Development Dialogue brings together people from diverse sectors that share the common purpose of creating sustainable solutions. It is an international gathering of social entrepreneurs, leaders from non-profit and for-profit organizations, government officials, grassroots practitioners and impact investors, coming together to inspire, share insights and forge productive collaborations.
Innovation abounds around the world and people and companies globally have great intentions in helping make the world a better place. Yet, with a few exceptions, the many challenges in the development sector show little significant impact. To achieve lasting and scalable impact requires innovative new ideas and approaches that align public, private and civic intentions to address common societal challenges. The Development Dialogue conference provides such an opportunity for leaders, implementers and policy makers to share innovative ideas and best practices and to build collaborations through which to achieve scalable social impact.
Motivated by the Companies Act of 2013, corporate CSR programs have sought to address some of these social issues. The Development Dialogue will bring together leading corporate CSR organizations and their partner NGOs to share successful program ideas, novel methods, and innovative approaches and will allow for knowledge sharing and partnering opportunities to build stronger solutions addressing common social issues.
The conference will focus on key strategic changes in the CSR landscape on Saturday morning and then delve deeper in the afternoon into the three verticals – Skill Development, Agriculture and Micro- entrepreneurship – with leading CSR partners in each area as well as partner nonprofits/NGOs and key governmental players. The sector specific discussions will allow for peer to peer sharing of best practices - from the corporate perspective as well as from implementing NGOs – and highlight unaddressed challenges and areas for collaboration and provide opportunities to align the efforts of the key participants in the room. Sunday will provide additional opportunities for interaction between startups, VCs, investors, corporate CSR organizations and aspiring entrepreneurs at the Startup Dialogue.
We are looking to partner with key strategic advisors to join us in designing an exciting forum, to identify the leading practitioners in the area and to participate as speakers and moderators in the sessions.
The conference consists of two days February 1st and 2nd with site visits planned for Friday, January 31st. The conference will open on Saturday with a series of plenary panels and keynotes that provide a strategic overview of the CSR domain. The afternoon will consist of three vertical sessions in parallel on Skills Development, Agriculture and Micro-entrepreneurship/Livelihoods. The sessions will include perspectives from Corporates, NGOs, and key governmental leaders and allow for in-depth discussion and dialogue. A focused parallel conference, Startup Dialogue, will be held on Sunday to bring together startups, VCs, investors, aspiring entrepreneurs, CSR organizations and leaders to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship.
"Rather than giving a solution, what we need is an infrastructure which allows others to create solutions on it. That is the co-creation aspect."
- Nandan Nilekani, DD 2018
"How to address the problems that we see around us in a creative way so that we can go and get it done that's very important."
- Prof. Muhammad Yunus, DD 2016
"You are linking education, knowledge, technology and entrepreneurship with farmers, which is very important in India"
- Kailash Sathyarthi, DD 2015
"Here's an organization that is really making a difference. I've been struck by the fact that you've given a sense of belonging, pride and dignity to communities. I've really been moved."
- Mr. Ratan Tata, DD 2013
"This is my first Development Dialogue and so far I've spent the last couple of days touring around India and seeing all the great things the Deshpande Center has been doing and it's amazing. This is the first time that I've seen something on this scale working so cleanly."
"One of my favorite things that we went to was the farm ponds.
Coming from an agricultural background, I was so inspired that the Deshpande Foundation was able to increase profits for farmers by three or fourfold."
Neelima Khetan
Neelima Khetan is the Group CSR Head for Vedanta Group, a global diversified resources company. In this capacity, she provides oversight and guidance to the CSR efforts of 11 business units of the Group across India and Africa. She is also Vice President, CSR at Hindustan Zinc (part of Vedanta Group). HZL is a world leader in zinc production, as also lead and silver. HZL has a long history of working for community betterment, and is among the Top-20 CSR spenders of the country. Neelima joined Vedanta in November 2015.
Prior to joining HZL, Neelima was the Director, CSR and Sustainability for Coca Cola in India and South West Asia – where she worked for 3.5 years.
Neelima has long experience of the social sector, having held leadership positions like – India Country Director of the American India Foundation and Chief Executive of Seva Mandir. She was also the Acting Director of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), from June 2006 to May 2007.
Neelima has served on the Boards of many NGOs and Academic Institutions. She has also served on many Central and State Government Committees, including the Land Reforms Committee of the Government of India and the Task Force to suggest Decentralized Funding Mechanisms to the Planning Commission.
Neelima received the Laxmipat Singhania-IIM Lucknow National Leadership Award for young leaders from India’s Prime Minister in December 2006. In March 2007, she was given the Maharana Mewar Award from the Maharana Mewar Foundation, for work of permanent value to society through service and philanthropy.
Neelima holds a Master’s in Rural Management from IRMA and a Bachelor’s in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University.
Mangesh Wange
Mangesh is working with Swades Foundation since May, 2016 and has General Management experience with P&L responsibility and in leading successful start-ups in corporate and social sectors.
Mangesh started his career with Mahindra Tractors in 1987. Thereafter, he moved to Godrej Agrovet and handled Agri Inputs and Animal Feeds besides starting modern Retail businesses of Nature’s Basket and Aadhaar. He has also worked in the Micro-finance business at Fullerton India and later for mobile information business at Thomson Reuters.
Mangesh has graduated in Agricultural Engineering from PAU, Ludhiana and did his Post Graduation from IIM, Ahmedabad.
Dr Shalini Sarin
Dr Shalini Sarin has about three decades of Corporate experience as the head of HR in India, Europe and global across geographies. Shalini has led and lived through several organization transformations, mergers, acquisitions, IPOs and Organization Restructuring. She is an Independent Director on the board of Linde India, Meritor HVS (India) Limited and Automotive Axles Limited.
Over the last seven years she has focused her work in the development space to create sustainable social impact and community development and has also lead a not for profit business venture across the globe within Philips lighting. She is the Chair at Signify Foundation Netherlands (former Philips Lighting). She is also the Chair of the Global Task force of Foundations at International Solar Alliance, UN entity.
Shalini holds a Doctorate in Organization Behavior, and a Masters in Sociology and Human Resource Management. She has an Advanced Human Resource from Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, an Executive Coach from Motorola University-Chicago and a Psychometrician from British Psychology Society.
Besides this, she loves to mentor and advise some start ups and is on the board of BD Foundation which promotes diversity and Inclusion.
She is an advisor and a coach besides mobilizing action to enable effective ecosystems at the base of the pyramid to build sustainable business models and mentors women leaders & social entrepreneurs. Shalini has authored many articles and presented at various Indian and International Conferences.
Vinod Kulkarni
Vinod Kulkarni works with Tata Motors Ltd for 17 Yrs & has handled various assignments in Sales & for the last 9 yrs heads CSR . He is an Mechanical Engg & MBA in Marketing. Vinod has worked with reputed companies like Voltas & Godrej before Joining Tata’s. He is very passionate about social issues & enjoys being with community.
Vinod is a Fulbright Scholar & has done a course in Global Leadership at Carnegie Melon University, USA.
Bharat Desai,
Co-Founder & Chairman, Syntel
Kenya-born Bharat, who grew up in India and graduated from IIT-Bombay, moved to the US as a programmer for Tata Consulting Services. After working there briefly, he went on to pick up an MBA degree from the University of Michigan. It was here that he met Neerja and the duo decided to start an IT company while they were still studying. Though it started out as an IT staffing company, it soon evolved into a firm providing IT applications services. In 1992, it opened the first of its multiple India Global Development Centers, and five years on the company not only went public but also managed to grow its turnover to the $100 million milestone. Desai is a board member of several educational institutions, including the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Narayana Murthy,
Founder, Infosys
NRN is the legendary cofounder and retired chairman of Indian tech giant Infosys, in which he continues to hold minority stakes. Infosys is an MNC providing business consulting, technology, engineering, and outsourcing services. He started Infosys in 1981 and served as its CEO from 1981 to 2002 and as chairman from 2002 to 2011. Before starting Infosys, Murthy worked with IIM-A as chief systems programmer and Patni Computer Systems in Pune (Maharashtra). Murthy has been listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by Fortune magazine. He has been described as the "father of the Indian IT sector" by Time magazine due to his contribution to outsourcing in India. Murthy has also been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri awards.
Krishna Byre Gowda,
Minister of Rural Development, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Govt of Karnataka
Born in Bangalore, Krishna is a graduate from the American University in Washington and Christ College in Bangalore. He was a project associate at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington before earning his M.A. degree. He then worked as an agriculturalist at his family-owned farm in Kolar district. He has served 3 times as an M.L.A. of Karnataka state, twice from Vemegal in Kolar district (2003 -’07) and from the Byatarayanapura Constituency in Bengaluru (2008-’13)
Krishna has served as the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress between 2007 and 2011, and currently holds the office of General Secretary of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, since 2012.
T M Vijay Bhaskar,
Chief Secretary, Govt of Karnataka
Vijay is an IAS officer from the 1983 batch of the Karnataka cadre. During his 34 years of service, he worked for more than 8 years in various capacities in education administration and 9 years in rural development at the national and state levels. The remaining years of service was in district administration and coordination. His prominent postings included Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Administrator, Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board Chairman, Additional Chief Secretary to government, DPAR, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Agriculture, Horticulture, and Cooperation.
Dr.Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande,
President and Chairman of Sparta Group LLC and Chairman of Tejas Networks, Deshpande Foundation
Dr. Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande has pursued an entrepreneurial career for the last three decades, involved either as the Founder, a Founding investor or Chairman of several companies including Sycamore Networks, Tejas Networks, Sandstone Capital, and A123 Systems. Dr. Deshpande Desh has initiated several non-profits that provide support for innovation and entrepreneurship at MIT, Queen's University, IIT Madras, TIE, Akshaya Patra Foundation, and Public Health Foundation of India.
His belief in the power of social entrepreneurship led to the launch of the Deshpande Foundation in India and the founding of the Hubli Sandbox in 2007. He has founded four social entrepreneurship Sandboxes in India and four centres in North America including the MIT Deshpande Centre for Technological Innovation. Dr. Deshpande is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, such as the 2013 IEEE Ernst Weber Managerial Leadership Award and Forbes India's Distinguished Non-Resident Philanthropist Award (2014). He has also co-chaired President Obama's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Dilip Modi,
Executive Chairman, Spice Mobility Ltd
One of India’s most successful young entrepreneurs and amongst its foremost digital experts, he leads DiGiSPICE which is one of the most trusted strategic partner in the digital transformation of private and public enterprises as well as governments. Dilip started his professional career in 1995 with the launch of Modi Telstra, India’s first mobile service. A visionary entrepreneur, Dilip identified the digital opportunity quite early and established Spice Digital (now DiGiSPICE) in the year 2000. Extremely passionate about creating usable and affordable technologies to improve the lives of people across Asia and Africa, Dilip envisions technology as a key enabler for achieving inclusive growth across socio-economic boundaries. Dilip has also assumed the role of a mentor and has even made investments in a personal capacity into several promising start-ups. He has been the Chairman of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and has also had the honour of being the youngest-ever President of ASSOCHAM. Dilip was conferred the Youth Icon Award by the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry in recognition of his efforts.
K. Thiagarajan,
COO, Agastya
Agastya International Foundation runs the world’s largest hands-on Mobile Science Lab program serving the education needs of economically backward school children. Besides operations, Thiagarajan is involved with Policy, scaling and replication, People development, funding and innovations in products and services for the foundation.
A Chemical Engineer from IIT Madras, he holds an MBA from IIM-A and has spent 33 years working in corporate sector serving diverse sectors such as Engineering, IT, IT Enabled Services (ITeS) and Infrastructure as President, MD & CEO before moving to the social sector with Agastya 9 years before.
He has lectured in leading Business Schools including the IIMs, ISB and global schools such as Yale School of Management, London Business School and Kellogg in North-western.
Sriram Rajamani ,
MD, Microsoft Research India
Sriram is a Distinguished Scientist and Managing Director of Microsoft Research India (MSR). His research interests are in designing, building and analyzing computer systems in a principled manner. Sriram was elected ACM Fellow in 2015 for contributions to software analysis and defect detection. Recently, he has been elected Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering. At the beginning of MSR, the dream was to see whether we can build a world-class computer science lab in India. MSR started a research area called technologies for the emerging markets, which studies the impact of technology in the socio-economic development of a society. For instance, 99dots project is a technology-enabled project focused on monitoring medication for Tuberculosis patients.
Sriram has a PhD from UC Berkeley, MS from University of Virginia and B.E. from College of Engineering, Guindy, all with specialization in Computer Science.
Dr. Sushil Vachani ,
Former Director,IIM Bangalore
Dr. Sushil works to provide low cost, high quality education and skill development opportunities to students around the globe. He is a Professor teaching Strategy and Innovation at Boston University’s School of Management. From 2014 to 2016, he served as Director of IIM Bangalore where he launched an ambitious MOOCs program. He has extensive managerial and consulting experience with the Boston Consulting Group, Philips, Tata Administrative Service and Tata Motors. Dr. Vachani also advises non-profits on their strategy and operations. He believes that NGOs can benefit from selectively adopting certain strategies and techniques from the for-profit world. Sushil, who earned a DBA (doctor of business administration) from Harvard Business School in International Business, also worked as a consultant for American, Japanese, German and British multinationals during his 40-year career.
Radha Basu ,
Founder & CEO,iMerit Technologie
Radha has for long used technology as a vehicle for pushing social and economic boundaries. She grew Hewlett Packard’s electronic business software division into a $1.5 billion business. She was then the Chairman & CEO of Support.com which she led through initial and secondary public offerings. In 2012, she founded iMerit, a technology–enabled services company that delivers digital data services for machine learning, content and support while creating positive change through employment in underserved communities. She has received numerous awards including the Global Thinkers Forum Award, UN Women-ITU Gender-Equality Mainstreaming Technology Award, Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence Award, Top 25 Women of the Web, and CEO of the Year.
Lalitesh Katragadda ,
Founder Indihood, Former Country Head, Google India
Lalitesh, who co-started several projects including Google Finance and Hindi Transliteration, made the best of his pet project – Google Map Maker, a group map-making tool that people around the globe used to map their world. He’s still working on his personal goal: to collaborate and create growth and development for India. Mr. Katragadda wants to ensure that barriers such as language do not prevent new users from getting online. He is focused on India's nation building and has founded Swaja Labs, Indihood, and works as an architect of Digital India's Open API and Govt of Andhra Pradesh Project Fiber Grid.
Lalitesh says: "As of now, most development indicators are still on the district-level; they're very rarely on the block-level. What if we take this to the farmer-level? With this technology, it is very much possible, at very low investment. That is my dream for India."
Betsy Beaumon ,
CEO, Benetech
Under her leadership, Benetech has scaled its largest social enterprise, Bookshare, to over 600,000 users in 80 countries, and launched Benetech Labs, to create the next impactful software and data innovations. She defined the concept of “Born Accessible,” a vision where all digital content is made accessible to everyone when created.
Betsy is a social entrepreneur and engineer and has co-founded two software companies, including the first web-based Information and Referral service for human services. She holds a patent for her work in pioneering online global trade management applications. She holds a degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern University. She has developed products across the software, semiconductor, and information sectors and previously held senior positions with BEA Systems, TradeBeam, Social Online Service, and Cisco Systems.
Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship Building,
B. V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering & Technology Campus,
Vidyanagar Hubballi - 580031,
Karnataka, India.
(+91)-944-989-1050
ddhubli@dfmail.org
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