We thank all those participants who registered and those who attended, and the dozens of questions that were asked for a very rich dialog during the Webinar.
Some of the feedback received from the audience:
“A great lineup of speakers moderated by our Ambassador Pradeep Kapur” – Indrajit Chatterjee
“Wonderful webinar full of a lot of information! Thank you!” – Rajat Jay Sehgal
“The webinar is excellent and highly informative. Thank you!” – Sudha Ramasamy
“Namaste, great work is being done at the grassroots level. Salute to you all” – Ankush Bhandari
With 3.3m NGOs registered in the country, even if 10% are active, that multiplier effect by all NGOs replicating successful innovations in their territories is the best way to shorten the time. Hence, we are looking forward to all mission-aligned entities and professionals to come join our journey. Together we can get there faster.
Please find the links to relevant material from the Webinar:
1. Slide deck used for introducing WGF Programs.
2. Slide deck used for introducing the panelists and their work.
3. Questions & Answers from the session.
♦ Call to Action: Visit ‘Get Involved’ page to join us and learn about our solutions.
♦ Watch out for our next webinars which will bring similar group of innovators in Health, Livelihood, and Water.
♦ For questions, please write to info@wheelsglobal.org
Click to view the webinar recording
LIVE Webinar – 31 August 2024
Innovations for Up-skilling and Livelihoods at Scale
Webinar Panelists
Mr. Manish Kumar ~ IAS, International Consultant, World Bank
Dr. Sarika Kulkarni ~ Founder, Raah Foundation
Mr. Raghuraj Rajendran ~ IAS, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
Dr. Jayanti Ravi ~ IAS, Secretary, Auroville Foundation
Mr. Kalyan Chakravarthy ~ Founder, PARFI
Mr. Arun Jain ~ Founder, Mission Samriddhi
Mr. Rajiv Vaid ~ Chair, WHEELS Livelihood Council
Amb. Pradeep Kapur ~ Moderator, WHEELS Livelihood Council
Webinar Summary
With 64% of India’s population in villages, skilling for relevant local employment and entrepreneurial opportunities of 300 million+ working-age youth has become one of the highest priority for Government, non-profit social impact organizations, and private enterprises to support India’s march to become developed economy with 8%+ GDP growth rate. While the Government of India has been investing heavily through a multitude of large-scale infrastructure initiatives (Rural Livelihood Missions at Center and States, NSDC, ONDC, etc.,), the gargantuan scale of the challenge is impossible to achieve without the leverage of technology, innovative models, and effective public-private partnerships. Livelihood being one of the six priorities, WHEELS has built a partner ecosystem and portfolio of nearly a dozen very innovative Livelihood solutions across the country, with immense promise to convert the challenge into a massive opportunity.
In this Webinar / Panel discussion, our 3rd in the Series after recent ones on Education and Health, we are pleased to feature four pioneers to discuss their original thinking, creative & scalable business models, unique public-private partnerships for large-scale interventions, and the role of Government policy and infrastructure, and of course, all that underpinned by technology and community engagement for long-haul capacity. We look forward to the participation of all mission-aligned alumni, professionals, partners, public-private entities, and of course donors for an engaging session and interactions.
Join US LIVE on ZOOM
Saturday ~ Aug 31, 2024
10 am EST, 7:00 am PST, 7:30 pm IST
(Registration is Free)
You can join the webinar 15 min early (i.e. 09:45 AM EST OR 7:15 PM IST) to watch the slide show on WGF-related projects & videos.
WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF), “An Initiative of IIT Alumni, USA” with the mission of Technology-Enabled Philanthropy. WHEELS has also been selected by NITI Aayog, Govt. of India as a member of the Committee for Innovation and Technology Transfer. WHEELS has also signed an MOU with the Ministry for Panchayati Raj for a technology partnership in Rural Development.
Panelists Overview
Manish Kumar is an institutional economist with experience working for the national government, state government and international agencies. He has experience working in the Indian Administrative Service, the World Bank and the United Nations (UNICEF). His recent assignment of 5 years, as Managing Director and CEO of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), supported the labor force productivity and employability agenda of the Government of India.
Currently, he is an International Consultant for the World Bank working as an institutional economist. He was recently appointed by Gojo & Company, Japan, to represent them in companies in which Gojo has invested. He is a visiting professor of Infrastructure Economics at the Indian School of Business and a Distinguished Professor of Economics at Manav Rachna University, India. He also mentors two companies in Bangalore working on Artificial Intelligence applications for education and employment. (Manish Kumar | Linkedin)
Dr. Sarika Kulkarni is the founder & Chief Executive of Raah Foundation, a non-profit organization that works at the nexus of Planet and People. The foundation works with some of the most vulnerable communities living in one of the biodiverse hotspots of the world – the northern western ghats. Her work on Planet is creating water-secure villages and converting barren land into carbon sinks through an integrated approach. Her work with people is aimed at making them resilient through sustainable climate-smart livelihoods.
She is an academician, entrepreneur, and management consultant with the skills and knowledge to design and implement innovative and impactful programs that address the intertwined layers of social problems faced by the tribals. Some of these programs include watershed development, agriculture development, forest restoration, women empowerment, education, and health. She also hold a professional master’s degree in CSR and sustainable development, and certificates in social impact strategy and impact measurement from prestigious institutions. (Sarika Kulkarni| Linkedin)
Raghuraj Rajendran, Secretary Technical Education, Skill Development and Employment, Government of Madhya Pradesh is a Madhya Pradesh Cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Service 2004 batch. He hails from Kerala and has done his B.Tech (Hons) in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (formerly Regional Engineering College, Calicut).
As a member of the Indian Administrative Service, he has experience in administration at the district level and governance at the State and National levels. He has undertaken responsibilities in the areas of Information Technology, Rural Development and Energy. He has served in various administrative positions in Govt. of India and the State Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, like MD, MPPMCL, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Power, Director- PMO, PS to Minister-M/o Steel, Deputy Director-LBSNAA, MD, MP State Electronics Development Corporation etc. He has authored two books – 3S and Our Health and Advaitanomics. (Raghuraj Rajendran | Linkedin)
Dr. Jayanti Ravi is an IAS officer of the 1991 batch and a scientist, civil servant, performing vocalist, administrator, thinker, and widely traveled development practitioner. Dr. Jayanti Ravi entails myriad realms of experience in her multifaceted career. Passion for human development and service to humanity best describes her mission. She holds a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Physics from the University of Madras, MPA from Harvard University and a PhD specializing in Technology Enhanced Education, conceptualizing a Multiversity from MS University, Baroda.
Having authored books, case studies, newspaper articles, and published papers in International Journals, she has also guided doctoral students and has been a visiting Faculty at Harvard University. She has authored several books including ‘Sanity in Sanitation’ published by Penguin, ‘Symphony of Fraternity’ and ‘Silver Lining: Insights into Gujarat’ published by Orient Blackswan. She has been a column writer with Frontline and the newspaper DNA. (Dr. Jayanti Ravi | LinkedIn)
Kalyan Chakravarthy is pioneering the convergence of Governments & Markets – the two transformative forces of our times. He strives to bring best-in-class IIT-like-ivy league spirit to Public vocational and livelihood education architecture exclusively for the underprivileged through non-profit joint ventures with the state. He led the making of India’s first non-profit social unicorn – thanks to one of the best teams in the impact sector in India!
His specialties include Designing Public systems for the poor, Social business, Impact bonds, Micro-equity, Non-profit Public-private partnerships (NPPP), Samaj (Society) – Sarkar (State) -Bazaar (Markets) collaboration. (Kalyan Chakravarthy | LinkedIn)
Arun Jain is the Founder and CMD of Intellect, the Founder of Mission Samriddhi, a Design Thinking Practitioner and Teacher. In 2014, Intellect Design Arena was born out of the demerger of Polaris. The purpose of Intellect Design is to help global financial institutions with state-of-the-art technologies and products. At the same time, he was also leading Mission Samriddhi, a social enterprise striving towards empowering rural India in solving their problems through design thinking.
He founded Ullas Trust in 1997, to ignite young minds and guide them to realizing their dreams and now Ullas has since reached out to over 2,60,000 children from the economically challenged sections of Government, Municipal and Aided Schools. This provides vital professional skills to adolescent children across the country nurturing the “Can Do” spirit among the young minds. (Arun Jain | LinkedIn)
Rajiv Vaid is a Global Financial Services Executive and former Board Director with 30+ years of experience successfully building and scaling organizations and carrying out successful M&A transactions. He is adept at leading in various C-suite and board roles, fostering relationships, cultivating cross-functional leadership teams and successfully integrating and scaling acquired business.
Rajiv is the Former Board Director, TCS Eserve International Limited (Division of Tata Consultancy Services); Former Board Director, Daiwa Capital Markets India Ltd. (Division of Daiwa Capital); Former Board Director, Citigroup Global Services International Ltd. (Division of Citibank); Former Steering Committee Member on Data Security Council for India, NASSCOM (India’s apex trade association and advocacy group for the IT industry). He did his Master of Business Administration from IIM Ahmedabad and Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Engineering from IIT Roorkee. He is also a certified PCC coach. (Rajiv Vaid | Linkedin)
Amb. Pradeep Kapur is the Chair of the Livelihoods Council, WGF. An acknowledged ‘luminary diplomat’ with a distinguished career working closely on important geo-political issues with Prime Ministers and Presidents of various countries, and leaders and policymakers on different continents, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pranab Mukherjee in India. An engineering and management graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi with distinction, Kapur was selected for the prestigious Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and was Secretary, Government of India, working as a transformational Ambassador of India to Cambodia and Chile.
His advocacy for accessible healthcare is evident through his seminal works in collaboration with Dr. Chalil, “Beyond the Covid-19 Pandemic: Envisioning a Better World by Transforming the Future of Healthcare,” and “India Beyond The Pandemic – A Sustainable Path Towards Global Quality Healthcare” which became Amazon best sellers. Passionate about rural community empowerment and creating National Digital Financial Infrastructure, he is also an academic, teaching in reputed universities, a renowned best-selling author, and a frequent commentator on television on global geo-political issues.
