NSEF Idea Conference at VNIT

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the small but upcoming town of Nagpur, to speak at NSEF’s Idea Conference at VNIT.

Eminent speakers at the conference included Robin Chaurasiya of Kranti, Unmesh Bramhe of CXO Partners, and Kushroo Poacha of IndianBloodDonors.com. Robin, an Unreasonable Institute Fellow, and a former lieutenant of the U.S. Force, has co-founded an organization to provide a healing home and leadership training to daughters of sex workers.  Unmesh, a former Senior Vice President and Sustainability Head at HSBC Bank in India, leads a global advisory firm, advising and fund-raising for social enterprises. Mr. Poacha founded Indianblooddonors.com, an online database of volunteers donors, with minimal capital, and while holding down a full-time job - a fine testament to creating social change with little more than a burning passion to do so.

It was a great conference with highly inspirational talks from Robin, Unmesh and Khushroo. It’s very encouraging to see the growing interest in this space from the youth (around 300 students attended the conference). From the questions asked, and the kind of business plan ideas the students shared with us, it’s clear to see that a growing number of students are embracing social entrepreneurship as a viable career choice.

And, of course, since Nagpur is famous for oranges, I had to end my day on a sweet note. At the airport, I had just enough time to grab a Haldiram orange barfi (yum!).