The Global Social Venture Competition, a MBA social venture competition that partners several different universities around the world, wrapped up this past weekend at UC Berkeley Haas Business School. The GSVC is one of the most competitive gatherings in the social enterprise world, bringing together business plans that look at both profit and social impact. [...]
Sulabh‘s founder, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, was recently named the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate. Sulabh has been working for decades to address sanitation, health, and hygiene in India and other countries. Through inventive toilet designs, new biogas technologies, and his struggle for human rights, especially for those of the “untouchable” caste, Dr Pathak is recognized [...]
Earlier this month, I attended the inaugural ceremony of the “Nandini Mobile Van” at the Safai Vidyalaya (Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI)), Sughad, an organization which is considered a pioneer in the sanitation sector, largely due to the principled and passionate leadership of its founder, Ishwarbhai Patel (affectionately referred to as “Ishwarkaka”). Before I elaborate further [...]
A few months ago, I discussed the idea of social intrapreneurs based on a SustainAbility case study that featured Hindustan Unilever’s Project Shakti. This month, the World Bank Institute’s publication titled Development Outreach focuses on business and poverty, with an article written by those involved with the same project. The authors describe the project not [...]
Featured in India’s Business Today is Tata Steel, a company that outperforms other steel players and is not only known for its management acumen, but also its long history of philanthropy. Despite charges last year from the Bhopal disaster survivors that the Tata group of companies has a dismal environmental record due to a complicated [...]
Rural Supply Chain MokshaYug Access Gets $2 Million Funding from Unitus A rural supply chain firm MokshaYug Access (MYA) has received funding of Rs 8.35 crore ($2 million) from Unitus Equity Fund L P (UEF), an Unitus supported organisation to fund microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Asia and Latin America. The amount will go towards building [...]
According to international NGO WaterAid, India has the second worst sanitation access in the world, accounting for 43% of the world’s unserved sanitation population. Moreover, as per a UNICEF country survey from 2004, rural areas of India are particularly lacking in sanitation infrastructure, with only 33% of villages using “adequate sanitation facilities.” The effect of inadequate sanitation facilities and [...]
During the course of my work with SEWA Rural, a community health organization in rural Gujarat, India, I often wondered how mental health concerns would ever gain traction in a climate where community members suffered, and sometimes died from, such common ailments as diarrhea or anemia. Those with mental health problems (whether diagnosed or not), [...]
