ABOUT

DEVELOPMENT DIALOGUE

Development Dialogue (DD) is an international social entrepreneurship conference hosted

in Hubballi every year by Deshpande Foundation. It is a conclave of like-minded people
who believe in entrepreneurial ecosystem as a way of nurturing scalable solutions. The
event has been an integral part of Hubli Sandbox since the beginning and in many ways,
reflecting the stages, issues and growth story of the Sandbox and its partners.
What sets DD apart is the solution driven approach and deliberations oriented toward
proof of concept to, as Desh Deshpande puts it, help talkers to do and doers to talk.
DD also cuts across boundaries of corporate, not-for-profit, investors, entrepreneurs and
innovators, philanthropists, thinkers, academicians and practitioners that are linked by an
agenda to make a difference in their own capacity.
The conference is also a confluence of many conferences, where communities of farmers,
students, teachers and health practitioners at the grassroots come together to do their
own Sammelanas. The event gathers eminent inspirational speakers from across the
world interested in promoting social development and entrepreneurship.
The theme of Development Dialogue 2016 was Execute Locally, Innovate Globally.
We live in a connected world where innovation is the buzzword. Innovators are
compassionate and would like to help impoverished communities. However, very few
innovations impact the world in meaningful ways. Four things need to come together to
have an impact: Innovations that are relevant and co-created with the people who need
it; Execution capacity - ability to absorb innovation and having the human resources to
roll out the solution; Appropriate infrastructure; Government involvement and the right
policies and support. The conference touched upon different dimensions of these aspects.

FOUNDERS
Dr. Desh Deshpande, Chairman of Sparta Group LLC, A123 Systems (AONE), Sycamore Networks
(SCMR), Tejas Networks, Sandstone Capital and HiveFire, is an Indian-American venture capitalist,
entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is involved in several companies in capacities such as founder,
founding investor and chairman. He serves as a life-member of the MIT Corporation, and his support
has made possible MITs Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation.
Dr. Deshpande is a trustee of the Deshpande Foundation. He and his wife are involved in several
non-profit initiatives that include support for MIT, IIT, TiE, Akshaya Patra Foundation, Public Health
Foundation of India and the Social Entrepreneurship Sandbox in India. Through Deshpande Foundation,
he is helping NGOs scale up and sustain philanthropic initiatives on their own steam. His formula for
self-reliance is relevance followed by innovation.
He holds a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, an M.E.
from the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and Ph.D from Queens University in Canada. He cochairs a National Council to support President Obamas innovation and entrepreneurship strategy.

Dr. Desh Deshpande

Founder,
Deshpande Foundation

Jaishree Deshpande is the Treasurer of Sparta Group LLC, and a Founder of the Deshpande
Foundation. Jaishree, along with her husband 'Desh' Deshpande, supported the founding of
The Deshpande Center at the MIT School of Engineering in 2002 to increase the impact of MIT
technologies in the marketplace. She currently serves as a Trustee for the Museum of Science and is
involved with HESTIA Fund a fund established to support quality after-school programming for lowincome children.
Jaishree Deshpande worked for the Indian Space Research Organization in Bangalore, India until
1980 before moving to Canada. She worked for several Massachusetts companies and taught
courses in computer science. She received a Master of Science in Physics in 1975 from the Indian
Institute of Technologies (IIT), Madras, India. She also received a Master in Computer Science in
1989 from Boston University.

Jaishree Deshpande
Treasurer, Sparta Group LLC,
Founder, Deshpande Foundation

DEVELOPMENT DIALOGUE 2016

HIGHLIGHTS
17

CONFERENCES/
PANEL DISCUSSIONS

70+

450+
PARTICIPANTS

SPEAKERS

25+
PARTICIPANTS
FROM ABROAD

Kickoff
Setting the tone for the Development Dialogue-2016
with a quick overview of its history and objectives

If we dont understand customers, its

very hard to come up with a product
that is appropriate. So, you need to
find a way to co-create the solution
for the people who need it.
Secondly, even if you come up with
a best solution, there is no capacity
to absorb the solution. You have to
build the capacity. So, if you really
want a good partnership between
the people who really need the
solution and the people who think
they can contribute to the solution,
you need collaboration. And
collaboration happens only between
two equally strong partners.
The Sandbox is really about building
that strength. This Development
Dialogue somehow effectively brings
together all these elements so that
we not only solve problems but
solve them on a big scale

Dr. 'Desh' Deshpande

Founder, Deshpande Foundation

@DeshpandeFdtn

05

Kickoff
Setting the tone for the Development Dialogue-2016
with a quick overview of its history and objectives

We need technology to enable progress, and

entrepreneurs to take that and deliver solutions.
We need organisations like the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) because they have
technology. We need entrepreneurs in every
village to take technological solutions to people
living in villages, like farmers.

Dr. 'Desh' Deshpande

06

Nutshell

Keynote Session

PANEL
Prof. Muhammad Yunus
Founder, Grameen Bank

Narayana Murthy
Founder, Infosys Technologies

'Desh' Deshpande
Founder, Deshpande Foundation

MODERATOR
Shekhar Gupta
Mediascape

rguably the biggest highlight of Development Dialogue was

Nobel laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus keynote speech. He
started off with a background on microfinance and how that term
came into existence. He recalled the struggles he faced convincing
banks to lend money to the poor and how that motivated him to the
founding of Grameen Bank, which currently lends over a billion
dollars every year to mostly women who form 97% of
the borrowers.
He also spoke about the job crisis in Bangladesh and how his
'Social Business Fund' helps job seekers to turn into innovative
entrepreneurs through their hard work and the power of innovation.
In the discussion that followed, N. R. Narayana Murthy noted that
governments should not assume the role of a business entity as that
would mean trouble for the people. Dr. 'Desh' Deshpande shared
his insights about the viability of social business models.

Keynote Session
Microcredit pioneer about transforming the poor lives
through a viable social business model, following by
insightful discussion with legends

Tell yourself everyday: I am not a job seeker, I am

a job creator! Defining your destination should be
based on imagination, not on what youre able to
do today. When you define your destination, be
as wild as you can. The journey towards it will be
worth it.

Prof. Muhammad Yunus

Founder,
Grameen Bank
@yunus_centre

08

Keynote Session
Microcredit pioneer about transforming the poor lives
through a viable social business model, following by
insightful discussion with legends

In this globalized era, it is

about sourcing credit from
where it is the best, raw
material where it is the best,
manufacture where it is the
best. So, it about innovating
locally and executing
globally.

Narayana Murthy

Founder,
Infosys Technologies
@Infosys_nmurthy

Citizens should take

ownership of the
change they want
to bring in India.

'Desh' Deshpande

Founder,
Deshpande Foundation
@DeshpandeFdtn

09

Keynote Session
Microcredit pioneer about transforming the poor lives
through a viable social business model, following by
insightful discussion with legends

Owners can take platforms

away, social media gives you
the power to take with you
the audience. Engage with
the world, always look out
for new opportunities. Face
your problems, make your
life an interesting read.

Shekhar Gupta

Founder,
Mediascape

@ShekharGupta

At Grameen Bank the

whole system runs on
trust. We do not have a
legal system.

Prof. Muhammad Yunus

Founder,
Grameen Bank
@yunus_centre

10

Nutshell

Reaching for the

Stars When Dreaming
Fuels Innovation

PANEL
Dr. Anousheh Ansari
Co-founder, Chairwoman and
CEO of Prodea Systems

Lakshmi Pratury
Founder, InkTalks

akshmi Pratury, founder of InkTalks, beautifully pulled out a dialogue

with, Dr. Anousheh Ansari who is ithe co-founder of Prodea Systems and
also the first self-funded female astronaut. Anousheh described about how
she used to dream about being an astronaut while she was a kid living in
Iran. She recalled her and her husbands struggle to develop a telecom
company and how it took eight long years to make it stand out.
In the same context, she gave some useful advice to the upcoming
entrepreneurs on how to deal with the industry-based problems and find
solutions. A video was played showing Anoushehs journey from her
childhood to the space expedition. She explained about her initiative,
Ansari X Prize, which rewards any person a sum of $10 million for
building a sustainable spacecraft that could at least travel to the edge
of the atmosphere. The initiative helps people in poverty-alleviation,
education and other fields needing financial aid. The most lively part
of the whole discussion was when she vividly described her experience
inside the Virgin Galactic space shuttle and how breathtaking the whole
expedition was.
The session ended with Pratury narrating an interesting story about the
importance of mentorship and how people often dont realize their own
potential when they are in pursuit of mentorship.

Reaching for the Stars

When Dreaming Fuels Innovation
What it means to dream big and innovating to turn the
dream into a reality

Life is all about experiences. We learn the most

about ourselves through difficulty, mediocrity
does not justify our lives. Everything doesn't
have to be preplanned. You can just jump in and
make things happen. If you feel intensely about
something, do it.

Dr. Anousheh Ansari

Co-founder, Chairwoman and

Chief Executive Officer of Prodea Systems
@anoushehansari

12

Reaching for the Stars

When Dreaming Fuels Innovation
What it means to dream big and innovating to turn the
dream into a reality

Mentorship plays an important role.

It is good to have one person you
know well and go to in times of
problems. But it is not the only way.
If you dont have a mentor, you can
also be a part of a community or a
network and get required support.

Dr. Anousheh Ansari

Co-founder, Chairwoman
& Chief Executive Officer
of Prodea Systems
@anoushehansari

The fact that we are looking for

a mentor means you have come
to a stage you dont need one
anymore. To me, I think India is like
a big elephant that doesnt know
how powerful it is. The younger
people, all of you, dont know how
powerful you are.

Lakshmi Pratury

Founder,
InkTalks

@lakshmipratury

13

Nutshell

Ideas Impacting Millions

SPEAKERS
Dr. Madhav Chavan
Pratham Education Foundation

Dr. R. V. Ramani
Sankara Eye Foundation

Dr. Abhay Bang

SEARCH

M. P. Vasimalai
DHAN Foundation

Shekhar Gupta
Mediascape

MODERATOR
Raj Melville
Deshpande Foundation

r. Madhav Chavan began with the story of his

organizations impact on the life of millions and the
experiences during the journey.
Dr. Ramani informed about the significance of healthcare
in India and his inspiration for starting the Sankara Eye
Foundation.
Dr. Abhay Bang talked about the need-based approach
and the importance of the ability to imagine the problems.
To put it in his words, To become an innovator and
entrepreneur, I first started imagining problems and went out
to ask questions: Who is the community and what do they
need? He added that the initial steps of a program must be
highly participatory and involve local communities in order
to identify and meet their needs.
Dr. Chavan questioned the feasibility of replication
and scaling and rather preferred the spread of ideas
and programs for higher impact. He felt that constant
adjustments are necessary for new locations, especially in
the field of education where it isn't surprising to find new
dialects in every 20 km in India.

Ideas Impacting
Millions
A peep into how great ideas make big impact upon
successful execution

M. P. Vasimalai, Dr. Abhay Bang, Dr. Madhav Chavan, Dr. R. V. Ramani, Raj Melville, Shekhar Gupta

The role of journalism doesnt change.

What changes is the platform. New media
tools are available to everyone for free
and it is empowerment. Empowerment in
communication has been enormous, more
than in any other field. We have to learn to
communicate directly, to use social media
to reach people.

Shekhar Gupta

Founder,
Mediascape

@ShekharGupta

Always put community first,

look for issues within your
community. Every problem
has solutions.

M. P. Vasimalai
Executive Director,
DHAN Foundation
@dhan_foundation

15

Ideas Impacting
Millions
A peep into how great ideas make big impact upon
successful execution

Listening to people has helped us the

most. Community insights have always
sharpened our solution. To become an
innovator and entrepreneur, I first started
imagining problems and went out to ask
questions: Who is the community and what
do they need?

Dr. Abhay Bang

Director,
SEARCH (Society for Education, Action
and Research in Community Health)

Whatever you want done

on the ground, make it very
simple, so anyone can do it.

Dr. Madhav Chavan

Chief Executive Officer,

Pratham Education Foundation,
@Pratham_India

16

Nutshell

SPEAKERS
Dr. R. V. Ramani
Sankara Eye Foundation

Dr. Abhay Bang

SEARCH

Dr. Pooja Mukul

Jaipur Foot Organization

Dr. Shiban Ganju

Save A Mother

Rajabali Mangalgi
Deshpande Foundation

MODERATOR
Siva Ramamoorthy
Ephicacy Lifescience Analytics
Pvt. Ltd. Foundation

Last Mile Delivery

in Preventive Health

The panelists discussed the best practices in Last mile

delivery in Preventive Health, followed by a highly

interactive Q&A session with the audience.
The topics under preventive health were very diverse
and ranged from last mile female community workers of
SEARCH to conveying messages through simple songs and
music by Save A Mother. Dr. Pooja Mukul explained how
a team of local craftsmen went on to craft a prosthetic leg
prototype under the guidance of prosthetists. This prosthetic is
now widely known as Jaipur Foot. It has since been improved
upon by engineers from Stanford and it has benefited 1.5
million people across the globe free of cost.
Rajbali K. Mangalgi talked about how Deshpande Foundation
conducted a nutritional intervention and supplied several
malnourished children with proper nutritional food bringing
several of them back to good health. This was followed by
scaling the intervention to help thousands of malnourished
children. He also told about sanitary intervention and how
hygiene awareness programs have helped improve the
sanitary conditions in rural areas.
Dr. Abhay Bang addressed the problems regarding massive
scale up which causes issues such as quality dilution. He also
went on to suggest some practical solutions including creating
policy framework, standardized training methodology, and
monitoring and
evaluation systems.
The key message for the audience was to take up the
responsibility and not wait for the government to take action.
Many health challenges can be tackled with a collective
approach and this can make rapid scaling up a reality.

Last Mile Delivery in

Preventive Health
Sharing of experiences by super achieves in the
health sector

M. P. Vasimalai, Dr. Abhay Bang, Dr. Madhav Chavan, Dr. R. V. Ramani, Raj Melville, Shekhar Gupta

We have to focus on demand

generation, widen knowledge in
the community to use the solutions
effectively.

Dr. Shiban Ganju

Health (for all) is a fundamental human

right and an attainable social goal.
Committed human resource is one
major challenge in achieving this goal.

Dr. R.V. Ramani

Founder,
Save A Mother

Founder & Managing Trustee,

Sankara Eye Care Institutions

@skganju

@sankaraeye

17

Nutshell

Education As
It Should Be!

SPEAKERS
Dr. Madhav Chavan
Pratham Education Foundation

Prof. Rohit Dhankar

Azim Premji University

Sanjay Gupta
English Helper

Vidya Shah
EdelGive Foundation

MODERATOR
Dr. Sushil Vachani
IIM Bangalore

he discussion focussed on the current education system in India.

The speakers spoke about how the teachers, parents and the society
as a whole can affect a childs overall development. Prof. Rohit
Dhankar said, ''A mind can be shaped in a proper way only by
another mind that is already shaped in a proper way." He stressed
on the importance of a teacher in the development of education as
a whole, later talking about the issues regarding scaling in the field
of education. To quote him, "Education is invoking the power of
the mind to make judgment and act" and that the schools should
leverage the power of the mind to enlighten the students.
Sanjay Gupta talked about education for the future and pointed
out that our current education system still has a colonial hangover.
Interestingly, he also talked about the need to focus on developing
good teachers.
Dr. Madhavan stated that the resources for education have
increased and the students have access to a wider range of
resources. He emphasized the importance of on-the-job learning
and its significance.
Vidya Shah dwelled upon some finer aspects such as developing
good teachers rather than spending a lot of money on infrastructure,
teaching students skills such as critical thinking, and attitudes
such as curiosity and discipline. She said the schools must be held
responsible for evolving these skills and attitudes in children to
make them future-ready.
The panelists shared their vision on various education models that
need to be recognized and followed, and on how to make education
more inclusive for people with disabilities.

Education As
It Should Be!
Redefining the contours of education
by those who have done it

Dr. Sunil Vachani, Dr. Madhav Chavan, Vidya Shah, Sanjay Gupta, Rohit Dhankar

Lets focus on the function of learning

and not the form called school. Move
the debate from education as it
should be to learning as it should be.
Lets make education child-centric.
(Also,) schools cannot be isolated
from communities.

Dr. Madhav Chavan

We need better teachers. A mind can

be shaped in a proper way only by
another mind that is already shaped in
a proper way. In education, you cannot
scale a model. Share the learnings and
let others absorb and implement them
in their contexts.

Prof. Rohit Dhankar

Chief Executive Officer,

Pratham Education Foundation,

Director,
Academic Development,
Azim Premji University

@Pratham_India

@azimpremjiunive

19

Nutshell

SPEAKERS
Dhananjay Tingal
Bachpan Bachao Andolan

M. P. Vasimalai
DHAN Foundation

Dr. Venkat Maroji

Source Trace Systems

B. Shiva Rudrappa
BAIF

Iunnuskhan

Deshpande Foundation

MODERATOR
Dr. Neelam Maheshwari
Deshpande Foundation

Of Lives and
Livelihoods!

he session began with Dr. Neelam Maheshwari shedding some

light on the key issues. M P Vasimalai spoke about community
banking and the importance of branding. He then narrated a success
stories of 20000 coconut farmers who launched 30 of their own
retail stores.
B.Shivarudrappa spoke about how his organization, BAIF, has
helped farmers in solving the issue of unproductive animals. He also
mentioned his personal growth with BAIF in supporting 50 lakh
families in one lakh villages across India. Trends are now changing
and people are going back from IT business to dairy businesses, he
added.
Innuskhan informed about the scope of farming and suggested several
examples of farmers being able to earn nearly a lakh in income from
one acre of land.
The panelists expressed their views on creating leadership among
villagers to strive for their needs and to find sustainable solutions for
their problems.
The discussion took an interesting turn when the issue of "assurance
of minimum income" per acre of land was raised. An investment of
Rs. 35 thousand per acre can have returns of up to Rs. one lakh.
It was felt that the aggregation of farms is of utmost importance to
bring about a revolution in rural areas.

Of Lives and
Livelihoods!
About making life on earth
qualitatively better and sustainable

Dhananjay Tingal, B. Shivarudrappa, Dr. Venkat Maroju, M.P. Vasimalai, M. Innuskhan, Neelam Maheshwari

If the purpose is
not clear the vision
keeps evolving

Trends are now changing people are

going back from IT business to dairy
businesses.

B. Shivarudrappa

Program Director,
Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation

M. P. Vasimalai
Executive Director,
DHAN Foundation
@dhan_foundation

21

Nutshell

Enablers Take on
Catalyzing Change

SPEAKERS
Zenia Tata
XPRIZE Foundation Inc.

M. A. Ravi Kumar
American India Foundation

Ajit Mahadevan
Acumen

Abhishek Humbad
NextGen PMS

Padmini Somani
Salaam Bombay Foundation

MODERATOR
Neera Nundy
Dasra

Zenia Tata started the conversation by talking about the importance

of fostering innovations, and the work at XPRIZE to support

innovators. She talked about leveling the ground for the innovators
and the organization's strategy to get innovators interested in
developing technologies, especially in the fields of water conservation
and women safety in India.
Padmini Somani highlighted the need for tobacco-prohibition
awareness programs right at the school level as one in every three
Indians starts using tobacco by the age of 10.
Ajit Mahadevan spoke about Acumen's strategy to tackle poverty.
He also focussed on its investment in companies like Labournet, a
company that empowers the informal sector workers through training,
thus, improving their chances of employment.
M.A. Ravi Kumar began with a heart-warming story of the origin
of his organization, American India Foundation, which has one
key objective - eradication of poverty in India. He talked about its
initiatives in the fields of livelihood and skill building, education, and
public health.
In conclusion, the panel discussed about creating opportunities for
innovators to showcase their talents and the scalability of
a project.

Enablers Take on
Catalyzing Change
Change is the only constant, but someone
needs to trigger positive changes

Abhishek Humbad, Ajit Mahadevan, Zenia Tata, M. A. Ravi Kumar, Padmini Somani, Neera Nundy

In order to execute,
we have to be able
to innovate.

Ajit Mahadevan

We need exponential thinkers,

exponential ideas, exponential
performers for exponential impact
because the problem of scaling is
very real. We believe science and
technology can be great enablers
to solving big problems that we are
facing. Marry the power of crowd with
power of cloud to deliver impact.

Our work is in
empowering girls,
build self efficacy
to build efficacy in
communities.

Zenia Tata

India Country Head,

Acumen

Executive Director,
Global Development, XPRIZE

@ajitmahadevan

@zenia_tata

Padmini Somani

founder- director:
Salaam Bombay Foundation

23

Nutshell

Including Diversity:
Here and Now!

SPEAKERS
Mahantesh G.K
Samarthanam Trust

V.S. Basavaraju
The Association of People with Disability (APD)

George Abraham
Score foundation

MODERATOR
Dr. Aravind Chinchure
Symbiosis International University

he speakers of this session clearly articulated the

challenges of the physically disabled in our society and
how government could make cities more disabled-friendly
Mr. Mahantesh G. K, Chairman of the Samarthan Trust,
an organization that converts printed books into audio
books to be read out to the visually impaired, explained
how Samarthan Trust has helped visually impaired
children since their childhood, supporting their education
throughout primary and secondary school.
Srikanth Bolla from Bollar Industries Pvt. Ltd. underscored
the need of the attention of governments and corporations
towards the difficulties faced by the physically challenged
while undertaking any project.
George Abraham of Score Foundation highlighted the
need to have a model which can be scaled to meet the
requirements of the physically challenged, and the policies
that can help them get equal opportunities everywhere.
The speakers had an intense and exciting question and
answer session with the audience expressing their views on
the topic and posting interesting questions to the speakers.

Including Diversity:
Here and Now!
Diversity also means including differently
abled in the march to progress

Dr. Aravind Chinchure, Mahantesh G.K., George Abraham, V.S. Basavaraju

The blind should become taxpayers of

the country.

Mahantesh G.K

It is the mind that drives your life, not

the eyes that determine what and
what not to do.

George Abraham

Founder,
Managing Trustee of
Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled

Founder Chairman,
World Blind Cricket Council

@GKMahantesh

@georgebhai

25

Nutshell

SPEAKERS
Atul Satija
Founder and CEO of he Nudge Foundation

Mallamma
Senior Program Manager at the
Deshpande Foundation

Akshay Saxena
Co-Founder at Avanti

Monish Pabrai
Founder of Dakshana Foundation

Varun Aggarwal
Founder and CTO of Aspiring Minds

MODERATOR
Naveen Jha
Deshpande Foundation

Skilling:
Excelling to Scaling!

tul Satija, Founder and CEO of The Nudge Foundation,

underscored the importance of building a good foundation for
success to follow.
Mallamma, Senior Program Manager of Deshpande Foundation,
explained her own transformation - from being a person with
no soft skills to being able to articulate her views fluently in
English.
Akshay Saxena, Co-founder at Avanti and an IIT and Harvard
alumni, touched upon the subject of grooming kids from a prehigh school level to help them achieve their dreams.
Mohnish Pabrai, Founder of Dakshana Foundation, explained
how his institute has helped thousands of children from
impoverished backgrounds get into the IITs.
Varun Aggarwal, Founder and CTO at Aspiring Minds,
expressed his views on skill assessment and how important it is
for industries to scout for the right talent.
The whole discussion was primarily on three stages of a persons
career and how those three stages can help alleviate poverty.

Skilling:
Excelling to Scaling!
What is skilling and how to fulfill heterogenous
needs of different populations

Varun Aggarwal, Atul Satija, Mallamma B., Akshay Saxena, Mohnish Pabrai, Naveen Jha

We have discovered that skilling and

scaling, with strong work ethics and
passion, can make a strong impact.
We found that skill is one part, besides
stronger desire and passion which are
also important. Each one of us make
sure that we create that passion in the
students in our own ways.

Naveen Jha

Chief Executive Officer

Deshpande Foundation
@NaveenSandbox

27

Nutshell

Public-Private
Partnership:

Pathways to Expand Change Exponentially

SPEAKERS
Giridhar Aramane
IAS, Principal Secretary, Andhra Pradesh(AP)
Service Public Commission, Government of AP

Ramji Raghavan
Agastya International Foundation

Dr. Shiban Ganju

Save A Mother

Zubin Sharma
Project Potential

Sridhar Venkat
Akshaya Patra Foundation

Shikha Uberoi
Professional Indian tennis player
& co-founder of indi.com, India

MODERATOR
Dr. Aravind Chinchure
Symbiosis International University

ow Akshaya Patra Foundation reached a milestone in public

service by providing free mid-day meals to about 1.4 million
children everyday? Sridhar Venkat explained this interesting
phenomenon.
Ideas of instilling leadership qualities and creativity among the
underprivileged children and teachers were explained by Ramji
Raghavan of the Agastya International Foundation.
Dr. Shiban Ganju, MD and Founder of Save a Mother initiative,
described how healthcare can be made accessible and affordable
to all sections of the society.
The highlight of the session came when professional tennis player
Shikha Uberoi expressed her views on how people can connect
with big brands through sharing and uploading videos on her
company website indi.com.
IAS officer Giridhar Aramane emphasized on the need to create a
cradle of trust between the government and private NGOs to help
them succeed.
Zubin Sharma, Founder of Project Potential, highlighted the need
to find innovative thinkers and teachers in rural India, connect
with them and work with them on a large scale so that rural India
can benefit from them.

Public-Private
Partnership:

Pathways to Expand Change Exponentially

Why partnership with government agencies too
crucial for driving positive changes at scale

Giridhar Aramane, Zubin Sharma, Ms. Shikha Uberoi, Dr. Shiban Ganju, Ramji Raghavan, Sridhar Venkat,
Dr. Aravind Chinchure

Simplicity in the way you articulate

your mission is critical to deliver
impact.
There are a lot of good people in
the government. You have to build
relationship with government and
even with players in corporate sector
at various levels.

Ramji Raghavan

Building trust among all stakeholders,

keeping everything simple, innovation
and engaging with the government
were key to the success of Akshaya
Patra. Akshaya Patra is an organization
with the mind of a corporate but the
heart of the compassionate.

Sridhar Venkat

Founder & Chairman, Agastya

International Foundation

CEO,
The Akshaya Patra Foundation

@AgastyaSparks

@AkshayaPatra

29

Public-Private
Partnership:

Pathways to Expand Change Exponentially

Why partnership with government agencies too
crucial for driving positive changes at scale

Mainstream entertainment and

impact initiatives should work side by
side so that the impact makers are
mainstream.

We have to focus on demand

generation, widen knowledge in
the community to use the solutions
effectively.

Shikha Uberoi

Dr. Shiban Ganju

Professional Indian tennis player

& co-founder of indi.com

Founder,
Save A Mother

@ShikhaUberoi

@skganju

30

Nutshell

Global Perspective:
Roadmap to Impact

SPEAKERS
Vishnu Swaminathan
Ashoka South Asia

Karen Heald
Fidelity Charitable

Dominic McAllister
British Deputy High Commission

Radhesh Kanumury
IBM-Global Entrepreneur Program

Zenia Tata
XPRIZE Foundation Inc.

MODERATOR
Neera Nundy
Dasra

Putting forward the theory of creating self-sustaining structure

models, Karen Heald spoke about finding a donor or investor

who can see the larger picture and understand the vision of the
organization. She also mentioned that entrepreneurs should not lose
track of the community efforts at the grassroots and encouraged
them to work with the society in order to recognize critical
problems and work constructively to find solutions.
Vishnu Swaminathan said direct service is crucial to building
confidence in an organization which help them replicate their initial
success at a larger scale. Moreover, he also talked about systemic
change saying, "A systemic change happens when you let go of
something". He stressed the importance of shifting the focus from
the organization to the organization's core idea.
Zenia Tata spoke about the need for exponential ideas and
innovations to curb the problem of scalability. She advised
the entrepreneurs to use the power of the crowd to empower
organizations with things such as market research, crowd research
and various other aspects. She also directed the integration of
artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and other scalable technologies to
achieve exponential growth.
Radhesh Kanumury exaplined about IBM's cutting-edge AI
project Watson, which can massively revolutionize agriculture and
healthcare sectors.

Global Perspective:
Roadmap to Impact
Experiments and futuristic models having the
potential to impact lives in days to come

Radhesh Kanumury, Zenia Tata, Vishnu Swaminathan, Karen Heald, Dominic McAllister, Neera Nundy

Systemic change happens when you let

something go. Graduate from replication to
evangelizing your idea. You move from being
an organization to an idea, like Gramin Bank, an
organization, becoming an idea.

Vishnu Swaminathan

India Country Head,

Ashoka India
@vishnuswami

32

Nutshell

Yours Entrepreneurially!
Social Business:
Profits with a Purpose

SPEAKERS
Pavin Pankajan
AquaSafi Purification Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Latha Srinivasan
ChipperSage Education Pvt. Ltd.

Mihir Shah
UE LifeSciences Inc.

Ram Ramnathan
4R Recycling Pvt. Ltd.

Siva Devireddy
GoCoop

Roshan Miranda
Waste Ventures India

Dr. Anand Lakshman

AddressHealth

MODERATOR
Will Poole
Unitus Seed Fund

ounders of innovative companies expressed their views on

how organizations with revolutionary ideas and models can
bring about a significant change in the society.
Pavin Pankajan gave a vivid idea of how his company ensures
pure drinking water to hundreds of villages in rural India.
Latha Srinivasan spoke of the need to instill fluent spoken
English skills among every Indian. Roshan Miranda dealt with
waste recycling and spoke about introducing a model that could
be implemented by every household in the country to recycle
waste.
Ram Raghavan explained about recycling electronic waste
and how his company has been a pioneer in electronic waste
recycling.
The impact of technology on healthcare, especially in breast
cancer treatment, was explained by Mihir Shah.
Siva Devireddy spoke of the need to industrialize and market the
handicraft sector where many talented craftsmen struggle to get
minimum wage.

Yours Entrepreneurially!
Social Business:
Profits with a Purpose
Making profits and doing good to the society - How
to balance both objectives

Remove the negativity, theres only

for value. Non-profit is a negative
word. Not-for-profit, or For-profit, or
NGO doesnt matter. All organizations,
be it governmental, for-profits and
NGOs should rather be called For
Value Organizations.

(Will your venture be) Profitable

in 3 months or in 3 years? An
entrepreneur has to ask himself this
question.

Roshan Miranda

Dr. Anand Lakshman

Founder & CEO,

AddressHealth

Director,
Urban Waste Management
and Recycling,
Waste Ventures India

34

Yours Entrepreneurially!
Social Business:
Profits with a Purpose
Making profits and doing good to the society - How
to balance both objectives

It is important to have a dedicated

team, even multiple founders to
share your vision while building an
enterprise.

Will Poole

Changing the standard of care,

diagnosis, and by getting several
other stakeholders to think about
early detection of breast cancer
would be a major attribute towards
the overall goal of creating impact.
The number of lives you save is also
an attribute of the impact.

Mihir Shah

Managing Partner - Capria

& Unitus Seed Fund

Co-Founder
& CEO- UE Lifesciences

@wpoole8

@NoTouchScanner

35

An Evening with Legends

Making profits and doing good to the society - How
to balance both objectives

36

Wrap up
Summarizing the 2-day event, acknowledging all
who made it successful and the vision for the future

37

More Glimpses

38

More Glimpses

39

More Glimpses

40

More Glimpses

41

More Glimpses

42

More Glimpses

43

More Glimpses

44

More Glimpses

45

4
More
Glimpses

46

Media Coverage

Honouring the nations young leaders

Conventional banks are not inclusive, says

Nobel laureate

Conventional banks are not inclusive, says

Nobel laureate

47

Media Coverage

You can do better being yourself,

says Anousheh Ansari

Use technological innovation to solve Indias

problems: Gururaj Deshpande

Nobel laureate highlights need to redesign

education system

48

LEADERSHIP

At Deshpande Foundation, Raj Melville develops overall strategy, and channelizes its efforts to encourage
entrepreneurship and innovation. Raj works closely with EforAll by leading the team and driving the
overall strategy.
Previously as Principal at Ambient Engines, Raj provided marketing and strategy consulting to emerging
social entrepreneurs. He founded the Annual Forum for Social Entrepreneurs, organized and moderated
numerous panels and workshops on social entrepreneurship, and currently mentors several startups focused
on addressing key social issues. He is an active member of TiE Boston and the India Society of Worcester,
and has co-founded the TiE Social Entrepreneurship Group. He has been a mentor and judge for several
entrepreneurial competitions such as MassChallenge, MIT 100K, and the MIT IDEAS competition.

Raj Melville
Executive Director,
Deshpande Foundation

Naveen has been associated with the Hubli Sandbox since inception, and has been an architect in
transforming it into a best place for innovators and entrepreneurs to experiment with their ideas of social
relevance. He launched Sandbox Startups, an incubation center that has fostered the development of 45
companies so far.
Naveen is interested in agriculture innovations that can sustain small farmers. With a vision to infuse
social enterprises with skilled intrapreneurs, he established Deshpande Educational Trust. He launched
LEAD, a youth leadership movement, which has over 25000 students across five states of India. Under
his leadership, the Sandbox concept has gained wide acceptance in India and is now helping other
stakeholders replicate it in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. He was one of the founding
members of TiE Hubli chapter and served as its President from 2010-13. He is an advisor to Visvesvaraya
Technological University (VTU) and a board member of various profit and not-for-profit enterprises. He has
received Ford Foundation Fellowship.

Naveen Jha
Chief Executive Officer,
Deshpande Foundation

DD Chair
Chairperson

Dr. Neelam Maheshwari

Director,
Grantmaking
& Partnerships

Naveen has been associated with the Hubli Sandbox since inception,
and has been an architect in transforming it into a best place for
innovators and entrepreneurs to experiment with their ideas of social
relevance. He launched Sandbox Startups, an incubation center that
has fostered the development of 45 companies so far.
Naveen is interested in agriculture innovations that can sustain
small farmers. With a vision to infuse social enterprises with skilled
intrapreneurs, he established Deshpande Educational Trust. He
launched LEAD, a youth leadership movement, which has over
25000 students across five states of India. Under his leadership, the
Sandbox concept has gained wide acceptance in India and is now
helping other stakeholders replicate it in the states of Uttar Pradesh
and Telangana. He was one of the founding members of TiE Hubli
chapter and served as its President from 2010-13. He is an advisor
to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) and a board member
of various profit and not-for-profit enterprises. He has received Ford
Foundation Fellowship.

Members
Having joined in 2014, Sunil Kumar has made a
huge impact on the efficiency of the organization
through simplified technology. Working here
is a challenge that keeps the team on its toes
as we juggle various programs, individuals
and their requirements. Empowering individuals
with easy to use technology and customized
applications makes me feel enthralled! he
says. A technology entrepreneur with over
fifteen years of experience in designing and
developing IT products and solutions, he now
mentors technology start-ups. At the Foundation,
he manages a team of ten and administers a
Technology Fellowship Program.

Sunil S K
CTO

50

DD Chair
Members

Savita Y N
Manager,
Human Resources

Savitas association with the Foundation dates back to 2009,

when she was a Fellow at the Deshpande Fellowship Program.
My passion to work with people and manage the human
resource of an organization drove me to join the Foundation
in 2012. It was the platform I knew would allow me to grow
professionally and build my potential, says Savita. She actively
contributes to the Educational Trust as a faculty for Human
Resource Management. She also heads the Human Resource
Management Training program, which trains potential post
graduates to become HR professionals. Transferring my
learning to young professionals, empowering them to create
their own opportunities is rewarding, says Savita. She also
grooms trainees at the Foundation on professionalism.

Niranjan manages the Sandbox Startups Incubation program and

is involved with the selection, due-diligence and mentoring process
of incubatees. He works on creating engagement road-maps with
potential stakeholders and investors, including venture capital funds,
and private equity buyers. The process of innovation and growth is
exhilarating in the Sandbox. The passion these individuals possess
to make a change is contagious, I feel inspired each day! says
Niranjan who joined in 2014 and works with over 30 entrepreneurs
in less than a year. Niranjan also serves as a visiting faculty to the
Master of Social Entrepreneurship program run by the Deshpande
Educational Trust.

Stanley G Gundi
Director, Administration
& Operations

Niranjan Demanna
Program Manager,
Sandbox Startups

Associated with the Foundation for over four years,

Stanley oversees the operations of the organization.
He also provides advice to incubated start-ups
regarding operations and trains fellows of the
Deshpande Fellowship Program on operations
management. Managing the smooth functioning of
an organization is no cakewalk. But it is a passion.
I have to deliver, and that drives me to make a
difference. Knowing that a little help from our side
can make a difference is the ultimate reward for our
efforts he says. Stanley has been the backbone of
the organizations operational advancements. He
manages a team of over thirty individuals, grooming
them on professionalism and ethics.

51

DD Chair
Members

Golden Frankly
Program Officer,
Grantmaking &
Partnerships

Golden Frankly serves as the Program Officer for Grants and

Partnerships at Deshpande Foundation. Golden comes with over
eight years of experience working in the field of health care and
project management. He has worked with leading organizations
such as ORBIS International, Sankara Eye Care Institutions and
Bhoruka Charitable Trust. At the foundation, he enjoys working
with a wide range of NGOs / Social Enterprises / companies
and being an enabler in making organizations implement
successful programs. He is also a visiting faculty to the Master
of Social Entrepreneurship program run by the Deshpande
Educational Trust. Golden graduated from Tata Institute of
Social Sciences Mumbai with a Masters in Social Work, and
also holds a Bachelors degree in English literature from The
American College Madurai. He brings with him a wide variety
of experiences from his travels throughout all parts of India.

Sanjeev serves as Program Officer for Grant

making and Partnerships and work with
Agriculture, Livelihood partner organizations. He
engages with partner organizations to achieve
quality and on time execution of programs
and also helps partners grow. He comes with
over 9 years of experience in non-profits
since his graduation in 2005. Prior to joining
Deshpande Foundation, Sanjeev worked at
leading organizations like Agastya International
Foundation, TechnoServe India and Vidya Poshak.
Sanjeev is also a graduate of Deshpande
Fellowship Program from Cohort-1 and is a guest
faculty at Deshpande Educational Trust.

Ketan Nagada
Manager, Accounts

Sanjeev Kulkarni
Program Officer,
Grantmaking &
Partnerships

Since 2010, Ketan has been managing the

finance and accounts at the Foundation. He
also assists incubated start-ups in setting
up corporate structures, oversees the audit
process, and required governance procedures
under the Sandbox Startups program.
Additionally, he trains fellows of the Deshpande
Koutilya Fellowship Program in accounting. Ketan
says, I enjoy the process of teaching alongside
my core responsibilities; it makes me feel like
a part of the transformation process. Working
with the Deshpande Foundation has also made
me realize my potential to multitask.

52

DD Chair
Members

Mallamma Budihal

Senior Program
Manager, Deshpande
Fellowship Program

Mallamma Budihal joined Deshpande

Foundation India in March 2010 as
a Program Manager, Champions
Program working with professionals,
facilitating them to be change agents
in their communities. Currently, she
is responsiblefor managing the
Deshpande Fellowship Program, a
leadership-based residential program
where she oversees the recruitment,
training and placement process.

Having worked in a corporate setup for over 5

years, Miks joined the Deshpande Foundation
as a global fellow in 2014 and has now
become an integral part of the team. W
ith prior
experience of working in London, Italy, Latvia
and Uganda for major arts and feature film
productions' branding and marketing schemes,
he has contributed significantly to s howcase the
work of the Foundation online and offline. Over
the last two years he has worked extensively
on developing and executing the Foundations
branding and marketing strategies for as well
as its publicationsfor Development Dialogue, a
flagship event of the Sandbox.

Miks C-Kellman
Global Fellow,
Media & Publications

53

Feedback from Participants

The hospitality from the staff and students was incredible.

Katlin Davey
Pond-Deshpande Center

Great place to meet people in the social sector and network.

The energy, respect and trust that each delegate brings to
the dialogue.
Latha Srinivas
Chippersage Education

DD 2016 was an outstanding facilitator for learning through

carefully selected themes and speakers for panel discussions.
Usha Ravi
Centre for Social Initiative and Management

Listening to Prof. Yunus was a revelation in humility.

Keynote addresses are always a favorite.
M. A. Ravikumar
American India Foundation

54

Feedback from Participants

It felt like one big family given the openness to meet,
engage and share. I do not see this type of engagement
in commercial conferences.
Rajiv Prakash
Next In Advisory Partners

The way DD and Desh are inspiring the entire society and
enabling entrepreneurship at the grassroots level.
This was our first attendance and amazed to see the impact.
Bhupendra Chopra
Doc n Me

Seeing is believing. Field visits are an eye-opener.

Dr. Shashikant Kulgod

Rajalakshmi Children Foundation

A wonderful approach to simplicity and humbleness from celebrities.

Sreedhar S J
Sri Srinidhi Agro Chemicals

55

Feedback from Participants

The logistics planning of the event was very very impressive.

Kavya
Logistimo India Pvt. Ltd

The scale of the Dialogue gives a good platform for corporates,

NGOs, social enterprises and like-minded individuals to connect.

Winnie Dholakia
HelpYourNGO

It was an inspiring and inspired trip.... we both came home equally

emboldened to be ever-more ambitious in our goals and
forward-looking in our practices and our collaborations
Jakob Wildman-Sisk
UNB's Pond-Deshpande Centre

Chad Lubelsky
The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
Excerpts from blog Lessons From the Sandbox

56

Con cept by