Neelam Chhiber of Industree Crafts Awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 for India
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in partnership with the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, announced Neelam Chhiber, founder of Indus Tree Crafts Foundation (ICF) and Industree Crafts Private Limited (ICPL), as the winner of the 2011 India Social Entrepreneur of the Year award. The award was conferred in Mumbai at a ceremony attended by over 200 participants in the presence of Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for Planning, Science, Technology and Earth Sciences of India, and Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum.
More than 140 applicants entered the seventh annual “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” selection process for India, and four finalists emerged after several stages of rigorous assessment. An independent panel of pre-eminent judges met on 12 November to select the winner. This year’s judges included Sudha Pillai, Member Secretary of the Planning Commission; Adi Godrej, Chairman of Godrej Group, Godrej Industries; Shobhana Bhartia, Member of Parliament, and Chairperson and Editorial Director of HT Media; Harish Hande, Managing Director of SELCO Solar Light and a Ramon Magsaysay Award Winner for year 2011; Rajiv Khandelwal, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Aajeevika Bureau and Social Entrepreneur of the Year India 2010; and Mirjam Schöning, Head of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
The winner of the annual competition enters the Schwab Foundation’s global community of more than 200 social innovators.
Attached please find the note announcing the winner of the India Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Link to CNBC TV-18 – Special Coverage –Change Agents: The Award process and award ceremony was covered extensively on CNBC – TV 18. In case you missed the grand finale this past weekend, you can catch the special feature on this link – http://www.moneycontrol.com/video/business/all-good-corporations-must-havesocial-goal_620759.html?utm_source=Article_Vid
The award has been given annually in the country since 2005 to individuals who have founded organizations or companies with targeted social missions benefiting underserved communities. The winners enter the global network of 200 leading social entrepreneurs of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a sister organization of the World Economic Forum.
Winner Profile: Neelam Chhiber
INDUSTREE CRAFTS FOUNDATION/ INDUSTREE CRAFTS PRIVATE LIMITEED (Under the Brand ‘MOTHEREARTH’):
Field: Rural Development; Enterprise Development; Culture/Handicrafts
Headquartered at: Bangalore
Year of Establishment: 1994
Legal Form of Business: Hybrid Not-For-Profit
Website: www.industree.org.in; www.motherearth.co.in
Industree triples incomes of marginal artisans by moving them from being „piece rate workers? to owners and entrepreneurs of grassroots community enterprises. It works both at the production and market ends of complex supply chains and has impacted more than 10,000 artisans living below the poverty line, by putting them in charge of their own enterprises. At the producer?s end, Industree incubates community enterprises and common production entities that are jointly owned by artisans and local entrepreneurs (typically unemployed or under employed youth) . At the market end, Industree?s multi-retail brand, Mother Earth, and aggressive sales force, set up with investment from the Future Group, offers the new producer- entrepreneur with a direct market platform to the Indian retail market, ensuring steady business of high volumes and smooth cash flows, year-on-year.
For every 100 Indian rupees of revenue increase for Industree, producer incomes increase by 58 Indian rupees. As a result, community enterprises incubated by Industree, and owned by artisanal communities, break even within their first year of operation. In addition, 13% of the brand Value of Mother Earth has been locked into a MBT for artisans to purchase at par. As of August 2011, Industree has incubated 13 SHG-based community-owned enterprises and common production units in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and directly impacted more than 10,000 marginal producers and their families, of which 61% live below the poverty line, earning less than one US dollar a day. Industree also trains and sources products from 400 crafts-based collectives and SHGs in 10 Indian states, opening up the Mother Earth brand and market platform for them.
In 5 years, Neelam Chibber and her team aim to directly impact more than 50,000 individual artisans by incubating their enterprises and facilitating their diversification into newer products, brands and markets, beyond those offered by Mother Earth. Industree triples incomes of marginal artisans by moving them from being „piece rate workers? to owners and entrepreneurs of grassroots community enterprises. It works both at the production and market ends of complex supply chains and has impacted more than 10,000 artisans living below the poverty line, by putting them in charge of their own enterprises.
The Schwab Foundation
(http://www.schwabfound.org) is a sister organization of the World Economic Forum. The Foundation provides unique regional and global platforms to promote social entrepreneurship as a key element to advancing societies and addressing social problems innovatively and effectively. It also fosters a close-knit community of social entrepreneurs for idea exchange and replication of best practices. Finally, social entrepreneurs gain unprecedented networking opportunities with global decision-makers, thereby furthering the legitimacy of their work and mobilizing resources for continual expansion.
Jubilant Bhartia Foundation
the social wing of the Jubilant Bhartia Group, was established in 2007. As a part of the Jubilant Bhartia Group, the foundation focuses on conceptualizing and implementing the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives for the group. The foundation?s objectives include various community development work, health care activities, cultural & sports activities, environment preservation initiative, vocational training, women empowerment and educational activities. www.jubilantbhartiafoundation.com
Start Up!
(www.startup-india.org) is an angel investor and consultant to social entrepreneurs. It launches, strengthens and scales social enterprises and hybrid social change models of lasting impact.