Social entrepreneurship at ISB

Updated on: Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Hyderabad: The Indian School of Business (ISB) hosted the Asia round of the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) - an international forum for exceptionally bright students and entrepreneurs with path breaking social venture ideas at the Hyderabad campus from March 20 – March 22 2009. Two teams have been selected to represent Asia at the Global Finals which will be conducted in Berkeley at the Haas School of Business in April 2009. Aimed at a global audience, the platform brings together business schools across the world to support the creation of social ventures.

The winning teams are ‘Pioneer Healthcare’ from The ISB and ‘Umeed’ from SP Jain, Mumbai. The GSVC competition compels students to combine social responsibility with profitability. It is especially relevant today when traditional methods of conducting business are being questioned. GSVC is expected to be a powerful force in helping young people to come up with viable alternatives that will benefit humanity.

Pioneer Healthcare – The business plan presented by The Indian School of Business team proposes building a network of hospitals in a hub and spoke model, combining best medical facilities and knowledge, augmenting each other to provide effective primary healthcare in rural areas. This high-volume low-cost model emphasises maximum resource utilisation. The total initial investment for the project is estimated to be USD 3.8 million with a return of investment of 36.11 percent over five years. The other winning team was from SP Jain Mumbai. Their business plan - Ummeed aims to address hygiene and reproductive health issues of low-income rural women by providing bio-degradable sanitary napkins that are economical. The team selected for Best Social Impact Assessment was the ISB team – ArtIsAn Art. It proposes to promote handicrafts through providing design support and market access to rural artisans thus ensuring higher income.

For more information visit : educationtimes.com/educationTimes/index.jsp

Social entrepreneurship at ISB

More Education news