The India Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 is Shanti Raghavan & Dipesh Sutariya of EnAble India.
· They were honoured for their work in building an ecosystem of skilling, employment and entrepreneurship for persons with disabilities through the use of technology.
· Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (IC) of Civil Aviation, Housing and Urban Affairs and Minister of State of Commerce and Industry of India, presented the award in the presence of more than 250 participants alongside the India Economic Summit.
New Delhi, India, 3 October 2019 – The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in partnership with the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, honoured Shanti Raghavan and Dipesh Sutariya of EnAble India as the India Social Entrepreneurs of the Year for 2019.
Raghavan and Sutariya have been instrumental in building an ecosystem of skilling, employment and entrepreneurship for persons with disabilities through the use of technology innovations, breakthroughs in skill trainings, new workplace solutions and behaviour-change tools. EnAble India has positively influenced and changed the mindsets of 729 businesses and built frameworks for inclusion in universities and government agencies for the employment of persons with disabilities in formal and informal sectors across India.
“This year’s winner and finalists of the India Social Entrepreneur of the Year award all exemplify what our community is about – actors who have selflessly dedicated their lives to improving the state of the world around them,” said Hilde Schwab, Chairperson and Co-Founder of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. “We mark the 10th year of our partnership with Jubilant Bhartia with an unprecedented number of finalists, all of whom have made significant contributions to their country by addressing a myriad of issues in innovative ways. We look forward to continuing our work with Jubilant Bhartia to identify, recognize and serve the country’s leading social entrepreneurs in the years to come.”
Congratulating the winner, Shyam S. Bhartia, Founder and Chairman of Jubilant Bhartia Group and Founding Director of Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, said: “The winner and finalists of the India Social Entrepreneur of the Year award are the tech-enabled social entrepreneurs who are helping bridge the gap between the marginalized and the mainstream. In the last decade of this journey, we have witnessed diversity in social innovations coming from remote corners of India. Social entrepreneurs have been harnessing the vast untapped resources and investing time and resources to understand various underlying layers to social issues and create highly customized solutions. It has been a privilege to be partners with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in recognizing social entrepreneurs in India for the last 10 years.”
The annual award brings some of the country’s most remarkable change-makers onto a common platform. These social entrepreneurs are promising self-starters with a strong inclination to address the most pertinent needs of marginalized communities in scalable and sustainable ways. Their endeavours encapsulate alleviating poverty, hunger and gender inequality and promoting women’s empowerment and education. These social entrepreneurs are torch-bearers who have taken the onus of working towards managing microfinance needs and finding solutions to daunting challenges like climate change. The tenets of this year’s finalists are aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The winner will be invited to join the Schwab Foundation’s global community of more than 350 social innovators. Social Entrepreneurs are driven by their mission to create substantial social change and promote inclusive growth, developing new products and service models that benefit underserved communities.
