participants will be notified by email using the email ID they provided in their Profile during the Moderation Stage if their Submission is eligible to proceed to the voting stage.

 

If two or more participants submit applications containing the same idea for a grant, representing the same organization or individuals, they will be disqualified. Mahindra is however under no obligation to review or consider the similarity of other applications in determining whether or not to accept an application. Mahindra’s decisions are their sole and absolute discretion and are final and binding in all matters relating to the grant program.
 

Each application period is followed by a voting period, applicable to the given application. At the end of this period, grants will be awarded by Mahindra to the winning projects out of the eligible applicants.
 

All applications are solely owned by participant who has sole liability for all third party claims relating to the content of their application. All applications will be reviewed for compliance with official guidelines before being posted for voting, however, such review does not relieve participants from responsibility for compliance with these guidelines. The company reserves the right to disqualify any application, be it for prohibited or inappropriate content as determined by the company. Mahindra makes the final determination as to which participants and applications are accepted and are eligible to be voted on. From time to time, Mahindra may, at its sole and absolute discretion feature certain applicants and participants on the website or in advertising materials. Being featured on the site in no way impacts the likelihood of success, nor does it indicate an endorsement of the project at any time.
 

During each application period, there are up to eight (8) grants available, with 4 grants available for the grand finale. A grand total of Rs.292 lacs (Two hundred and ninety two lacs) is available for distribution by Mahindra, over the entire program
 

Five monthly winners will be selected on the basis of public voting and an expert jury will select three additional monthly winners. The top two entries from every month by public vote, along with six entries chosen by the expert jury will be entered into a grand finale, in which a further grant of Rs.100 lacs (Hundred lacs only) will be provided to the top 4 entries as determined by public voting – with the entry receiving the highest number of votes receiving Rs.40 lacs (Forty lacs only) and the next 3 entries receiving the highest votes receiving Rs.20 lacs (Twenty lacs only) each. Entry into the grand finale round will only come from successful applicants of the monthly stage.
 

If during any application period there is an insufficient number of applications posted for voting grant level, the number of grants may accordingly be reduced or modified
 

Each application period is followed by a voting period. You need to register with the site to become eligible to vote. Votes will be validated via e-mail or Facebook. Every person has an unlimited number of votes, however, it is only possible to vote for a given project once.
 

If Mahindra determines, by its sole and absolute discretion, that any applicant or voter has not complied with the official guidelines, it reserves the right to cancel that voter’s or participant’s registration or account. Mahindra may permit various offsite methods of voting for an application, including, but not limited to, mobile, widgets or media. Mahindra recommends that before a voter or applicant chooses an application to vote on, they visit the website and review the profile of the participant for that application to get more information.
 

Once each voting period has ended, the respective applicants responsible for receiving the highest number of votes in each category, will be deemed an eligible grant recipient. If there is a tie amongst applications in a particular grant level after a voting period has concluded, the independent jury will, at its sole discretion, review the tied applications and then break the tie based on the application that first in time receives the highest number of votes during the voting period. In case this too remains inconclusive, then an independent jury may at its sole discretion decide to break the tie and nominate a winner.
 

Mahindra reserves the right to insist on the production of sufficient proof of identity, legal validity of any profit or not-for-profit firm and a detailed description of the project, with all legal formalities and documents in full and a project plan detailing objectives, milestones and end-states. Mahindra reserves total rights to reject funding to any winner not satisfying the above criteria.
 

All grant recipients will be required to complete a grant award acceptance package which among other things will require the grant recipient to coordinate with Mahindra. Grants are non-transferable.
 

There may be tax implications for the grant recipient. If there is any tax liability, it is the sole responsibility of the grant recipient to ensure that all legal formalities are complied with.

 

Mahindra will not be held liable if the communication pertaining to the winning entries does not reach intended participants for any of the following reasons as mentioned :

The site can be accessed by all members of the public. The site provides facilities for individuals or groups to interact with people or entities who submit projects. Those members of the public who wish to participate or volunteer with projects or applications they are interested in, commit to do so in their individual capacities. Mahindra in no way guarantees, recommends or vouches for any project. Any individual or entity who wishes to engage with a project through the website or the program will do so in the knowledge that he or she is acting in an individual capacity and will not in any way hold Mahindra responsible for any action.

 

Mahindra shall have no liability to Participants for any delay or interruption in accessing the Website irrespective of the cause.

 

Mahindra shall not have any liability whatsoever for any loss or damage of any nature whatsoever incurred (whether directly or indirectly) by any participant in consequence of any cancellation, change, postponement or amendment of the contest.

 

Mahindra may change the entry cycle and voting timelines as per their discretion at any given point of time during the contest period without giving prior notice.

 

Mahindra shall not be responsible for taking measures to protect the Intellectual Property (IP) of participant’s business plan(s). Hence if a participant has concerns regarding IP, they shall be responsible for taking adequate measures to protect it.

 

Mahindra has the right to verify the genuineness and authenticity of the votes cast for any project at its own discretion, as a part of its standard operating procedure. Mahindra shall disregard bogus/fake/spurious votes. No correspondence regarding this shall be entertained by Mahindra.

 

Mahindra shall disqualify any person who acts against the spirit of Spark the Rise (including but not limited to posting ill remarks, bad mouthing, defaming, threatening, statements suggesting cash for votes or any other benefits, etc) with or without any prior notice.

 

The decision of the independent Jury is final and binding on the participants. No further correspondence will be entertained in that regard. Mahindra shall not be held responsible for a participant being unable to comprehend the brief or for his/her interpretation of the same.

 

Participant(s) shall indemnify and hold harmless Mahindra, its subsidiaries, affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, agents, and employees, from any claim or demand, or actions including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party or penalty imposed due to or arising out of your breach of these Terms and Conditions or posting of any objectionable material. Mahindra shall not be responsible for what is posted on the website www.sparktherise.com by the Participant/s or User/s.

 

Mahindra shall not be held liable to any Participant/s, for any damages, claim, demand or compensation arising out of participation in the Contest.

 

Mahindra reserves the right to suspend, shorten, modify, extend or cancel the Contest at its sole discretion without prior notice, without liability to any participant, user or third party. Mahindra also reserves the rights to modify the Terms and Conditions from time to time without prior notice. Participants agree to regularly view the website, www.sparktherise.com to keep themselves updated of any changes being made in these Terms and Conditions.

 

In the event no entries in category are found to be worthy of inclusion for the grant, the grant category may be cancelled or grant under a particular category may be withdrawn.

 

Participants are not the agent’s or legal representatives of Mahindra and have no right or authority to bind Mahindra in any way. This Agreement itself creates no relationship as partners or a joint venture.

 

The Terms and Conditions, constitute the entire agreement between M&M relating to the subject matter hereof, and supersedes any prior understandings or agreements (whether oral or written) regarding the subject matter, and may not be amended or modified except in writing.

 

By participating in the contest the participants agree to the mentioned terms and conditions.

 

Any and all disputes or differences between the M&M and the Participants and/or Voters (“Parties”) hereto arising out of or in connection with this Terms and Conditions, shall be settled by a sole arbitrator appointed by M&M, in accordance with the (Indian) Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 along with any further modifications and/or amendments to the said Act. The award of the sole arbitrator shall be final and binding on the Parties. The venue of arbitration proceedings shall be Mumbai, India. The arbitration proceedings shall be conducted and the award shall be stated in English language.

 

These Terms of Use are governed by the Indian Law. The courts in Mumbai have jurisdiction in relation to any claim or action arising out of, or in connection with, the Terms of Use.

 

If any provision of these Terms of Use is held by a court to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.