IIM Bangalore’s innovation and entrepreneurship hub, NSRCEL, in collaboration with Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, hosted Social Start-up Santhe on May 10. The event included workshops, a panel discussion by eminent leaders in the social space, peer-to-peer sessions and other activities. The keynote address was delivered by Sameer Garde, President, India and SAARC, Cisco.
The institute provided ‘Suite of Services’, a dedicated stall space for social ventures, offering legal, technological, HR and branding services to organisations in the social sector.
A panel discussion on ‘Collaborative funding for impact — The New Mantra’ was held, with eminent speakers such as Deep Mukherjee, Head, Sports Development, Star India; Shaveta Sharma Kukreja, MD, Central Square Foundation; Pradeep Nair, Regional Director, Ford Foundation; Sudha Srinivasan, CEO, N/Core; Ashutosh Tyagi, Head, Social Finance India; Saras Agarwal, Principal, Bharat Innovation Fund; and Ingrid Srinath, Founder Director, Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy, Ashoka University.
Tech for social sector
At the panel discussion, Sudha Srinivasan said: “Technology has changed over the span of five years. Services like booking cabs and tickets through online apps has been fuelled by our entrepreneurs. But unfortunately, the same thing did not happen in the social space. Our main focus area should be to build an enterprise which would look to disrupt areas of work and technology and can be a vehicle of change across demographic segments.”
Mukherjee said: “Sports development is one of the initiatives that we should all focus on. Every school should make sports mandatory in its curriculum. Sports is important for the overall development of the child.”
Make education better
Shaveta Sharma said: “India has the largest education system in the country, but we still lack in terms of basic learning. At the Foundation, we are working to transform the school education system in India to improve learning outcomes for all children. To achieve our goal and make learning as our priority, we need to work with the government so that we can build a developed eco-system for our kids.”
After an 18-month-long incubation journey that saw the inception of social ventures incubation programme NSRCEL in September 2017, IIM-B celebrated the graduation of its first batch of eight social ventures at the event. Initially funded at ₹18 lakh, the programme fosters cross-learning and sharing of best practices with incubatees under its fold.