India is a country of paradoxes where women from well off families suffer due to unnecessary cesarean operations – in some urban centres close to half of deliveries are done by operation – while poorer rural women frequently die during childbirth due to lack of access to the same cesarean operation at time of genuine need.
Source: National Coordination Committee, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, October 2006
A great speaker lineup. Must attend event.
And while you are at it, enjoy this talk
E4SI, a very exciting organisation has announced fellows for this year.
PRESS RELEASE BELOW:
Bangalore, India [April 20, 2010] – The Engineers for Social Impact (E4SI) Fellowship Selection Committee is delighted to announce that after receiving and carefully reviewing close to 600 internship applications for its 2010 edition, it has made offers to 17 outstanding candidates for 9 roles at 7 partner social enterprises that focus on development by means of sustainable for-profit entrepreneurship.
E4SI 2010 Fellows come from a number of India’s prestigious engineering schools including IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and BITS Pilani – all from diverse backgrounds with excellent accomplishments and potential. E4SI 2010 Fellows include the student union President of BITS Pilani, student President of the entrepreneurship club at IIT Madras and Green Globe Foundation award winner. More information about the Fellows is available on E4SI’s website – http://www.e4si.org/
E4SI fellowships promise to be highly entrepreneurial in a way that combines the best of consulting, technology, and social innovation. Fellows will gain unprecedented access to the development sector as they work with leading social entrepreneurs, attend leadership workshops and pitch their ideas to thought leaders as they join an outstanding cohort of exceptional young leaders.
Partner social enterprises for the 2010 edition of the E4SI fellowship program are leaders in microfinance, education, energy, and healthcare. Among them are: Samhita Social Ventures Pvt. Ltd., an enterprise providing social organizations with access to funds, people, knowledge, networks and customers; mDhil, a firm that provides basic healthcare information to the Indian consumer via text messaging, mobile web browsing, and an innovative web site; iDiscoveri, an experiential education organization focused on self-discovery and meaningful learning in economically emerging societies; Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO India), a company that provides reliable, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy services to rural homes and businesses; Husk Power Systems (HPS), an innovative triple bottom-line company that provides power to over 50,000 rural Indians in a financially sustainable, environmentally friendly, and profitable manner; Sarvajal, a social enterprise focused on delivering clean drinking water at an affordable amount (25 paisa per liter) to rural villages throughout India; and IFMR, a wholly owned subsidiary of IFMR trust, a private trust with the mission to ensure that every individual and every enterprise has complete access to financial services.
About Engineers for Social Impact (E4SI)
The Engineers for Social Impact (E4SI) Fellowship is a unique program that connects top engineering talent to credible social enterprises driving market-based solutions to development in India. It serves a dual need: matching talented students with worthy social enterprises and increasing awareness of for-profit approaches to development.
Engineers for Social Impact has been described as “a group of doers and dreamers” which seeks to imbue a culture of social entrepreneurship in India’s youth. Not only does it provide hands-on training for new doers and dreamers but they also gives its fellows complete freedom to be creative in their immersion experiences.
E4SI’s advisers, among others, include Nitin Rao (Director, E4SI & MBA Candidate, MIT Sloan, Cambridge), Ayan Sarkar (Associate, McKinsey & Company), Anand Shah (CEO of Piramal Foundation), Dr. Parth J. Shah (President of the Centre for Civil Society), Neerja Raman (Author and Research Fellow at Stanford University), Priya Naik (Founder and CEO, Samhita Social Ventures) and Dharen Chadha (former Global Director of Strategic Planning at J. Walter Thompson.)
Contact
Akash Raman
Engineers for Social Impact
+91-950-344-9871
akash@e4si.org
«Qui è più pulito che in un ospedale pubblico. E, rispetto a una clinica privata, so che la mia assicurazione basterà a coprire le spese. Perché sarei dovuto andare altrove?». H.V. Sudharsan è un contadino di 47 anni originario di Hosagavi, un villaggio a 3 ore di auto da Bangalore. È stato appena operato di cancro al colon e si è potuto permettere l’intervento grazie a Vaatsalya, una catena di ospedali specializzati in affordable healthcare, letteralmente “sanità a buon mercato”. In certi paesi sarebbe un ossimoro. Qui in India, grazie a una miscela di spirito imprenditoriale, arte di arrangiarsi e reminiscenze gandhiane, non è che l’ennesimo esperimento riuscito nel più vasto e caotico laboratorio mondiale dell’innovazione a basso costo.
«Da noi – spiega Vinod Appaiah, il manager che gestisce la struttura di Mandya – un parto costa dalle 4 alle 5mila rupie (58-73 euro), in una media clinica 20mila, in quelle al top dai 50mila in su». L’idea di creare una catena di buoni ospedali a basso costo risale al 2004 ed è venuta ad Ashwin Naik, l’attuale Ceo di Vaatsalya. «Fino ad allora – spiega – il modello prevalente in India era quello che io chiamo “Taj & Oberoi”, dal nome delle due catene di hotel di lusso: pochi e costosi ospedali concentrati nei grandi centri».
TED