Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur in association with the Harvard Business School Club of India successfully organized the first Inclusive India Forum 2014 at IIM Udaipur campus on 26th July, 2014.

The event was attended by stalwarts from corporate and social sectors. Prominent delegates included 12 Harvard Business School Alumni, 23 Corporate Social Responsibility Heads from various companies and 44 Founders & Senior Functionaries from NGOs from across India. Inclusive India Forum is the first event of its kind organized in India, where different stakeholders from corporate organizations and NGOs shared one platform to discuss ways in which partnerships can be created in the development management space for the larger benefit of society.

The event began with a welcome address by Prof. Janat Shah – Director, IIM Udaipur. Dr. Shah mentioned the need to focus on the development in the region. He specified the deep commitment of IIM Udaipur to work towards this agenda citing many initiatives like the Center for Development Management, partnerships with local corporates and NGOs like Hindustan Zinc, Secure Meters, Seva Mandir, Arth and Aajeevika Bureau among others.

His speech concluded with the purpose of the event to devise an action plan through the collaboration and discussions with the delegates and to make dependable friends who will join IIMU in working towards the inclusive growth of India. The keynote address for the event was delivered by Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman & CEO, Zensar Technologies and Chairman of the 2000 member strong NASSCOM foundation.

He talked about his initiative which aims at making at least one member of every Indian family digitally literate, so that the access to technology and the corresponding awareness can help them avail the development initiatives. He emphasized that the vision of HBS Club of India should be contributing in the field of social causes and not that of a mere business beneficiary body.

The participation of the delegates for the day began with first panel discussion on “The Corporate World on the Social Sector” which was moderated by Dr. Ganesh Natarajan.

The panelists Prof. Janat Shah, S. Ravichandran – Cummins India,. Neera Nundy -Dasra and Sanjaya Singhal – Secure Meters spoke largely on the topic and the audience participation brought in key pointers like lack of need-gap analysis of planning/scalability skills in NGOs, absence of CSR initiatives taken by companies in non-industrialized regions of India, strategic alignment with corporate organizations and executional challenges of incorporating CSR values in corporations.

Second panel discussion on the theme “Development Management Sector in India: What works and what does not?” was moderated by Anshul Arora, CEO – Edvance Group and Aditya Nataraj – Piramal Foundation, Ajay Mehta – Seva Mandir, Rita Soni – NASSCOM, Anoop Kaul – Basix, Uma Ganesh and Jayant Sahastrabuddhe discussing on existing as well as future possible partnerships between civil society, NGOs and corporates.

The challenges like experimental flexibility in schemes such as NREGA by the government, importance of knowledge creation and knowledge asymmetry were discussed. The common opinion which emerged was that educational institutions should focus on making social leaders, and bring about capacity and capabilities building along with partnering with local industries to work towards nation building. The message of ‘CSR as a fundamental duty of everyone’ was emphasized by the panel.

The panel discussions were followed with brainstorming sessions wherein delegates segregated into three focus groups to discuss on current and possible future initiatives in Livelihood, Healthcare and Education sectors. The mutual discussions between corporate, CSR representatives and social sector heads in common teams brought perspectives on formulating roadmaps to give directions for future collaboration on social projects. The implementation challenges at the grass root level and the deep understanding of the bottom of the pyramid brought in by the NGOs helped in developing of a complete functional roadmap.

The event saw enthusiastic response and the participants were enthralled with a cultural program in the evening with highlights of traditions of Rajasthan. The delegates also had interactions with the student community of IIMU and will partake a Heritage walk and NGO visit planned for 27th July, 2014.

Indian Institute of Management Udaipur strives to build a workforce of student managers imbibed with the beliefs of social responsibility, inclusiveness and the potential of collective growth, who can go on to create social and economic values for the society. This initiative organized by Prayatna – The Social Responsibility Club of IIM Udaipur is a key milestone achieved in this direction.