Nominate 'Social Entrepreneur Of The Year' Award

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, July 31: The Nand&Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in collaboration with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), have announced open the nominations for India's Social Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2007. Five finalists will be selected following an intensive search and selection process including expert reviews and site visits. The winner will be announced in a ceremony coinciding with the India Economic Summit in December 2007.

The selection criteria as well as the application form can be accessed at www.schwabfound.org/india. The closing date for applications is August 20, 2007.

The Finalists are invited to the India Economic Summit beginning December 2, 2007, and the winner will be invited to the Social Entrepreneur Summit of the Schwab Foundation, in Zurich, Switzerland in January 2008. The winner may also be invited to a subsequent World Economic Forum regional event and be considered for a Global Social Entrepreneur status providing unprecedented opportunities to engage with global decision makers from the public, corporate, media and academic sectors to strengthen and expand his/her model.

In addition the winner will be eligible to be named a 'Khemka Fellow' and receive a financial award of Rs 8,00,000 (rupees eight lakhs only) from the Nand&Jeet Khemka Foundation.

All the partners recognize Social Entrepreneurs as innovators who implement practical and sustainable solutions to address society's most pressing challenges in numerous areas including health, education, environment, access to technology and job creation.

Last year's winner was Vikram Akula, Founder and CEO, SKS Microfinance, one of the fastest growing microfinance organizations in the world. The other finalists were Mr. S. Rajagopalan, Founder Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE) and Svati Bhogle the current CEO (TIDE), Mr Amitabha Sadangi, CEO International Development Enterprise India (IDEI) and Mr and Mrs Rao, Directors, Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources, RIVER.

Parag Gupta, Head of South Asia, The Schwab Foundation, stated, "Increasingly, the line between social and business domains are blurring. Consumers demand businesses play a social role and Indian businesses are looking to untapped markets below the poverty line. Social entrepreneurs are leading the way."

Don Mohanlal, President and CEO, Khemka Foundation, said, "Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people see only problems. The goal of this collaborative effort between Khemka and Schwab Foundation with CII and UNDP, is to showcase India's best practices in social entrepreneurship, highlight how ordinary people can achieve the extraordinary."

Vikram Akula, Founder and CEO, SKS Microfinance, the recipient of The Social Entrepreneur Award for 2006, said, "The SEY award has strengthened our work in many ways. It has been an affirmation of our mission to empower the poor through financial services. It has also given me tremendous opportunity to interact with and gain key insights from world leaders across varied fields. The highlight was participating in the World Economic Forum at Davos where I was able to represent not just India, but more importantly the impoverished communities we work with at SKS."

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