4th NCSE Presentations and Photo Album

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4th National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship @ XLRI

Nominations Closed

Thanks for the tremendous response to the conference!
THE NOMINATIONS ARE CLOSED as from January 21st, 2012

1. Theme & Purpose

Indian economy recorded a fairly high GDP growth rate of 7.2% during 1998-2008. Notwithstanding the relatively high growth rate, over 25 crore rural population (45 million households) in the country remain locked in poverty. Govt of India estmates rural poverty ratio of about 42%. While the number of rural people living on less than Rs.50/-(US$1) a day decreased by 2.9 crores between 1981 and 2005, the number of rural people living on less than Rs.62.5 ($1.25) a day grew by 3.5 crore during the same period. The key challenge before the Indian economy today is to ensure that its growth becomes inclusive and contributes to a significant reduction in rural poverty.

The rural poor lack adequate access to financial services, commodity and goods markets, forcing them to be dependent on unorganized/informal commodity, goods and financial markets, and a sub-optimal utlisation of their investments and efforts. To fill this gap, during last few years, rural sector has not only opened up immense possibilities for entrepreneurship, but has also sprouted many innovative social entrepreneurial models.

Moreover, rejuvenation of rural landscape and livelihoods is also emerging a significant national priority. Even government schemes, e.g., National Rural Livelihood Mission, National Rural Health Mission, Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship scheme, etc., envisage a significant role of social entrepreneurs in rural revival. National Rural Livelihood Mission, for instance, aims at:

"...promotion of innovation, social enterprise/ social entrepreneur and public, private and community partnership (PPCP) (for)... development of a new product or new model of service delivery to address challenges faced by the rural poor... Successful innovative ideas are then scaled-up using an enterprise approach i.e., social enterprise... for replication and scaling-up in the Mission districts and blocks."



Clearly, there is a need to learn from - and about - rural-based social entrepreneurial ventures to both meet this challenge, as well as leverage on this opportunity.

2. Conference Design and Schedule

Correspondingly, this year, the conference theme is



and aims to create a platform to explore the opportunities and challenges for social ventures in rural sector. The conference design will entail the following panel sessions, where social entrepreneurs/ development sector professionals will share their experiences, issues and challenges:

Rural Revival: Opportunities & Challenges

Technology, Development & Inclusion

Models of Sustainable Farming

Solutions for Rural Healthcare

Innovations in Rural Revitalization

Emerging Rural Ventures – A Showcase

Creating Markets for Rural Producers

Building Self-Reliant Rural Communities

Download Conference Schedule

3. Participation Fee

4. Speakers/ Resource Persons

Please click on the organisations' names to find out about these ventures.

Ajay Maniar
Principal
Aavishkaar Venture Management Services





Amit Jain
CEO/Co-Founder
eHealth Point






Anindya Chattopadhyay
General Manager (MERIT)
Anudip Foundation




Anshu Gupta
Founder & Director
GOONJ




Dhirendra Kumar, IFS
Managing Director
Jharcraft





Elango Rangaswamy
Panchayat President
Kutumbakkam: The Model Village





Gijs Spoor
Founder & CEO
Zameen Organic





Dr Joe Madiath
Executive Director
Gram Vikas





Kirti P Mishra
Partner
MART





Mrityunjay Tiwari
Founder-Project Head
Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital





Mukti Bosco
Secretary General
Healing Fields Foundation





Paul Basil
Founder & CEO
Villgro





Pradeep Ghosh
Founder-Director
OASiS





Pravesh Sharma, IAS
Managing Director
Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium






Sanjeev Srivastwa
Founder
Organic Bihar





Satyan Mishra
Founder & MD
Drishtee Foundation





Stan Thekaekara
Director
Just Change India





Sundara Rajan Sampath
Founder & CEO
Janani Agriserve





Dr Vanita Viswanath
Secretary & CEO
Udyogini





Vinay Kumar
Chief Strategist
Digital Green

5. Profiles of 6 Emerging Rural Social Ventures

Besides interactions with established social entrepreneurs and development/social sector professionals, the Conference will also provide opportunity to interact and know about 6 promising young social entrepreneurs, their ventures and the challenges and thrills of doing what they are doing

Profiles of 6 Emerging Rural Social Ventures