Mumbai Dec12th -The 2022 Forbes India W-Power List featured women who are breaking stereotypes, dismissing doubters and leading change.

Sankalp Global Summit Award Winners of 2022 in the agriculture category,  Numer8’s Founder Devleena Bhattacharya, and CTO Nandhini Karthikeyan, was featured in this Power list.

Numer8 from India is a startup that helps small fishing communities by providing timely marine and weather advisory, backward and forward market linkages and financial connections through their mobile application.

On the revenue side Numer8 grew from Rs 6 lakh in 2019 to Rs 1.5 crore in 2022. It aims to hit Rs 10 crore in revenue in the next three years.

Numer8’s new focus area is seaweed cultivation as an alternative source of income for the fishing community, especially for women. It aims to use satellite data-based advisories to analyse seaweed sites for enhancing its cultivation, and distribute seaweed as companies focus on sustainable businesses.

To Read the W-Power List of 2022-Click Here

Mumbai, Nov 15^th  – At the 14^th Edition of the Sankalp Global Summit 2022 , one of the main plenary sessions was around the topic, ImpacTech Investing: Dichotomy or Paradigm shift?, led by Bikram Mahajan, Partner, Intellecap Investment Banking Group.

Inc42 in  conversation with Bikram featured the story, “Why Venture Capitalists are doubling down on the Impactech sectors” which takes that conversation ahead and highlights how when it comes to investment themes, impact and technology have always been discrete buckets for investors. Bikram also opines on how the belief that VC investing is primarily driven by financial objectives whereas impact investing is only about seeking people and planet outcomes has led to such misconception, and the truth about how impact and technology have never been two unrelated paradigms. Both styles of investing are deeply intertwined and form a continuum rather than a dichotomy.

The Rise And Rise Of Impact & Tech Sectors

A decade ago, it was easy to dismiss the impact sector as a collection of not-for-profit organisations supported by foundations and philanthropies. We’ve come a long way since then, and the for-profit impact sector is now formally recognised around the world, and impact investing is a well-defined asset class.

The global impact AUM crossed $1 Tn across asset classes in 2022. This impact AUM is managed by 3,349 organisations, where fund managers account for the majority of them. Concurrently, the startup sector observed $134 Bn invested in 5,200 startups since 2014 in India and a non-trivial $2.5 Tn in over 100,000 startups worldwide.

A new class of impact startups challenging the traditional impact business models also emerged during the last few years, piggybacking on disruptive innovation, an often quoted and generally accepted investment driver in the mainstream startup sector.

Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, impact startups exhibited the promise of accelerated growth translating into superior impact and investment multiples than their traditional impact counterparts.

A few impact investors also broadened their investment themes to join the bandwagon of investing in technology startups, even considering impact in retrospect on occasion, and a few startups that were ignored by mainstream VC funds went to the extreme of impact washing to seek impact pools of capital.

The Impact Vs. Tech Dichotomy

With 107 unicorns and one of the world’s highest unicorn minting velocities, India has only 11 impact unicorns, with no unicorns in sectors such as agritech or cleantech.

One could argue that asset managers have made unprecedented commitments to impact AUM allocation, fueling its 11% growth since 2016. However, the private markets AUM grew from $5.2 Tn in 2016 to $9.8 Tn in 2021 during the same period at a CAGR of 16%.

The gap widens when we consider that the $4.2 Tn funding required to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is just 1.1% of assets held by financial institutions.

The predicament intensifies when we combine this statistic with a survey by JP Morgan and GIIN, which found that over 55% of impact funds deliver at least market rate returns, as well as a study by MSCI, Inc. validating the stylised fact that companies with higher ESG ratings have higher profitability, lower systematic risk and lower tail risk.

Impactech Investing: A New Paradigm

From the perspective of an investor, one way to resolve this seemingly obvious conundrum is to recognise “impact” as an investment approach conspicuously integrated into a fund manager’s investment thesis rather than an asset class. Impact investing, according to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), necessitates intentionality and impact measurement.

Using this globally accepted definition, Intellecap’s digital investment banking team estimated that 40% of the world’s 1,200 unicorns can be classified as Impactech startups.

The truth is impact and technology have never been two unrelated paradigms. Both styles of investing are deeply intertwined and form a continuum rather than a dichotomy. The global ESG transition being extensively embraced by tech giants, unicorns and investors across asset classes demonstrates this phenomenon.

For a startup, impactech is often misconstrued as reluctantly espousing backward fitting impact metrics as an after-thought for enhancing investment worthiness or employing emerging technologies one-dimensionally to deliver impact. Scaling up is an inherent objective of every venture, whether digital or impact, intending to solve a grand challenge.

Impactech is about designing business models from the ground up which leverage both technology and impact as sustainable competitive advantages to achieve scale. The next 3 Bn presents the largest underpenetrated market for digital businesses, whereas impact ventures are transforming their business models for scalability through digital inclusion.

Hence, impactech comprises not only a healthcare company employing technology as an enabler for scale and efficiency but also a deeptech startup exploiting big data and AI/ML to digitise and interpret diagnostic reports.

Analogously, not all edtech startups can be classified as impact and not all enterprisetech startups are non-impact. Perhaps the correct approach is to evaluate each startup with intentionality and a measurement lens, rather than defining impactech as an all-encompassing sector.

The impactech dimension has always been ingrained in the investment thesis across strategies, sectors, and stages. Reclassifying impactech as a distinct and broad-based investment theme would simplify investments at the intersection of impact and technology to empower digital businesses that solve global challenges.

Bandhu from India is a mobile platform that uses tech to enable low-income workers to access accommodation and livelihoods and was the Winner in the Livelihoods category at Sankalp Global Awards 2022 at the 14^th Edition of the Sankalp Global Summit 2022.

CXOToday engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Rushil Palavajjhala – Co-Founder & CEO Bandhu.

What are the origins of Bandhu?

Rushil Palavajjhala, Bandhu’s co-founder and CEO, closely understood the plight of migrant workers As an architect, where he spent several hours every day on construction sites and also faced labour-supply challenges as a project manager/employer. He later worked for two years on implementing affordable housing under the PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) government initiative for five towns,  finding that over 90% of slum-dwellers, often migrants, lived as renters and hence could not avail of the government benefits intended for them. Rushil investigated the root causes of this vulnerability in his Master’s thesis at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His thesis approached this issue using geospatial data science, through coursework across multiple departments at MIT and Harvard and field interviews in urban and rural areas of India’s Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor. His findings pointed to very actionable solutions, and directly led to the creation of Bandhu.

What is the role of tech in the Bandhu?

Bandhu sees technology as a bridge to improving the livelihoods and living conditions of our users, as we uncover new insights in the informal economy where data has been typically scarce and unreliable. While it solves classic problems of information asymmetry; integrates markets to rationalize pricing, its impact is in optimising choices for our users across millions of possibilities and tradeoffs ( eliminating adverse outcomes)- which would be impossible without our innovation. Simply put, technology forms a critical part of how we help users not just succeed but thrive in their livelihoods. It allows us to offer migrant workers multiple bundled offers of jobs and housing tailored to their needs. Secondly, given that many of our users are going digital for the first time in their lives, we’ve designed to minimize decision fatigue , by triangulating and predicting choices and then nudging. Much of this also involves processing large volumes of user-uploaded image and video data, using AI. We take an inclusive approach to technology access- solving for multiple challenges in human – technology interaction and access – including the barriers in literacy and technical capacity that users across India traditionally face. As a smartphone is often a family or community asset, we enable multiple users to operate from the same device. Given that many in our target market may not always have access to a smartphone or the ability to operate unfamiliar apps, we provide some functions of our platform via an IVR number or a WhatsApp chatbot. Our multilingual module allows us to connect to users across various regions and languages. The data generated by transactions on the platform allows Bandhu to offer livelihood improvements to users at below-market rates. For example, various cashflows in our ecosystem could be securitized to cross subsidize offerings or integrate LendTech of InsureTech. Repeated transactions by workers throughout the search for jobs and housing allows us to better tailor opportunities to these workers. We use an approach to “training the trainers” in technology, using on-ground champions to rapidly and organically increase our customer acquisition rates and producing significant positive externalities in the process of making affordable rental housing transparent and efficient.

How you plan on providing upskills options to the migrant workers?

Yes, both through video-based in-app skilling and  evaluations and through partnerships with organizations specialized in upskilling. For example, we may identify that a worker has been performing well in a job on our app based on ratings and the worker’s own provided videos, and connect that worker to nearby skilling organizations or place them in learning on the job kind of situations.

 How many “Bandhus” have you helped till date?

60,000 users have been able to receive necessary information to make choices/ decisions, 3,000+ job matches achieved; we’ve added 15,000 beds  to the supply of affordable rental housing in the last six months provided by extremely low-income settlements who see this as subsistence income, 70+ women trained as champions to onboard properties – seen family incomes increase by 50 to 100%. Bandzhu has won an award in the 14th Sankalp Global Summit 2022 in the The Future of Worker and livelihood category

What are your future growth and expansion plans for Bandhu?

We are currently expanding the platform to new geographies including Mumbai-Goa, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. By 2024 we will have a recognizable presence in these metro areas. We intend to reach 300,000 users by the end of 2023; 3M by the end of 2025. This growth will be driven by the behaviour of women micro-entrepreneurs in low-income communities who adopt the app and train others under them, AS well as by micro- contractors who will be able to solve their working capital woes through Bandhu , expand their businesses simply by ensuring workers are paid digitally and on time – unlocking massive opportunities for LendTech , InsureTech and SalesTech etc. for the next billion users. 

What technology innovations do you foresee for Bandhu? 

Bandhu’s key technology innovation is creating bundled jobs and housing offers through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The offer packages we provide to workers are derived from their activity on the platform such as jobs completed, self-attested and vetted skills, photo/video data, desired housing type, and searches/ratings over time. These data points allow us to make sophisticated recommendations to workers on when, where, and even whether to migrate from among millions of permutations and combination – eliminating ones with adverse outcomes. For example, if few opportunities exist in a worker’s home area that match their skill set, skill level, and desired housing situation, we can offer a menu of migration options to the worker in other localities. Such data triangulation has never been observed before for this target group, and there is a vast potential for data monetization and fintech to cross-subsidize and serve the bottom of the pyramid.

Read the interview of Bandhu on CXO Today – Click Here

The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), a World Bank Group program, announced the three top winners of the Africa AgTech & Inclusive Insurance Challenge, a competition for technology-led enterprises in Africa to offer innovative solutions for agriculture and inclusive insurance.

The 1^st place Winner was Omishtu-Joy from Ethiopia which will obtain financial support of US$ 25,000. Omishtu-Joy is an agritech startup that develops hardware that measures soil PH, NPK, moisture, humidity, and temperature level, supported by an AI system that matches crops to farmlands. The use of technology for development coupled with the ability to improve farmer yield is yet another example of innovation and ingenuity in solving real problems. Omishtu-Joy today works directly with 5,500 farmers who use their device and is currently training an additional 4300 farmers. The company targets to onboard 18,000 more farmers by end of 2022.

The 2^nd place Winner was Rural Farmers Hub from Nigeria which will obtain financial support of US$ 15,000. Rural Farmers Hub collects and analyzes primary and secondary data from farmer groups and uses that data in e-extension and consulting services for smallholder farmers, showing how data can impact the agriculture sector significantly. They work with an extension worker network of over 200 members and has since reached over 25,000 smallholder farmers. The company targets 10 key corporate customers and an estimated 250,000 small-holder farmers within the next 24 months.

The 3^rd place Winner was Agrotech+ from Kenya which will obtain financial support of US$ 10,000.  Their digital platform LendIt enables small-holder farmers access digital services such mobile money payments for commodities sold, micro-lending/input financing, crop insurance and pension scheme for the informal sector. They have 6,800 registered smallholder farmers with 2,800 actively using the service, and are currently training over 4,000 farmers using SSD technology.

Each of the 3 winners help solve complex social challenges through cutting edge innovations and high potential entrepreneurship, and each of them have shown ability to scale, disrupt and transform the sectors with their promising ideas.

“The role of technology and innovation will be critical to driving growth in underpenetrated financial and insurance sectors across Africa, where a young and growing pool of tech talent and a dramatic increase in digital connectivity will directly boost Africa’s economic value,” said James Smouse, Global Head of Insurance in IFC’s Financial Institutions Group. “We are very excited to support Africa’s young entrepreneurs through the Africa AgTech & Inclusive Insurance Challenge.”

“This was a great opportunity for start-ups in this space to collaborate with IFC and its partners and bring to the fore game-changing ideas that will contribute to the transformation of Africa’s agricultural sector,” said Fatou Assah, GIIF Program Manager.

The challenge received 208 applications from 23 countries across Africa.  Innovations included crop and livestock insurance products, innovative credit scoring technologies, crop, and water stress detection technologies, to name a few.

According to Arielle Molino, VP of Intellecap Africa and Lead Sankalp Africa, “The Challenge will help start-ups solve a real-time problem, the underlying impact of which is significant. We are excited to work with IFC and all the start-ups joining us in this journey to help identify innovative ideas that will benefit smallholder farmers across Africa.”

Powered by Sankalp Forum, the Africa AgTech & Inclusive Insurance Challenge aimed to celebrate and support young entrepreneurs who are working at the intersection of agriculture, insurance, climate, and gender to build resilience for rural populations.

The Africa AgTech & Inclusive Insurance Challenge offered an opportunity to the most promising enterprises to win various awards for a total of $50,000 USD across three categories (Data & Analytics, Agricultural Productivity, and Financial Inclusion for Ag). Through participating in the Sankalp Africa Summit 2022, the top innovators are expected to gain exposure on investment readiness, network with potential impact investors and improve their business models. Collectively, this will make their innovations more competitive in future funding rounds.

One of the biggest challenges for smallholder farmers is getting the right inputs and at the right price. Inputs have increasingly become crucial as climate change continues to roil farming in uncertainty.

Elisha Caleb’s start-up Agrotech Plus seeks to ease some of that uncertainty by offering credit through agricultural inputs.

And when they take up their credit, Agrotech Plus links them to crop or index- insurance products to cushion them against climate change, boost their productivity and earnings.

“We are bundling agricultural inputs and insurance to smallholder farmers through credit,” says Caleb, 25-year-old data scientist who started the firm in 2019.

The start-up utilises village agents and agro-dealers to offer the inputs on credit.

At the start of the season and where the farmer needs inputs, they are issued with a scratch card by the dealers with a code that is sent to Agro-tech Plus to activate their accounts.

Upon taking the credit, farmers are asked to pay at least 10 percent of the value of the input and the rest of the payment made in bits before the end of the crop season or after harvest, depending on crop type.

The start-up uses geographic information system (GIS) mapping software and satellite data to map where the farmer is and know whether it’s low agricultural are, medium or high, the firm size and value chain to get an insurance package suitable for the farmer.

“This is how we are able to get a package that works for the farmer. If the farmers agree, they take the input. If there is germination, the crops are insured. If they fail, we give a farm input of equal value to start again,” noted Sharon Chacha, head of operations with Agrotech Plus.

The firm is currently working with 2,000 small-scale farmers across the country.

It’s planning to raise Sh22.8m from investors to scale up.

Sankalp Forum, an initiative of Intellecap, is hosting its 9^th Edition of the Sankalp Africa Summit, one of Africa’s largest inclusive networking platforms focussed on entrepreneurship and the impact investing ecosystem, in a hybrid format, from the 1^st to 4^th March 2021.

This year, the Sankalp Africa Awards 2022 winner is Zuri Health a healthcare startup from Kenya. Zuri Health brings to its customers, an innovative virtual hospital that allows patients to talk to a doctor, purchase medication from a pharmacy, schedule lab and diagnostic testing, and have a doctor come to their home. So far, they have clocked impressive numbers with over 20,000 doctor engagements and 250+ on boarded doctors.

The very idea of using innovation and technology in improving access to healthcare in Africa through mobile phone applications and services, against the backdrop of the pandemic, is yet another testimony to the promising innovators who are solving complex problems.

In Africa 30% of the waste and in Kenya over 38% of the waste remains uncollected due to population growth, costs of waste disposal and lack of necessary infrastructure. This presents a significant opportunity and the First Runner Up is Ecodudu, a Circular Economy startup in Kenya.  This waste-to-value company again brings innovation to the fore, making bio fertilizer and insect feeds for chickens, pigs, and fish using the black soldier fly. The company employs a circular production approach that makes use of small-scale farmers’ capability in the production process.

The Second Runner Up was Mobility for Africa, a Clean Energy startup from Zimbabwe, provides fully serviced three-wheeled electric vehicles (Hamba) that can travel up to 100 kilometers and carry up to 400 kilograms on a single charge. The vehicles are equipped with purpose-built batteries, and MFA provides on-site charging stations for battery swapping, as well as after-care services to ensure that small-holder farmers and other users are always on the move.

Renewable community-based transport solutions for Sub Saharan Africa that are affordable, efficient, and environmentally friendly is an idea which serves a dual purpose on both energy efficiency and the need for transportation services that serves the multitude.

Each year, the Sankalp Summit recognizes and rewards high impact enterprises in the Africa region which are keen to tackle key development challenges. The finalists get the opportunity to pitch their enterprises to a jury panel comprising of eminent business leaders and investors, as well as global investors around the world.

They also instituted a new innovative category, the Sankalp Africa Ecosystem Award. The winner was chosen by voting by stakeholders and ecosystem players, and the winner was Greenpot Enterprises, an environmental startup from Kenya and an integrated bamboo company that operates large-scale nurseries, establishes bamboo plantations, and processes the bamboo into products used in the construction industry.

Speaking about the Sankalp Africa Awards, Arielle Molino, Sankalp Lead and AVP Intellecap Africa, said “Sankalp Forum is one of our largest initiatives that aim to bring the community together to help solve the problems that face us through cutting edge innovation and high potential entrepreneurship. Sankalp Awards and the Africa summit, today, in its 9th year in Africa, continue to showcase some of the most innovative and game changing ideas that have shown immense promise and ability to scale, disrupt and transform their respective sectors.”

Overall, the finalists highlighted some interesting ideas from innovators which include Crop Nutrition Laboratory Services (Cropnuts), an agricultural, food safety, and environmental laboratory and agronomy advisory service company that helps farmers achieve long-term profitability by rebuilding and restoring soil fertility, Vintz Plastics, a waste recycling company that turns plastic trash into Plastic pellets, Steamledge which provides Primary and Secondary School learners early and affordable access to Technology skills that match the needs of the changing workforce, Natal Cares which combines mobile technology, machine learning and low-cost innovation to combat maternal and infant mortality, The Pathology Network (TPN) which has an online platform-based operations enabling on-demand access to standardized specialized lab diagnostic tests for rural and urban hospitals and Swiftlab Limited, a Kenyan manufacturer and operator of drones for medical deliveries to increase access to safe, effective, high quality, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

The Summit is hosting over 2,000 stakeholders, from 50+ countries around the World, including participants from 30+ African countries.

This year, the Sankalp Africa Awards 2022 winner is Zuri Health a healthcare startup from Kenya. Zuri Health brings to its customers, an innovative virtual hospital that allows patients to talk to a doctor, purchase medication from a pharmacy, schedule lab, and diagnostic testing, and have a doctor come to their home.

So far, they have clocked impressive numbers with over 20,000 doctor engagements and 250+ onboarded doctors.

The very idea of using innovation and technology in improving access to healthcare in Africa through mobile phone applications and services, against the backdrop of the pandemic, is yet another testimony to the promising innovators who are solving complex problems.

In Africa 30% of the waste and in Kenya over 38% of the waste remains uncollected due to population growth, costs of waste disposal and lack of necessary infrastructure. This presents a significant opportunity and the First Runner Up is Ecodudu, a Circular Economy startup in Kenya. This waste-to-value company again brings innovation to the fore, making bio fertilizer and insect feeds for chickens, pigs, and fish using the black soldier fly. The company employs a circular production approach that makes use of small-scale farmers’ capability in the production process.

The Second Runner Up was Mobility for Africa, a Clean Energy startup from Zimbabwe, provides fully serviced three-wheeled electric vehicles (Hamba) that can travel up to 100 kilometers and carry up to 400 kilograms on a single charge. The vehicles are equipped with purpose-built batteries, and MFA provides on-site charging stations for battery swapping, as well as after-care services to ensure that small-holder farmers and other users are always on the move.

Renewable community-based transport solutions for Sub Saharan Africa that are affordable, efficient, and environmentally friendly is an idea which serves a dual purpose on both energy efficiency and the need for transportation services that serves the multitude.

Each year, the Sankalp Summit recognizes and rewards high impact enterprises in the Africa region which are keen to tackle key development challenges. The finalists get the opportunity to pitch their enterprises to a jury panel comprising of eminent business leaders and investors, as well as global investors around the world.

They also instituted a new innovative category, the Sankalp Africa Ecosystem Award. The winner was chosen by voting by stakeholders and ecosystem players, and the winner was Greenpot Enterprises, an environmental startup from Kenya and an integrated bamboo company that operates large-scale nurseries, establishes bamboo plantations, and processes the bamboo into products used in the construction industry.

Speaking about the Sankalp Africa Awards, Arielle Molino, Sankalp Lead and AVP Intellecap Africa, said “Sankalp Forum is one of our largest initiatives that aim to bring the community together to help solve the problems that face us through cutting edge innovation and high potential entrepreneurship. Sankalp Awards and the Africa summit, today, in its 9th year in Africa, continue to showcase some of the most innovative and game changing ideas that have shown immense promise and ability to scale, disrupt and transform their respective sectors.”

Overall, the finalists highlighted some interesting ideas from innovators which include Crop Nutrition Laboratory Services (Cropnuts), an agricultural, food safety, and environmental laboratory and agronomy advisory service company that helps farmers achieve long-term profitability by rebuilding and restoring soil fertility, Vintz Plastics, a waste recycling company that turns plastic trash into Plastic pellets, Steamledge which provides Primary and Secondary School learners early and affordable access to Technology skills that match the needs of the changing workforce, Natal Cares which combines mobile technology, machine learning and low-cost innovation to combat maternal and infant mortality, The Pathology Network (TPN) which has an online platform-based operations enabling on-demand access to standardized specialized lab diagnostic tests for rural and urban hospitals and Swiftlab Limited, a Kenyan manufacturer and operator of drones for medical deliveries to increase access to safe, effective, high quality, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

The Summit is hosting over 2,000 stakeholders, from 50+ countries around the World, including participants from 30+ African countries.

Mumbai,  22^ND February – Sankalp Forum was initiated in India in 2009 by Intellecap, a social sector advisory firm, to build collaborative entrepreneurial ecosystems. In an interaction with Economic Times (ET) Online, Urvashi Devidayal, Sankalp Lead–India and AVP of Intellecap, outlines the organisation’s thrust areas, the scope of social entrepreneurship and the utility of the idea of a united ‘Global South’. The interaction also highlighted how ‘Business models along the South-South corridor can spur regional trade’  and Sankalp’ s overall mission of creating ecosystems for impact led businesses.

Economic Times (ET): How did Sankalp come into being? What does the name signify?

Urvashi Devidayal (UD): In 2009, Sankalp Forum was started with the singular goal to put together an impact ecosystem that can support business-led solutions focusing on the world’s most pressing issues. These include climate crisis, smallholder farmers, sustainable agriculture, financial inclusion, livelihoods, water and health & sanitation, among others. Back then, very few understood what an impact ecosystem is. With Sankalp, we are attempting to simply bring the most promising entrepreneurs, most committed investors, policymakers, government officials, and others under one roof at least once a year and build a platform like none other.

Sankalp means a solemn promise one makes to oneself to resolutely follow a chosen path. The concept of entrepreneurship-led development evolved as a practice as far back as 2001, but the term impact investing was coined only in 2009.

In 2007, the Rockefeller Foundation got a group of foundations, investors and entrepreneurs together at the Bellagio Centre. There was a consensus to term this type of investing impact investing. Along with this, there was a need to convene the stakeholders — entrepreneurs, investors, foundations, private sector, development finance institutes, and governments — to collaborate and foster the growth of this ecosystem. This was the start of Sankalp, which held its first convening in India. In 2014 we took the concept to east Africa.

ET: One mission Sankalp has is to create an ecosystem for impact-led businesses to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. How are you actualizing this?

UD: Sankalp has a three-pronged strategy to create a thriving ecosystem for impact-led businesses. Keeping the entrepreneur at the centre, Sankalp leverages knowledge, capital and networks to engage stakeholders at its summits. The organisation hosts 50-60 knowledge sessions around key impact areas. These include, financial inclusion; climate change & energy; agriculture; gender & livelihoods; WaSH (water, sanitation & hygiene); health & circular economies.

On the capital front, investors in impact-led businesses view Sankalp as the place to build their annual pipeline of potential investee companies and understand investment trends. At Sankalp, one can find access to various forms of capital based on the stage and relevance of the enterprise.

The final piece of the puzzle is networks. One can expect to meet relevant stakeholders at Sankalp summits. In the past few years, each summit has facilitated 1,500-1,600 meetings.

ET: Rural India is considered to hold immense potential in several key activities that Sankalp focuses on. How huge is this untapped opportunity, and how is Sankalp pushing social entrepreneurship across India’s hinterlands?

UD: Rural entrepreneurship is an integral part of the Sankalp journey. The need to bring rural India to the fore is an endeavor we started a decade and more ago. We realized it is imperative to showcase areas of excellence across rural India to bring them to the mainstream and provide them with networking and access. Be it showcasing local weavers or local entrepreneurs, Sankalp has been at the forefront of tapping into their potential, rewarding them and ensuring they have access to capital and knowledge essential to their business. We take pride in building businesses for the low-income strata and enhancing livelihoods while reducing economic vulnerabilities, and our focus on rural India continues to do just that. We continue to embolden entrepreneurs from the hinterland to chase problems worth solving, build businesses few dare to, directing capital where few will.

ET: The idea of a united Global South is very close to the ethos of Sankalp. Why do you think caring for the sustainable development of the global south is needed? How equipped are Indian organisations to play an active role in this cause?

UD: South-south transfer refers to the exchange of resources, technology and knowledge between emerging markets commonly referred to as countries from the Global South. Many enterprises that have demonstrated success in building businesses serving the low-income communities in emerging markets typically use innovative business models. These business models and technologies are often more attuned to the needs and conditions of these developing countries — generally recession-proof, and more flexible and adaptable than solutions from developed markets. Replicating business models along the South-South corridor has the potential to increase bilateral and regional trade, enable job creation, and improve access to affordable goods & services, making them more affordable for underserved communities. We have a successful track record of not just building impact businesses but also supporting ecosystems that nurture and support these businesses across South and Southeast Asia.

ET: What are the organisation’s impact numbers in India and globally?

UD: Sankalp has been recognised for its distinct enterprise focus. We have showcased and discovered more than 1,800 entrepreneurs, through 26 or more editions and connected them to 800-plus investors. Through Sankalp, we have enabled enterprises and entrepreneurs and helped raise over $290 million in funding and disbursed over $870,000 in cash grants.

ET: What are Sankalp’s plans — nationally and internationally?

UD: Our goal is to take the ecosystem-building approach to various states, cities and countries across Asia and Africa. We see an opportunity to expand, particularly in West Africa (possibly in Ghana & Nigeria). Both countries have a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and a growing impact-investor base. In Asia, the opportunity lies in emerging impact markets such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia. Our plans include building locally led entrepreneurial ecosystems that use the proven global framework we have developed over the years to engage and support ventures that provide solutions that are locally relevant and are viable business ventures.

India’s pitch in the climate talks is largely centered around promoting renewable energy and controlling emissions through energy transition. In an interview with Jyoti Mukul & Shreya Jai, International Solar Alliance (ISA) Director-General (D-G) Ajay Mathur says India and the UK have combined their green grid initiatives. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to launch Green Grids Initiative-One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG) on Tuesday. Edited excerpts:

How central is renewable power to the climate change discussions?

The need for combating climate change is more urgent than ever, as all developed and developing economies are witnessing rampant negative impacts. It is a fact that most of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and petroleum. Thus, the need is a massive shift towards renewable energy, and as soon as possible. Climate change discussions are incomplete without talking about renewable energy. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the share of renewables in electricity generation globally needs to increase from 29 per cent in 2020 to over 60 per cent in 2030 and nearly 90 per cent in 2050. The annual investment in energy needs to scale up from $2 trillion annually to about $5 trillion by 2030 and $4.5 trillion thereafter.

How crucial is grid connectivity for renewable power, especially for transnational electricity trade?

While installing renewable energy capacity infrastructure on an individual level and smaller scales is simpler than large scale installations, grid connectivity is essential if renewable energy is to be widespread. The purpose of transnational trade is not limited to maintaining and strengthening diplomatic relations, but also to bring in additional revenue; the same applies for transnational electricity trade. To create a strong system of sustainable electricity, infrastructure consisting of high cross-border connectivity is required.

Will OSOWOG run through the conventional grid, or will it have a separate grid system?

The essence of the OSOWOG is that the ‘sun never sets’ and make solar power available round-the-clock to all. A conventional grid cannot be used for a global connectivity system because it only has limited capacity. Networked cross-border grid systems will need to be put in place. While technicalities of the project are being worked out, it will be an ecosystem of interconnected green grids required to meet the needs of 140 countries.

Which countries have agreed to the OSOWOG project and which agencies are funding it?

The OSOWOG initiative was presented at the fourth assembly of the ISA, and as a key enabler of energy transition, the UK and India decided to join hands and merge the GGI and OSOWOG into GGI-OSOWOG. This is part of the bilateral cooperation, formalised during the UK-India Virtual Summit earlier this year. The UK and India have also agreed to jointly launch GGI-OSOWOG at the COP26. GGI-OSOWOG will bring together a global coalition to accelerate construction of infrastructure needed for a world powered by clean energy. At the fourth assembly of ISA, 80 member countries endorsed a political declaration, ‘One Sun Declaration’, for the launch of GGI-OSOWOG at COP26 in Glasgow. It is expected that Prime Minister Modi will launch GGI-OSOWOG on November 2 at the World Leaders’ Summit of COP 26.

Do you think it is easier for smaller countries to adopt a renewable agenda unlike India and China that are still largely dependent on coal power?

A country’s size does come into play but it works both ways. The problems are big in larger countries, and in smaller ones, the ticket size is so small that big investors choose not to invest. Many smaller countries are struggling with energy access.

How different is ISA’s experience in smaller countries in Africa and Asia?

We have received a positive response from our member countries, especially the least developed countries (LDCs); smaller states in Africa and the Pacific, Caribbean, and other island states. They were the first to join, ratify and submit their project demands to ISA. So, the demand of 4.5 Gw solar capacity that we have has largely come from LDCs. India has also gone through similar experiences and there are lessons to be learnt.

Circular economy offers a clear and credible pathway to achieve sustainably — one that equally puts focus on people, the planet and profit, said experts at Sankalp Global2021.

While deliberating about issues around sustainability, experts stressed the need for businesses to rapidly adopt industry best practices from across the globe. Forward-looking firms will leverage the idea of sustainability and circular economy, the panel said.

The virtual event, held from October 12-14, brought entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers on a platform to share ideas and grow together.

Rene Van Berkel, Representative, Regional Office, UNIDO India, said the long-term benefits of the circular economy has to be explained to all stakeholders in the ecosystem, especially consumers as their involvement is crucial for a broader acceptance of the idea. “The textile and apparel sector is a huge industry worth $1.5 trillion. If it was a country, it would have been the 14th largest country in the world or of the same size as that of Australia. However, the greenhouse gas emissions of the sector are about 10% of the global emissions, which exceeds those from the aviation and maritime industry clubbed together,” he said.

A circular economy focuses on reusing and recycling products and on sustainable business practices.

The Indian textile industry, traditionally a labour-intensive industry, has long been plagued by issues around sustainability. Due to a large number of informal players who are yet to join the circular economy bandwagon, the segment is often touted to be one of the major polluting industries in the country. However, industry and the government are trying to transform this.

Globally, customers are increasingly making their buying decision based on whether the raw materials in the product have been sourced sustainably or not. Being part of a circular value chain gives an added USP to products, say industry observers. The growing trend is leading to a big demand for products made by firms employing sustainability-driven practices. To address a lacuna in the market, industry bodies — including the Textile Association of India, Apparel Export Promotion Council, Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council — have taken the necessary initiatives.

India — along with Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia — is a major textile manufacturing hotspot in the APAC region. Rated as the leading foreign exchange earning sector for India, the sector is estimated to grow to $190 billion by FY26, according to IBEF research.

Another takeaway of the deliberations at Sankalp is that the nuances of a business remain critical for circular business models to be adopted at scale.

Siddharth Lulla, Lead-Corporate Strategy for the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), emphasised the need to address perceived as well as real challenges associated with the concept. One such barrier is a lack of clear evidence of financial viability. “A circular business model that looks great on the balance sheet but does not have positive people and planned outcomes will ultimately fail to meet its potential.” Lulla said this issue is more critical in the context of manufacturing hotspots in Southeast Asia.

Freija Vermeer, Program Manager, Food Sustainability & Circular Economy, the DOEN Foundation, said stakeholders should not underestimate the effects of innovation even if it’s small. Some changes in the manufacturing processes can go a long way in achieving this goal.

Highlighting the role of business interventions, Vaishali Kulkarni, Founder & CEO, KBCols Sciences Pvt Ltd, said polyester is generally dyed at 130 degrees Celsius but with the firm’s unique technology, the required temperature has been reduced to 85 degrees. This has been beneficial for the sector. “We have seen that possibility with multiple fabrics. We now have tried almost every fabric,” she added.

For Gigi Mathews, Country Director, Enviu India, embracing circularity in the textile industry is “not an option” anymore. It has become an imperative. “There’s already pressure to consume less energy, use fewer resources and produce less waste. But it’s also important to scale and be profitable too. So, we have seen that conversation has started moving from CSR corridors to finance decision-makers,” she added.