Archita Mal

FOREWORD

GAME is envisaged as an ecosystem of multi-faceted partners working on a common mission – to catalyze the ecosystem for Mass Entrepreneurship. Therefore, our partners are an integral part of our journey toward creating 10 million Mass Entrepreneurs by 2030.

As we survey the landscape and understand our primary customer (not beneficiary) segmentation, GAME believes that there are multiple segments across socio-economic, gender and geographical parameters. Reaching and impacting our customers will necessitate a coming-together of various partners operating in these customer segments.

GAME intends to work with the following partner categories as a start:

1. Field organizations in Livelihoods, Income uplift, Education, Access to services, Platforms, and processes.
2. Government and Government institutions
3. Multi-lateral organizations (such as UNDP, World Bank, UNICEF)
4. Academic institutions (schools, colleges as well as Higher Education Institutes) and other knowledge partners
5. Investors and Grant-providing organizations
6. Corporates and Industry Bodies

All these partners can individually influence certain outcomes, but working together can be a whole new ballgame!

GAME will follow certain principles to be partner-friendly – work from the ground-up, open-IP all our research and findings, cross-pollinate between partners, promote collaboration feverishly, and support capacity building in all our partners. Working in tandem and in alignment, GAME hopes to build strong Entrepreneurs, sustainable Enterprises and the supportive Environment at all levels.

This month’s newsletter contains a guest contribution from Raj Gilda, co-founder & Director of ‘Lend A Hand India’ (LAHI). LAHI has assiduously nurtured a partnership model that brings State Government, Industry, Schools and Small Entrepreneurs together to help youth in the country to find sustainable livelihoods. LAHI is now present across 23 states and union territories in 8500 schools. For an organization to be able to do this in their timeframes is a remarkable achievement.

Some of the areas that GAME can work with LAHI are a) evaluating its intervention model for different segments b) piloting an innovative model where maybe other interventions can be saturated and c) advocating its success stories and the insights from the pilots to the larger ecosystem.

Happy reading!
Santanu Chari, Director, GAME

GUEST COLUMN

Raj Gilda
Co-founder & Director (Strategy and Development) – Lend A Hand India

Collaborations and Partnerships are like a marriage between two human beings. It cannot work on its own but one has to nurture it for it to sustain and grow.

In this day and age of “Maha Gathbandhan” thanks to elections, collaboration and partnerships are two of the most spoken buzz words in the social sector (of course, one can’t beat “scale”). As many of us know, while these two words make a great theme for conferences and workshops, to make them work on the ground is an entirely different ball game all together. Based on my combination of experience in the social and private sectors, here are some of the factors which can help form successful collaboration and partnerships.:

1. It is all about give and take: collaboration is like a marriage between two human beings. It cannot work on its own but one has to nurture it for it to sustain and grow. In a marriage, two human beings accept each other the way they are, with all the flaws and fascination but they promise to be together till “death do us apart”. Similarly accepting the collaborating organization for what it is, rather than having a judgmental call and trying to change their ways, will help collaboration to be successful.
2. Fulfilling a gap: The collaboration needs to fill a tangible gap in the offerings/capabilities of the collaborating organizations otherwise, it will never get the attention it requires. For e.g. access to market, referral in a community, sharing of tools etc.
3. Coordinating platform: Collaborations are more likely to succeed when there is a coordinating entity whose objectives is to make such collaboration happen. At the very least a single point of contact…. Read More

PARTNERSHIPS

The Mass Entrepreneurship panel discussion at the SVP sustainable livelihoods conclave was a resounding success and threw up some powerful insights. We had nine panelists who shared their learnings and their openness to collaborate. The panelists were:

Ajeeth Jagannath, COO, 1Bridge; Dr. Baskar Reddy, Exec. Director, Syngenta India Foundation; Vinod Nair, National Mission Manager, NRLM, Ministry of Rural Development; G Nagaraj, CEO, SME OneSource; Ravi Krishnan, Chief Administrative Officer & Head – CSR Goldman Sachs; Dr. BR Mamatha, IAS, Mission Director, NRLM – Sanjeevani, Govt. of Karnataka; Pradnya Godbole, CEO, DeAsra; Anubhav Gera, VP, Wadhwani Foundation; Kishor Jagirdar, Vision Karnataka Foundation

Team GAME visited the EDII center in Ahmedabad for an interesting workshop around entrepreneurship and explored areas of learning and collaboration.

GAME hosted a Roundtable- on Understanding Movements as we develop a Mass Entrepreneurship movement. The Roundtable participants were Runners for Life, The Ugly Indian, Voice of Sarjapura and Reap Benefit. The discussion offered insights into what makes a movement, what the barriers are and what helps scale.

Team GAME went on a project visit to understand some of the on groundwork done by Going to School in government schools in Nalanda and Muzzafarpur in Bihar. The Going To School team combines high-quality content, design and a hugely committed team to nurture entrepreneurial mindsets in school children from class IX to class XII.

CONNECTING

Ravi, Madan and Mekin go live with Your Story sharing the GAME story

LAUNCHING SOON IN APRIL

The GAME Landscape Resource is a new public dataset and insights around the landscape of organizations (non-profits, incubators, and accelerators, public institutions) working in the area of mass entrepreneurship development in India. It synthesizes research and data to create a comprehensive learning resource for the ecosystem.

NEWS CORNER

Small biz: How to make it cool for the young.

Everybody has got the lowdown on the unemployment problem. Nobody seems to have figured out how to fix it in real time… Read More

Turning students ‘job-givers’

Come April, students studying in 24 government schools in the capital will be seen developing their “entrepreneurial mindsets”… Read More

Income Before: $18,000. After: $85,000. Does Tiny Nonprofit Hold a Key to the Middle Class?

Jukay Hsu is an enthusiastic Amazon backer. He wanted the company to build a big new campus in New York and participated in wooing it… Read More

Dreams & Incomes of 1000 Rural Women Get Wings, Thanks to This Brilliant Initiative!

Entrepreneurship might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but with the right guidance and mentorship, anyone can become… Read More

It’s never too late to become independent.

Those born to become businessmen will do that at any age. These graphics by Anna Vital show us how important it is to always keep being yourself… Read More

FOREWORD

The sharp drop in the female labour force participation is a matter of concern and has gained a lot of attention. Attempting to tackle it is like peeling the layers of an onion, where the more you unravel, the more emerges.

Why is unpaid work (eg: home care) not considered in the definition of work? Do women themselves support the idea of paid work outside (in a November 2018 ILO study, 26% did not)? Is education serving to bring an increase in job prospects or marriage prospects? Educated women are rejecting farm jobs, but how can they occupy themselves when faced with a dearth of non-farm jobs?  To what extent does a woman even want to earn were she given the opportunity – what holds her back? Does she worry that her economic success may result in her husband relinquishing his own source of income entirely? How can a woman ensure financial control of her enterprise if she is dependent on a man to sell her goods at the market? How can she access markets herself if she has limited mobility due to care duties or other restrictions? These nuances can help us in understanding the tensions at play related to work in a woman’s life.

Socio-cultural pressures and the “child care penalty” have resulted in a significant proportion of young women being restricted to their homes, yet they are well positioned to spend a part of their day on a home-based nano-enterprise. These enterprises can flourish when women have recourse to the right interventions on family sensitization, skills, self-confidence, ability to converse with customers, financial access to well-structured products, sustained markets, the support of a peer and mentor network, etc. Digital literacy plays a key role in unlocking opportunities, access and information through social media, internet and digital payments.

While some SHGs have started micro-enterprises that hire employees, they are essentially communities at their core, and not all can make the transition easily. The opportunity for turning the tide on female labour force participation may well lie in moving focus from the collective to the individual entrepreneur, and specially in women with part-time work availability, who can grow their businesses as and when their home care duties ease over time.

This month, we are delighted to have a guest contribution from Lisa Heydlauff, Founder and CEO, Going To School, whose resources set a benchmark in designing in gender equality. Here’s a quote from their Children’s Skill Report:

“The girls came later. I was the first girl building with boys. They saw me, then they came. Girls can be so funny sometimes about building things. Then there was the boys and girls thing, that people would pass comments that boys would say something, but it’s all just silly. Build I said, use your super power, make something that was not there before, when we build and make together we’re not girls or boys, we’re just young people making something that was not there before. And that’s cool.”

Vidya Chandy
Director, Research and Evaluation, GAME

CONNECTING

Ravi Venkatesan and Mohan Padaki at the annual GAP event at Sabarmati Ashram

Ravi Venkatesan with Bill Gates and the book that inspired the launch of GAME

1Bridge Celebrates successful Entrepreneurs (1Bridge Advisors)

GUEST COLUMN

Can you teach someone to become an entrepreneur?

~ Lisa Heydlauff
Founder and CEO, Going To School

The world is equally split.
Many believe you can’t teach anyone to be an entrepreneur ever. While others, hands on our hearts knowing that we don’t have the answers for what comes next, desperately hope we can. We hope we can because the world is a mess.

Climate change, unemployment, water ~ too much, too little; garbage, plastic, violence. Millions of young people are growing up in the middle of it, they’re in school, they are dropping out, they are going from school to work.

Entrepreneurs across time, in the beginning and now, solve problems. They try new things that don’t make sense to other people.

Why? They’re doing it for the big heroic reason of making things right not just for themselves but for a lot of people. Money is secondary, a by-product. Even if you are from a low-income group, choosing to be an entrepreneur is about righting wrongs, doing new things, proving you can. It’s also about what’s smart, efficiency, where there is a need, ‘a problem to be solved’. It’s much more compelling to sell a garbage recycling company than a truck service. Do you get where we’re going with this?

A garbage recycling company is a good story.

Like all good stories, the hero sets out, upset by something that’s not right (empathy for everyone that lives in a town of smelly garbage). She faces opposition (the way things have always been = smelly). She digs deep (mental health = does the world always have to be smelly?). She sees a streak of light (inspiration, epiphany, magical moment). She starts. Some people come to help, others still try to hold her back explaining ‘young women don’t do that’. Still, against all odds and without an example of someone doing that before (role model), except in that movie (story, emotion, entertainment), she finds a way. She puts together whatever she’s got to make a go of it (prototype). She shows it to people. Some like it (those who need that thing too = live in the smelly town). Others want a formal plan (investors = cities). Read More

SPOTLIGHT

1 BRIDGE SUCCESS STORIES

Arjun is an extremely dedicated and hardworking entrepreneur from Shivamogga District. Being the son of farmer and a night watchman did not deter his ambition of becoming an entrepreneur. Arjun runs his own general provision store while also attending evening college.  He has been an entrepreneur with 1 Bridge for 2.5 years and describes his stint as a “super journey”.  Being a BA with 1 Bridge has opened up a window of opportunities for him personally and earned him immense respect amongst members of the village community. This has led to increased business for him and trust in the products offered through the bridge he provides Arjun believes that patience is the key to success and there is no shortcut.

Ramamurthy comes from a modest family background , and is based out of Hirehalli Village in Tumkuru village.  He has been successfully running  the Common Service Center ( CSC ) which is a hugely popular CSC in his district. This center has been instrumental in providing online digital services for all programs launched and executed both by the State Government and Central Government.  This center is a hub for all online digital services offered by the state and the central governments and has all people in that village and surrounding villages flocking to this CSC to have all their needs met , be it PAN card application, Aadhar card processing, insurance options , to name a few. Apart from the CSC,  Ramamurthy also runs a fancy store cum provision store.  He successfully runs the 1 Bridge business model and is the advisor in the village for all product and services required by the Rural Consumer . In his words,  being an entrepreneur with 1 Bridge enables him to bring brands like Amazon, Facebook to the doorsteps of the rural consumers.  Purchase of mobiles, purchase of automobiles, amongst a host of other products has never been so easy in rural areas. Partnering with Facebook has made digital literacy the buzzword in Tumkuru.  Ramamurthy is very happy to be looked upon  as a ‘ One Stop Shop’ due to the business model set up by 1 Bridge

NEWS CORNER

Better skills for better jobs in India

The IKEA Foundation and Going To School are partnering to help young people in Bihar learn the skills they need to find a job.

Each year in India over 60 million students leave school, more than 70% of whom can’t find work because they don’t have the skills employers are looking for.

What stops rural women from getting involved in entrepreneurship?

Women constitute only 14 per cent of the total entrepreneurs in the country. Women in rural areas face multiple barriers to pursuing income-generating activities, with patriarchal family and societal norms being the primary hurdle.

World Bank, UN Women and SIDBI plan ‘women’s livelihood bond’ to raise ₹300 cr

The World Bank, UN Women (a United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and empowerment of women), and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) have come together to launch a five-year tenor ‘women’s livelihood bond’ to raise ₹300 crore.

INSIGHTS

Evaluating Youth Social Action

Does participating in social action boost the skills young people need to succeed in adult life?

FOREWORD

India is the youngest country: home to the most young people in the world!  It has been a reason to be optimistic and hopeful, as youth bring energy and fresh thinking to help grow the country.

Over the last few years, this optimism is starting to turn into questions and concerns: will our youth have the opportunities to be able to create value? Is our education system preparing youth well for the rapidly changing world? The answers to both these questions are worrying and the progress is currently bleak.

Instead of depending on being given jobs – which don’t seem to exist, the youth of the country need to take their careers and lives in their own hands and pursue entrepreneurial endeavors.

In the last few years that I have worked with youth, I have been repeatedly surprised by their actions, youth’s ability to try new things, adapt to changes and learn is vividly evident in their comfort with newer technologies especially with mobile phones. In a rapidly changing world, this ability is essential for people to thrive.

At GAME, youth form the core part of our focus and we will be able to achieve our goal of enabling 10 million Mass Entrepreneurs, only if a large part of our focus is on working with and learning from youth.

This month, we are delighted to have a contribution from a young, successful entrepreneur, Prukalpa Sankar, Co-Founder, SocialCops, sharing an insight into her entrepreneurial journey.

Mekin Maheshwari
Co-Founder, GAME

PARTNERSHIPS

Team GAME’s Immersion Journey

At GAME we are committed to learning being at the core of defining our strategy. The team are spending the first quarter of 2019, on an immersion journey with some of the organizations doing incredible work on the ground. Some of the organizations we spent time with were Going to School, Udhyam Learning Foundation, SIDBI, LAHI, Meljol, Manndeshi, PCC, Best Practices Foundation and Aptech Learning Centre. The time spent on the field strengthens our insights for a more effective road map toward catalyzing Mass Entrepreneurship in India. Here is a snapshot of just a few of the stories we came away with:

1. Armaan Patel, a 1st-year college student where LAHI conducts vocational training programs, is extremely confident, bubbling with ideas and his eyes peeled for a market opportunity to seize. He has a monthly expense of Rs.50-60k for his recreational needs which he believes can only be met by being an entrepreneur and not a job. Some of his business ideas have included selling ginger barfis (an opportunity he spotted when a batch of barfis by another vendor went bad). Among his other ideas have been selling “nimbu golas”, a watch strapped on a bag etc! His mother supports his agency which propels his entrepreneurial vision. Armaan believes that his internship has been more valuable than the vocational training in driving his entrepreneurial aspirations.
2. Young Nargis was faced with a family tragedy that almost made her give up her dreams. Yet, her own tenacity and the support of Udhyam Learning Foundation interventions have seen her online business of selling scarves grow doubling her capital and fulfilling orders from 22 cities in less than six months. Nargis dreams of expanding her business overseas
3. Pooja, 30 years old came from a family who had a small business selling bangles. She undertook the Desi MBA with Manndeshi (Pune) and a beauty parlour course. This gave her the confidence to set up a larger store with more inventory (beyond bangles) by taking several loans from different sources. Additionally, there is space at the back of her store to set up her beauty parlour business. Currently, she employs a couple people for 3-4 days a week paying them a daily wage of Rs.500. She plans to build her parlour business with a loan from the bank. Pooja has managed to grow her business, increase her savings, provide for her family and most importantly have a better sense of self and purpose.
4. Salma Taj has caught on to the global trend of sustainability and a circular economy in the garment industry. She inherited her mother’s business idea of selling used clothes but with using her intuitive business skills and some intervention, she has improved on the idea by first mending the clothes, washing, ironing and packing them to sell a better product at a better price. Her mother sold used clothes at Rs. 25, Salma with her effort at restoration sells the same outfit at Rs.50. She invested in a washing machine to undertake the cleaning in-house, employs her physically challenged son (18yrs old) to help with the cleaning and outsources the mending. Her future plan includes opening a store to overcome the challenges of mobility.

Vidya Chandy, Director, GAME spending time on the ground with the MANNDESHI team.

Santanu Chari, Director, GAME visits Meljol –time at their Youth centre in Vikhroli Park Site, Mumbai

Going to School: The Children’s Scrappy News Service, in search of women entrepreneur heroes

GUEST COLUMN

Prukalpa Sankar
Co- Founder, SocialCops

I was an average 20-something university student from a middle-class Indian family. In my final year of university, I was bitten by what they call the “startup bug” and I dreamt of being an entrepreneur. Around me, my batchmates were applying for jobs feverishly. On the other hand, my co-founders and I were working on our startup idea without respite. The decision to not apply to jobs came with its fair share of fears and insecurities. I’ve said this a million times over — I think the most difficult part about being an entrepreneur is “deciding” to take the plunge.

This is especially true when you come from the average Indian middle-class background. Most of us have seen our families struggling to make ends meet and understand the importance of money and a regular paycheck. We are scared that we are throwing away the promising future we have created for ourselves in IT companies, consulting firms, and investment banks by the virtue of an undergraduate “engineering” degree from a good college. The risks seem too high, and it seems to be a more prudent decision to do a masters degree and get some experience before starting up. Read More

NEWS CORNER

India in dire need of entrepreneurs with right skill training support: Here’s why

This demographical advantage gives India an unprecedented edge to emerge as a global economic leader. Many experts have presumed that this vast young pool if skilled well, can result in an additional 2 percent GDP growth rate in the coming year.

Nandan Nilekani Says Indian Entrepreneurs Can Beat The Best From The World

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani on Friday said we are the only nation where the local entrepreneurs have to compete with the offerings from the best around the world, particularly those from the US and China.

Gujarat bucks national entrepreneurship trend

Gujarat is known as the land of entrepreneurs for ages. A recent study confirmed this as the state bucked the nation trend in setting up new enterprises in 2017-18.

50% India’s working-age population out of labour force, says report

Half of India’s working-age population (15 years and above), for the first time, is not contributing to any economic activity, according to the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) latest jobs survey.

INSIGHTS

Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! | TED Talk

How to connect entrepreneurs | Ernesto Sirolli | TEDxCluj