World Economic Forum Global Shapers initiative to open a hub in Bhopal

World Economic Forum Global Shapers initiative is all set to open a hub in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The Global Shapers Community is a network of hubs founded and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievements and their drive to make a contribution to their communities. Around 300 global hubs and over 3000 global shapers are part of this community development program.The founding curator of Bhopal hub is Ajay Chaturvedi who was honored as the ‘Young Global Leader’ by World Economic Forum in 2013. Sharing his plans about the hub, he says, “The key to the Madhya Pradesh hub is going to be the motivated young global shapers. We plan to recruit 40-50 talented youth from the age group of 20-29 years who belong to different walks of life. There will be actors, musicians, artists, dancers, directors, actors, engineers, architects, technologists, futurists, doctors, lawyers and many more. Our target is to impact 10,000 lives in the next one year.”

Ajay further adds, “All the projects of a hub will be targeted towards the welfare of local communities (in and around the location of hub) and monitored by hub’s curator. A wide range of issues will be taken up by global shapers from civic issues like traffic problems to social evils like drug abuse. The approach to solutions will be localized. For example, if drug abuse is a problem in an area, the real reason could be lack of employment opportunities. Essentially a Global Shaper is honored to the leader from a city or state who understands the local problems and who has achieved something in life.” A global shaper is recruited for a year where he/she is expected to learn, get guidance, add value and give back to the community and achieve the desired outcome.

Some of the features of the Global Shapers initiative include:

• Joining the Global Shapers Community begins by joining a local hub. Local hubs are committed to local impact and are designed to be local in focus, activity and governance.
• Local Hubs interact and collaborate across borders on global or regional projects, to gain insight and impact the global dimension.
• Hubs will provide Shapers with the opportunity to actively develop and contribute to initiatives which focus on future-oriented challenges that this community is uniquely positioned to address.
• The local hub must remain impartial and independent and therefore cannot be formed on any political, cultural, racial or religious basis.

Speaking about the partners of the Global Shapers, Ajay says, “The idea of getting corporates on board is to give a direction to the youth and work towards solving their city’s problems on the platform offered by Global Shapers.” The World Economic Forum has successfully established a history of engaging young leaders to positively and proactively impact the global agenda. It is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.