Tata Trusts, Harvard Institute project awards 12 social innovation grants

New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) Social innovation grants worth Rs 50 lakh were given to 12 enterprises as part of the 18-month project by Harvard South Asia Institute (SAI) in collaboration with Tata Trusts.

"A vital part of this project was to stimulate interventions and scale up existing initiatives that can lead to greater impact in select geographies. Social innovation grants totalling Rs 50 lakh were given to 12 budding social entrepreneurs and crafts enterprises in India to achieve this objective," a statement said here on Tuesday.

The project titled 'Livelihood Creation in India', is aimed at filling the capacity gaps through residential workshops jointly conducted by Harvard Faculty and in-region experts.

"Over 25 social entrepreneurs from 14 states were shortlisted for this workshop," the statement said.

The workshop on science and technology based social entrepreneurship was conducted in collaboration with IIT Delhi and focused on diverse themes including business perspectives to social entrepreneurship, perspectives from the government, design for success and impact, perspectives from the industry, and leveraging external resources, it said.

Smart Joules, a Delhi-based social enterprise was also amongst the receivers of the grant as part of the 19-month project on science and technology based social entrepreneurship.

"Smart Joules has a vision and commitment in working towards bringing more than 300 million Indians out of energy poverty. Harvard SAI is happy to support them in their passion and technology-based ideas to create a cleaner society," Shashank Shah, project director and fellow Harvard University SAI, said.

Ganesh Neelam, Head, Technology and Innovations, Tata Trusts, said: "The Trusts' collaboration with Harvard University SAI is a step towards identifying some of the best possible technology solutions, to address barriers being faced in the areas of livelihoods, healthcare and education to name a few."