Action For India announces the 5th Edition of its Annual Forum on social entrepreneurship.

~A platform where 100 leading social entrepreneurs and 100 key influencers come together enabling collaborations for scaling social impact~
~The 2 day Forum will be organized on 30th & 31st, January at IIT Delhi~

New Delhi, January 21, 2016: The mission of Action For India (AFI), a not for profit with presence in New Delhi and Silicon Valley, USA, is to stimulate social enterprises in India. The upcoming 5th edition of the AFI Annual Forum at IIT-Delhi will bring together 100 leading social entrepreneurs from around the nation to interact with 100 key influencers at the intersection of business, technology, entrepreneurship and social impact. The influencers include eminent personalities from diverse sectors including donors, investors, IAS officers, technology executives and policy analysts.
The Forum will witness sector-specific, cross-sectoral intensive discussions along with speed-dating sessions between social entrepreneurs and influencers. The Forum will also host a unique Silicon Valley Challenge where 5 leading social entrepreneurs will win a 2 week all-expense paid trip to Silicon Valley, California to interact with leading investors, executives and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley.

The forum will be graced by the presence of Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship & Parliamentary Affairs. Other thought leaders who will be speaking at the Forum include: Sam Pitroda, Former adviser to Prime Minister of India & Honorary Chairman, AFI; Desh Deshpande, Former Advisor to the US President, Barack Obama and Founder of Deshpande Foundation; R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM; Ashish Dhawan, Founder & CEO, Central Square Foundation; Rajeev Gowda, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha; and Nagaraja Prakasam, Co-Founder IAN Impact.

AFI Forum 2016 will also feature several panel discussions on themes such as “Leveraging Technology for scaling impact”; “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”; “Vision 2020” – AFI’s pan India network of Regional Social Innovation Hubs; Impact Investment and a special panel on “StartUp India – Impact Bharat.”

The invitees to the Forum, both social entrepreneurs and influencers, are selected through a rigorous evaluation process to ensure quality interactions and to maximize chances of fruitful collaborations for growth of the social enterprises. Interactions at the past Forums have benefited more than 350 social enterprises with 400 influencers coming together to encourage their ventures.
About Action For India Action For India’s mission is to help social innovators in India overcome barriers to scale and achieve greater impact at the Bottom of the Pyramid. AFI connects social innovators with impact investors, mentors, technology resources, government contacts and local partners. AFI is headquartered in New Delhi, India and has a chapter in Silicon Valley, California. Launched in 2012, AFI is inspired and guided by Sam Pitroda, Former Adviser to the Prime Minister of India. AFI’s financial supporters include Desh Deshpande, Former Adviser to the US President Barack Obama & Founder of the Deshpande Foundation.

Regional hub – another way for inclusive growth!

It was great addressing 6000 students at Karunya University, inaguration Mindkraft 2017. Great to see them attentive for an hour on frugal innovation for smart India and how not to ignore the billion in the process.

#KarunyaUniversity management fest themed frugal innovation for smart #India will make the Prime Minister’s vision a reality

The three Day National Level Techno-Management Fest “Mindkraft 2K17” based on the theme “Frugal Innovation for Smart India” to be held from 23rd-25th March, 2017 was formally inaugurated by Professor Nagaraja Prakasam, Founder Chairman of Native Angel Network, Bangalore on 23rd March 2017 at University premises. He has invested in 20 start-ups and believes in the mantra and according to him”Start-ups should be the focus of India’s strength”. He also narrated the success stories of people of India who had obtained patent for their small innovative ideas and later they were commercialized because of its social importance. The chief guest motivated the students to think simple ideas and translate in to useful innovative products that would benefit the society at large. He also added that in order to sustain in this competitive world students should think of becoming an entrepreneur than looking for employment.

Dr.S.Sundar Manoharan, Vice Chancellor of the university welcomed the gathering and in his speech he stated that the spirit of students in making techno-products is increasing year after year. The Registrar Dr.C.Joseph Kennady introduced about the chief guest by briefing the achievements and accomplishments. Dr.Jibu Thomas faculty coordinator of Mindkraft 17 read the report on Techno Management fest- Mindkraft 17 to the august gatherings.

This is a Techno Management fest attracted 1300 participants from other colleges across India and similarly the event witnessed 500 internal participants too. The highlight of first day was the project exhibition in which more than 70 innovative products were displayed by the student participants. To name a few, air engine bike, smart shower, electricity generating doors, traffic signal priority system, smart parking facilities, sun-friendly umbrella, herbal biscuits, biofertilizers, waste water treatment plant systems, lichen power for removal of biofilm formations in catheter tube, instant coconut milk power, thermotorch and so.

During this exhibition, students had an opportunity to show case not only their talents at the same time they were able read others creative work. This paved a way to kindle their young minds by giving deeper understanding of the subject and also obtained insight into various fields of engineering, science and management. In addition to the research paper presentation (both oral and poster), the other events that are conducted are Futsal street, Aquarush, RC-Car, Auto-expo, Battle Programmer, Food Trivia, Robomaze, Bob the Builder, short film and photography competition.

Round Table on sustainable cities in New Delhi. Great to know Telangana has a green channel for startups who want to bid for Govt. projects.

“Why create a single enterprise worth thousand crores….why not a thousand enterprises worth a single crore ?”…..the defining philosophy of our theory of change for positively transforming the craft sector by creating equitable value across stakeholders.
The key component of the narrative at ‘The Craft Catapult’ Delhi Roundtable Meet yesterday led by Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship‘s Startup Oasis where the dialogue panned ground realities, situations, and concerns over the product- market fit, need for appropriate and timely design intervention, effectively countering competition, particularly from the factory made, artisan and stakeholder incomes, long gestation periods and resultant irregular cash flows, craftspeople motivation and orientations, use of technology to maximize process efficiency, ‘one of a kind’ vs ‘volume’ production
There was plenty of cross-learning and education geared towards evolving an ecosystem for creating, incubating, nurturing and accelerating, ethical, eco-friendly, value-oriented businesses by startups working in the craft environment.