The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) today announced the opening of nominations for India’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008. The awards recognize the power of social entrepreneurs, who use innovative solutions to address challenges that societies face. The final date for close of applications is June 5, 2008. The application form and the selection criteria will be available at http://www.schwabfound.org/india/.

Three to five finalists will be short listed following an intensive search and selection process including expert reviews and site visits. They will be invited to the India Economic Summit in November 2008. The award will be handed over to the winner at a ceremony to coincide with the Summit. The winner will be invited to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos and be offered unprecedented opportunities to engage with global decision makers from the public, corporate, media and academic sectors to strengthen and expand his/her model.

In addition the winner will be eligible to be named a ‘Khemka Fellow’ and receive a financial award of Rs 8, 00,000 (Rupees Eight Lakhs only) from the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation.

Harish Hande, Managing Director and Co-Founder of SELCO-India and the recipient of The Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2007, said, “Being named the 2007 Social Entrepreneur of the Year, has propelled SELCO INDIA on to a higher plane. The publicity attached to the Award and an invitation to the Annual Meeting at Davos, not only gave me the opportunity to bring the importance of linking poverty to sustainable energies to the attention of policy makers, but it also helped SELCO gain better visibility among potential investors”.

Harish has pioneered access to rural solar electrification for below poverty line families through a combination of customized home lighting systems, innovative doorstep financing, and an understanding of market needs of different users.

The other finalists included Rajendra Joshi of Saath, Ahemdabad, Gujarat, Pravin Mahajan of Jaanarth, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Chetna Gala Sinha of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, Ltd. (MDMSB), Maharashtra, & Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha (MVSS), Taluka-Mann, Maharashtra.

Don Mohanlal, President and CEO, The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, said,” “The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation is committed to large scale social impact via key strategic areas. Vital to our goal is developing the field of social entrepreneurship. Social Entrepreneurs embody excellence in creating‘disruptive’ technologies and ideas that empower the poor or the marginalized. Their innovative techniques have fundamentally altered conventional development and business logic”.

Parag Gupta, Head of South Asia, The Schwab Foundation, “Social entrepreneurs combine innovation, measured social impact, and sustainability. In our worldwide network, we find India has many world class social entrepreneurs that can spark global solutions to longstanding social and environmental problems. We are dedicated to giving them the platform to do so. “

For more information on this or to learn more about the past winners please visit http://schwabfoundation.com or www.khemkafoundation.org

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About The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation (www.khemkafoundation.org.org)

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation is a private and independent Indian foundation. Its mission is to develop and promote institutions and initiatives that make a substantial impact on poverty, deprivation and disempowerment of the human and natural environment. It takes an approach that is long-term, strategic and leveraged. The Foundation believes that change can only be effected through multi-stakeholder collaboration both within India and internationally and is therefore deeply committed to partnership and collaborative approaches. It seeks not so much to be an implementing or programmatic agency as to build key pillars of strategic philanthropy and development infrastructure in the country.

About The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship –(http://www.schwabfound.org/)

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, based in Geneva Switzerland, is an affiliate of the World Economic Forum. Since its inception in 2000, the Foundation has been searching for the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, who implement innovative and pragmatic solutions to social problems by tackling the root causes and creating a social transformation. The current network of the Foundation spans 142 social entrepreneurs and their organizations from more than 40 countries. A recent evaluation study showed that the budgets and the number of beneficiaries reached of the selected social entrepreneurs grew three times faster while part of the network. In one year alone, the Schwab social entrepreneurs raised close to USD 80 million as a direct result of the contacts and opportunities offered by the Foundation.

About UNDP (www.undp.org)

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.