Rishabh Kaul

Book Your Calendar for NSEF ’Confluence’

We just received news that there’s a terrific event taking place in Bangalore next week, on Oct. 23. India’s National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) (which I covered a while back on NB) is organizing its first-ever annual meeting, called “Confluence.”

The event, which focuses on “Youth and Social Entrepreneurship,” is ideally a meeting ground for all the NSEF Chapters, which have spread to 10 campuses across India, as well as to motivate students from other campuses open their own chapters. They will share the space with thought leaders, investors and social entrepreneurs. The event consists of panels, a startup exhibition and an idea competition that will aim to provide incubation and mentorship to worthy idea holders.

Confluence this year boasts of an impressive set of speakers. The lineup consists of Paul Basil, CEO and Founder of Villgro; Solomon JP, who heads Ashoka in India; Vishal Vasishth, Managing Director of SONG Advisors; Anurag Gupta, CEO of A Little World – creator of the powerful mobile payment platform, mChek; Abhijit Ray, Director, Unitus Capital; Priya Naik, who heads Samhita; Aparajita Agarwal, Vice President, Intellecap; and many more from the industry as well as academia.

Discussions will revolve around the challenges that must be overcome to create a healthy ecosystem for innovative BoP ventures, opportunities in various sectors, such as healthcare and microfinance, and the role students can play.

One session that really interests me is the panel on “How B-schools Support Social entrepreneurs- is MBA Important for Social Entrepreneurs?” which features academics from the several notable business schools in India. More and more B -Schoolers attracted toward spending time at a social enteprises. However, this number is still smaller than their Western counterparts. One reason is probably the lack of proper exposure to this sector and the opportunities it offers for growth as well as business, and this is where NSEF hopes to make an impact.

The entire agenda can be found here.

We at NB have been tracking the progress of NSEF. Since we last mentioned it, the organization has forged long-term partnerships with Samhita and Villgro and is working towards expanding the reach of its summer internship program, NSEF Authors, by almost triple.

And from the talks I have been having with Yashveer Singh, the Founder of NSEF, some really interesting things are in the pipeline. It would probably be best to reveal more when the time is right, but here is one organization I wish achieve what they set out to do.

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