1)      That as per the latest FT ratings, we are now the second best Business School in UK and the sixteenth best in the world.  Yay! Yay! Yay!

2)      Oxford is a cute little town with 800 years of history. That means that the college that you now live in was built when our great, great, great, great, great, greaaaaaaat grandpa was not even born.

3)      Some of the events held at the School allow you to rub shoulders with the best of the Business world. So the next time you run into a snob who boasts about his exquisite knowledge, you can very casually mention what Sir Terry Leahy said to you in his supper or what Roger Carr had to say in his speaker session.

4)      Diversity of the class means one day you sit next to a French Chef who explains how to make pumpkin pudding fantastic and the very next day you will be listening to a life scientist explain strange physiognomic phenomena.

5)      The authors who changed the world are your teachers. Some of the best books such as fresh Lipstick (Linda Scott), how Brands became Icons (Douglas Holt) and Social Entrepreneurship (Alex Nicholls) have been written by faculty members.

Things you would die before you tell anyone about your MBA

1)      That actually when you spoke to that great industry leader, you had spinach stuck between your teeth.

2)      That some of the books written by your teachers are really heavy stuff and you haven’t read them.

3)      That some of your fellow students achievements can sometimes make you feel small. Getting into the Business School was your biggest career achievement so far.

4)      The subject that you just passed has the highest number of distinction holders. (You wonder when they really study when most of the times they are hanging out with you in the Common Room.)

5)      That despite being the best of the best (thats why you are at Saïd after all!), you still have to look for a job, go through the hassles of applications, resumes and cover letters, interviews, case studies and yes, rejections!

The exams here are stressful. In the first 4 weeks of Michaelmas, it seems that the subjects are easy to tackle (specially for people like me who are from quant background), but then suddenly one is swept off the ground in a flood of assignments, and before you know, you are in the middle of the exam preparation week. You take a couple of more days to organise notes, take printouts, finalise study strategies etc. Then once you realise that you have to write 6 papers in 4 days, reality strikes you real hard! The rest is just a long and painful story of endurance, sleepless nights, desperation and iron-clad promises of studying hard the next term right from the beginning.

However, the winter break is sufficiently long to recuperate from the exam trauma. Oxford becomes a very quiet and serene place during off-term times and especially during the winter break. Almost all students either go home or to some warmer part of the globe. Which means that apart from other things, you can go to the most popular movies without booking tickets in advance, or eat out at the most popular joints without having to wait in a queue for nearly an hour, all of which was great for me. This year it snowed very heavy and for a few days Oxford looked like it has been chiselled out of a huge mound of icing sugar. There are a few tall places like Carfax tower, which when climbed, offers a brilliant view of the High Street colleges, the Radcliffe and such. The day after it snowed, we went atop the tower and it was simply brilliant! Highly recommended!!

OK. End of flashback. Back to Hillary Term week 1. This term is particularly known to present exceptional academic and intellectual challenge to the Oxford MBAs. This is the time when you get to do the Entrepreneurship Project. Whats an EP in SBS? Read here. What is interesting, we are being taught very specific tools needed to do the project. As an example, a little while ago, I attended a workshop session by Lucy Kimbell on how to generate and develop ideas at the early stage of planning. These are practical, hands-on techniques that can be used and it proved to be quite effective for my team. Looking forward to more of her sessions.

This is also the term when we start electives. As you would guess, since we choose our electives, there is an escalated level of commitment among the class to learn, which is resulting in very initiated debates in class. I have taken finance II, macro economics and strategy II, technology and innovation strategy as my electives. Let’s see how it goes.

I have a dinner invitation in Oriel College in a while, so have to run off to get dressed in a suit, my host has kindly informed that I cannot enter the Oriel College Hall without being properly dressed. So off I go. Please leave your comments and let me know what you want to hear more about.

Take care!

I attended the careers session on Social Finance, and loved hearing from Rod Schwartz of ClearlySo—an online marketplace for social business. Rod will be co-teaching the Social Finance elective in Trinity term, so it was fun to get a preview of his engaging talks. I also heard from Cecile Galoselva at the Ethical Property Company who talked about her company’s innovative model. In one of the general addresses, Caroline Casey from the organization Kanchi was literally one of the best speakers I have ever heard. I highly recommend checking out her organization if you get a chance.

My personal favorite part of the conference was being a mentor for contestants in the Ideas competition. Basically, budding social entrepreneurs submitted an overview of an idea then finalists were selected to pitch to judges at the end of the conference. During the day, peers and mentors helped them shape their pitch, and at the end of the day we got to see the finished product. There were some amazing ideas such as a new recycling process to make toys and household items, and a charitable loyalty card. The finalists will get support throughout the year to develop their ideas. Later in the year, a final will take place and the winners will get funding from UnLtd and Barclays Capital. 

Overall, it was a great and inspirational day, and one of the many examples of the amazing opportunities happening at SBS. I only wish I had more time to take advantage of them all!

San Francisco, is unmistakably one of my favourite cities in America. The chill from the bay, the magnificent view of the Golden Gate, the crooked Lombard, all reminded me of the July 4^th weekend of 2004. The city was as beautiful as ever. My MBA cohort that had embarked on the SE (Social Entrepreneurship) trek shared a big lovely house in Fillmore. Being co-located helped in a big way. Every morning and afternoon, before we left home to visit one of the organizations, we had a quick session educating one another on what the organization does, discussing what should we learn from them ?, and if there were any specific areas where we could offer consulting ?. After every visit we took time to debrief and reflect on our meetings. We spent a week in San Francisco (April 12-19) and had twelve formal meetings with social entrepreneurs, as well as a handful of less formal networking sessions.

The trek began with a visit to Skoll Foundation in Palo Alto. Their research arm, the Skoll Center at SBS offers three electives in the MBA’s Trinity term. I was thrilled to meet Victor and Jason with whom I had only interacted over emails. During the Skoll World Forum, I had written a series of blogs for Social Edge. Victor greeted me saying “So, there is a human being behind the blogger !” The Skoll Foundation family was very cordial and shared with us the work they do behind the scenes for the SWF. It was an amazing team and an apt way to begin our trek.

We then visited IDEO which was familiar to us from the case study we did on the TIS (Technology and Innovation Strategy) course. This design and innovation firm offers design thinking to a wide variety of areas from mundane kitchen issues to social issues. The team also did a consulting session with Mobile Metrix. Mobile Metrix is a market research company that assists the “invisible poor” by gathering data that shares their reality with the world. Accurate data is the first step to solving any social problem, because it directs resources and drives change. Working with partners IBM, Palm and Stanford University, Mobile Metrix has been instituted as a social enterprise and is contracted by private companies, foundations, NGOs, governments and international organizations who target the “base of the pyramid”. New Schools Venture Fund (NVSF), is another interesting organization that we visited. NSVF is a small organization trying to have a huge impact on K-12 education in the US. It is a non-profit that works as an intermediary. Their vision is a system of high performance schools. They look for a compelling role to play, where there is a market failure and where the private sector hasn’t addressed the demand, and incubate such solutions. They are ambitious and look at and invest in any aspect of the education system: from school meals to high policy levels, from teacher pay to curriculum development and grading.

Kiva was probably the most well known of all the organizations. Kiva is a social enterprise that allows individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. The organization became the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website. Further, we met with the Founder of New Leaf Paper. New Leaf Paper leads the paper industry in the development and distribution of environmentally superior printing and office papers. Their goal is to inspire, through our success, a fundamental shift toward environmental responsibility in the paper industry. Global Footprint Network, was one of the last organizations that we visited. We met with Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director of GFN, and centered our discussion around GFN’s new Ecological Creditor and Debtor Initiative (ECDI – see: www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/ecological_debtors_and_creditors).

The other organizations we visited were:

· Benetech, which is providing technology solutions to social problems. One of their projects is for people with vision and reading disabilities, wherein they have formed the world’s largest accessible digital library of scanned material.

· KickStart, that designs and develops cost-effective tools that support sustainable economic growth. They work in rural areas of Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Burkina Faso.

· Good Capital, which is an investment firm that increases the flow of capital to innovative ventures creating market-based solutions to inequality and poverty.

Amidst all these, we also met with the BASES student group at Stanford University. BASES includes undergraduate and graduate students as well as leading faculty members from all schools at Stanford including Business, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Humanities, and the Sciences, promoting entrepreneurs through networking, discussions, competitions etc. We also had a chance to meet some like-minded MBA students on campus over lunch.

In summary, the SE OBN trek was one of the best student organised treks that was very educating and also helped us make valuable contacts in the Social Entrepreneurship space.

PS: The first part to this blog post is here.

6:30 AM Wake-up (Snooze) Wake-up

7:00 AM Breakfast – Cereal and milk (while remembering how nice it would have been to have idlis and dosa)

8:15 AM Bike to school, dump your stuff in the locker, check which of lecture rooms you ought to be in and go to class.

8:45 AM First class of the day – These are long 3.5 hour classes; struggle to be awake

9:15 AM Resist opening lap tops; Slowly, people start checking emails and make diligent notes side-by-side

10ish Coffee break – Grab a coffee or tea and also the free Financial Times and Wall Street Journal at the Common Room. Brood over when the economy will be on track or catch up with group mates on the assignments due.

11ish to 12:15 PM Back to class; Case Study time – Most classes begin with theoretical concepts and end with a discussion on the case study that was on the reading list.

12:15 to 1:30 PM Lunch or luncheon group meetings; If you aren’t lucky to have a relaxed lunch, grab a sandwich and come back to sit in one of the career presentations or an OBN meeting

1:30 to 4:45 PM Second class for the day; A similar schedule like the morning class, with a coffee break ofcourse.

4:45 PM Technically done for the day with all classes complete during Michaelmas and Hilary terms.

5:00 to 8:15 PM During Trinity term, a third class may be on schedule depending on the electives chosen.

5:00 PM to late You could end up doing one or all of these – Group meetings for discussing assignments; Writing and uploading assignments; study at the library; attending weekly debates at the Oxford Union; attend guest speaker events at school or elsewhere in the university; do pre-readings for next day’s class; attend a BOP; listen to a concert at the Sheldonian; workout at the college or university gym; attend meditation classes and an umpteen other things.

10:00 PM Back to comforts of the room; cook food; watch NDTV news over dinner (atleast in my case); do pre-readings for next day; plan calendar for next day; write journal entries and more…

12:00 midnight Time to crash…

Apart from all this, you can make time to row on river Isis, go punting on river Cherwell, take a walk in Port meadows, read in the Bodleian library, attend a prayer at the Church, visit one of the many museums, attend a book reading, be an activist, play cricket for the SBS team, walk down Corn market street to have the famous West Cornwall Pasty, drink beer at Eagle and Child, eat Michel’s crêpes at Bonn square, hear a Nobel laureate speak at the Sheldonian and many many more things. It is all a matter of priority and time management. If you are at Oxford, you will do them all and have one of the most enriching years of your life.

The highlight of the event was an impassionate speech by Rahul who shared the joys of creation as an entrepreneur. Introducing the entrepreneurial space in India, he spoke of the nuances of cultural baggage and the importance of native intelligence in a diverse country like India. He eloquently drew upon stories of how our ancestors had little luxury to waste resources and which automatically translated into them being entrepreneurial to solve the problems of the day. Summarizing the essentials of being an Entrepreneur he said that an innovative idea, integrity (inspiring trust with all stake holders) and collaboration (cross-sector sharing of best practices) were key elements of success. Anoushka from NetxGen’s Oxford chapter gave a fervent speech on Oxford Tutoring, a social enterprise started by her as also Oxford Emerging Markets.

The CII Young Indians delegation had visited the University of Oxford on June 25^th as a part of their UK tour. The event was hosted by the UKIBC (UK India Business Council). Young Indians (”Yi”) was founded in December 2002.  It is an integral part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and comprises of a group of young Indian achievers and professionals below the age of 40 years from various walks of life. Yi believes that young Indians can contribute to the community and society at large. Yi is a forum that focuses on issues of national importance and motivates a generational change in the economic and social agenda of India.

The day also marked the official launch of UKIBCs Next Generation Network’s Oxford Chapter of which Anoushka Babbar will be the Head. NGN is a network of young people interested in the UK India business relationship. The visiting delegation were taken around a small walking tour of Oxford through the covered market and a stop at Ben’s Cookies, Oxford Union, Radcliffe Camera and the Queen’s college where the event was hosted. The event also brought together a networking event where many MBA students spent time with the entrepreneurs exchanging ideas, notes, experiences and business cards.

Speaking of Entrepreneurship, do visit http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/entrepreneurship/ to learn about the Oxford Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Said Business School that hosts a series of talks on Building a Business between November and February. They also host the Venture Fund competition every year in Hilary term. The center is of strategic importance to Said and is an important part of the SBS MBAs experience. I am sure this year given the impact of the downturn there will be more MBA students than usual who will turn to being an entrepreneur and fill white spaces in the society.

As an end note, I want to say that some of us students of the current MBA batch are keen on continuity of the relationship established with the CII – Young Indians team. A virtual event in the form of a discussion, key note speaker event is planned with leading Indian B-School students and CII – YI in September. So, I call upon any of you (MBA batch of 2010) interested to write to me at Vinay.Nagaraju@sbs.ox.ac.uk or Abhishek.Pathak@sbs.ox.ac.uk on your arrival dates and we shall take it forward from there. See you soon !

An evening with Vikram Seth

I had read of his coming to speak to the Oxford Union book club. All members of the Union can meet the guests by writing to the President in advance. I did so and had this opportunity to have dinner with Vikram Seth and spend a few hours with him before a book reading night. It was very memorable because we were in close proximity to Vikram and shared many a things from our lives and hear from him. He recollected his days at Oxford and shared his fond memories from India. At dinner it was time for light hearted conversation with people sharing about their upbringing et al; As I shared about my childhood in Bangalore, I jokingly said that he has to set his next novel in Bangalore! Later in the evening he read some of his poems, bits from novels, shared his opinion of contemporary India, how he admires RK Narayanan and that if RKN had written of North India he would never dared to do something similar J, he spoke of how communal hatred can be detrimental to India in the long run, gave advice to a few budding writers on how to accept criticism and how to take it constructively. That evening as I said “Good night Vikram, I take leave of you, it was a memorable evening indeed. Hope to meet you again.” He turned around and up and said “Good night Vinay. It was nice meeting you all.” I started walking towards the gate and then he gave a shout “You know what Vinay, my next novel may after all be set in Bangalore. See you soon !” A memorable evening indeed…

Earning a quick buck

After donning the role of a student, there has only been out flows from my bank account. However, the prospect of earning a few quids is not very bleak. CESS, the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences at Nuffield College here is a place that promotes and facilitates experimental research by social scientists at the University. So, time to time these social scientists need ‘guinea pigs’ for their experiments. If you are registered on their distribution list you receive invitations to these experiments. You can choose to volunteer your time usually between 30 mins to 1.5 hours or so, depending on the experiment. During these experiments we answer various questionnaires… for example on elections to European Union (on a political orientation experiment), played games with randomly paired participant (on a strategic decision experiment) and so on. I have earned 10 to 15 quids everytime I volunteer and that is a decent amount ! The department of Psychology and the Medics usually need people for their studies and many student volunteer their time and earn a buck too.

Meeting Ko Aung at the Amnesty International event

Amnesty International Oxford and the Oxford Union hosted Ko Aung from Burma. Ko Aung was a student leader in Burma in 1988 during the uprising. He led thousands of students as they took part in mass protests. The protests would end in 3,000 deaths. He was arrested and repeatedly tortured. Two years later he received a jail sentence for his role in the protests at a trial Amnesty believed to be unfair. He spent the first three years in solitary confinement. He was released from his detention in 1994 and subsequently fled to the UK. It was very inspiring to listen to him and the extremely difficult times he has gone through. It was evident how those trying times had built his character. I walked back home re-kindling the activist spirit in me.

John Howard @ Sheldonian

John Howard ex-Australian PM, spoke at the Sheldonian on 28^th May. He was speaking as a part of the quincentenary celebrations of Brasenose college, he delivered a talk on ‘Lessons in Governance’. I am no center-right sympathizer, but John Howard’s speech and his way of engaging the crowd was honest, simple and elucidating. He spoke at length about the three greatest democracies of the world – America, India and Indonesia. He steered himself clear of making any comments on the recent MPs expenses scandal of UK, but he heaped great appreciation on the Indian democracy, its triumph in spite of its diversity and its leader Dr.Manmohan Singh whom he hailed as an intelligent man and one of the finest statesmen in recent times. John was a fine orator and the evening was particularly interesting.

John Howard (ex-Australian PM) at Oxford

Voting in Oxford

Apparently being a student in Oxford with a resident permit VISA, I was on the electoral rolls of the local council. I did not realize it until I received a voting card with details of my polling station for the recently held European Parliamentary Election and the Oxford Council Elections. Having missed the opportunity to cast my vote in the recent General Elections, it was a great opportunity to exercise my ‘right’ here in Oxford. The St. Giles Parish center was my polling station and I promptly went there after class on the 4^th of June to cast my vote. I had three votes in all and I had to use the good old ballot paper to mark a cross with a pencil to indicate my choice ! We have come a long way in India in this regard with a 100% electronic voting in every nook and corner of the country.

These were just random experiences in Oxford that makes life vibrant and interesting here and I thought you would like to know…

I was part of the Cisco team, and I was thoroughly impressed with the depth of analysis they apply to each potential partner. They consider the technology, obviously, but even more so the people. If the cultural fit isn’t there, they don’t make the move; ” They’re the best at acquisitions for a reason”

For the afternoon, the trekkers were treated to an impressive array of events at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. Our hosts, Dean Barry Posner and Professor Al Bruno, arranged a panel of local entrepreneurs, a discussion about their social incubator, a lecture on the current economic crisis and outlook, and even let us sit in on one of their classes. They topped this all off with a reception where we got to meet professors and current students.

If you’re going to be in Silicon Valley, make sure you get to know Al Bruno and Dean Posner. Not only do they know today’s leaders, but they’re ensuring that they’ll know tomorrow’s as well.

Thursday, April 9th
Silicon Valley is an area proud of its history (and justifiably so), and this day started out with the trekkers gaining a little historical perspective. Joe DiNucci arranged a morning tour of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. There we saw everything from punched card processors to supercomputers, including one machine with a built-in ashtray. They certainly don’t make them like that anymore.

After two hours of computing history, we were jolted with a vision of the future. Qik founder Ramu Sunkara showed us how his software can turn a cell phone camera into a real-time webcam. The technology is still under development, but the current results are impressive.

In classic Silicon Valley style, Ramu started Qik in his garage. His advice was simple – team up with the smartest person you know, and don’t let failure get you down. Even when all hope seems lost, success can be just around the corner.

For our afternoon session, the trekkers were treated to three hours with LinkedIn founder and CEO (and Oxford alumnus) Reid Hoffman. Reid spent a few minutes talking about his background and about LinkedIn, and then he shifted to giving us direction on finding jobs and funding ventures in this economy. To give justice to the quality and quantity of information Reid (aka “The Godfather”) shared with us this afternoon would take 1000+ words, so I’ll just summarize as best I can. With money tight and jobs scarce, social networks are even more critical to finding funds and employment. Build those networks… and then use them!

Insight from Reid Hoffman:

Get LinkedIn or be left out.

Folks, here is my final piece from the Skoll World Forum 2009 in Oxford. It has been a humbling, inspiring, overwhelming, connecting and a fulfilling experience these last few days.

Pamela Hartigan, the Director of Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Said Business School was the hostess of the closing plenary. She began by telling us that the Skoll World Forum was 6^th most twittered event in the world in the last couple of days. Hosting it at Oxford University, the oldest university in the English speaking world was illustrating the importance of it. She said that her vision for the Skoll center was to have Social Entrepreneurship as a harbinger of future systems and practices in this space. Skoll center has been awarding scholarships for MBA students that have worked on transformational change. So far, 25 Skollars (as the Skoll Scholars are called) are influencing ecosystems where they work and are the first line ambassadors of Skoll. This year there are more than 60 MBA students interested in this space and member of the Social Entrepreneurship OBN (Oxford Business Network). These students serve as infectious agents combining markets and meaning. She added that Skoll intends to contribute by convening researchers and practitioners. Skoll center is now actively pursuing the teaching fraternity at the B-school to introduce case studies on SE in subjects of Finance, Strategy etc. developing a business culture with a passion for social change.

Lord David Puttnam who spoke on “Citizens, Institutions and Shifting Power”, is a filmmaker and politician and a member of the House of Lords. He has spent recent years in the field of education that he says are the building blocks for children’s lives. Known for producing Oscar award winning movies like ‘Chariots of Fire’ he was drawing upon his rich know-how in various sectors. Quoting HG Well he said “History is a race between education and catastrophe.” He hopes in future Education triumphs. He said there was a need for a movie like Inconvenient Truth to stress on education. He held the world premiere of his new work by showing a 7 mins clip on education to the audience.

The present threat to our planet is inaction in the face of global challenges. This inaction will precipitate matters. Environmental costs he said have to be accounted for in all economic activity. The whirlwind of 200 years of economic and environmental inactivity will be catastrophic. He was glad that there was hope. He said he was confident to see that the social entrepreneurs in the gathering were well equipped to deliver on that hope.

Soraya Salti, Senior Vice President, MENA, INJAZ al-Arab, spoke of the golden age of Islam and the current state of the education system. She said this had created unprecedented rates of unemployment in the Arab world. She spoke of the need to invest in education for prospering. She quoted Khalil Gibran on Work “‘You work so that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons and to step out of life’s processions that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite…when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream assigned to you when that dream was born”. She told she came from the land of prophets and wanted to present a book to the ‘modern day prophet’ Jeff Skoll. The audience gave a standing ovation to Jeff Skoll as they witnessed this gesture.  

Jeff Skoll, summed up what a great forum we have had. Referring again to urgency and hope, the two issues of today he said “Both are on an upward path”. Charles Darwin, whose bicentenary Oxford is celebrating had impact on science, religion and society. Not until the DNA double helix model was discovered to provide hard scientific evidence to the work he had done on the Beagles journey; – Jeff said a similar process is in play in Social Entrepreneurship space; SE field has evolved, strengthened and been challenged over time. Now is the time for it to be on the main stream – economic crisis may solidify SE model to be THE model for social and economic change. Referring to the SE community he said “You are a keystone species in the social change architecture. Your role is strengthened by the economic crisis. We leave Oxford with a renewed sense of what is possible. Last year we said Social Entrepreneurs had arrived; now I say SEs are to take lead and show the way to the rest of the world. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

Colin Mayer, Dean of Said Business School gave the concluding remarks. Referring to the evolution of Kaizen in Japan in post World War II period, he said that institutional innovation was the need of this decade of the 21^st century. Skoll Forum was a contrast to the gloom and doom in other conferences he has attended in recent times. Forum is an enduring innovation in its own right he added.

Pamela concluded with an Irish blessing:

“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”

The closing plenary was followed by a networking event called “Conversations – Leaders for the Future”. Current MBA students spent time speaking to practitioners and delegates discussing ideas revolving on various themes from Human Rights, Education to Youth empowerment and media.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS: All the beautiful pics are courtesy Photovibe.

Next Billion featured some of my write-ups: http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/author/vinay-nagaraju

Social Edge write-ups are here: http://www.socialedge.org/search?Creator=vinaynagaraju&sort_on=Date&sort_order=reverse 

 

My classmate Julia and I at the Forum

The evening began to foot tapping performance by KT Tunstall , a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. In introducing her Sally Osberg, President and CEO of Skoll Foundation said that KT has been contributing to the cause of Climate Change by taking buses on tours that run on bio-diesel. I knew little about her but thanks to Wikipedia I am now enlightened on this amazing performer.

Sally Osberg rightly said that the Skoll Forum was convening in exceptional circumstances when the old order was collapsing and the challenge to create and morally justifiable and sustainable world was in front of us. She likened Social Entrepreneurs to ‘scouts’ in ant communities that go out in search of new sites. “Social Entrepreneurs are humanities scouts. – signally there is something out there that is hopeful. Skoll amplifies such signals.” Follow her address were three shortfilms on healthcare and it footprint, Rootcapital and their transformative work with Tanzanian farmers and one on the use of IT education to bridge the digital divide in marginalized youth communities in Brazil.

R.K.Pachauri, Nobel Peace Prize winner and chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  delivered the key note address. He praised Social Entrepreneurs as missionaries of a fair and just society who are today fashioning a new development paradigm in tune with grassroots realities. “Social Entrepreneurs also provide a form of powerful governance.” He shared an anecdote of Mahatma Gandhi while stressing the importance of sustainable use of natural resources. I paraphrase it here – Once, a British friend of Gandhi asked him if he did not want India to proposer like Britain. Gandhi paused and said that if Britain needed half the resources in the world to be what it was, then imagine what would happen if India wanted to be as prosperous as Britain. Climate change he said was only a subset of the dangers of unsustainable development. The most affected in any catastrophes are the poorest of the poor. This he said was an inequitable impact. While giving the shocking statistic that there are 1.6 billion homes without access to electricity in the world, he shared his dream of lighting a billion homes.

This was followed by the Skoll Award distribution to 9 awardees. The audience was inspired and were on their feet applauding the significant impact each of these awardees had on their communities. More than $5 million was given as grants to these people.  The evening concluded with a few more songs by KT and a reception at the Examination Schools at High Street.

In all, an enthralling evening, great fellowship, bright ideas, uncommon heroes and common good!!!

The final day was marked by panel discussions in the morning before the closing plenary. I wrote accounts of it for Social Edge and Next Billion as follows:

Where’s the power in the new development paradigm ?

Tomorrow’s NEWS: Models for an everyone-is-media world