2011 INDIA DM

In alignment with the focus areas of the Department of Economic Affairs and the Government of India, the 2011 India DM focused on the low-income States of Bihar, Odisha and Rajasthan. In January 2011, 265 for-profit and non-profit social entreprises working across a range of relevant domains in this region, submitted proposals for a $50,000 competitive grant to scale or replicate their projects within these states. Of these, 175 active proposals were evaluated by a group of 37 independent Assessors comprising of Leaders from the Social Enterprise ecosystem in India, experts from the World Bank Group and other partners.

30 finalist teams were invited to present their projects at a face-to-face Development Marketplace event in Jaipur in April 2011, and from this group of shortlisted projects, 14 winners were chosen to receive grant funding and access to a supportive advisory network through the IFC South Asia.

The 14 winning projects represent a rich & diverse pool of social enterprise models that have the potential to create significant impact on the bottom 2 decile of the population in these low-income states. Operation Asha (TB eradication) and Educate Girls (Getting girl children to school in gender biased states) work closely with the Government in delivering highly enhanced public entitlements and service to the target groups. Industree, Rangsutra, Sadhna, BAIF and Healing Heritage link rural producers and craftspeople to better incomes and livelihoods through market based models; and enterprises like Babajob and WOSCA have leveraged technology in ways that poor, disenfranchised communities can access jobs, public entitlements and services through the use of their mobile phones.

Within the last 18 months:

  • Following the award, each Grant winner was assisted in undertaking a systematic needs assessment and problem identification process as the basis for utilizing DM grants. Grant agreements with all winners have been signed, key objectives and goals have been agreed to and funds have been disbursed to support the realization of the key objectives
  • Collectively, the 14 supported enterprises are expanding their operations to reach out to an additional 200,000+ poor
  • Six grant winners have already secured external funding during the period of DM support
  • Resource mobilization workshops for all the winners are being conducted with the help of experienced fund mobilization institutions. As part of the funds raising effort, M&E capacity building workshops have also being designed and implemented
  • 175 project proposals that met all the necessary DM criteria have been circulated to a wide range of foundations, investment funds and impact investors in India and globally, who are using this data as part of their pipeline development for capacity building and funding

View the list of all the winners of the 2011 India DM competitive Grant fund and TA support

Case Studies

Rangsutra

Envisaged as a bridge between artisans and consumers, Rangsutra works with small producer groups based in remote villages and towns in around 9 locations across the Indian states of Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Assam. It strengthens economic security in vulnerable communities by empowering members to create top quality hand made products which are then sourced and marketed to urban consumers through leading retailers.

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    We are looking at this money more as in investment in infrastructure development as well as human resource development. We believe that the results of this will be seen very soon.
    Sumita Ghose, Managing Director, Rangsutra Crafts India Ltd.
    We feel honoured, we are a young enterprise and being recognized by an institution like World Bank is a great feeling. We are pretty enthused to move ahead in a comparatively faster manner...we are looking forward to the coming 24 months when we are going to get various kind of inputs.
    Devendra Shukla, Chief Operating Officer, Educate Girls
    In the last 3 years we have trained and placed 10,000 people [in jobs]. In this World Bank sponsored project we are trying to train and place 10,000 people in Bihar alone.
    Nishant Saxena, CEO Elements Akademia Pvt. Ltd.
    As far as scale is concerned, we have understood that a lot of capacity building is required for that. Resourcing and networking [with] other agencies is also important.
    Prabitra Mishra, Programme Director, Adhikar
    Basically a start-up needs to use the grant for the costs of capacity building of community, mobilization etc. Then there is the technical, research and development cost for doing the innovation part. The third necessity is providing the market linkage to the producer groups. These are the 3 core things that social entrepreneurs [look for] and for these, funds are not available. This will be the greatest benefit of the DM.
    Ravi Chandra, Managing Trustee, Bihar Development Trust
    DM is the beginning...it definitely feels good. It has taken a lot of thought process as to how we take reliable lighting sources to Bihar...Winning DM matters a lot...the financial support will help us to build infrastructure, develop capacity of people to implement the program [of providing quality lighting to the poor] properly in Bihar.
    Prasanta Biswal, Sr. Manager – Mission Projects, Selco Solar Lights (P) Ltd.
    Through DM we have proposed to scale it up to different areas covering another 44,000 households where we can monitor the social security scheme. I am definitely thrilled and excited because this money will [make] us think in a different way, to upgrade our technology, our HR and streamlining our processes from a certain level to a different level. We need to build our capacity through DM.
    Mansingh Durga Prasad Nayak, Programme Director, (WOSCA)

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