Thinking Social Webinar- WEAVING MEMORIES – KNITTING LIVES

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized a “Thinking Social Webinar” on WEAVING MEMORIES – KNITTING LIVES. The speakers were: Nand Kishore Chaudhary: a globally acclaimed Social Entrepreneur and Founder of Jaipur Rugs, India’s largest manufacturers of hand knotted rugs.
Abhishek Pathak, Founder of Greenwear, is on a mission to create 5000 jobs for women in rural India by 2025.Dhruba Jyoti Deka is the founder of Brahmaputra Fables, Northeast India’s largest tech-driven integrated platform for handloom & handcrafted products which connects artisans & weavers to end consumers. Major discussion in the webinar: The main objective was to carry & living values and striving to achieve our aspiration every day , every company should ensure the legacy of the business & that they are working with. The key takeaways of the Webinar: Business can also be done by playing close connects with our grassroot and flourish. The art should be known clearly and value must be there for everyone.

Thinking Social Webinar- LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized a “Thinking Social Webinar” on LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP. The speakers were: – Sucharita Eashwar- Founder & CEO of Catalyst For Women Entrepreneurs (CWE) CWE is a comprehensive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs to start up and scale up their businesses. Prarthana Kaul- Founder of Giftabled. It is a social enterprise that strives to create an ecosystem of like-minded individuals to collectively build an inclusive society. Manisha Sharaf – Co-founder & CEO SuperProcure, SuperProcure helps to bring efficiency, transparency and simplicity to the logistics sector through automation and digitalization. The major discussion in the webinar was- Leadership In Social Entrepreneurship was to know that there’s an opportunity to create a robust ecosystem for women and to enable a significant growth in the local and national economy. It is observed that entrepreneurs may be employing more than a million people in the next decade. Importantly, as studies show, women typically employ more women; therefore, we will have more women coming into India’s workforce as a natural consequence. The key takeaways of the Webinar: Women should have financial knowledge once they plan to start their own start up or else its very difficult in the long run to sustain.

Thinking Social Webinar-DARR KE AAGE JEET HAI

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized a “Thinking Social Webinar” on DARR KE AAGE JEET HAI. Satyarup Siddhanta – An ace mountaineer, the youngest India to have climbed the Seven Summits, the only Indian to have climbed the Seven Volcanic Summits and a Guiness World Book Record Holder. The motive of discussion was – Mountaineering and Entrepreneurship are similar in a lot of ways – you have to look at the ultimate goal, be determined, go through every weather condition, but still reach the goal. The key takeaways of the Webinar was: traits of a successful entrepreneur, attitude of fighting back, skills to overcome obstacles and struggle.

Thinking Social Webinar-DECODING STARTUP CHALLENGES IN COVID TIMES

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized a “Thinking Social Webinar” on DECODING STARTUP CHALLENGES IN COVID TIMES. . The speakers were Amit Antony Alex – India Country Director of Upaya Social Ventures. Mr. Hamant Borah-Head Ecosystem Development, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. The major discussion in the webinar were :

– Entrepreneurs now need to assess situations more closely and include a lot more short term planning at least in the next 2 years.
– Consumers in general will become more ecologically conscious which can impact your business.
– Entrepreneurs should immediately improve their cash flows.
– Entrepreneurs need to think about how to address uncertain situations like glitches in supply chain
– Entrepreneurs should look at collaborations and partnerships in these unprecedented times. You get a larger pool of contacts and collaboration is the way forward.

Thinking Social Seminar- Pune

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune on 11 th September, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups. The seminar was formally inaugurated by Dr. Apoorva Palkar, Director- Innovation, Incubation and Linkage, SP Pune University, Pune. This was followed by keynote address by Dr. N.S. Umarani, Pro Vice Chancellor, SP Pune University.The other eminent speakers comprised Ms. Geeta Tolia, Chartered Accountant and a Sloan Fellow from London School of Business armed with over 30 years of Indian and international experience in the areas of Financial Management, Business Turnarounds and Indian and International Taxation; Mr. Swapnil Chaturvedi, popularly known as Poop Guy. He was the co founder and Chief Toilet Cleaner at Samagra Empowerment Foundation; Mr. Suman,Mukhopadhyay, Mentor-IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. There was a panel discussion on social entrepreneurship moderated by Mr. Suman Mukhopadhyay and the panellists were Mr. Amit Godse, Founder – Bee Basket, Mr. Harshad Bhagwat, Founder – Wordsmaya Edutech, Mr. Dhananjay Abhang, Founder – Cleanergy Tech Solutions. The event was attended by over 100 enthusiastic participants comprising entrepreneurs, aspiring start ups and students and members of faculty from SP Pune University.

Thinking Social Seminar- Patna

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership with Veterans India, Bihar at NIT, Patna on 7 th September, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups who are about to embark on their entrepreneurship journey. The seminar was formally inaugurated by Mr. Sanjeev Srivastwa, Patron, Veterans India, Bihar. This was followed by address by Mr. Amitabh Lall, CGM- NABARD, Patna.Ex Commando Rakesh Ranjan also spoke on the ocassion. Dr. Sanjeev Verma, Deputy Director, MSME, Government of India mentioned in his address that MSME has strong focus in social entrepreneurship and hence share much synergy with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in ushering social entrepreneurship revolution in the state.In the entrepreneurship session, the following enterprising entrepreneurs shared their experience: Prantik Sinha, Founder – Agastya Buoyant; Sunandan Mukherjee, Founder – Brickcells; Kalyan Kolay, Founder – Aegipan Animal Biocare;Sidharth Vijay, Founder – Wejoy Phonefix; ,Rahul Kumar, Founder – Ecoventure. The event was attended by over 50 enthusiastic participants comprising entrepreneurs, aspiring start ups and students and members of faculty from Dayanand Sagar University.

Thinking Social Seminar- Bengaluru

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership with Derbi Foundation, a business incubator under the aegis of Dayanand Sagar University at Bengaluru on 23rd August, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups who were about to embark on their entrepreneurship journey soon.The seminar was formally inaugurated by Dr. Lakshmi Jagannathan, COO- Derbi Foundation.This was followed by address by Chief Guest, Mr. M.N. Vidyashankar, IAS (Retd.), Chairman- Derbi Advisory Board and former Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka. In the entrepreneurship session, the following enterprising entrepreneurs shared their experience with the participants present: Mr. Prateek Kaul, Founder –Giftabled, Mr. Kalyan Siva- the founder of 5C Network,Mr. Arpit Paliwal the Founder of Happy Relliable Surgeries,Mr. Madhusudan, Founder – Ambee. The event was attended by over 80 enthusiastic participants.

Thinking Social Seminar-Noida

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership with School of Social Entrepreneurs and Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Atal Incubation Centre on 10 th August, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups who were about to embark on their entrepreneurship journey soon.The speakers comprised Dr. Abha Rishi CEO, BIMTECH, Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) and Chairperson, Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development;Mr. Suman Mukhopadhyay, Mentor- IIM Calcutta Innovation Park;Mr. Parul Soni, Global Managing Partner, Think Through Consulting;Ms. Umang Sridhar is the founder of KhaDigi;Mr. Abhinav Girdhar is Co-founder & CEO of Bodhi Health Education;Mr. Aditya Bose is the founder of Pro Bano;Mr. Ashish Agarwal is the founder of Talento Consulting; Dr. Kamal Singh, CEO and the Executive Director of Global Compact Network India (GCNI); Mr. Shalabh Mittal, CEO- School of Social Entrepreneurs. The event witnessed around 50 participants.

Thinking Social Seminar-Kolkata

The TATA Social Enterprise Challenge Thinking Social Seminar was organised on 2nd August, 2019 for eastern part of the country at Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship,generating interest and inspiring the youth to come up with innovative solutions to combat social challenges.Speakers such as Mr. Anoop Kumar Agrawal, IAS, Principal Secretary, SHG & SE Department, Govt. of West Bengal;Prof. Prashant Mishra, Dean- New Initiatives & External Relations, IIM Calcutta; Dr. Mahul Brahma, Head – CSR & Corporate Communications, Mjunction Services Limited;Mr. Kalyan Kolay, Founder – Aegipan Animal Biocare and Mr. Adarsh Srivastava,Founder – Green Agrovolution along with Mr. Suman Mukhopadhyay, mentor at IIMCIP spoke to nearly 40 participants.

Launch of the 8th Edition of TATA Social Enterprise Challenge

Tata Group in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Calcutta), announced the 8th edition of Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2019 to find India’s most promising early-stage social innovators. Entrepreneurs can submit their business plans online, by logging onto www.tatasechallenge.org. The last day to submit the Impact Proposal (business plan) online is 15th September, 2019.

Thinking Social Seminar-Bhopal

Mr. Narendra Godse, Founder-Anoobhuti Learning and Mr. Prateek Sharma, Founder- Vishalya Foods and Farms elucidates their entrepreneurial journey with over 100 participants at the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge Thinking Social Seminar at Rabindranath Tagore University, Atal Incubation Centre, Bhopal on July 27,2019. The other speakers included Ronald Fernandez, CEO- Rabindranath Tagore University-Atal Incubation Centre;Santosh Dubey, Chancellor- Rabindranath Tagore University- Bhopal,V C Dubey- Nodal Officer,Start up and Incubation Cell
Department of MSME, Govt. of M.P.

Thinking Social Seminar-Goa

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organised a one-day “Thinking Social” seminar at Goa in association with Goa State Innovation Council on 25th January, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups who were about to embark on their entrepreneurship journey soon. This seminar series introduced the budding entrepreneurs to the concept of social entrepreneurship in the rapidly evolving global economy.

Thinking Social Seminar- Guwahati

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar at The nest, Guwahati, Assam on 8th March, 2019. The speakers comprised senior bureaucrats from Government of Assam such as Ms. Manjula Saikia Bhuyan, IAS, Addl Secretary to the Government of Assam, Department of Commerce & Industries and Managing Director, Assam Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation, Shri Alok Kumar, IAS, Chief Secretary to Government of Assam, Shri Ravi Capoor, IAS, Addl. Chief Secretary to Government of Assam, Department of Commerce & Industries, Assam, Shri Rajiv Bora, IAS, Addl. Chief Secretary to Government of Assam, Department of Finance, Assam and Shri Puru Gupta, IAS, Secretary to Government of Assam, Department of Commerce & Industries, Assam. Social entrepreneurs from various parts of the country such as Mr. Abhinav Girdhar, Founder – Bodhi Health Education; Mr. Hironmoy Gogoi, Founder & Creative Head- GKK India (Gaon Ka Khana) & Proprietor- Blackhorse Marketing; Mr. Prantik Sinha, Founder – Agastya Buoyant; Mr. Anupam Nath, Co Founder- Xcraft Online shared their experiences with entrepreneurs, aspiring start ups, investors, mentors and students from all over North East.

Thinking Social Seminar- Gurugram

Thinking Social Seminar was held at Sangam AIC, Gurugram on 26 February 2019. The speakers comprised of eminent social entrepreneurs such as Kalyan Koley, Founder & CEO- Aegipan Animal Bio Care and Anuroop Raj, Co Founder – Talento. The event witnessed around 50 attendees.

Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2018-19

The Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2018-19 received over 900 applications from across India in sectors such as agriculture; healthcare; water and sanitation; technology and development; education and skills development; housing; handicrafts; energy; and microfinance, among others. Out of 900 applications, the top 60 teams were shortlisted. This was followed by Regional Rounds at Kolkata, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai in December last year from which the top 20 teams were selected. Besides these 20 teams, two entrepreneurs from Germany joined the Semi-finals. The Semi-final and the Grand Finale were scheduled on 11th and 12th January, 2019 respectively at IIM Calcutta. In the Grand Finale the top three startups in the social enterprises space were identified. Eminent personalities also attended the event to motivate the youth towards social entrepreneurship.

Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2018- Regional Rounds

The Regional Rounds of the 7th edition of Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2018 to find India’s most promising early-stage social innovators was held in the four cities of Kolkata, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai between 1-11 December, 2018. The events witnessed the participation of around 60 start-ups.

Thinking Social Seminar

Thinking Social Seminar took place at SR Innovation Exchange, Warrangal on 16 November 2018. The speakers comprised of eminent social entrepreneurs such as Kalyan Sivasailam , Founder – 5C Networks, Dr. NSD Prasad Rao, Founder & CEO Ameya Life , Sanjay Kumar, Founder – Milletbowl, Kiran Vuppala, Founder – Cerelia Nutritech. The event witnessed around 100 attendees.

Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2018

Tata Group in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Calcutta), announced the 7th edition of Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2018 to find India’s most promising early-stage social innovators. Entrepreneurs can submit their business plans online, by logging onto www.tatasechallenge.org. The last day to submit the Impact Proposal (business plan) online is 30th September, 2018.

Tata SE Challenge Seminar – Chandigarh (4 June 2018)

The next Tata SE Challenge Seminar on Thinking Social will take place at SD College Chandigarh on 4 June 2018 from 10 am – 1 pm.

To register or to know more about the seminar write to henna.jaireth@iimcip.org

Tata SE Challenge Seminar on Thinking Social – PUNE

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC), Lavale, Pune on January 27th, 2018. About 120+ students attended the seminar. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generating interest and inspiring the youth to come up with innovative solutions to prevalent social challenges.

The speakers consisted of an esteemed panel of entrepreneurs including – Suman Mukhopadhyay – Director Banglanatak.com; Varun Kashyap, Co-founder LetsEndorse; Honey Bajaj – Serial Innovator and Entrepreneur & Co-founder – Avir Technologies; Ashwin Naik, Co-founder – Vaatsalya Healthcare; Ramesh Menon – Visiting Faculty SIMC, a veteran journalist, author, documentary film maker and a corporate trainer; Manivannan, CEO – Desicrew

Suman Mukhopadhyay – Director Banglanatak.com shared with the audience the concept of Social Entrepreneurship and the relevance of smart solutions to solve development challenges in the country.

Honey Bajaj, Serial Innovator and Entrepreneur & Co-founder – Avir Technologies shared with the audience her inspiring journey in the social entrepreneurship space. Honey has used her design thinking methodologies in the work she does and created some innovative solutions to some of the challenges. She is currently a researcher at MIT and co-founder of Avir Technologies for humanising technologies for creating impact in the Indian healthcare system.

Varun Kashyap, Co-founder LetsEndorse spoke about his entrepreneurial journey and shared the vision of his organization. He found his calling in entrepreneurship back in 2006 when he joined Punjab Engineering College for an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. Currently Varun is the co-founder at LetsEndorse – a community platform that engages the NGOs, Social innovators, Businesses/Companies, Government and all the People to create an Ecosystem that drives Social Change.

Ashwin Naik, Co-Founder – Vaatsalya explained to the audience how everyone is a Changemaker and how young people can take up the opportunity in changing the world. He also shared the journey of Vaatsalya and explained how

Ramesh Menon, Visiting Faculty SIMC, a veteran journalist, author, documentary film maker and a corporate trainer addressed the students on the topic of why social thinking is absolutely necessary for India. He commended the youth for being full of ideas, and encouraged them to come up with interesting ideas in the social sector. “Our youth is not only looking at a better quality of life but also a better India.”

Manivannan, CEO – Desicrew spoke about Desi Crews journey and how they have enabled over 4 million people to open bank accounts. He also spoke about how Desi Crew had set up operations in over 400 villages across India.