New Delhi, June 4, 2013 - Dell today announced the Dell Empowering Women Challenge, a global competition to encourage university students from any country, male or female, graduate or undergraduate, from any field of study, to propose initiatives empowering women and girls, thereby creating business opportunities and recognizing female influence. The competition seeks to inspire at least100 innovative ideas from around the world and will place an emphasis on the need to increase entrepreneurship in developing markets.

Continuing its commitment to inspiring innovation, the Dell Empowering Women Challenge is a spotlight challenge of the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, the world?s largest social innovation community, challenging university students to solve some of the world?s most pressing problems with transformative ideas.

Fifty semi-finalists will be selected in September and will receive direct mentorship from members of the Dell Women?s Entrepreneur Network, a community of around 400 established female founders connected to Dell, giving those project teams the chance to develop their ideas with the help, experience and expertise of successful women and business leaders. One member from each of the top three teams will receive an all-expense paid trip to pitch their team?s idea at a special awards event in December 2013. The winning team will be announced at that event and will receive a $15,000 cash prize. All finalists will be automatically entered as semi-finalists for the 2014 Dell Social Innovation Challenge, Dell?s umbrella competition focused on social entrepreneurship.

"We continue to see that while the aspiration of women and men may be equal, the barriers to opportunity they face are not. In business, the unfortunate reality is that this is true whether women are starting their own business, or are part of existing organizations, and this is a clear inhibitor to growth," said Trisa Thompson, vice president of Corporate Responsibility at Dell. "At Dell we are working on many fronts to create a level playing field for women. Having seen some incredible creative ideas in previous competitions, we?re excited to see how the world?s university communities will propose tackling the challenges facing women today."

The challenge was announced at the fourth annual Dell Women?s Entrepreneur Network global event in Istanbul, where Dell also introduced Pay It Forward, a new global initiative to support 1 million women and girls by the end of 2015. Dell also released the findings of the world?s first women?s entrepreneurship index, undertaken with The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI), to measure and rank the entrepreneurial environment, eco-system and aspiration of women in 17 developed and emerging economies around the world.

Information for entrants:

? September 23, 2013: Deadline for entrants to register online at DellEmpoweringWomen.org and post project submissions

? October 4, 2013: 50 semi-finalists will be announced

? November 8, 2013: 3 finalists will be announced

? December 2013: awards event

? The winners and the 10 promising projects will share a total of $35,000 in cash prizes

? FREE to enter the competition