What is so great about Eximius?

Last year’s inaugural Eximius saw more than 2000 footfalls. We had partnered with reputed VC firms such as Qualcomm Ventures, Canaan Partners and Sequoia Capital. The event had participation from 350+ colleges including international B-schools like NTU and NUS (Singapore). Eximius ’08 was associated with reputable organizations like Yahoo!, NASSCOM, Educomp & Jaipur Foot.

Do you have any big names for speakers this year?

Yes of course! We have Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Biocon) & Sudhir Sethi (IDG Ventures), Prof. Narayandas (Harvard Business School) to name a few!!

So what are the major events at Eximius?

1. Genesis – You think your business can make it in the big leagues? Here we offer what you need – a constructive feedback from various VCs in a simulated setting; a dress rehearsal to enhance your chances of winning that pot of cash. This event provides a platform for start-ups to personally pitch their business idea individually to each one of the Venture Capitalists in the panel and to get their valuable feedback.

2. Start-up Fair – Want to know what it is like to be an entrepreneur? Have you been thinking of working with a start-up before going ahead with your own venture? Entrepreneurship & Innovation club of IIM Bangalore in collaboration with ICON club of IIM Bangalore, jointly present a golden opportunity to work on live projects with first generation entrepreneurs.

3. Ingen – Got an idea? You don’t have to wait too long to take it to the next level. Test your idea amongst hundreds of others. If your idea gets shortlisted, present it to an elite panel of judges in front of a critical audience to earn invaluable feedback, fame and fortune! of course, cash!!!

4. IIM Alumni Panel Discussion – How did some of today\’s leading entrepreneurs manage to strike a fortune? How relevant is an MBA to be a successful entrepreneur? Find out more such insights from a panel of eminent IIM Alumni who took the path less travelled and reached their destination of victory. None other than Rashmi Bansal – Author of bestseller – Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish will moderate the panel discussion.

Agenda
16 Aug, 2009
10:00 AM-1:00 PM
INGEN: The B-Plan Event
16 Aug, 2009
10:00 AM-1:00 PM
GENESIS: Venture validation platform

16 Aug, 2009
1:00 PM-3:00 PM
NETWORKING LUNCH
16 Aug, 2009
3:00 PM-4:30 PM
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS: On the spot startup case solving
16 Aug, 2009
4:30 PM-6:00 PM
PANEL D: Decoding the MBA entrepreneur
15 Aug, 2009
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
WORKSHOP: Venture Capital Funding

15 Aug, 2009
2:30 PM-4:00 PM
SPEAKER SESSION: Search Funds
15 Aug, 2009
2:30 PM-5:30 PM
CONSULTING@STARTUPS:Consulting project fair for IIMBites
15 Aug, 2009
4:00 PM-5:30 PM
PANEL D: E-Commerce
15 Aug, 2009
5:30 PM-6:30 PM
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sudhir Sethi

Pratham would identify poor rural youth with acumen for entrepreneurship and provide the much needed skills in various fields, while Barclay’s would help with the initial investments for their business.

Business Standard reports

The programme will focus on grooming entrepreneurs in farming, dairies, small-scale industries and the automobiles servicing sector, the release said.

A report on Times of India reads..

The project will initially be launched in the Satara, Sangli and Lonavla regions, where, according to the latest Indian census, over 20 per cent of the 10 million inhabitants live below the poverty line. These areas also have over one million unemployed youth.

It is a good sign that despite being in the middle of a recession of  an unexpected scale the social sector is not completely left out in the cold and initiatives , at least by organizations with well known track record is supported. It would be interesting to find out the extent to which this partnership transforms the villages.

Curiously, Pratham’s website doesn’t carry any information about the entrepreneurship programme.

India like the rest of the world has not escaped the impacts of the current downturn. The sudden rush in retrenchment and forced salary cuts is an indication of the prevailing financial meltdown the result of corporate greed and irresponsibility. It needs to be emphasized that not all in the corporate sector are to blame. While middle level and junior staff have worked long hours expecting rewards for their efforts top management have given themselves unearned bonuses.

What is needed now is leadership with vision to steer the country out of this situation. A vision that speaks to small and medium-sized businesses and at the same time one that attends to the pressing requirements of our community.

India fortunately has an active and growing social enterprises sector which is engaged in delivering the much required services to the community. Many of these social entrepreneurs have earned distinction and awards for the good work they have done and continue to do in the service of the people.
Among these is Dr Harish Hande whose company SELCO, using solar technology, has lit up hundreds of thousands of households with ‘clean’ lighting. About 65 to 75 percent of the beneficiaries are small farmers who earn between Rs 100 to 200 a day After reaching 80,000 clients across Karnataka and Kerala SELCO moved into Gujarat.

Solar electrification has brought in brought about a dramatic change in the social and economic lives of the beneficiaries. It has helped children secure better academic results since they can now study at night. It has increased livelihoods and incomes of night-time vegetable vendors. Additionally it has ended the use of dirty and dangerous kerosene lamps. For the environment, the 80,000 systems deployed avoid emissions of approximately 24,000 tones of CO2 equivalent per year that would have been released by the use of kerosene lamps.

Dr Hande’s efforts have earned him the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ 2007 by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation Recently SELCO won the FT-ArcelorMittal ‘Boldness in Business’ award in the CSR category.

In Ahmedabad Rajendra Joshi’s Saath works with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to ensure that slum residents receive basic sanitation, water and drainage services at the household level and paved roads and street lights at a community level. It has created mechanisms through which the urban poor can save and pay the user charges.

Saath is also demonstrating models of public-private partnership where the urban poor are key stakeholders. It tailored profit-based solutions for electricity supply in Ahmedabad’s slums by altering the user fee, increasing business volumes and bringing in government contribution. As a result, 200,000 slum households today pay for electricity with the business house, Torrent Power, reporting a 30% increase in profits

In Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and Rajasthan. Arbind Singh’s Social Enterprise, Nidan is helping to build profitable businesses and ‘people’s organizations’ which are led by asset less, informal workers. Nidan, over the past years has launched a range of cooperatives, Self Help Groups (SHGs), trade unions, and individual and community businesses These have positioned unorganized workers as legitimate competitors in globalizing markets of India.

In 12 years, Nidan has launched and promoted 20 independent businesses and organizations that are governed and owned through shares by 60,000 urban and rural poor members. The enterprises include 4618 SHGS, 75 market committees, 19 co-operatives, two societies and one company—all envisioned and led by a complex of waste workers, rag pickers, vegetable vendors, construction labourers, domestic helpers, micro-farmers, street traders and other marginalized occupation groups.

The economic downturn is also hurting many of such enterprises. Social enterprises, however are not seeking charity; they want the support of business to complement their roles Business can play a proactive role in creating and promoting social enterprises. This they can do be creating social intrapreneurs within the organisation who, with the blessing of management, seek opportunities for their companies while using the core skills and resources of their employers as the basis for their projects.

Social Intrapreneurs are creating and delivering new products, services and business models. These not only generate business value but address some of society’s most pressing challenges. They compel their companies to look out of their comfort zone to see the strategic risks and opportunities that exist beyond the purview of traditional business units.

John Elkington, founder and chief entrepreneur at SustainAbility, believes companies should try to give employees space and permission to think about social innovations, and then mentor, coach and support the most promising intrapreneurs and initiatives. “They might need to select projects with the coldness of a venture capitalist and build a portfolio of projects with different levels of risk, accepting that some of them are bound to fail,” he says.

To help to strengthen social intrapreneurs to counter the present recession Governments can also pitch in to fund part of the costs of social intrapreneurs This will provide the company a new source of income during the downturn, the community gets the benefit of much needed services and products..

It is now generally agreed that we need both the social entrepreneurs and social intrapreneurs. While ensuring societal change, social intrapreneurs are also necessary for a company’s survival in an environment of rising expectations of the role of business in society.

Of the 5 billion medical injections administered in India every year, 62 percent are unsafe – startling figure that brought Marc Koska, inventor of non reusable K1 syringes, to India

This is how the article starts – one of the innumerable “startling” facts waiting to jolt the social entrepreneur inside us into action. With the population at large struggling for basic necessities, medical care and medical safety get relegated to the background and even numbers like 300,000 – the number of people killed as a consequence of usage of unclean syringes – seems adjustable.

However, this particular fact jolted Marc Koska into action. Marc heads the company, Star Syringe – which pioneered the non reusable K1 auto-disable syringe and also spearheads the UK-based charity SafePoint.

SafePoint spearheaded a campaign across the country in November last year, which propelled the government to make the use of Auto Disable (AD) syringes mandatory in all public health centres from April 30

While reading the article I was inclined to think of the ban on smoking in public places and wanted to know what if this directive too went the same way. The last paragraph provides an answer – “At the moment, not using AD syringes is not a punishable offence”

Social entrepreneurs play a vital role in goading the government to take cognizance of issues of the land and pass legislation to tackle them. However, in a country like India, passing the legislation is, but, just a start. We also need to ensure that laws are implemented in the spirit.

On the sidelines – Read this article while reading up on Marc Koska. Incidentally, I also read an article on Social Edge a couple of days back “Are the Only Innovations in Social Entrepreneurship Anglo-Saxon?“. I have not yet taken a side in this interesting debate. At the same time I want to mention it at this point because sometimes there are underlying reasons why the very same facts have varying affects on various people. The same incident can be life-changing for one and life-as-usual for another. Something for us to chew on!

JOB TITLE : COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR (PART TIME TBA)

ORGANISATION: UnLtd India

LOCATION: Bandra West, Mumbai

PURPOSE: To design, develop and effectively implement UnLtd India’s communications strategies.

BACKGROUND

UnLtd India finds, funds and supports India’s next generation of social entrepreneurs – individuals with the ideas, passion and entrepreneurial skills to bring about long-lasting solutions to the country’s social problems.

UnLtd India works with start-up social entrepreneurs to help them grow as leaders and create high-impact, sustainable organisations ready for scaling and further investment. It does this through providing:

• Seed funding, to pay for critical early start-up costs and to support the entrepreneur as they take their organisation to a sustainable level.
• Hands-on coaching and training, covering business and financial planning, fundraising, legal structures, governance, marketing and HR management.
• High-value connections, linking our entrepreneurs with others like them, mentors, subject-matter experts, and further funders or investors.

Website: www.unltdindia.org

Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/unltdindia

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UnLtd-India/48998163199?ref=ts

PURPOSE: To promote effective external communications.

The post-holder will:

• Develop UnLtd India’s capacity to engage effectively with potential and existing funders and investees; the media and the wider general public.
• Work to ensure effective planning and delivery of public advocacy and communications activities against agreed objectives.
• Develop and implement best practice in UnLtd India’s communications work.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Development and planning

• Work with the Co-Directors and the rest of the UnLtd India team to: Develop, design and implement UnLtd India’s public advocacy and communications strategies, ensuring that these are developed in a participatory way and advance our strategic objectives;
• Continually develop and promote best practice in UnLtd India’s planning and delivery of public advocacy and communications work;
• Implement mechanisms to promote effective communication between the UnLtd India team members;
• Plan effective and timely communications activities that link to UnLtd India’s organisational objectives and are designed to communicate with target audiences;
• Develop new and innovative ideas on how to communicate most effectively – including through reports, briefings, website and other electronic formats, seminars, audio-visual etc – in accordance with the best practice.

Responsibilities

To manage, develop and update UnLtd India communications assets to include:

• Regular maintenance of the UnLtd India’s online presence including the website, YouTube channel and social networks;
• Coordination of video shoots for corporate and investee films;
• Management of key marketing resources including photographs, case studies and statistics.
• Managing the production and dissemination of UnLtd India’s supporter newsletter;
• Managing the production of organisation communications materials including leaflets and annual review.
• Manage the dissemination of UnLtd India’s publications and activity reports to all relevant targets in Government, media, and civil society;
• To establish, manage and develop UnLtd India’s relationship with key writers and opinion formers in domestic and international media to include:
• Daily monitoring of Indian media – identifying key opinion formers and journalists in the press, broadcast media and journals;
• Meet and pitch stories about UnLtd India and our investees to journalists;
• Researching and writing of press releases and press articles for the media and relevant NGO outlets;
• Develop and implement best practice in media relations to ensure UnLtd India maximizes its opportunities to gain relevant coverage and raise its profile in the media.
• Recruit, manage and supervise communications interns
• Oversee management of a media contacts database.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

The successful candidate will need:

• A good understanding of the discourse on social entrepreneurship and/or development issues in India;
• At least two years experience working on advocacy issues in a government, international organisation, media or NGO setting;
• High level communication skills, including writing for a variety of communications outputs;
• Experience of liaising with media and gaining media coverage;
• Proven ability to work across teams and plan and manage the implementation of communication strategies, including the timely completion of external briefings and other communications;
• Excellent written and spoken English and Hindi;
• Good understanding of online media.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

To apply please email full CV (no longer than 2 pages) together with covering letter outlining relevant experience and explaining why you want to apply for the role (no longer than 1 page). to: recruitment@unltdindia.org

Deadline for applications: Friday May 22nd, 2009

Unfortunately due to UnLtd India’s resource policy, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

The 10,000 Women initiative is inspired by UN and World Bank research which shows that investing in women leads to real economic growth and improved living standards. In fact, a 1% increase in female education directly correlates to a 0.2% increase in the GDP. The program also aims at removing social hurdles for women in countries where their participation in business has traditionally been restricted. According to the program website,

A critical – yet often overlooked – condition for reducing inequality and ensuring that the benefits of globalization are more widely spread is a robust and growing class of entrepreneurs, managers and financial leaders in developing countries – especially one that promotes opportunities for women.

The tremendous success achieved some 10,000 Women Scholars from other countries is profiled here. 

Organizers of the TED Conference announced they would begin the search for 100 TEDIndia Fellows to participate in the TEDIndia Conference in Mysore, India, following upon the successful TED Fellows program launch at TED2009 this past February in Long Beach, California. The TEDIndia Fellows program will accept applications for fellowships from April 20, 2009 through June 15, 2009.

The TEDIndia Fellows program is a part of the larger TED Fellows Program, a new international fellowship program designed to nurture great ideas and help them spread around the world. This year, organizers will select 100 promising individuals from around the world to attend the very first TEDIndia Conference. At the end of the year, organizers will select 20 individuals from a pool of the TED, TEDGlobal, and TEDIndia Fellows to participate in an extended three-year Senior Fellowship, bringing them to six consecutive conferences. The principal goal of the program is to empower the Fellows to effectively communicate their work to the world.

Benefits of the Fellowship include conference admission, round-trip transportation, housing and all meals. Fellows will also participate in a two-day pre-conference with the opportunity to present a short talk for consideration for TED.com, elite skills-building courses taught by world experts, social opportunities and surprise extras.

The TEDIndia Fellows program will have international representation with a distinctly South Asian majority, with approximately 75% of the Fellows representing the South Asian region, and 25% representing other regions of the world. South Asia is defined as including the countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. For the global pool, applications will also be sought from the other five target regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, with consideration to the applicants from other countries.

The program seeks remarkable thinkers and doers who have shown unusual accomplishment, exceptional courage, moral imagination and the potential to increase positive change in their respective fields. The program focuses on innovators in technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the NGO community, among other pursuits. Applicants are generally between 21-40 years of age, though anyone over 18 and over 40 may apply. They must also be fluent in English; though moderate fluency will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

The program was inspired by the TEDAfrica 2007 conference in Arusha, Tanzania, in which 100 fellows participated in a first-of-its kind gathering that featured trailblazing, entrepreneurial individuals vested in creating change on the continent. The TEDAfrica fellows brought with them new perspectives, enormous energy, enthusiasm and ovation-generating talks. Propelled by their energy, TED decided to develop the full-scale TED Fellows program, which debuted at TED2009 in Long Beach, California.

“TED2009 was a transformative experience for me, and several of my peers,” said Pragnya Alekal, TED2009 Fellow and now TEDIndia Fellows Coordinator. “For the first time, we were in a supportive community of enthusiastic innovators, all working to make the world better. And after only two months, so many new collaborative ventures and initiatives have come out of it.

“I want to share TED with other people; I want more South Asians to experience what we Fellows experienced. I would like the world to know about the genius brewing in this part of the world, and I look forward to them meeting their counterparts from around the world. I believe this will be an important launch pad for everything that is good for the future of India, South Asia, and the world.”

For more information about how individuals may apply for a TEDIndia Fellowship, please visit http://www.ted.com/fellows/apply. TED Fellows may apply or be nominated by another individual. To nominate a candidate, email the full name of the candidate and their contact information to fellows@ted.com.

About TED

TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. And in fact, the event is broader still, showcasing ideas that matter in any discipline. Attendees have called it “the ultimate brain spa” and “a four-day journey into the future.” The diverse audience — CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists — is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have includedBill Clinton, Nandan Nilekani, Bill Gates, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ashraf Ghani, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Bono, Sir Richard Branson, andStephen Hawking.

TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. In recent years, TED has expanded to include an international conference, TEDGlobal July 21-24, 2009 in Oxford, UK; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize. TED2010, “What the World Needs Now,” will be held February 9-13, 2010, inLong Beach, California, with a simulcast event in Palm Springs, California.

CONTACT: Laura Galloway for TED, +1-213-948-3100 or +1-212-260-3708, laura@gallowaymediagroup.com

Empowerment occurs when someone is given the means, either through new responsibilities, economic independence or other ways, to take a greater ownership in the actions of their everyday lives. Empowerment of individuals who were previously marginalized is one of the fundamental tenets of the social entrepreneurship movement.

Do you all agree or disagree? Please post comments below.

A core goal of the program is to link teams of Yale students with mission-driven social entrepreneurs in India over a four-month long course designed to bring the students and social entrepreneurs together to develop a business plan which addresses a specific management challenge the social enterprise is facing.  Key attributes for the course commencing in the Fall of 2009 are:

-         Five teams of 4 to 6 students each will be dedicated to working with a different social enterprise on a project vital to its continued organizational development;

-         The selected social entrepreneurs will visit the Yale campus for an intensive week of faculty and student interaction specific to their challenge;

-         Student team members will visit India to get a more practical view of the challenge and to meet with (or present recommendations to) each social enterprise’s management, staff and trustees;

-         A two-day conference will be held in India at which students, faculty, Yale alumni, each social enterprise’s representatives, and invited guests will hear and discuss the plans and explore issues of broader import to social entrepreneurs.

They are actively seeking, and accepting applications from, social enterprises in India interested in collaborating with them in next Fall’s course.  A one-page description of the program and an application form (due no later than April 10, 2009) are here and here.

The Engineers for Social Impact (E4SI) Fellowship Selection Committee is delighted to announce that, after receiving and carefully reviewing the close to 500 internship applications it received for its 2009 edition, it has made offers to 24 outstanding candidates for 14 roles at 10 partner social enterprises that focus on development by means of sustainable for-profit entrepreneurship.

You can read further here.