Motivations, News, Social Entrepreneurship

A Simple Solar Oven Makes Salt Water Drinkable

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It functions by filling the black boiler with salty sea water in the morning, then tightening the cap. As the temperature and pressure grows, steam is forced downwards through a connection pipe and collects in the lid, which acts as a condenser, turning the steam into fresh water. Once Diamanti established the fundamentals were sound, he experimented with a series of concepts for the aesthetic of the object.

“My goal was to design something friendly and recognizable for the users,” he explains. “The process developed quite naturally to determine the current shape; every detail is there for a reason, so the form, as well as production techniques, represent a compromise between technical and traditional.”

Click Here for the story

Calendar, Education, Social Entrepreneurship

Evaluating Social Programs – Free Online Course

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Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT and Edx have announced the launch of a free online course with certification from MIT on how to evaluate social programs for NGO’s, development practitioners, international development organizations, economists, academics, social workers, impact investors and students. The course begins on the the 1st Oct 2014 and will last for 5 weeks.

Course Introduction Video :

Register for this course at

https://www.edx.org/course/mitx/mitx-jpal101x-evaluating-social-programs-3026

About this Course

This four and a half-week course on evaluating social programs will provide a thorough understanding of randomized evaluations and pragmatic step-by-step training for conducting one’s own evaluation. Through a combination of lectures and case studies from real randomized evaluations, the course will focus on the benefits and methods of randomization, choosing an appropriate sample size, and common threats and pitfalls to the validity of the experiment.

While the course is centered around the why, how and when of Randomized Evaluations, it will also impart insights on the importance of a needs assessment, measuring outcomes effectively, quality control, and monitoring methods that are useful for all kinds of evaluations.

This course is designed for people from a variety of backgrounds: managers and researchers from international development organizations, foundations, governments and non-governmental organizations from around the world, as well as trained economists looking to retool.

Courtesy : http://indiamicrofinance.com/evaluating-social-programs.html

Mentoring, Startups

First time in India, Google to directly mentor 25 startups

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Till date, Google has been active in the Indian startup scene through its sponsorship of the Nasscom 10,000 Startups programme.

For the first time in India, Google will directly mentor 25 startups on topics like design thinking, marketing and business development. The five-day event called Launchpad-slated for the first week of November- will see Google employees across the globe share their industry expertise with the startups who will be housed in Google’s Bangalore office.

Earlier this week, the search company announced a similar program in Brazil. “It will be a first of its kind in Asia. It may then be rolled out to places like Tokyo,” said Sunil Rao, country head of startup ecosystem atGoogle India. The Launchpad program already exists in Israel as a one-week pre-incubation program for early stage startups where each day is dedicated to a specific subject and includes presentations, one-on-one mentorship and focused work.

Google executives said the focus of the Launchpad is not to pick companies for future investments. Till date, Google has been active in the Indian startup scene through its sponsorship of the Nasscom 10,000 Startups programme. So far, Google Ventures has not invested in an India-based company. Google Capital, the growth equity arm of Google has invested in Chennai-based Freshdesk, which is headquartered in San Francisco.

http://m.economictimes.com/news/emerging-businesses/startups/First-time-in-India-Google-to-directly-mentor-25-startups/articleshow/38984635.cms

Finance, Startups

Karnataka to draft Startup Act

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Karnataka to draft Startup Act to boost the state’s entrepreneurial activity

19 Jul, 2014, 2205 hrs IST, Malavika Murali & Krithika Krishnamurthy, ET Bureau
“We hope to become the unequivocal IT innovation and startup capital in the world,” said IT-BT secretary Srivatsa Krishna.
BANGALORE: The Karnataka government is drafting a new act to boost the state’s entrepreneurial activity.The Startup Act, the first of its kind in the country Is expected to be in force in two months.

“We hope to become the unequivocal IT innovation and startup capital in the world,” said IT-BT secretary Srivatsa Krishna.

Krishna recently met state biotechnology secretary Tanusree Deb Barma and Nasscom Product Council Chairman Ravi Gururaj to discuss issues including issues giving startups global visibility, better linkages to academia and industry, ease of doing business in the state and accessibility of early-stage risk capital.

“We see funds available for 2-5 year-old companies, not in the initial 1-2 years. We are looking at that space,” said Barma.

At present Karnataka providesan initial grant of Rs 5 lakh to nine colleges to each to fund research on projects to solve local problems and find solutions to local needs as part of the ‘Karnataka New Age Incubation Network.’ Startups are eligible for plug-and-play space with internet at a concessional rate of Rs 5-15 per square feet.

“There is a lot of political will to get support this ecosystem,” said Barma.

Barma said the state will also announce a biotech-focused venture capital fund which will operate as a fund of funds.Separately, Nasscom’s 10,000 Startups initiative will also get bigger in scale in Karnataka. A new warehouse will include incubators focused on verticals like design, the Internet-of-Things, and biotechnology, among other things.

As part of the expansion, women-founded companies may get free incubation space for six months, said Gururaj.

“It’s not a lot of money but it’s symbolic. We’re hoping that will push the agenda further,” he said.

http://m.economictimes.com/news/emerging-businesses/startups/karnataka-to-draft-startup-act-to-boost-the-states-entrepreneurial-activity/articleshow/38693516.cms

 

Calendar, Motivations, Networking, News

Third edition of the BW|Businessworld Hottest Young Entrepreneurs 2014 Awards.

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Entrepreneurs are invited to compete for the BW|Businessworld Young Entrepreneur Awards 2014-2015 in two categories. Category A is for companies between 3 and 5 years old as on 30 June 2014. Startups that are 0-3 years old are invited to apply and compete for awards in category B. Three winners will be chosen and awarded in this category. At least one founder has to be 35 or under as on 30 June 2014. The last date for applications is July 31, 2014.

Q. Who can apply for the BW|Businessworld Hottest Young Entrepreneurs 2014 awards?

A. There are three basic criteria.
One, all founders should be no more than 35 years old as of June 30, 2014 .
Two, companies which are between 0-3 years old as on July 31, 2014, can apply. This is a category we introduced for the first time last year.
Three, companies which are between three and five years old as on July 31, 2014. All companies must be registered entities.

Q. What is the selection procedure?

A. After applications close on July 31, 2014, winners will be picked via a three-step process. In Step 1, independent auditors will shortlist eligible candidates based on a due diligence of accounts. In Step 2, a screening committee comprising venture capitalists will interact with applicants and shortlist finalists for the jury round. Shortlisted candidates will then be put through a mentoring process before being presented in front of an independent jury. The jury will pick five winners, ranked 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rank. The winners will be awarded at an awards function hosted by BW|Businessworld in March. We will update applicants on the outcome of each step on this website.

Q. Apart from the winners, are there any other awards?

A. We pick five companies as winners in the Editors’ Choice category. These companies are featured in BW|Businessworld as part of the special issue on the awards. We don’t not award them at the awards function.

Q. Is there a cash prize for the winners?

A. No, at this moment we do not give cash prizes.

 

 

Click Here for more

Finance, News

Budget 2014: 3 reasons why India needs more entrepreneurs, not a Rs 10,000 crore fund

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by Alok Kejriwal

So what can the government do? Encourage the rise of entrepreneurs! How? By exposing all the problems and challenges that the government wants to solve in its business; the government operating the biggest business of them all!

In his budget speech, finance minster Arun Jaitley spoke about ‘funding’ entrepreneurs and casually slipped in “promotion of entrepreneurship and start-up companies remains a challenge. While there have been some efforts to encourage, one principal limitation has been availability of start-up capital by way of equity to be brought in by the promoters. In order to create a conducive eco-system for the venture capital in the MSME sector it is proposed to establish a Rs 10,000-crore fund to act as a catalyst to attract private capital by way of providing equity, quasi equity, soft loans and other riskcapital for start-up companies.”

Shucks. How badly the FM has fared in understanding the real problem about entrepreneurs. To put it contextually (at least for me), it’s like the FM trying to play Candy Crush and failing at Level 1 itself — implying that he hasn’t understood the game at all!

I argue that India needs 10,000 entrepreneurs, not Rs 10,000 crore to start with! These are my reasons:

1. Capital chases entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs don’t chase capital!

I would like to meet 100 ‘entrepreneurs’ who qualify for Mr Jaitley’s funding corpus. Honestly, they don’t exist. In the past five years, I have been a jury member, spectator and even a mike runner at more than 100 start-up events in India and let me say this with utmost authority that India still lacks the depth and breadth of solid entrepreneurs.

What we have are contest-crazy business plan pitchers; copycats who begin their pitches by saying, “If X is the Y of USA, we will be the same for India”. Then we have a few burnt out mid-40s/50s suit-and-tie types, who want to earn the badge of ‘startingup’ rather than really being an entrepreneur.

So what can the government do? Encourage the rise of entrepreneurs! How? By exposing all the problems and challenges that the government wants to solve in its business; the government operating the biggest business of them all!

Now imagine a ‘portal’ that has 10,000 business problems that the government needs to solve! Examples: how to make a road that lasts in Mumbai? How to reduce immigration lines at airports? How to make people honk less while driving? What music to play in Delhi Metro? How to make money from public gardens? How to create a search engine to find a particular government official? How to light government buildings up at night using solar power?

Give me 10,000 hours and I will come up with 10,000 problems the government needs to solve.

Now, if the stated problems genuinely need to be solved by the government, then entrepreneurs will respond to these demands! Funding them is a trivial matter.

2. Clarity not charity

Will $1.6 billion suddenly fire up the Indian entrepreneur system? Is the government dreaming? Heck, Flipkart has swallowed up $1 billion just by itself to build one of the many e-commerce sites! So what will $1.6 billion achieve?

And how will this be given out? Which entrepreneur in his right mind wants a ‘soft loan’ from the government when she knows that her chances of succeeding are 1 out of 1,000 shots? Who wants ugly ‘notices’ of defaults to land up at their homes when they cannot return the money?

What the government needs to offer is clarity, not charity! Please, Mr FM, be clear. Explain what you mean and how you intend to support entrepreneurs.

3. Inspiration, not aspiration!

The government may ‘aspire’ to be the ‘catalyst’ of entrepreneurs, but who cares? What has the government done in the past to prove that it deserves to fund entrepreneurs? Is Air India an example of success? Or Doordarshan? Or MTNL? Or the Indian Railways? Are the balance sheets of our nationalized banks a great financial success story? How many noble laureates do we have working in the government?

Entrepreneurs look for inspiration, not aspiration! A few hours spent with the most iconic VCs in the world transform entrepreneurs and make them think beyond their imagination. VCs who have funded the first rounds of Google, Facebook, Yahoo and the likes share stories and learnings that entrepreneurs would give anything in the world to have access to. VCs open boardroom doors and have an overflowing chest of money for deserving entrepreneurs. Can the government even claim to have any of these?

Mr FM, we don’t want you to ‘spray and pray’ with our money. If you want to really encourage entrepreneurs in India and get monetary gravity for them, then prove that you can be entrepreneurial and set your own house in order. Remember, we have funded you.

Then, let’s talk.

The writer is a digital entrepreneur and blogs at http://therodinhoods.com

http://m.economictimes.com/news/economy/policy/budget-2014-3-reasons-why-india-needs-more-entrepreneurs-not-a-rs-10000-crore-fund/articleshow/38693085.cms

News, Resources

India Design Mark

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INDIA DESIGN MARK Capture

India Design Mark (IMark) is a design standard, a symbol, which recognizes good design.
IMark symbolizes product excellence in form, function, quality, safety, sustainability and innovation and communicates that the product is usable, durable, aesthetically appealing & socially responsible.
India Design Council grants IMark after evaluating good design through a rigorous and systemized process against established criteria. IMark has been initiated in cooperation with Good Design Award, Japan.
IMark is for everyone. Anyone, from global enterprises, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises or cottage industries, can apply for an IMark.
All types of mass produced products are eligible for Nark. Detailed categories, application process, judging criteria and other details are available on www.indiadesignmark.in
APPLY NOW LOG ON TO www.indiadesignmark.in

CATEGORIES FOR ENTRY

  • LIFESTYLE PRODUCTS
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Finance

SEBI Consultation Paper for Crowdfunding in India

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Dear friends,

Enclosed please find a consultation paper released by SEBI on 17th June 2014.

SEBI is seeking public opinion on this consultation paper. The questions are listed below.

I will be happy to consolidate responses received from you in a single document and submit it on everyone’s behalf acknowledging each individual who responds.

You may also send your response directly by e-mail to Mr. Aditya Sarda (adityas@sebi.gov.in) or Mr. Ankit Goel (ankitg@sebi.gov.in).

Look forward to your responses by July 5th 2014.

Regards,

Yogesh

 

PS: Feel free to share with others who may be interested in this subject.

Consultation Paper on Crowdfunding in India 20140624

 

 

Consolidated List of all Questions  (These questions are listed in the order of different sections of the consultation paper. For further information and SEBI’s suggestions please refer to corresponding section of the consultation paper)

 

8.0 Is Crowdfunding really needed ?

Q1  Given that Crowdfunding is still in nascent stages and most of the jurisdictions around the world have taken a guarded view by allowing it in a restricted manner, do you think India is ready for crowdfunding or is it premature to introduce such risky investment channel ?

9.1.4 The Accredited Investors:

Q2 Are the Accredited Investors mentioned in paragraph 9.1.4 suitable to participate in the risky investments of crowdfunding? Is there a need to expand or reduce the categories of investors or expand or reduce safeguards? Specify along with the rationale.

9.1.5 Investment Limits:

Q3 Are the Investment Limits specified in paragraph 9.1.5 justifiable with respect to the respective investor classes? Are they too high or too low? Specify along with rationale.

Q4 Is the limit of investors upto 200 besides QIBs or employees of the company under a scheme of employees stock option, as specified in Chapter III – The Companies (Prospectus and Allotment of Securities) Rules, 2014, adequate or is there a need to amend such rules to allow upto 1,000 investors, excluding QIBs or employees of the company under a scheme of employees stock option?

9.1.6 Investment Conditions:

Q5 Are the Investment Conditions mentioned in the paragraph 9.1.6 enough to warn and guard investors regarding the risky nature of crowdfunding? Specify changes, if any, along with the rationale.

9.2 Who can raise funds from Crowdfunding Platform and Limitations on capital raised?

Q6 Given that the companies coming for crowdfunding lack any significant track record, are the conditions and requirements mentioned in paragraph 9.2 enough to fend off fraudulent issuers? Specify changes, if any, along with the rationale.

9.3 Disclosure Requirements on Issuer

 Q7 Are the disclosure requirements for a company interested in raising funds through crowdfunding platform mentioned in paragraph 9.3.3, enough to enable investors in an informed decision making ? Specify changes, if any, along with the rationale.

Q8 Due to the lack of history and track record, it is important that the issuers provide future projections of their business to facilitate investors in decision making. What should be the criteria to ensure that the projections are realistic and achievable and not misguiding in nature?

Q9 What should be the continuous disclosure requirements for a company once it gets displayed on the platform? How it should be ensured that there is no information asymmetry between various prospective investors?

9.4 Who can set up a Crowdfunding Platform?

 Q10 While Class I entities are already under SEBI’s purview and have a successful track record in managing issues and securities, Class II entities have a specialized domain knowledge in the field of start up mentoring and funding. Is a joint venture between the two classes a better idea than to allow them to launch their own crowdfunding platforms separately?

Q11 Any suggestions on some other possible entities which can be included in Class II with a tentative list of qualifying criteria?

Q12 Any suggestions on some other possible entities which can be included in Class III for the purpose of providing platform for FbC? Also specify their tentative qualifying criteria?

9.4.5 Requirements on Crowdfunding Platform:

 Q13 Any suggestions on some additional or reduced requirements on Crowdfunding Platforms?

Q14 Are the measures mentioned in paragraph 9.4.6 enough to ensure a seamless operation of the Crowdfunding Platform and avoidance of any conflict of interest? Suggest changes, if any, along with the rationale.

Q15 Any suggestions on the role and responsibility of the screening committee and its composition etc.?

Q16 Given that only Accredited Investors may be allowed to invest through Crowdfunding Platforms, it is important that their due diligence is conducted properly to confirm their eligibility. Are the entities mentioned in paragraph 9.4.4 capable in doing the same? Any suggestions in this regard?

Q17 Making the platform’s revenue directly dependent on the fee from the issuers may lead to a conflict of interest. What could be the possible alternative revenue mechanisms for the platforms which may eliminate or reduce such conflicts?

Q18 Should there be any restriction on the fee charged by a crowdfunding platform to an issuer for getting access to the platform or an accredited investor for registration or should this be left as a commercial decision by the platform based on market forces?

9.5 Equity based Crowdfunding (EbC)

 Q19 Any suggestions on the requirements in EbC to make it more transparent and investor friendly?

Q20 Any suggestions on the requirements in DbC to make it more transparent and investor friendly?

Q21 Is there any need to prescribe the limit on the leverage a company can take through DbC?

Q22 Is there a need to change the rules regarding appointment of Trustee and creation of Debenture Redemption Reserve in case of private placement of debt with no intention of listing which seeks to issue debentures through recognized crowdfunding platform?

9.7 Fund based Crowdfunding (FbC)

 Q23 Any suggestions on the requirements in FbC to make it more transparent and investor friendly?

9.8 Procedure for offering through a Crowdfunding Platform

 Q24 Any suggestion to simplify the procedure as specified in paragraph 9.8 within the existing legal framework?

9.9 Secondary Market

 Q25 Any suggestion on additional avenues of exit or liquidity of securities in crowdfunding?

9.10 Protection from Cybercrimes

 Q26 What kind of security features and IT Policies should be put in place to make the crowdfunding platform safe and secure from all sorts of cyber crimes?