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Leading US-based inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker Sam Pitroda will lead nearly 100 Young Social Innovators to discuss how technology can make social enterprises more effective at a day-long session in New Delhi on Saturday, January 21, 2012.

 

 

Sam Pitroda, currently advisor to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on public information infrastructure and innovations says, “Through technology we begin to think about things differently. How do we bring about generational change? How do you expedite the process of modernization and development?

 

 

“Action For India is ultimately a movement for the world that will bring young talent together to think about new ways, new processes, new products, in a whole different paradigm for human development", Pitroda added.

 

 

The session on “Leveraging Technology for Scaling Impact” will be chaired by Microsoft Research’s Technology for Emerging Markets Unit Head Ed Cutrell.

 

 

"To unleash the innovation potential in the country we need to tap into the creative energy of our young entrepreneurs," added Pitroda who guides Action For India (AFI) as the Honorary Chairman.

 

‘Action For India’ believes that social entrepreneurs make a real difference to the everyday lives of real people and are India's best hope for long-term, large scale social change. A billion plus people require a wide variety of solutions, and AFI believes that those solutions are already all over India, in the minds of social entrepreneurs, just waiting to be tapped.

 

 

“India is full of creative, driven, young people who have innovative solutions to the problems around them. Some are already actively using technology; others may not yet realize how technology can help. By pairing these youth with technology experts, mentors and resources, we shall use technology to make things happen faster and better,” says Sanjay Kadaveru, Founder and President, Action For India and a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

 

 

Young social innovators, under the age of 40, who have made significant impact with their innovations in the field of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Livelihoods and Healthcare, will place their specific needs before technology providers such as Nokia, Intel, M Power forum from Spice group and Microsoft, and seek their support for widening impact by covering larger audiences at the ‘Action For India Forum 2012’.

 

 

Action for India Forum 2011 will serve as a catalyst for 100 Young Social Innovators, who have impacted the bottom of the pyramid by providing critical resources, so that they gain momentum to benefit a much larger audience. It cited examples of projects like the Rashritya Swasthya Bima Yojana that enabled social good within a short span of time and achieved scale by leveraging technology.

 

 

RSBY, a health insurance plan for people from the unorganized sector, covered nearly 90 million people in 3 years, for just Rs 30 per year entitling them to a cover of Rs 30,000 on a smart card that gets them treatment for 725 diseases in 5000 private and public hospitals.

Sushmita Ghosh, President Emeritus, Ashoka, the world’s working community of nearly 3000 leading social entrepreneurs, will moderate a special session by inviting successful social innovators to share experiences using technology to achieve a larger impact. The panel will include Anil Swarup, Director General for Labour Welfare and the man behind the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana which has over 23 million active smart cards and more than 1.5 million people already availed treatment at various hospitals; C P Das, Akshaya Patra, a foundation that feeds nearly 1.3 million mid day meals to children every day;Bottom of Form William Bissell, Fabindia, the unique venture that made 15,000+ mini entrepreneurs out of weavers and artisans.

 

 

To make the deliberations meaningful for the 100 Young Social Innovators Sector Specific and Cross Sector Break-Out Sessions are planned. Participants are already reaching out, electronically, to other participants and sector specific expert mentors.

 

 

They include:

Agriculture: Mark Kahn, Venture Partner, Omnivore Capital; Executive Vice President for Strategy & Business Development, Godrej Agrovet;

Education: Sridhar Rajagopalan, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Educational Initiatives and Aditya Natraj, Founder, Kaivalya Education Foundation;

Energy: Harish Hande, Co-Founder & Managing Director, SELCO-India and Svati Bhogle, Founder & CEO, Sustaintech & Secretary, TIDE;

Livelihoods: William Bissell, Managing Director, Fabindia and Dilip Chenoy, Managing Director & CEO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and

Healthcare: Dr. Ashwin Naik, Co-Founder & CEO, Vaatsalya.

 

 

Action for India is partnering with TiE Delhi-NCR, IIT Alumni, Deshpande Foundation, Nasscom Foundation, National Social Entrepreneurship Forum, Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIM, Ahmedabad, Sankalp Forum, IDEX, Nishith Desai Associates, Dasra and Ashoka, organisations active in the social entrepreneurship, technology and innovation space to offer their resources, especially the expertise of experienced members to Young Social Innovators.

 

Concluded.

 

Vaatsalya Hospitals, a chain of affordable healthcare facilities in semi-urban and rural areas, was started by doctors-turned-entrepreneurs Ashwin Naik and Veerendra Hiremath in 2005.

The vision of AFI Forum 2012 is to use the assets of the technology sector to accelerate the impact of the innovations of social enterprises. From spreading healthcare coverage to reducing employment and helping farmers improve production, entrepreneurs have successfully shown that it is possible to scale impact using Information & Communication Technologies (ICT). The Forum endeavors to enable them to share their experiences and help some of India’s promising social entrepreneurs do the same.

The Forum serves the following purposes:

• Sharing of ideas, inspiration and best practices by icons such as Sam Pitroda as well as successful social entrepreneurs
• Access to financial, governmental, human & intellectual capital resources
• Interaction with mentors who can provide business process advice and long-term support to scale
• Access to technology companies that can offer products and services

The Forum addresses five sectors – agriculture, education, energy, healthcare and livelihoods. It will will identify social enterprises in these sectors that are poised to scale using ICT and provide funding, resources, knowledge and connections.

According to the report, , Bangalore-based IDG Ventures India invested $4 million in Valyoo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs e-commerce businesses for eyewear (lenskart.com), watches (watchkart.com) and bags (bagskart.com).

In an another deal, Helion Venture Partners invested in Purple E-Retail India Pvt. Ltd, which runs baby and kids products site hoopos.com.

Both start-up refused to divulge how much has been invested in it, Helion’s managing director Ashish Gupta said it was in line with the VC firm’s average ticket investment. Helion’s so-called “sweet spot”, or the preferred investment band for early stage deals, is $3-5 million.

 “We are looking at raising another round of funding by February or March; it will be more than $20 million,” said Peyush Bansal , founder and chief executive of Valyoo. With the money the firm has raised, it will start new business units for jewellery, health and beauty products, besides spending on marketing and logistics.

Having a mindset focused on pursuit is so critical to leadership that lacking this one quality can sentence you to mediocrity or even obsolescence. The manner, method, and motivation behind any pursuit is what sets truly great leaders apart from the masses. If you want to become a great leader, become a great pursuer.

A failure to embrace pursuit is to cede opportunity to others. A leader’s failure to pursue clarity leaves them amidst the fog. Their failure to pursue creativity relegates them to the routine and mundane. Their failure to pursue talent sentences them to a world of isolation.  Their failure to pursue change approves apathy. Their failure to pursue wisdom and discernment subjects them to distraction and folly. Their failure to pursue character leaves a question mark on their integrity. Let me put this as simply as I can – you cannot attain what you do not pursue.

Producer and cinematographer Nariman Irani was in a financial mess when his film Zindagi Zindagi (1972) starring Sunil Dutt flopped. He was in debt for Rs12 lakhs and couldn't pay it off on a cinematographer's salary. When he was doing the cinematography for Manoj Kumar's major hit Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974), the film's cast (Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran) and crew (assistant director Chandra Barot) decided to help him out. They all recommended that he produce another film and that they will participate in the film. They all approached scriptwriting duo Salim-Javed, who gave them an untitled script that had already been rejected by the entire industry. The script had a character named Don. Bachchan would play Don, and Barot would direct the film. Aman and Pran would play key roles in the film.^[4] The film took three-and-a-half years to complete.^[5] Before filming was completed, producer Irani had an accident on the set of another film he was working on, and died as a result. Barot faced budget restraints but he got help.^[6] Aman did not take any money for her work in the film.^[7] Barot showed it to his mentor Manoj Kumar, who felt that the film was too tight and needed a song in the midst of the action-filled film, and so "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" was recorded. The film was released without any promotion on 12 May 1978 and was declared a flop the first week. Within a week, the song "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" became a big hit, and word of mouth spread, so by the second week, the film was also declared a big hit. The profits from the film were given to Irani's widow to settle her husband's debts.^[8]

What a story behind the movie - Don