14 November, 2017
IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the TATA group and Bihar Entrepreneur Association hosted the Thinking Social Seminar at Chanakya National Law University on 22 July 2017. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship, generate interest and inspire the young generation to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges. On 21st July 2017 we had organized a business plan pitching session for social entrepreneurs in Bihar. 80 startups had applied for this and only 20 startups were shortlisted to participate in this event.
The speakers of this seminar comprised of eminent and social entrepreneurs, investors and academicians who have already established their own outstanding ventures and have impacted the lives of thousands of people.
The seminar commenced with the welcome address by Mr Abhishek Singh, Secretary General – Bihar Entrepreneur Association who spoke about how BEA was formed and the kind of work they are doing in the state of Bihar. He mentioned, “ We are a regional coalition of entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, organizations and local government dedicated to provide start-ups of Bihar with access to nationwide tools and resources that will help them scale up.” He also spoke about the Bihar Startup Yatra’s which they have been organizing in partnership with the Department of Industries, Govt. of Bihar since 2011.
Capt. Amitabh, Head (Skill Development), CSR – Tata Steel, Spoke about the initiatives taken up by the Tata Group . He said, “Truly imbibing the ethos set by our founder JN Tata, as a responsible corporate citizen, we believe community to be the very purpose of our existence. Tata Steel’s commitment towards CSR dates back for more than 100 years and is known for it nationally and globally.”
Gaurav Kapoor, Head (INVENT) – IIM Calcutta Innovation Park spoke about who is a social entrepreneur and how to identify gaps and create a business opportunity out of it. He said, “India is a vast country with humongous challenges in almost every social sector. The government can make policies and provide the infrastructure, however, the actual change will be brought in by the people themselves. It is time that the youth takes on the baton and assumes responsibility to solve problems impacting the masses, especially the rural population, which is where the larger chunk of our population lives. He further said, “The startup ecosystem is evoking entrepreneurial talent and if the youth takes up entrepreneurship seriously, it wont be long before we see some amazing ideas come forward and create sustainable enterprises while solving some massive problems. Tata Social Enterprise Challenge is one such initiative.”
Mr. Vikram Duggal, Unitus Seed Fund spoke about the funding opportunities available to start-ups in the social entrepreneurship space.
Mr Kaushlendra, Co-founder Samriddhi and President Bihar Entrepreneur Association spoke about the scope of social entrepreneurship in Bihar & Jharkand. He also explained to the audience the importance of technical knowledge.
Mr Suman Mukhopadhyay, Director – Banglanatak.com spoke about the challenges and Innovation in Social Entrepreneurship. He further mentioned, “The diversity of ideas, background, age and gender of existing and potential entrepreneurs who participated in the pitching session was very impressive. Energy of the youth and their willingness to venture into unchartered territory with an intention to deliver common good is an indicator of evolving social Entrepreneurship in the State.”
The seminar ended with an interactive Q & A session and the names of the top 3 winners of the Business Plan Pitching Session held the previous day were declared.
The following teams were the winners:
TakGi: They are bridging the gap between the retailer and wholesaler for sourcing medicines, which is a major pain point, by assigning a dedicated staff who is required to source the medicines on a daily or weekly basis.
The Ganna Cafe: The Ganna cafe provides freshly prepared hygienic and healthy sugarcane juice through a vending cart. This is done through a motorized machine in a single crush process. The ganna juice which they provide is hygienic, healthy and cost effective i.e. at par with the current market rate.
R-Labs: They help engineering students to test their robotic programming on high end, state of art Robots which are located at various premium universities in Europe.
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