Action for India Launches A Brand New Growth Prize Competition for Early Stage Social Innovations and Enterprises from India

Action for India has launched the Growth Prize Competition on Ashoka Changemakers platform for Indian social innovators and enterprises. The purpose of the Growth Prize Competition is to identify social entrepreneurs who demonstrate constant success or progress in scaling— or preparing to scale—their ventures and impact. The Competition deadline is now extended until June 18, 2012. The Competition is open for social entrepreneurs working in the field of education, healthcare, agriculture, energy and livelihoods.

India is full of ingenious and resilient entrepreneurs working at the grassroots level to solve urgent social problems in a variety of sectors. But in a country of over 1.2 billion people— most with unmet basic human needs—we need solutions that scale. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs overcome barriers to scaling their innovative solutions.

There is one prize for each sector and each of the five winners will receive INR 5L in funding, plus a bundle of free IT, legal, financial and consulting services. All participants will also benefit from this opportunity to grow and promote their enterprise using the globally recognized Ashoka platform for social innovation, and will be invited to participate in the 2013 AFI National Forum.

To Join the Competition

1. Visit the AFI Community http://www.changemakers.com/community/afi and learn more.
2. Login and set up a Changeshop http://www.changemakers.com/innovations
3. Fill out your entry after setting up your ChangeShop at http://www.changemakers.com/ community/afi/entryform
4. Deadline to participate is now extended to June 18, 2012.

Don’t Wait! For the Last Hour – The entry period is underway now. Judging begins from June 19, 2012. If you have any questions, connect with us at [email protected] or [email protected]

Finally a question to ponder—What do you get when you mix young social innovators, a supportive online community and five prize bundles of cash and free business services?

It will be enterprises well on their way to achieving scale and impact in solving some of India’s most pressing social problems. We’ll find out more in December 2012…with the Winners of AFI Growth Prize Competition 2012.

About Action For India

The goal of Action For India (AFI) is to help entrepreneurs overcome barriers to scaling their innovative solutions.

In January, Action For India—a the Delhi-based startup NGO, held its inaugural event, a Forum attracting over 200 young social innovators, social enterprise exemplars, policymakers and corporate leaders. Featuring Sam Pitroda, the event was deemed a huge success and is set to create new benchmarks. AFI has recently instituted the Growth Competition on the globally acclaimed online platform Ashoka Changemakers to identify and invest in social innovations in their early stages of establishment who have the potential to scale or are constantly demonstrating success in upscaling.

About Ashoka Changemakers

Ashoka Changemakers is an online community of action that connects social entrepreneurs around the globe to share ideas, inspire, and mentor each other. Through its online collaborative competitions and open-source process, Changemakers.com is one of the world’s most robust spaces for launching, discussing, and scaling ideas to solve the world’s most pressing social problems. Changemakers builds on Ashoka’s three-decade history and vision for an “Everyone a Changemaker” world by creating a place where the best ideas in social innovation can be shared, refined, and funded.