ISB iDiya Challenge Launched

ISB iDiya Challenge is a National Social Ideas Competition being organised by the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad open to all working professionals. Closing date for submission is October 25, 2009 ( <http://www.isb.edu/idiya> )
From my perspective it is great to see a management school of high calibre like ISB get involved in social issues. Tomorrow's leaders will transform the bottom line to include social impact and institutional change is required to build this new leadership.
The Situation:
49% of the world’s underweight children; 46% of the world’s wasted children and 34% of the world’s stunted children live… in INDIA. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/asia/13malnutrition.html?_r=2>
456 million people below the international poverty line ($1.25/ day)… live in INDIA. That is one and a half times the population of the USA and one-third of the world’s population below the poverty line. <http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/INDIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:21880725~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:295584,00.html>
70% of the population does not have access to basic banking and financial services… in Rural INDIA. <http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/moud/theministry/subordinateoff/tcpo/REPORTON_BANKINGSERVICES/CHAPTER-1.pdf>
41% of the population does not own any of the basic products/assets – bicycle; radio; telephone… in Rural INDIA. <http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/moud/theministry/subordinateoff/tcpo/REPORTON_BANKINGSERVICES/CHAPTER-1.pdf>

The Response:
Some individuals have taken the untrodden path and have chosen to create companies which do good and also do business.
DesiCrew - http://www.desicrew.in/. Rural BPO delivering 40% cost savings to its clients while changing lives of rural populations. 80% of its team are women.
Dial 1298 for Ambulance - http://www.1298.in/. Rolling out a nationwide network of life support ambulance service.
Inclusive Planet - http://www.inclusiveplanet.com// <http://www.inclusiveplanet.com/> . Building the world’s largest community of differently-abled persons.

Mentoring partners for ISB iDiya: Acumen Fund, Deloitte, DFJ, Google, Intellecap, Seedfund, Unitus, Venture East.
Registration- www.isb.edu/idiya <http://www.isb.edu/idiya> . Email: idiya@isb.edu.
ISB iDiya Networking Platform: http://isbidiya.ning.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hyderabad-India/ISB-iDiya/127648572855

Now We're Talking! Voting ends June 15th

We have had a surge of voting activity - SKG Biomass in India has pulled into the lead with over 300 votes- I will leave the voting open until the end of the weekend. Vote at :
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227QE8J48Y6
For those of you just joining us: The Bordeaux Energy Colloquium is a private group of energy executives and policy makers. We are sponsoring this on-line casestudy competition for outstanding individual efforts in sustainable energy.
There are 10 videos- all available under the video section of the group page
http://www.facebook.com/video/?oid=6763501129
Competition Goals:
1. to educate the members about how very simple and inexpensive solutions can create such large life-changing effects for those involved.
2. to diffuse this information by sharing it with others – forwarding on the videos and asking people to become involved.
3. to humbly reward the casestudy participants by holding a vote and offering a $5000 first prize.

VOTING CLOSES JUNE 15th- What you do MATTERS!
from Kimberly

Wage Peace: Submit Youtube video, win $250

One of my favourite courses at Stanford is around technologies for Peace. Here is an invitation from my colleague Adam Tolnay:

"I write to ask you to please spread the word on a contest we are running at the Persuasive Technology Lab. It would be amazing if person from the developing world would win!
Win $250 for identifying the best peace video on Youtube!
http://peace.stanford.edu/contest/
Sincerely, Adam"

deadline is march 31