XLRI social entrepreneurship meet re-thinks development

That growth, merely in terms of higher GDP or per capita income, does not necessarily trickle down to have an impact on the lives of people at the bottom of the pyramid is a much-acknowledged fact. So when XLRI, Jamshedpur decided to host its sixth National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship (XLRI NCSE), it took up the theme of ‘Re-thinking Development: Strengthening the Grassroots’.

The three-day conference, which began on January 31, emphasised the need to look at alternative decentralised models to development.

The primary purpose of the conference, which is organised under the aegis of Fr. Arrupe Centre for Ecology and Sustainability by the student committee SIGMA, is to provide a common platform to the practitioners (social entrepreneurs, CBOs/NGOs, government agencies, academics, funding agencies, support organisations and corporates) for active interaction, said a press statement issued by XLRI.

The conference was also aimed at creating a platform to showcase and learn from social ventures which promote a holistic and ‘grounds-up’ model of development.

The event was inaugurated by Father E. Abraham S. J., Director of XLRI, Madhukar Shukla, Chairman, NCSE and the members of SEEDS, a local NGO working for the development of communities.

The inaugural session – ‘Voices from the Grassroots’ – saw villagers sharing their experiences and opinions on what development actually means to the rural population. The speakers touched upon the various aspects of their lives linked to natural resources, livelihood through farming, community mobilisation, rural healthcare and entrepreneurship.

Some of the key speakers at the conference included Joe Madiath, Executive Director, Gram Vikas, Michelle Chawla, co-Founder, Tamarind Tree, Prema Gopalan, Executive Director, Swayam Shikshan Prayog, and Umadevi Swaminathan, Managing Director, Rudi Multi Trading Company.

Highlighting the importance of leveraging indigenous resources at one of the sessions, Marcella D’Souza, Executive Director of Watershed Organisation Trust, spoke about leveraging local resources for sustainable development in rural India, particularly in semi-arid regions.

She also showed the effects of development of watershed projects and how it had improved the conditions of people during droughts.

Kalyan Akkipedi, the founder of ‘ProtoVillage’ shared his experiences in managing the task of making a prototype of an ‘Adequate’ village cluster which would act as a replicable model for integrated rural development. The need for promoting entrepreneurship at the grassroots level and the importance of the availability of credit and other financial products to rejuvenate the local economy and fuel local entrepreneurship were some of the other issues which were discussed at the three-day event.

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