Background

One of the major events of 2022 was the Ideal Village conference that was held at Banaras Hindu University campus from 11-13 Nov. WGF leadership team has made huge investment in these events and preceding trips – opening doors to many strategic partners we were able to bring on stage. Many of these partners clearly saw the value of associating with WGF & IIT brand, and offered to partner with us. We will be capitalizing on that opportunity by nurturing these strategic relationships and translating them into meaningful execution partnerships whereby we can tap into necessary resources and capabilities they offer. Leading to the conference in Varanasi, the board members of WGF invested their time in visiting the project sites across India. This helped in mapping and aligning the various organizations with the on-ground activities of the WGF projects.

Ideal Village Conference, BHU Varanasi (11-13 Nov, 2022):

The 7^th Ideal Village Conference on Rural Transformation for Sustainable Growth was held at BHU, Varanasi Campus from November 11-13, 2022. The conference was attended by more than 1000 delegates across 3 days. The sessions were well attended with many eminent people participating in panel discussions and breakout sessions. Besides 50+ non-profit & Corporate/CSR partners, seven deans/directors from IITs participated in the conference and a bespoke panel discussion. The College of Management, and the BHU University extended all the support in ensuring the event a great success. 

The Conference provided an excellent platform to network and explore partnerships across academia, NGOs, Corporations & their CSR divisions, Foundations, Government bodies, and individual activists. Some of the expected key outcomes in the form of MOUs partnerships & joint initiatives will be with organizations like GATES Foundation, CII, PHDCCI, FICCI, Mahindra & Mahindra, Samhita, ITE Chandra Foundation, Himalaya Wellness, Amrita Vishwa Vidhyapeetham, ITC, TCS, Utkarsh Micro Finance, Aditya Birla Capital Group, Amul Dairy, IIT Bombay’s CTARA, IIT Tirupati, IIT Guwahati, etc, going forward in the year of 2023. Delegates from Govt bodies viz., Jal Shakti Union minister, U.P. agricultural minister, Biden Administration (Drug Czar), Niti Aayog, AARDO also participated in the event. 

Overall branding was enhanced by live news and newspaper articles, social media postings. The India’s PMO and the USA’s Biden Administration has showed strong interest to participate in 2023 conference. 

Participating organizations showcased their work and products through the stalls that were provided. 

Outcomes / Opportunities: 

1.     WGF leadership team has made huge investment in the event and pre-visits to project sites – opening doors to many strategic partners we were able to bring on stage. Many of these partners clearly saw the value of associating with WGF & PanIIT brand, and offered to partner with us. We will be capitalizing on that opportunity by nurturing these strategic relationships, and translating them into meaningful execution partnerships whereby we can tap into necessary resources and capabilities they offer. 

2.     We had a total registration of 931 delegates and 50 speakers participating in the plenary and breakout sessions across the 3-day conference. 

3. The conference provided an excellent platform to network and explore partnerships. Broader branding with alumni community is established by signing the MoUs with PanIIT-USA & PanIIT-India. More MoUs to follow with CII, Govt. Uttar Pradesh, BHU/IMS for hosting “Rural Transformation” Secretariat, etc., 

4.     Some of the key outcomes as potential emerging partnerships will be with organizations like GATES Foundation, CII, PHDCCI, FICCI, Mahindra & Mahindra, Samhita, ITE Chandra Foundation, Himalaya Wellness, Amrita Vishwa Vidhyapeetham, ITC, TCS, Utkarsh Micro Finance, Aditya Birla Capital Group, Amul Dairy, IIT Bombay, IIT Tirupati, IIT Guwahati, etc, going forward in the year of 2023. Delegates from Govt bodies viz., Jal Shakti Union minister, U.P. agricultural minister, Biden administration (Drug Czar), Niti Aayog, AARDO participated in the event. 

5.     WGF was invited to participate in the Jal Shakti mission water planning committee for source water management. 

 The conference provided an excellent opportunity to

6.     Expand Partner Ecosystem: 

a.     Several industry partnerships: CII, FICCI, PHDCCI, TCS, Himalaya, Mahindra, Bluestar

b.     Finance: Utkarsh, Sanmita. Aditya Birla Group

c.     Philanthropic entities: GATES, AARDO, RDT, Mission Samriddhi, Magan Sanghralaya Samiti, Jai Jawan Jai Kishan Foundation, SaveFarmers (GVK & SRDS & BoreCharger), CSIS / Wadhwani Foundation, NOBA GSR

d.     Govt bodies: Jal Shakti Union minister, U.P. agricultural minister, Biden administration (Drug Czar), Niti Aayog, AARDO

7.     Build on our Finances

8.     Growing WHEELS leadership