Events

First round of Challenge Fund under NRETP Incubator Program conducted in Assam

July 28 , 2022

The curtains to the first round of the Challenge Fund under NRETP Incubator Program (Assam) were pulled down on 21 July 2022, following 3 days of vivacious exhibition of entrepreneurial spirit by the enterprising women of rural Assam.

150 women-led rural enterprises were divided into 3 batches to participate in the Pitch Training Camp organized by IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. Post the training, each batch pitched before a panel of experts that comprised of IIMCIP mentors, subject matter experts and high officials from National Rural Livelihood Mission.

The vibrant gamut of products dealt in by the entrepreneurs represented the quintessential colours and flavours of Assam, and were sights to behold. The stories of these entrepreneurs are true blue examples of passion and perseverance. Almost everyone had stories to tell about the massive challenges in meeting the needs of daily life. Yet, their optimism and tenacity to look right into the eyes of the challenges and pursue entrepreneurship to dismantle those challenges, are qualities that everyone can take a leaf from.

Six months of extensive outreach across Assam, 7000 plus applications, screening, orientation programs, and field verification had led to the first round of the Challenge Fund. The second round with another 100 women-led rural enterprises in Assam will be held in September this year. Subsequently, 150 of these enterprises will be selected to receive funding in the form of grant and interest-free loans, along with incubation support from IIM Calcutta Innovation Park.

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Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator Program

December 26 , 2020

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park joins the focused effort of the Government of Mizoram to take entrepreneurship activity to the next level by helping scale business enterprises in the state.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park joins the focused effort of the Government of Mizoram to take entrepreneurship activity to the next level by helping scale business enterprises in the state.

IIMCIP partnered with the Government of Mizoram and MEDMOC to kickstart the one-year-long Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator programme in the state of Mizoram on December 21, 2020. Pu Lalrikhuma Sailo, the Principal Advisor cum Additional Secretary, Planning & Programme Implementation Department, Govt. of Mizoram, inaugurated the program online, which was followed by the first boot camp attended by 20 entrepreneurs from the state. The Accelerator aims to identify promising start-ups with proven business models in revenue stage and provide them with intense handholding and mentoring through a structured programme to achieve sustainability and scale operations within and outside the state.

The Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator looks at structured intervention that ranges from capacity building to mentoring and from market linkage to funding support. This coupled with intense mentoring support and handholding will help startups align with their growth aspirations. Additionally, entrepreneurs in the North East also need to build capacities and widen their knowledge base especially in business processes, customer identification and acquisition. This fast track accelerator with multiple cohorts is in line with the Mizoram Government’s Startup Policy. In addition to mentorship and investment opportunities, the Accelerator aims to facilitate access to logistical and technical resources as well as shared office space. in collaboration with other incubation centres. The selection of businesses/start-ups for acceleration was competition based.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, with its large network of mentors, investors, market and startup connects, will facilitate customized need-based engagements for these entrepreneurs. The accelerator will consist of two cohorts – Growth Certification Cohort and Growth Mentoring Cohort. For 20 of those start-ups supported by various Govt. programmes/schemes, a curriculum-based structured certification programme has been designed on various aspects of attaining sustainability and scaling up and presented in a blended virtual and physical 6-month programme. Out of these 20 startups from the Growth Certification Cohort, IIMCIP will select 10-12 of the most promising start-ups and offer them dedicated mentoring, handholding and acceleration support over the next 6 months, to enable faster scale-up.

With the growing interest in entrepreneurship, the active support provided by an equally growing entrepreneurial ecosystem and the able backing of Mizoram State Entrepreneurship Development and Monitoring Committee (MEDMOC), this year-long accelerator aims to take entrepreneurship up the next step on the “Kailawn” (ladder in Mizo).

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HACKATHON – PATNA

June 30 , 2020

The Patna edition of the hackathon was in association with Bihar Entrepreneurs Association (BEA) and saw 11 teams participating. In the fifth position was a start-up Chickenwala, a business selling online hygienic chicken. In the fourth place a start-up which provided traceability of food from farm to plate by the usage of blockchain technology thereby bringing transparency in the food supply chain. In the third place was Luggage Star, a start-up which provided tracking tokens, travel insurance and safe custody of an individual’s luggage for a day’s travel. In the Second place was placed a start-up Course an ICT platform that conducted courses for skill development and corporate industry agnostic programs increasing the employability quotient of an applicant. Finally Mitti, a start-up in the supply chain management from farm to retail market had developed their platform which eliminated levels of middle men thereby reducing the retail price of produce and providing a better remuneration to the farmers.

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HACKATHON – SILCHAR

June 30 , 2020

The hackathon was held at National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Silchar with 49 participants. The winners were Team View, a driver friendly mechanism to avoid road mishaps and accidents because of drowsy driving. The runners up were Web Nerds with their idea to keep a digital check on vaccines that a baby gets and Unnamed Creators with their smart farming monitoring system with automated watering and fertilization. Other notable ideas were that of Drop scaling which focused on selling baby carrier bags for working mothers on e-commerce platforms and Einstein Bergs, a software based program to track flights.

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HACKATHON – Tezpur

June 30 , 2020

The hackathon was held at Tezpur University and saw over 6 mentors and 33 participants. The winners of the hackathon were Clinical Bots with an automated solution for inborn injuries, accidents and disabilities. The runner ups were Power Step with their solution to convert pressure energy to electrical energy, and SQUARE, a smart farming monitoring system. Other notable ones were Ethnica which promoted NorthEast India’s indigenous culture on e-commerce platforms and Analyse.io which was a centralised marketing recommender system.

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DARR KE AAGE JEET HAI

May 15 , 2020

One of the most inspirational talks organised by IIMCIP, Darr ke Aage Jeet Hai saw a large number of attendees. Satyarup Siddhanta, an ace mountaineer with a Guiness World Book Record, spoke about how Mountaineering and Entrepreneurship are similar in a lot of ways. Recognised as the youngest mountaineer to have climbed the Seven Summits and the only Indian to have climbed the Seven Volcanic peaks, he motivated the listeners to look at the ultimate goal, be determined, go through every weather condition, but still reach the goal.

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CORONATIC CHANGES IN COMPANY LAWS INCLUDING COMPANIES FRESH START SCHEME

May 8 , 2020

CA Pankaj Periwal, Senior Manager at V. Singhi & Associates, and CA Ansul Agarwal, Manager at V. Singhi & Associates, discussed the special Measures under Companies Act and LLP Act in view of COVID-19 outbreak. They focussed on the relaxation in KYC NORMS and the amendments related to board meetings

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PIVOT TO ADAPT

May 7 , 2020

The inspirational Nagaraja Prakasam, Founder Chairman of NativeLead Foundation and Partner at Acumen Fund, spoke about how social enterprises should look at pivoting and look at this crisis as an opportunity. If an industry is non-essential, they should be able to communicate with your customers to understand them better. Also stressing on the importance of employees, he asked startups to ensure that employees are given the minimum because laying off is easy but hiring is tough. Additionally, this is an opportunity to build a more equitable society, based on fair chances, innovations, focus on necessary problems and build a cadre of social entrepreneurs who would take pride in building India.

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DECODING STARTUP CHALLENGES IN COVID TIMES

May 6 , 2020

Amit Antony Alex, India Country Director of Upaya Social Ventures, leads all efforts in identifying, coaching and investing in early stage startups while also working with social entrepreneurs to solve global development issues through a market-based approach. During the webinar, he highlighted the need for entrepreneurs to assess situations more closely and include a lot more short term planning at least in the next 2 years. Moreover, consumers in general will become more ecologically conscious which can impact businesses and this, entrepreneurs should immediately improve their cash flows. He stressed on the fact that collaborations and partnerships in these unprecedented times can be a win-win situation.

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A PEEK INTO THE MIND OF A SEASONED INVESTOR

April 18 , 2020

This webinar was particularly insightful for startups. Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner at IvyCap Advisors Venture Private Limited, was live in conversation with Chandradeep Mitra, a mentor at IIMCIP. Vikram Gupta has over 22 years of experience in private equity, business consulting and M&A, and has held leadership positions in various organisations in India and abroad.

For the webinar, he focused on how the pandemic crisis has impacted startups, and how digitization is the way forward. Startups working in these digital sectors will have the opportunity to scale up their businesses substantially by making sure that they are targeting the right customer segments and the products are aligned with the demands.Also, investors will now look at different ways to invest and will change their strategies accordingly.

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COVID 19 VS INDIAN STARTUPS

April 15 , 2020

When the startup world was adapting to the new ways of working, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organised a webinar with Rohit Jain – Senior Associate at Singhania & Associates, New Delhi. Startup founders took away expert advice about employment contracts and relaxations rolled out by the Government Of India for Startups.

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HACKATHON – GUWAHATI

March 1 , 2020

The hackathon at Guwahati University saw 75 participants and 5 mentors. The top 5 included Nyrize and Bachelor, with their innovative solution to automate farming activities like irrigation and fertilization through Android apps. Runner up TechHack came up with a solution for local sports players to showcase their talent on a digital platform. VidyaZone is another A to Z solution for online education and to manage attendance digitally. A notable idea was that of Technos, that came up with a smart quality detection of food productivity

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8th edition of Tata Social Enterprise Challenge draws curtains in style

January 4 , 2020

The Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2019-2020 drew curtains following an elaborate grand finale program on 4th January 2020 at the IIM Calcutta Auditorium.

The 8th edition of India’s biggest exposure platform for social entrepreneurs witnessed some flabbergasting social startups from India and beyond battle it out to claim the coveted winner’s title. As many as 450+ applications were received from social entrepreneurs in myriad sectors, including healthcare, agriculture and food, clean technology, education and skills development, handicrafts, among others.

Following the screening of the applications, 4 regional rounds were conducted out of which 20 teams were shortlisted to pitch before the jury in the semi-finals on 3rd January. 3 entrepreneurs from Germany were also selected for the semi-finals. Top four social entrepreneurs were duly awarded in a scintillating Grand Finale on 4th January.

Trestle Labs was declared the winner of the Tata Social Entrepreneurship Challenge 2019-2020. PadCare Labs was adjudged the Runner Up, while Aerobiosys Innovations and Greenikk jointly took away the Second Runners Up title.

Apart from the prize distribution ceremony, the finale witnessed valuable keynote address from talismanic speakers like Ms. Shanti Raghavan (Social Entrepreneur of the year 2019), Mr. Abhay Jere (CIO, MHRD), Mr. Nagaraja Prakasam (Angel Investor), Mr. Satyarup Siddhanta (Alpinist), Mr. Ashish Gupta (MD, TMILL – Tata Steel subsidiary) and Mr. Julian Zix (Head – GINSEP).

Dr. Subhrangshu Sanyal, CEO, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, expressed his gladness at the success of the 8th edition of TSEC. He assured of a continuous effort to scaleup the program so that more and more social enterprises could find a platform for recognition, thereby spurring social entrepreneurship in the country for the overall development of the quality of life of its people.
The finale ended with refreshing rendition of Baul gaan and a stunning Chhau performance by the folk artists of Bengal.

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IIMC alumnus & Founder of BoDE Foundation at IIMCIP

October 21 , 2019

Serial Entrepreneur Neil Bhaskar, alumnus IIMC, Founder & Chairman of BoDE Foundation along with Priscilla Alvarado, Entrepreneur in Residence & Operations Manager of BoDE Foundation Team (USA) visited IIMCIP and interacted with our Incubatees. They were delighted to see how the startups solved problems at various junctures of a startup journey and impressed by the social impact made. Moving forward BoDE Foundation showed deep interest in working together with IIMCIP and the incubatees.

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HNI Meet to gather funds for Assam Startups

October 21 , 2019

An HNI Meet, Angel Miniversity Program, was organized at The Nest last evening. Ms. Nandini Mansinghka, CEO & MD, Mumbai Angels Network, addressed a cream gathering of High Net Worth Individuals (HNI) of Assam and discussed the varied aspects of angel investment.
Mrs. Manjula Saikia Bhuyan, IAS, Additional Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Assam, and Managing Director, AIIDC, also graced the occasion. She urged the HNIs to come forward to support the startups and take steps towards forming the Assam Angel Network. She assured them of complete support from the Government of Assam.

The core agenda of the meet was to encourage and influence the local HNIs to take interest in mentoring and funding early-stage startups and together form the first Assam Angel Network, as outlined in the Assam Startup Policy 2017.

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Go-To-Market Programme

October 21 , 2019

Go-To-Market Partnership Workshop: A 2-day workshop on GoTo Market Strategy was conducted by IIMCIP at IIM Calcutta campus on 16th and 17th October’19. A part of the capacity building initiatives, the workshop was specially designed for the startups incubated under IIMCIP and was addressed by Mr. Shaikh Mobin Tariq, Manager, Villgro-Acceleration Program. The session was attended by 16 startups who found the session very useful for their upcoming market analysis. A special one to one session with the startups was the main highlight of this 2-day event.

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Workshop on legal issues for Start-Ups

September 27 , 2019

Thomson Reuters is an organisation which provides professionals with the intelligence, technology and human expertise they need to make decisions.

The workshop was taken by Mr Simit Bhagat, who is the Program officer Asia.

There were 8 incubates present there for the workshop which were Medi360, R C Hobbytech, Growvill Education, NexConnect Ventures, BigCells Technologies, Bongiyo Gramin Krishi Udyog, Onganic Foods and Sanjevani Khamar.

Mr Bhagat spoke about how the help the organisations to connect with different legal matters if any.

There was also a QnA session between Mr Bhagat and the incubates and that helped the incubates to clarify their doubts.

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MIZORAM KAILAWN 2019

September 27 , 2019

Mizoram Kailawn 2019 saw 4 entrepreneurs from Mizoram sign up MoU’s with entrepreneurs from other parts of the country to work together. This will pave the way forward for collaborations and synergies and growth of business in Mizoram.

The third year of Mizoram Kailawn was launched on 17 June 2019 by honourable Chief Secretary Pu Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. Thereafter, Outreach and Awareness Programmes were conducted in each district capital by the MzCG team and District Master Trainers chosen under the Entrepreneurship Development Scheme (EDS). Awareness programmes focused on entrepreneurship awareness as well as a call for invitation to apply for the business plan competition. District Outreach and Awareness Programs were coordinated with the support of Offices of the Deputy Commissioner. A total of nine Outreach and Awareness Programs were conducted for Mizoram Kailawn 2019, with approximately 150-200 attendees for each program. Mizoram Kailawn this year saw great enthusiasm with a total of 456 participants registering, an increase from the 330 applicants in 2018, and 287 in 2017. Evaluators from IIM Calcutta Innovation Park and other stakeholders from the entrepreneurial ecosystem shortlisted 40 Finalists to take part in the Boot Camp/Training programme hosted at the Tourist Lodge in Chaltlang, Aizawl. The four day residential Boot Camp was packed with rigorous sessions by IIMCIP Mentors who covered sessions on business presentation pitches, financial projections, idea valuation and other aspects required of a viable business.Given that evaluators conduct a blind evaluation of the applications, it is truly remarkable that there was representation from all districts among the Top 40 Finalists. The fourday residential Boot Camp was packed with rigorous sessions by IIMCIP Mentors who covered sessions on business presentation pitches, financial projections, idea valuation and other aspects required of a viable business. Women founders/entrepreneurs represented 32.5% (13 women) of the Finalists selected to participate in the Boot Camp/Training.

True to the inclusive nature of Mizoram Kailawn, the Top 40 Finalist business plans covered a range of sectors, whether at idea stage or start-up phase. Business plans spanned all sectors including Agriculture and Allied, Manufacturing, Service Industry, Food and Beverage, Handicrafts, Food Processing, and Information Technology amongst others. The finalists selected spanned in age as well, where the youngest was 20 years old and the most senior finalist was 65 years old. The Top 20 Finalists were then shortlisted at the close of the Boot Camp, and delivered their final presentations on 16 September 2019.

Mizoram Kailawn 2019 concluded with the Entrepreneurship Summit on 17 September 2019 at Vanapa Hall, Aizawl. The Summit included a Start Up Conclave, highlighting start-ups from Mizoram as and those incubated at IIMCIP, a Master Class by Srikant Sastri, talks and panel discussions on entrepreneurship development in Mizoram, and announcement of MoUs between start-ups in Mizoram and those incubated by IIMCIP. The grand finale of the Summit was the announcement and felicitation of the Mizoram Kailawn 2019 Business Plan Contest Winners.

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Thinking Social Seminar-Pune

September 20 , 2019

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune on 11 th September, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups. The seminar was formally inaugurated by Dr. Apoorva Palkar, Director- Innovation, Incubation and Linkage, SP Pune University, Pune. This was followed by keynote address by Dr. N.S. Umarani, Pro Vice Chancellor, SP Pune University.The other eminent speakers comprised Ms. Geeta Tolia, Chartered Accountant and a Sloan Fellow from London School of Business armed with over 30 years of Indian and international experience in the areas of Financial Management, Business Turnarounds and Indian and International Taxation; Mr. Swapnil Chaturvedi, popularly known as Poop Guy. He was the co founder and Chief Toilet Cleaner at Samagra Empowerment Foundation; Mr. Suman,Mukhopadhyay, Mentor-IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. There was a panel discussion on social entrepreneurship moderated by Mr. Suman Mukhopadhyay and the panellists were Mr. Amit Godse, Founder – Bee Basket, Mr. Harshad Bhagwat, Founder – Wordsmaya Edutech, Mr. Dhananjay Abhang, Founder – Cleanergy Tech Solutions. The event was attended by over 100 enthusiastic participants comprising entrepreneurs, aspiring start ups and students and members of faculty from SP Pune University.

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Mizoram Kailawn Bootcamp September 4-7, 2019

September 11 , 2019

The third year of Mizoram Kailawn was launched on 17 June 2019. The Boot Camp was held at the Chaltlang Tourist Lodge, Aizawl from 4-7th September. In this 4-day Boot Camp, experts from IIM Calcutta Innovation Park mentored finalists, and guided them as they refined their business plans.

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Thinking Social Seminar- Patna

September 11 , 2019

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership with Veterans India, Bihar at NIT, Patna on 7 th September, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups who are about to embark on their entrepreneurship journey. The seminar was formally inaugurated by Mr. Sanjeev Srivastwa, Patron, Veterans India, Bihar. This was followed by address by Mr. Amitabh Lall, CGM- NABARD, Patna.Ex Commando Rakesh Ranjan also spoke on the ocassion. Dr. Sanjeev Verma, Deputy Director, MSME, Government of India mentioned in his address that MSME has strong focus in social entrepreneurship and hence share much synergy with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in ushering social entrepreneurship revolution in the state.In the entrepreneurship session, the following enterprising entrepreneurs shared their experience: Prantik Sinha, Founder – Agastya Buoyant; Sunandan Mukherjee, Founder – Brickcells; Kalyan Kolay, Founder – Aegipan Animal Biocare;Sidharth Vijay, Founder – Wejoy Phonefix; ,Rahul Kumar, Founder – Ecoventure. The event was attended by over 50 enthusiastic participants comprising entrepreneurs, aspiring start ups and students and members of faculty from Dayanand Sagar University.

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Thinking Social Seminar- Bengaluru

August 26 , 2019

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership with Derbi Foundation, a business incubator under the aegis of Dayanand Sagar University at Bengaluru on 23rd August, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups who were about to embark on their entrepreneurship journey soon.The seminar was formally inaugurated by Dr. Lakshmi Jagannathan, COO- Derbi Foundation.This was followed by address by Chief Guest, Mr. M.N. Vidyashankar, IAS (Retd.), Chairman- Derbi Advisory Board and former Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka. In the entrepreneurship session, the following enterprising entrepreneurs shared their experience with the participants present: Mr. Prateek Kaul, Founder –Giftabled, Mr. Kalyan Siva- the founder of 5C Network,Mr. Arpit Paliwal the Founder of Happy Relliable Surgeries,Mr. Madhusudan, Founder – Ambee. The event was attended by over 80 enthusiastic participants.

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Launch of Meghalaya Chief Minister’s E-champion Challenge

August 22 , 2019

The Government of Meghalaya is very keen on creating a growing number of sustainable business enterprises to foster socio-economic development and employment generation in the state. The aim is to develop an “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” in the State. Therefore, the Chief Minister’s E Champion Challenge was launched on 14th August 2019 by Mr Conrad K Sangma. It is being implemented through the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE) in the state. The initiative is being supported by IIM Calcutta innovation Park (IIMCIP) and will support the Government of Meghalaya and MIE in planning, implementing and monitoring the Chief Minister’s E Champion Challenge to deliver its desired results.

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Thinking Social Seminar

August 13 , 2019

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park organized “Thinking Social” seminar in partnership with School of Social Entrepreneurs and Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Atal Incubation Centre on 10 th August, 2019. The primary objective of this exercise was to build awareness, interest and desire to engage with the Social Enterprise Ecosystem amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs and start ups who were about to embark on their entrepreneurship journey soon.The speakers comprised Dr. Abha Rishi CEO, BIMTECH, Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) and Chairperson, Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development;Mr. Suman Mukhopadhyay, Mentor- IIM Calcutta Innovation Park;Mr. Parul Soni, Global Managing Partner, Think Through Consulting;Ms. Umang Sridhar is the founder of KhaDigi;Mr. Abhinav Girdhar is Co-founder & CEO of Bodhi Health Education;Mr. Aditya Bose is the founder of Pro Bano;Mr. Ashish Agarwal is the founder of Talento Consulting; Dr. Kamal Singh, CEO and the Executive Director of Global Compact Network India (GCNI); Mr. Shalabh Mittal, CEO- School of Social Entrepreneurs. The event witnessed around 50 participants.

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Thinking Social Seminar

August 6 , 2019

The TATA Social Enterprise Challenge Thinking Social Seminar was organised on 2nd August, 2019 for eastern part of the country at Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata. The primary objective of this event was to build awareness on social entrepreneurship,generating interest and inspiring the youth to come up with innovative solutions to combat social challenges.Speakers such as Mr. Anoop Kumar Agrawal, IAS, Principal Secretary, SHG & SE Department, Govt. of West Bengal;Prof. Prashant Mishra, Dean- New Initiatives & External Relations, IIM Calcutta; Dr. Mahul Brahma, Head – CSR & Corporate Communications, Mjunction Services Limited;Mr. Kalyan Kolay, Founder – Aegipan Animal Biocare and Mr. Adarsh Srivastava,Founder – Green Agrovolution along with Mr. Suman Mukhopadhyay, mentor at IIMCIP spoke to nearly 40 participants.

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