Finalists Of The Social Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2008 Announced
The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation in collaboration with UNDP today announced the finalists for the 'Social Entrepreneur of The Year' 2008 Award.
Tweet-- The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation in collaboration with UNDP today announced the finalists for the ‘Social Entrepreneur of The Year’ 2008 Award. The Award recognizes individuals who offer the most innovative and sustainable solutions to society’s impending social problems. The ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award over the last few years has risen to prominence among social entrepreneurs with applicant’s immensely valuing the benefits the award brings. The steady increase in the number of nominations filed for this award is proof of it growing significance. This year the nomination numbers reached nearly 140 applications, a 30% rise from last year.
The ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award is a competitive process that undergoes stringent evaluation to shortlist candidates and recognizes the most deserving social entrepreneur in the country. The following three finalists have been short listed:
· Arbind Singh, Executive Director, NIDAN. Nidan is developing sustainable businesses, cooperatives, trade unions and 'people's institutions' led by the most excluded categories of the poor in Bihar. It has promoted and built 20 independent profit-making ventures governed and owned through shares by the poor themselves. As legitimate competitors in the mainstream economy, the collectives negotiate with the government for their rights and entitlements.
· Brij Kothari, Founder, PlanetRead. Using the simple tool of 'Same Language Subtitling'(SLS) on popular song based television programmes, Brij Kothari is sharpening the literacy skills of India's 'early literates' or 'neo-literates' who, despite having attended at least primary school, have weak reading and comprehension skills. By superimposing subtitles in the 'same' language as the audio on the songs, Brij ensures that reading becomes a by-product of entertainment watched by the audience.
· Prema Gopalan, Executive Director, Swayam Shikshan Prayog. SSP is launching profitable rural businesses powered by partnerships between large corporations, like BP Energy and village women in disaster-affected areas. Founded by Prema Gopalan in 1994, SSP has organized 60,000 rural women into social networks through which new retail businesses are opening up in bottom-of-the-pyramid markets. The businesses—clean energy products, organic goods, health and financial services—have led to cumulative incomes of INR 2.3 crores for village women entrepreneurs.
Commenting on the occasion, Don Mohanlal, President and CEO, Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation said, “Social entrepreneurs have an important lesson to share in today’s financial crisis. Their primary focus is to maximize benefits for society and the environment. These finalists for the 2008 award are focused individuals with a mission to bring about large scale social impact. Each one of them has addressed social problems using innovative models, business discipline and determination.” The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation is committed to learning and recognising how philanthropic capital and entrepreneurial approaches can be best combined to create innovative solutions that benefit deserving sections of the society and serve as sustainable models for the rest of the world.
Parag Gupta, Head of South Asia, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship said, “The resilience of the social entrepreneurial model in the current global environment demonstrates their sustainable nature and value to both corporate and government partners. Indian social entrepreneurs are at the forefront of innovation. The Social Entrepreneur of Year Award showcases this work and ensures due attention to the Social Entrepreneurs.”
The winner of the Social Entrepreneur of The Year 2008 Award will be announced at the India Economic Summit, schedule between Nov 16-18, in New Delhi. The winner will be selected into the Schwab Foundation’s global network providing unprecedented opportunities to increase the legitimacy of the models including attendance at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switerzland from January 28 – February 1. The winner will be eligible for a cash award of INR 800,000 from the Khemka Foundation and will be named ‘Khemka Fellow’.
Notes to Editor
About The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation (www.khemkafoundation.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 – (http://www.schwabfound.org/)
The Geneva-based Schwab Foundation is a sister organization of the World Economic Forum. Through its Social Entrepreneurship awards, the Foundation provides a national platform to promote social entrepreneurship as a key element to advance societies and address social problems in an innovative and effective manner. It also fosters a close-knit network of social entrepreneurs who have successfully implemented and scaled their transformational ideas so they may exchange ideas and replicate best practices. Finally, the Foundation creates unprecedented opportunities where social entrepreneurs can further the legitimacy of their work, have access to usually inaccessible networks, and in consequence, mobilize financial and other resources that enable them to continue to strengthen and expand.
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.