Any Change Requires Strong Leadership: S.D. Shibulal at EduMentum's eSpire 2020

Mr. S.D. Shibulal, Co-founder Infosys and Permanent Trustee, The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives, emphasized on the need to enable leadership in order to bring change in the K12 education space in India. Mr. Shibulal was speaking at EduMentum's graduation ceremony eSpire 2020, which was a two-day event held virtually on August 7 & August 8, 2020. Highlighting the qualities a strong leader demonstrates, Mr. Shibulal said, "A leader is capable of making observations, identifying what needs to change, implementing the change, measuring impact, and creating a continuous cycle of improvement through which he can enable the system to improve. Leaders raise aspirations, they inspire, they are the changemakers. Incubators like EduMentum enable these leaders and changemakers to transform education in diverse geographies of India."

Eight organizations that formed the third cohort of Bengaluru-based incubation programme - EduMentum graduated on Saturday, August 8th, 2020. To celebrate the year-long journey towards systemic education transformation that these early-stage organizations have embarked on, social and philanthropic icons came together as part of the virtual two-day programme - eSpire 2020. Spread over August 7 and 8, 2020, the event also witnessed the launch of EduMentum's newest cohort comprising 9 organizations. The two-day conference culminated with Mrs. Kumari Shibulal, Founder and Chairperson, The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives, announcing the graduating cohort of organizations and Mr. Shibulal welcoming the latest cohort comprising nine organizations who will begin their journey with the incubation program this year. The event also witnessed several experts joining the graduating organizations in panel discussions throughout the two days.

Congratulating the graduating organizations and welcoming the new cohort, Mrs. Kumari Shibulal said, "In the most trying times, these organizations have kept their chin up and continued to work towards education for every child - even in the remotest parts of the country. It is inspiring to see the commitment of these young social entrepreneurs in making social change. Any crisis provides an opportunity for new innovation, disruption, and thinking. In current times too, it will allow you (civil society organizations) to push forward the ideas that are dear to you. EduMentum is proud of its journey so far, and we hope that your dedication continues to solve for the massive inequity in education in India."

In her keynote address on day two of eSpire 2020, Rohini Nilekani, Founder - Chairperson, Arghyam and Co-founder EkStep, spoke about the need for education entrepreneurs now more than ever. She said, "Samaaj based organizations have to keep strengthening the very samaaj to solve all kinds of crisis. We have to become more resilient. Things will always go wrong but the efforts of individuals and groups will make this whole world brighter." She also shed light on how samaaj actors or the civil society organizations can work with sarkaar (the state), and bazaar (the market). "The three form a continuum. bazaar was created for samaaj to find goods and services. Sarkaar works to empower samaaj as well. Ultimately, they contribute to the growth of samaaj, the people who many of you (civil society organizations) represent. We as samaaj actors have the agency to create real change. The pandemic bears witness to the need for samaaj. Similarly, there are champions in sarkaar and bazaar who one can work with and who will be willing to work with you," she added.

The graduating batch of 2020 includes organizations like: Karunodaya Foundation (Bihar), Varitra Foundation (Haryana), Mera Gaon Meri Duniya (Uttar Pradesh), Samanta Foundation (Uttarakhand), rZamba (Ladakh), Lantern Edu Sports (Maharashtra), Vidhyalay Udhyam (Rajasthan) and Shiksharth Foundation (Chhattisgarh). For the year 2021, 9 new organizations have been selected out of 182 applicants to undergo the incubation program. These include: Kanavu (Tamil Nadu), Alag Soch (West Bengal), Gramothan (Odisha), Satirtha (Assam), Library for All (Manipur), GramUrja (Maharashtra), VOPA (Maharashtra), Pratibimb (Uttar Pradesh), CounSEL (Gujarat).

About The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives
Born out of a sense of responsibility to society, the Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives has been actively supporting those in need through initiatives in education, healthcare and organic farming for the last 20 years, starting from 1999.

The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives started with focus on education, based on the simple belief that the founders - Mrs. Kumari Shibulal and Mr. S.D. Shibulal achieved what they did because of it. Our initiatives such as Vidyadhan, Ankur, The Samhita Academy, Vidyarakshak, ShikshaLokam, EduMentum etc. are based on the premise of uplifting the underserved communities and providing them with the opportunity to build a better future.

Mrs Kumari Shibulal is the Founder & Chairperson of the Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives. Passionate about doing her bit for the underserved communities, her vision (and that of the Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives) is to spread knowledge and create an environment focussed on social change through a solution-oriented approach.

About EduMentum

EduMentum, an incubator for early stage non-profits in the education sector, is a Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiative in partnership with Mantra4Change. It aims to enable young change leaders to build robust contextual solutions to achieve systemic education transformation across India. As of now, EduMentum supports 32 organizations across 17 states and 1 Union Territory in India. The program aims to successfully incubate 50 organizations across different parts of the country by the year 2022.

Infosys Co-Founder Launches Incubator For Education Startups

S. D. Shibulal, better known as Shibulal, who is former CEO and co-founder of Infosys, has launched EduMentum -- an incubator for early-stage startups working in the space of offline education transformation.

EduMentum is launched in partnership between his Advaith Foundation and Mantra4Change, a Bengaluru-based NGO.

The incubator platform will offer funding of Rs 7.5 lakh per annum to each selected organisation or startup along with a series of workshops for the incubatees.

Speaking on the launch of EduMentum, Shibulal said, "EduMentum is designed to promote social entrepreneurs who are working to transform the education ecosystem. EduMentum will encourage development and use of indigenous body of knowledge in the area of school education through ShikshaLokam."

ShikshaLokam is an education leadership platform under Advaith. The Advaith Foundation was set up by Kumari Shibulal and SD Shibulal to promote philanthropic ventures in the field of education and research.

The first cohort of the programme, which has five startups, started in September last year. The startups in this program include Loop Education Foundation, Vidhya Vidhai, Samarthya, Sanjhi Sikhiya and i-Saksham.

During the end of the programme, the startups get to pitch to potential investors. The programme aims to incubate 50 organisations across different parts of the country by 2022. The next batch will start in June.

The development was first reported in Economic Times.

Notably, EduMentum is second such initiative for startups by Shibulal as earlier, In 2014 Shibula co-founded Axilor Ventures, a venture capital service for young entrepreneurs.

To recall, in December last year, Paytm too had announced the launch of startup incubator called 'Build For India' initiative.

Last month, Ratan Tata, in his ₹900 million plan, has also announced that Tata Trusts will be setting up number of lab-style startup incubators across India.

Additionally, in this month, Haryana state government has also announced the plan to set up an startup incubator called ‘Global Start-up Village’, which will be India’s biggest startup hub and will be located in Gurugram in next couple of years.

Prior to that, Kejriwal govt in Delhi has also announced to launch startup incubator in lines of T-Hub.