Early on at the Sankalp Forum 2011 one of the 600-odd attendees told me that the event’s buzzword would likely be “ecosystem”. It turned out to be a  pretty apt observation. From the crowded hallways to the beanbags in the networking lounge, ecosystem creation was certainly on people’s minds.

The event kicked off with Sam Pitroda, Chairman, National Innovation Council, video-conferencing in from Chicago and continued to include panels about scale, impact investing, government and each of the five Sankalp sectors: education; technology for development; health, water and sanitation; clean energy and agriculture, food and rural business. » Continue reading “Sankalp Forum: Building the Socent Ecosystem”

By Maya Pillai

Hans Reitz, who co-founded the Grameen Creative Lab with microfinance guru Muhammad Yunus, defines a social business as a “non-loss, non-dividend company with the purpose of solving a social problem.” The Lab officially launched in India earlier this year and brought the concept to an audience already well-versed in the social enterprise space.

But is this model the best way to solve social problems?

At the launch event, Reitz explained that the company has a social goal but offers products and services at prices that are self-sustaining. The company’s investors get back only what they invested. » Continue reading “Challenging Muhammad Yunus’ “Social Business””

This story originally appeared in our February 24, 2011 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

In Mumbai, public-private partnerships may be one of the best solutions to addressing the city’s public education needs.

Mumbai claims a 97% enrollment rate of all primary school-aged children in private and public schools. Despite such a high rate, 40% of children attend private schools because of perceptions that private education is superior to public education.

Poor families cannot afford to put their children through the private education system. The public education system then caters to the most marginalized children, where the incentive to attend school is based on the availability of lunch. However, these children have low reading levels where approximately 45-50% cannot read or write a paragraph. » Continue reading “Partners in Public Education”