| ARTHA MISSION |
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A tremendous opportunity exists today to transform the face of investor/donor engagement with the vast, untapped markets at the base of the pyramid (BOP). The Artha Platform mission is to help unlock this opportunity.
www.arthaplatform.com
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| Table of Contents:
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| @NRDC: Survey of State Solar Projects Reveals Immense Opportunity for Solar Energy in Rural India (Link)
@satyavrata9: solar energy is being produced in India – installed capacity rising exponentially from just 20 megawatts in 2009 to 980 MW by April 2012
@GregorMacdonald: The sleeping giant of future energy consumption: India. (Link)
@RepowerAmerica: A village of 400 in central India can turn the lights on for the first time thanks to clean energy (Link)
@WindTurbinesNet: Indian Lake to implement an alternative energy source by means of a ?#windturbine?. (Link)
@Enviu: Sustainable housing development & entrepreneurs making water available to poorest in India @_BusinessTrade (Link)
?@IL_business: Haier India Launches Its New Range of Smart Water Heaters – India PR Wire (Link)
@Ecdicius: Let civic agency manage Delhi’s water supply: Mayor – NY Daily News: (Link)
@India_IN: Vedanta founder Anil Agarwal wants to pledge 3/4th of his wealth to philanthropy: Vedanta founder Anil Agarwal wants to pledge 3/4th …
@cnni: ‘Water stress’ in #India: communities struggle daily for clean water. (Link) @sarasidnercnn
@_BusinessTrade: Entrepreneur trio making precious water available to India’s poor. (Link)
@indiawater: Short film by WaterAid: Drops do not discriminate: Addressing inequity in access to water & sanitation in India (Link)
?@danieloporto: Forbes India Magazine – Creating Shared Value and Rockefeller Foundation | (Link) #bop #impactinvesting |
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Promoting Sustainable & Inclusive Businesses in the North East Region in India
Date: July 27th, 2012; 9h-18h
Location: Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, Guwahati
Are you an entrepreneur providing goods, or delivering services to the low income markets? Do you want to develop a clear vision and goal for your enterprise? Do you want to understand different business models that can help you grow and scale? Sponsored by the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in cooperation with Intellectual Capital Advisory Services Ltd. (Intellecap) and Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd. Read more… |
Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference
Date: September 11th-13th, 2012
Location: Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC
The Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference is the leading annual global conference on increasing economic opportunities for young people. This year’s conference showcases 60 sessions and 120 world-class speakers from 25 countries with a special cross-cutting spotlight on technology. Read more… |
EVPA Annual Conference
Date: November 13th-14th, 2012
Location: Croke Park in Dublin
EVPA is happy to announce that registration for the 8th EVPA Annual Conference is now open. For access to the programme, pre-conference event, speakers, practical information, news and updates, please visit the EVPA website.
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Medtronic Foundation Awards Grant to Children’s HeartLink for Pediatric Cardiac Care in India
Children’s HeartLink, a nonprofit organization partnering with health care centers in underserved regions of the world to promote sustainable cardiac care for children with heart disease, today announced a $230,000 award from the Medtronic Foundation for growing and improving cardiac programs in their partner sites in India over the coming two years. Read more…
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| EdelGive Foundation announced that NGOs Dhas Gramin Vikas Kendra (Madhya Pradesh) and Comprehensive Rural Health Project (Maharashtra) have won the inaugural “Times of India” Social Impact award. Edelgive has been supporting these organisations for over a year and are extremely proud of their achievement! Read more…
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WWF Switzerland and Ennovent
On behalf of WWF Switzerland, Ennovent is managing a Tropical Forest Challenge. The objective of this challenge is to discover the most innovative for-profit enterprises from around the world that have a positive impact on tropical forest biodiversity. One winner out of five finalists will be selected in each of the following categories: IDEA (Concept note): A full concept note describing the solution; STARTUP (Proof-of-market): A successful solution tested with potential customers; COMPANY (Break-even): Sufficient revenue streams from sales to cover all costs. The winner in each category (idea, startup and company) will receive global visibility, networking opportunities and capacity building. Each Connector of a winner will get a EUR 1,000 cash reward and global visibility through a publication and online promotion! You may apply now or nominate solutions that make an impact on tropical forest biodiversity. |
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Action for India (AFI) is a social start-up enterprise dedicated to helping social organizations scale their impact by leveraging Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The purpose of the Growth Competition is to identify social entrepreneurs who demonstrate constant success or progress in scaling—or preparing to scale—their ventures and impact. The Competition is open for social entrepreneurs working in the field of education, healthcare, agriculture, energy and livelihoods. Please click here for more information. |
 The spirit of competition can bring about dramatic change in the world. That’s why Intel is partnering with Ashoka Changemakers* to launch She Will Innovate: Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives of Girls. This exciting competition is open to innovators everywhere. More than $30,000 in cash and in-kind prizes will be awarded to the best and most innovative digital technologies that enable girls and women to live healthier, smarter, and more meaningful lives. Ashoka Changemakers brings social entrepreneurs from around the world together to share ideas, mentor each other, and inspire change. Please click here to learn more about the competition. |
The Sitaram Rao Case Study Competition has been designed to identify emerging models and practices that have significantly contributed to the livelihoods of the poor in India. This competition aims to bring together the collective intellect in the country and assimilates innovative solutions, breakthroughs, good experiences and best practices that can help change the poverty status in India. Please click here to read more. |
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ToughStuff
Founded in 2008 by two development professionals with extensive experience across Africa, ToughStuff hopes to replace the dominant forms of home energy and lighting, in efficient batteries and kerosene lamps, with an affordable, healthy, and environmentally-friendly suite of products. ToughStuff customers reap a number of lasting benefits from adopting their products. Given that ToughStuff is working with a leading international manufacturer they are able to provide products at prices as low as $12. This translates into an average savings for the customer of over $98 per year when compared to widely used alternatives. Check Artha site for more. |
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Welcome to the 9th Artha Newsletter!
The Artha Platform expands slowly but steadily, as we welcomed our 126th registrant this past week. This period of time has afforded the Artha team a great deal of learning, as we compile further user feedback and aim to deepen our relationships with partners like Ennovent and their Impact Circle.
The mechanics of supporting social entrepreneurs in India requires walking a fine line between ensuring that their exposure to the right investors/donors is maximized, while also providing those same investors a ‘safe space’ in which to operate and conduct due diligence. As some of these investors are not inclined to sign NDAs, we have recently added function to waive this previously mandatory step of looking at the Artha pipeline; those enterprises who are comfortable with allowing investors to bypass this now have an option to do so.
By December 2012, our system architecture should be able to support the majority of features provided by competing systems and more. Our aim remains to provide an exclusive space for information exchange for famliy offices, social venture capital funds, venture philanthropies, foundations, DFIs, entrepreneur support organizatoins and individuals who operate in this niche arena, and who share a collective focus on maximizing both social impact and financial return in India.
Please contact us if you have any questions, if you have materials that should be included in our Resource Center, our Blog, or this Newsletter moving forward! |
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IIX and Shujog Impact Forum 2012
On June 25th & 26th, IIX and Shujog successfully hosted Impact Forum 2012 which was attended by 400 participants from over 40 countries. A key highlight of this year’s Forum, was an exclusive Social Enterprise (SE) Showcase open to Impact Partners investors. Investors met with 8 leading Social Entrepreneurs from across Asia-Pacific and many are now exploring different levels of investor engagement. Building on the positive response from the Showcase, Impact Partners is pleased to announce two new investment opportunities to the platform: Simpa Networks and Bagosphere. For more info, please contact Sam Lindsay at slindsay@asiaiix.com. |
In Tiny Bean, India’s Poor Farmers Strike Gas-Drilling Gold
Sohan Singh’s shoeless children have spent most of their lives hungry, dirty and hot. A farmer in a desert land, Mr. Singh could not afford anything better than a mud hut and a barely adequate diet for his family. However it just so happens that when the hard little bean that Mr. Singh grows is ground up, it becomes an essential ingredient for mining oil and natural gas in a process called hydraulic fracturing. Please click here to read more. |
Girindre Beeharry to head Indian office of Bill Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently appointed Girindre Beeharry as the head of its India office which is headquartered in New Delhi, effective immediately. In his new role as the director for the India office, Girindre will oversee the Gates Foundation’s programmes, initiatives, policy, advocacy, grant making, and partnerships in India and will lead the foundation’s work with India’s central and state governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and corporate partners to continue the expansion of the foundation’s work and strategic partnerships in India. Please click here to read more. |
Basanti and the Kosi – How one woman revitalized a watershed
The Kosi river in Uttarakhand is the lifeline for the areas it flows through. However, the demands on its water are now increasing, and the supply of water to army cantonments and to cities has severely depleted its flows. The forests and villages that it nourished are now starved of water by urban thirst. This story proves however that villagers are more than the passive victims of such phenomena. Although at one time they contributed to the problem through indiscriminate use of natural resources, today they are its proud protectors. Their inspiration is a tireless and committed woman. Please click here to read her story. |
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The Dishaa Advisory Group was launched by British Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2010 in Bangalore, and is a venture that has been designed to expand, enrich and energise relations between India and the UK. The Dishaa Advisory Group, consisting of experienced and successful leaders from both countries, will identify a compelling challenge each year that is common to the UK and India. Each year for five years, 40 leaders (20 from the UK and 20 from India) will gather for four days – either in India or the UK – to address this challenge; people specifically in the mid to senior stages of their career with a significant track record of leadership and success in their fields and professions will be targeted. The first of these will take place October 1-5th in Mysore and Common Purpose invites applications from future leaders from all backgrounds and sectors to participate. Please read here for more information or contact David O’Connor from Common Purpose. |
 eFarmDirect is a web and mobile based information exchange platform for connecting farmers and buyers of agri produce. It is a B2B model connecting diverse stakeholders in the agri supply chain – including farmers, buyers and their end suppliers, transporters and labour into one information portal. Access to information is just a call away – through a call centre, and hence can be used by those at all education levels. Advanced users can use the web and mobile SMS interfaces for interactive features. eFarmDirect is constantly adding to its directory of farmers and buyers across India, and is effectively a cross between a ‘yellow pages’ style business directory and a ‘matrimony portal’ for the agri industry – providing more efficient match making between farmers and buyers. Please click here to read more, or to view a great article featuring eFarm on the Hindu Businessline. |
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Chaupal
Chaupal’s business model is based on a networked healthcare delivery approach, where a low cost hospital with standardized processes provides high quality yet affordable secondary services supporting the primary care, preventive screening and diagnostics provided by community outreach health camps and mobile wellness clinics. The 20-bed hospital will provide child, maternal and eye care to the periphery of Sonipat district initially, and to Tier II and Tier III towns (semi-urban areas) in the future. Investment requirement: $200K. Please see the Artha pipeline for more information. |
Waste Ventures
Waste Ventures India is an enterprise aiming to create a new sector for solid waste management in India. With a focus on tier-2 and tier-3 cities, this company is building a waste management system that is financially viable, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. Through their work they aim to divert up to 80% of all waste from unsanitary landfilling, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.5% as well as triple income of currently informal waste workers.
By involving existing waste organizations, municipalities/RWAs as well as private investors, they aim to create a system in which incentives are aligned towards sustainable management of waste rather than indiscriminate dumping. Please click here to read more or see the Artha pipeline for more information. |
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Himjoli Products
Himjoli, which means Friend in the Land of Ice, is a social venture company that works with producer groups based in Kumaon, a mountain region in the state of Uttarakhand. Himjoli’s mission is to reduce migration to cities by creating sustainable jobs in the villages. We are looking for investment for setting up 5 new tourist shops in Uttaranchal. Investment per shop is Rs.2 lacs so Rs.10 lacs for 5 shops. Please see the Artha pipeline for more information.
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Janani Foods
Janani AgriServe provides integrated and comprehensive Agri Products/Services to small farmers at the farm gate through Village Level Kiosks/Mandal Level Aggregation Centers under a franchisee model. This is networked through a first-of-its-kind robust ICT Platform developed by IBM India. Revenue is generated through subscriptions, service charges and trading margins. Please see Artha pipeline for more information.
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Pathfinder Health India Pvt. Ltd.
This enterprise aims to set up a hub and spoke model for family medicine and homecare delivery. Its basic concept is to serve the urban population through various formats of the Hub & Spoke model. It aims to set-up Family medical centers (Hub) with higher capacity in key urban areas and reach out to the surrounding poorly served populations through lower capacity satellite ‘Doctor in a Box’ (DIB) healthcare units. The company aims to treat ~2 crore patients over next five years, of which 70% will belong to lower-middle class. Please see Artha pipeline for more information.
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Prakti Design
Too many women are dying and growing poorer from the simple act of cooking. Enter any small dwelling in a village anywhere in the world and chances are you will find a cloud of acrid smoke from a cooking fire hanging in the air. WHO reports that smoke from cooking fires kills over 1.6 million people every year. Prakti Design was founded by entrepreneur Mouhsine Serrar and has developed stoves that cut fuel use in half and reduce smoke emissions by 70%. The health benefits are immediate, and the fuel savings surpass the cost of the stove within six months of daily use. The company has already distributed 100,000 of these products to people in India, Nepal and Haiti in the last 3 years. Please click here to read more. |
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Fighting for food security in India
In India over the past 15 years, the debate about food from a rights-based perspective has become increasingly complex. Concerns about famine, emergency relief and technology-driven green revolutions have given way to discussions on the state’s failure to deliver effective public distribution programmes. Please click here to read more. |
Indian philanthropists should be concerned about human rights
Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth talks about the importance of human rights in successful development efforts and the role of philanthropy in an interview. Please click here to read the interview. |
How genetically modified crops are helping poor farmers in India
The debate about widespread use of genetically modified crops is still contentious. On the one hand, one sees the strong-arm tactics from the likes of Monsanto corporation- while on the other, there are stories from the field supporting their use. By using a special form of genetically modified cotton, smallhold farmers in India have been able to substantially increase their crop output — and quality of life. Please click here to read more. |
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