The Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in India is Arbind Singh

Contact Parag Gupta, Associate Director, Tel.: +41 (0) 79 6677930 – parag.gupta@schwabfound.org

• Arbind Singh, Executive Director, Nidan, wins the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008 in India
• Nidan is developing sustainable businesses, cooperatives, trade unions and “people's institutions” led by the most excluded categories of the poor in Bihar
• For more on the winner and the other finalists click on http://www.schwabfound.org

New Delhi, 18 November 2008 – Arbind Singh, Executive Director, Nidan, was today announced as the winner of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008 in India. Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India, conferred the award on Arbind Singh at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit. In India, the Social Entrepreneur Year of the Award is an initiative of The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the UNDP.

This award will also provide Arbind with the opportunity to take part in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos from 28 January to 1 February and join the Schwab Foundation’s global network. Singh will have unprecedented opportunities to engage with global decision-makers from the public, corporate, media and academic sectors to strengthen and expand his model. The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation will honour him as the Khemka Fellow and present him with a financial award of 800,000 Indian Rupees.

Nidan is developing sustainable businesses, cooperatives, trade unions and “people's institutions” led by the most excluded categories of the poor in Bihar. It has promoted and built 20 independent profit-making ventures governed and owned by the urban poor including waste workers, ragpickers, vegetable vendors, construction labourers, domestic helpers, micro-farmers, street traders and other marginalized occupation groups. As legitimate competitors in the mainstream economy, the collectives negotiate with the government for their rights and entitlements.

Accepting the award, Arbind Singh, Executive Director, Nidan said, “It is an honour to win the prestigious Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2008.  This award is an acclamation of our work in Bihar and it will provide us with a great deal of support by increasing our credibility in the eyes of the government and private donors. Most importantly, this award may influence the entrepreneurs who have abandoned Bihar to retrace their steps and set up their businesses in the state once again.”

Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India, offering his congratulations to Arbind Singh said: “While the Government talks about inclusive growth, Arbind’s model has shown the way. It is also a testimony to the fact that the poor can pay for financial products.” Montek S. Ahluwalia promised to visit Nidan, Arbind Singh’s organisation based in Patna.

Hilde Schwab, Chairperson of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, said: “We organize the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award in 20 countries around the world to recognize entrepreneurs that are altering the social and environmental fabric of society. India stands at the forefront of the field with social innovators that have global models particularly relevant in today’s turbulent times.”

Uday Khemka, Managing Trustee, The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, stated: “Social Entrepreneurs have innovative solutions to the myriad social challenges today. We believe social entrepreneurs in India have very effectively applied entrepreneurial approaches and involved people at the grassroots in addressing these social challenges. Through this award we aim to catalyse social change by identifying, investing in and supporting these social entrepreneurs and the sustainable organizations they have built.”

Congratulating the winner and finalists, Maxine Olson, UNDP Resident Representative said: “A social purpose added to entrepreneurship translates into an environment which creates leadership, making it possible to find solutions to challenges that confront people in their daily lives. In the UNDP too our focus is on creating conditions for such visionaries.” A distinguished jury including representatives of the partners and Atul Singh, President and Chief Executive Officer, Coca Cola India; Bindu Ananth, President, IFMR Trust; Harish Hande, Chief Executive Officer, SELCO; Raju Narisetti, Editor Mint and Leadership Team Member, Hindustan Times; and Subroto Bagchi, Co-founder and Gardener, MindTree Ltd. The finalists were identified through a competitive open process that identifies social entrepreneurs whose work has created large-scale, transformational benefit for marginalized populations or for society at large.

Other finalists included Prema Gopalan from Swayam Shikshan Prayog who co-creates businesses with rural communities and corporations, and Brij Kothari from PlanetRead and IIM Ahmedabad who uses “same language subtitling” on popular television shows to build literacy across the nation.

Note to Editors:
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The Schwab Foundation – (http://www.schwabfound.org/)
The Geneva-based Schwab Foundation is a sister organization of the World Economic Forum. Through its Social Entrepreneurship awards, the Foundation provides a national platform to promote social entrepreneurship as a key element to advance societies and address social problems in an innovative and effective manner. It also fosters a close-knit network of social entrepreneurs who have successfully implemented and scaled their transformational ideas so they may exchange ideas and replicate best practices.  Finally, the Foundation creates unprecedented opportunities where social entrepreneurs can further the legitimacy of their work, have access to usually inaccessible networks, and in consequence, mobilize financial and other resources that enable them to continue to strengthen and expand.

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation (www.khemkafoundation.org)
The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation is a private and independent Indian foundation. Its mission is to develop and promote institutions and initiatives that make a substantial impact on poverty, deprivation and disempowerment of the human and natural environment. It takes an approach that is long-term, strategic and leveraged. The Foundation believes that change can only be effected through multi stakeholder
Collaboration both within India and internationally and is therefore deeply committed to partnership and collaborative approaches. It seeks not so much to be an implementing or programmatic agency as to build key pillars of strategic philanthropy and development infrastructure in the country.

UNDP (www.undp.org)
UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.
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For photos of the award ceremony, please visit India Economic Summit 2008 Photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/sets/72157608048432450/

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The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests (http://www.weforum.org).