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Announcing Tata Social Enterprise Challenge

  2012 has been the year of social enterprise challenges and social enterprise incubators in India. The exciting addition to the former is  Tata Group’s announcement of the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge, a joint initiative with IIM Calcutta. Details below. TATA Social Enterprise Challenge – A Joint Initiative with IIM Calcutta aims to be India’s [...]

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Siemens Stiftung announces the Empowering People Award

[Update: The deadline for the award application has been extended to Jan 31, 2013.] Munich-based Siemens Stiftung (“foundation” in German) wants to identify efficient technical solutions which empower people in developing and emerging countries to independently combat existential problems through the empowering people. Award (yeah – that’s exactly how the award is named). The Siemens [...]

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Rockefeller Innovation Challenge Winners

Back in May, I wrote about Rockefeller Foundation’s Innovation Challenge 2012 – a call for ideas in three key areas (Farming, Irrigation and Decoding Data). The panel of judges selected fifteen finalists (of which eight were invited to make grant applications) from a wide global pool of applicants. This was announced four months ago but, [...]

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Acara Summer Institute 2012 – Nine Impressive Teams (Part 2)

[Editor's Note: In late Jun 2012, I attended the final presentations of nine teams that made it to Acara Summer Institute 2012. Each team had 7 minutes of presentation followed by 7 minutes of questions/feedback from 10-odd reviewers (including me). This is Part 2 of a two-part series (covering teams 5 through 9). Part 1 [...]

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Acara Summer Institute 2012 – Nine Impressive Teams

[Editor's Note: Last Friday I attended the final presentations of nine teams that made it to Acara Summer Institute 2012. I was impressed by the quality of the ideas and the pitches. What was most striking was that nearly all teams came across as *really wanting* to execute on their plans -- in other words, [...]

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SELCO Labs announces sustainable energy challenge

Earlier today, I read a tweet from SELCO’s official account that talked about a sustainability energy challenge launched under the umbrella of SELCO Labs. SELCO Labs, the innovation and incubation arm of SELCO started in April 2009 and is hosted inside the premises of SDM Institute of Technology, Ujire, Karnataka. The most interesting and revealing aspect [...]

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Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Challenge 2012 – Farming, Irrigation and Data

Rockefeller Foundation turns 100 in 2013. To mark its centennial, they are seeking knowledge and innovation ideas that will solve problems for the next 100 years – specifically in the areas of farming, irrigation efficiency, and leveraging data to improve the lot of vulnerable communities. Fifteen finalists, five in each of the three categories, will [...]

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Acara Summer Institute 2011 Day#1 Highlights

As I wrote in my introductory post on Acara last week, the Acara Summer Institute 2011 is in full swing this week at the Honeywell Bangalore campus. I attended 90% of the first day sessions and plan to return for days 4 and 5. I’ve tried to capture the day’s key highlights. Classroom Sessions by [...]

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The Acara Institute Challenge: inspiring social entrepreneurship at the university level

[Editor's Note: In the past fortnight, I had a Skype call with Fred Rose, Co-Founder & CEO of Acara Institute, and a meeting with Arun Patre, their India Manager. The Acara Summer Institute 2011, an intensive 3-week social entrepreneurship program, kicks off in Bangalore on Jun 27 and I'm one of the guest bloggers. This [...]

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