Rework India - exceeding expectations

I've just come back from Delhi, India, where 120 leaders came together for an exciting Rework India meeting at the India Habitat Center, a key milestone in the run up to the 5th Global YES Summit, Rework the World, in Sweden in 2010.

A broad spectrum of partners have it a real flavour of cross-sector action: the Confederation of Indian Industries, the Ministry of Rural Development of India, YES Bank Ltd., New Ventures India, the Dishtree Foundation.

The highlights: 1. the diversity of participants, 2. the frank dialogue between real government decision-makers, social and environmental entrepreneurs, youth leaders and investors; and 3. the center-stage focus on creating an investment marketplace, from participating banks to venture capital funds, angel investor networks and foundations, all of which gave the meeting a real edge around planning the scaling up of some of India's most promising social innovations.

Among the participants:

• Arvind Mayaram, Secretary & Financial Advisor, Ministry of Rural Development of India
• Bunker Roy, Founder, founder of the Barefoot College
• Arun Kumar, President of Development Alternatives
• Caroline Howe, Board Member, Indian Youth Climate Change Network, and Director of Climate Solutions
• Uma Swaminathan, Director of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA),
• Meera Shenoy, ED, Employment Generation Mission, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad

A forum of investors and an 'investor game' provided some adrenaline for the afternoon. Here real investors competed (with fake money) to deliver cutting-edge investment strategies, responding to the proposals developed collaboratively by participants during the meeting. The Investors included:

• Sanjoy Sanyal, Country Director of New Ventures India, a partner of Rework the World, who acted as convener of a broad investor network
• Paul Basil, Founder and CEO, Villgro
• Padmaja Ruparel, President, Indian Angel Network
• Karan Gupta, Promoter, Breathe Ventures
• Rita Soni, Country Head- Responsible Banking, YES Bank Ltd.
• Vinod Kala, Director, Emergent Ventures India
• Sohini Bhattacharya, Director, South Asia Partnerships, Ashoka

Many thanks to the YES team in India, PK Joseph and Shuchi Smita for their fantastic work in pulling the meeting together, and for their work going forward. Please contact the YES India team if you want to know more about this meeting and what ideas are being taken forward towards 2010.