Bengal’s determined effort to shed its investor wary image seems to be finally bearing fruit. Known for its industrial strikes, lock outs and loss of man days in the past, the state is now focused on ‘ease of doing business.’
Converting containers into mobile sanitation, education and healthcare facilities; triggering a White Revolution by supplying cattle feed at half the marketprice; fashion accessories for women that have built-in safety, wellness, lifestyle and communication systems; augmentative and alternative communication device for those suffering from cerebral palsy and paralysis; dry toilet for Ladakh; portal to resolve legal disputes online… these are some of several bright ideas that have made it to the Grand Finale of the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge (TSEC) scheduled at Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) on Saturday.
At a time when various e-commerce start-ups are lapping up multi-figure funding at high valuations, social start-ups are staring at a drought.
A recent competition at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta was aimed at providing a fillip to startups and social entrepreneurs.
If you aren’t a consumer focused startup, chances are you will have a hard time attracting investors. And if you are a social startup, then your challenges just doubled. in 2012, the Tata Group, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta(IIMC) set up the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge (TSEC) towards finding early stage social startups and creating an ecosystem for sustainable social ventures. Four years on and 700 entries later, TSEC is working at expanding the reach of the initiative. Prof Ashok Banerjee, Director, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park said, “We are in talks with local institutions where we will support them and they will take the initiative to work with local entrepreneurs. It’s a long term journey and we’ll add more partners as we go along.”
In her hunt for industry and investment, Mamata Banerjee has now sponsored a game show on TV to kick start start-ups in Bengal. Her government has even set up a Rs. 200 crore angel fund for seed capital. The brand ambassador of the show, ‘Egiye Bangla’ or ‘Bengal is Ahead’, is Sourav Ganguly.
After playing detective Byomkesh Bakshi in a Bengali silver screen adaptation this year, actor Jisshu Sengupta, who was seen opposite Deepika Padukone in Piku, will be searching for start-ups in a TV reality show.
The West Bengal government has tied up with the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, to launch a reality show, Egiye Bangla (Forward Bengal), to promote start-ups in the state. The show will be aired on the Zee Bangla channel.
After playing detective Byomkesh Bakshi in a Bengali silver screen adaptation this year, actor Jisshu Sengupta, who was seen opposite Deepika Padukone in Piku, will be searching for start-ups in a TV reality show.
The West Bengal government has tied up with the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, to launch a reality show, Egiye Bangla (Forward Bengal), to promote start-ups in the state. The show will be aired on the Zee Bangla channel.
The incubator at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta – IIM Calcutta Innovation Park – focuses on healthcare, education, cleantech, lifestyle, analytics, Internet of Things. But, says Subhranghsu Sanyal, Chief Executive Officer, IIMCIP, there is a special focus on social enterprises.
A number of city-based start-ups have made their mark in IT as part of a Nasscom initiative. In January, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) had joined hands with the Bengal government and its information technology and electronics department to open its second warehouse in Calcutta under its “10,000 start-up” programme.
Angel investor and founder of Sify, R Ramaraj, is said to be keen on promoting local entrepreneurship. But he is keeping an eye out for ideas that can crack the Western market, as demonstrated by leading a Rs 3 crore ($500,000) round into Brainstorm Health, an Indian-helmed US startup that makes fitness apps for gyms.
The Tata Group announced the commencement of the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2015-16, a joint initiative with the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) on Monday, to find India’s most promising early-stage social enterprises. Teams who either have an early stage venture (not older than 3 years) or a promising idea with a plan for sustainable social impact, can submit their plans online, by logging onto www.tatasechallenge.org.
The Startup Weekend hosted by IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in the region, had men and women eagerly discussing innovative ideas, coupled with some serious brainstorming. Organised for the first time in Eastern India, IIMCIP brought in some of the key stakeholders in the startup ecosystem like TiE, Calcutta Angels, Nasscom, CII and Innokul.
IIM-Calcutta will host Startup Weekend Kolka ta next week, where 125 men and women will spend 54 hours thrashing out ideas and testing their mettle to see if they can be viable solutions or remain flights of fancy .
“We’re looking to gather some of the most passionate people to work together to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges and innovate disruptive products and solutions. It’s a 54-hour-event where we get developers business folk and designers to make cross-functional teams to discover what entrepre neurs can do together,“ said Aditya Vikram Gupta, one of the organizers.
Social entrepreneurship has over the years been nurtured in India by a few investor firms focussed on the space. Organisations such as Villgro and Aavishkaar have built their brand around the individual seeking to bring innovation to the country’s social problems.
India is a populous country endowed with huge natural resources but humongous social challenges. Hence one needs innovative solutions to address such challenges.
A B-Tech from IIT-Kharagpur , who hit upon an ingenious way of masking gender in foetal ultrasound scans, has won seed funding to develop the technology that can help end the curse of female foeticide in India.