Attending Ashoka Globalizer Ecosystem Day

This February, Sriram had the opportunity to attend an Ashoka initiative, the Globalizer on Economic Inclusion. The event convened 21 of the most experienced Ashoka Fellows from India, Africa and the Americas whose scale-ready models are engaging people at the BoP in economic value chains as consumers, producers, and micro-entrepreneurs.

Some of the key questions discussed during the event were :

• What are the biggest common burdens that hinder Social Entrepreneurs focused on Economic Inclusion to scale their impact?
• Which environmental conditions in the Ecosystem most impede the spread of social innovations focused on Economic Inclusion?
• How can Social Entrepreneurs work together with peers, BoP oriented for-profit companies, CSOs and public sector institutions to overcome these barriers?
• What are new solutions that we can collectively co-design to reinforce a smarter Ecosystem for scaling BoP focused social innovations?

"Promising Practices" Pilot Case Study

KarmaCompany has put together a case study written up by Sriram, as part of a pilot of our planned case study fellowship program*, that is a collation of a set of “promising practices” thought up and implemented by The East West Foundation of India (TEWFI) across its ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) programs.

Sriram, as you may know, has been (and continues to be) a long time supporter of TEWFI, assisting its ICT programs in particular. His most recent involvement is in coordinating our involvement in the modification of a school bus into a mobile e-Classroom, the second bus in a series as part of the eCOW (eClassroom on Wheels) program.  

* We have shelved our plans for the case study fellowship for the moment given that designing and implementing such a program - that includes finding and matching fellows with social sector organisations, composing a panel of judges, and selecting submitted case studies - would require our full time involvement which would be a challenge given our overseas travel schedule where we spend as many as four months outside of Chennai.