Past Events

 24.10.2010 Launch of Net Impact Hyderabad Professional Chapter

The Net Impact Hyderabad Professional chapter was launched with the help of ISB Net Impact graduate chapter on October 24, 2010. The event saw some eminent personalities like Jai Prakash(Leader, Lok Satta party), Robert Katz(Acumen Fund), Sanjeev Jain(GE) and Shantanu (Naandi Foundation) as the guest speakers and many others who had come forward to join hands in their efforts for a better world.

The Hyderabad Professional Chapter aims to bring together the local professionals seeking to network and take action to foster a new generation of leaders who use the power of business to create a better world. On the occasion, Jai Prakash the founder of Lok Satta party succintly highlighted the issues in national development and urged the need to  balance individual welfare with public welfare.

Rob Katz from Acumen fund raised the issue of clean affordable drinking water ,the most basic reason for the outbreak of a lot of preventable diseases in the country. He outlined that the role of a social business plan is critical to achieve solutions that can be sustained, the fact that such initiatives will not be supported by conventional banks makes it important for social innovations funders like Acumen Fund. Responding to the theme Beyond 9  to 5, Sanjeev Jain said that he looked at contribution not just beyond 9 to 5 but as an integral part of our lives. He narrated incidents of volunteering efforts by corporates in Hyderabad and requested everyone in the audience to be a part of it.

Shantanu from the Naandi foundation looked volunteering as more good to oneself rather than to others, the amount of learning, leadership skills and challenges in the sector requires the best of talent to solve problems. He gave specific inputs on how professional members of Net Impact could start making a difference in the society. On the occasion BANDHAN Scholarships were announced for 27 bright students from  the Kare School, Devnar School for Blind, Spoorthy and Ashray Akruti.

 4.9.2010 A Trip to Pochampally


The SFA and the Net Impact club organised a day trip to Pochampally, a village 40 kilometres from Hyderabad. Weaving is the predominant occupation in Pochampally and surrounding villages. The famous Pochampally ‘ikkat’ tie-and-dye weave art has gained Intellectual Property Rights in the Geographical Indications Category. Adding to Pochampally’s historic significance is the fact that the Bhoodan (land gift) movement by Acharya Vinoba Bhave was started here in 1951. Surrounded by hills, ponds, and lush green fields, the village derives the name from goddess Pochamma.

The trip began in the serene Vinoba Bhave ashram with the reminiscence of India’s freedom struggle and the first steps to inclusive growth. We had an opportunity to interact with the weavers and villagers and learnt that almost 1500 families in Pochampally depended on weaving. Almost every member of the family was engaged in weaving, but the family as a whole earned only around Rs 200 per day. The handloom industry was however rapidly declining owing to the emergence of power mills and rising cost of raw material. This was further aggravated by the declining demand for sarees and lack of any marked difference in quality between the handloom and power mill fabric. The owner of one of the largest weaving facilities in Pochampally predicted that he would shut down his mill in about two years as weaving was no longer profitable. Weaving is a tedious process with each saree made on a handloom requiring 4-8 days depending on the design. The same could be produced in 1 hour on a power mill. The younger generation no longer took to weaving for a livelihood and was migrating out in search of jobs.

The government is actively promoting tourism to support the village economy. Other economic activities in the village include agriculture, animal husbandry, basket weaving and pottery. The government has also started a vocational training centre for rural youth to reduce the dependence of weaving as an occupation. The villagers feel that subsidies may help keep weaving alive as a profession but they are not sure if that is the best route. Should the government introduce power mills to Pochampally and employ villagers in the operations rather than let the village economy suffer because of outside competition? These are some of the questions that plagued the students as they left Pochampally.

 26.07.2010 Transforming not-for-profit Social Ventures to for-profits Social Businesses

During a recent visit to Indian School of Business (ISB), Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO of Naandi, spoke about the transformation of not-for-profit social ventures to for-profit social businesses and the role of social entrepreneurs. He spoke about his progression from chequered career in Ministry of Finance to Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and how famine in Kalahandi, Orissa inspired him to take up social cause. He spoke about the importance of building trust by genuine communication to bring a change in the behaviour of people at the ground level.

He discussed the significance of revenue models for social ventures, not only to build sustainability but also grow and make large scale impact. He called on the Social Entrepreneurs to take ownership and develop revenue models for the growth of social businesses to tap the vast opportunity. Kumar shared his road map to disintegrate Naandi into a group of social businesses to benefit the society and earn profit at the same time. He discussed Naandi’s work in the areas of providing drinking water and meals to rural poor. He also discussed how he intends to make them profitable social businesses and the challenges ahead.

About Naandi
Naandi currently operates approximately 1000 plants which are providing clean drinking water to rural poor and his target is to benefit 3 to 4 million kids from his meal initiative in the areas not covered by Government’s mid-day meal initiative. In his words “Half of Indian kids are malnourished, still nobody focusses on it, because it is not contagious as swine flu”.

 23.07.2010 Talk by on 'Lighting Up The World' by Professor Dave Halliday

Professor Dave Irvine-Halliday of the University of Calgary visited the ISB Campus as a part of the Net Impact speaker series. As a visionary whose dream is to provide practical lighting to developing and underdeveloped nations at low and affordable prices, Professor Dave had many interesting insights to share with the audience.

Dave spoke about the home lighting system ideated by him and being manufactured here in India by his team. The solar-enabled LED light uses a fraction, one-tenth to be precise, of the energy consumed by a regular incandescent bulb. He shared his experiences in countries like Nepal and parts of rural India where people still use Kerosene to light up their homes – where lighting up means just one lamp for an entire family.  He aims to provide low cost, high quality lighting solutions to developing and under developed nations where 24 hour electric supply is still a distant dream. The lighting equipment consists of a battery with sockets for connection, a solar panel and LED bulbs. Both the solar panel and the LED bulbs have an estimated life of 20 – 25 years which considerably increases the life of the lighting system and reduces recurring costs.

The only part that needs replacement is the battery which also comes with a fairly large life-span of about 3 – 4 years.  Professor Dave also runs a not-for-profit organisation called Light Up the World (LUTW) that has installed these lighting systems in more than 25,000 homes across 51 countries and lit up the lives of more than 300000 people.

In his talk, Professor Dave emphasized on the importance of using alternate sources of energy. He spoke of regulatory and financial issues faced by him and his company in bringing the innovation to the market. He also invited students at ISB to help him explore commercialization opportunities for the product. Professor  Dave Irvine Halliday is a photonics specialist and a professor of Electric and Computer engineering at University of Calgary. He is also the recipient of the Rolex Awards for enterprising individuals.

 15.07.2010 Talk on the "Changing role of Business in Society", by Professor Bradley Googins

Professor Bradley Googins,an expert in corporate citizenship and a Professor at the Caroll School of Management gave an interesting talk on the "Changing role of Business in Society". He explained on how social responsibilty is a strategic objective for business organisations in these changing times. He shared a global perspective drawing from experiences in China, Brazil and  United states. From his research he observed people expect business organisations to drive out social inequality and do more social good. This is something convenionally thought to be a government's job, hence with changing times it is imperative on us to integrate responsibility in our business.

Googins spoke of how economic, social and political sectors of the nation impact people. He shed light on the stagnation issues faced by some of the developed nations today in the economy and education and how this insecurity shapes their outlook towards social responsibility. How can employees be engaged/empowered to meet these social objectives. Drawing from his research with CEO's of American companies he has designed a staged framework that can be used by organisations to implement social responsibility as a strategic goal. A framework to measure where on the social responsibility scale does the company lie, ranging from compliance to proactive and finally defining involvement. He briefed on the the research going on in this area and the huge scope for further research.

 26.06.2010 Interaction with Shriya Saran, Ambassador, Joy of Giving Week at the ISB

Shriya Saran the ambassodor of  “Joy of Giving Week”,shared her experience with ISB Community on the national movement and its initiative that aims to engage more than 1crore Indians in different "acts of giving"- money, time, resources and skills- spanning the corporate, NGO and government sectors, and also schools, colleges and the general public.

The idea of creating a "festival of philanthropy" that can, over the years, become a part of the Indian ethos, with the Week being celebrated every year covering Gandhi Jayanti.  The Week that’s designed as a "public platform" and is being co-ordinated by GiveIndia, a nonprofit whose mission is to promote "giving".

Last year, ISB in partnership with the GiveIndia  launched the ‘Shadow a CEO’ programme to coincide with The Joy of Giving Week. The objective of this programme is two fold. Firstly, to engage ISB students in the act of giving and secondly, provide with a lifetime opportunity to observe and learn by spending a day with a CEO. 

The event saw an interesting interaction and drived home the point of being sensitive to  needs of the underprivileged and contribute not just in terms of money but also by resources, time and skills.

 17.06.2010 Interaction with Shriya Saran, Ambassador, Joy of Giving Week at the ISB

ISB Net Impact Chapter has received a “Gold Rating” from Net Impact, a designation bestowed on Net Impact top Chapters. This year, only 7% of graduate student Net Impact chapters received a Gold Chapter rating.

About Gold Chapters
Gold chapters are the most outstanding chapters in the Net Impact network, which numbers over 160 graduate student chapters, 45 undergraduate Chapters, and 60 professional Chapters across the world. They play an integral role in helping Net Impact achieve the mission to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.