CHENNAI: In a bid to work out a market-oriented approach to reach the millions who live on $2 a day in the country, Villgro Innovations Foundation, a social enterprise incubator, launched a new social sector research and education initiative on Thursday.

 

The $565,000 (Canadian) project ‘Learning from pro-poor, market-driven innovation in India’ is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and will focus on generating primary and secondary research and information on the growth and scale of social businesses in India, said IDRC senior programme officer Veena Ravichandran during the launch of the project here. Speaking on the occasion, Associate Knowledge Management of Villgro, Ranjit Koshi said the project will span three years and will engage with researchers from educational institutions, consultancies and research groups.

 

The project will provide knowledge of social enterprises in India, he added.New entrants to the sector lack knowledge of social enterprises. Till 2007, there was only one book and three peer reviewed papers published on social entrepreneurship in Asia, as opposed to 10 and 36 in Europe and nine and 32 in North America.Koshi said the project will operate through a system of request for proposals. “Submitted proposals will be considered by the Research Advisory Committee and the output will be disseminated through Villgro’s workshops, academic courses and website,” he added.

 

Director of IIT, Madras, Dr M S Ananth said the newly formed Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be one of the partners in implementing the project.

Prof R Nagarajan, who is heading the centre, said the centre will be operational by March 15.