Grassroots: National Conference on Social Profit | January 15, 2011, Goa

Monday December 27, 2010 , 3 min Read

Grassroots is being hosted by Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) based at Birla Institute of Techonology and Science, Pilani (Goa Campus). CEL is a founding member of the National Entrepreneurship Network, aimed at creating leaders through entrepreneurial thinking.Grassroots is powered by MentorEdge (initiated by the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad). It is a country wide structured network of mentors aimed at helping entrepreneurs get the winning edge through advisory support on various strategic and operational decisions.

The event is being organized under the patronage of National Social Entrepreneurship Forum .Founded at BITS Pilani and IIM Lucknow, it is the leading student based movement for Social Enterprise in India. Via its NSEF Authors programme, it selects students and connects them to leading social enterprises in India to give them a real time experience of operating a social business.

Who should attend?

Fundamentally, everyone willing to drive tangible in the world and wants a booting point to do so.

Students/Academicians/Professionals - Join a head count of over 1000 witness some of India’s most pioneering social change-makers on one stage share their journeys. The event spans verticals like Energy, ICT, Microfinance, Sanitation, Mobile Technology and the cross-sectorial combination of these in creating ‘Social Profit’.
Emerging Entrepreneurs - Grassroots would be inviting brief abstracts of ideas in seed stage to be scrutinised. The best five get access to guidance by MentorEdge’s expert panel of mentors to help scale the ideas.

Speaker Lineup

GyaneshPandey, Founder and CTO/CEO of Husk Power Systems, an energy-based enterprise, providing electricity using rice husk to over 1 million people in regions designated as ‘economically unviable and off the grid’ by the Government of India.
Manoj Kumar, CEO of the Naandi Foundation, one of India’s largest non-profits working in domains of Child Rights, Safe Drinking Water and Sustainable Livelihoods will be talking about introducing a gradual shift in the business model from Philanthropic to Socio-entrepreneurial lines.
Osama Manzar, a convert social entrepreneur spearheading the mission to overcome the information barrier between India’s rural sector, and the developed society, through Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF).
Nandini Vaidyanathan, Professor of Entrepreneurship at reputed business schools, would be chairing panel discussion about ' Venture Capital in Social Enterprise" & 'Attracting talent in a Social Enterprise' which will include all the speakers as panellists.
Rikin Gandhi, CEO, Digital Green, would be shedding light on sustainable agriculture and technology for socioeconomic development.
Biplab Saha, CEO, Source for Change, would be examining the dynamics of the Rural BPO sector and its role in women empowerment.
AbhinavSinha, Vice President, Eko India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. would discuss the nuances of a business model which works on the fundamental premise of giving everyone a bank account.