Education will always be at the nexus of innovation, progress and social impact. In this session, Dr. Rajendra Srivastava, Dean of the Indian School of Business, will highlight the future of business education and the essential characteristics of all great leaders within the social impact sphere.

Hold tight to your seats as the Top 10 Silicon Valley Challenge Finalists attempt to secure their spot for this year's SVC Trek. From these 10 Finalists, 5 SVC Fellows will be selected to partake in an all-expense paid, two-week trip to Silicon Valley, where they will meet with senior Technology executives, Sand Hill Road Investors, and Academics at the leading Bay-area Institutions.

Interdisciplinary partnerships are the fulcrum of social innovation transformation in Hyderabad, and Telangana at large. In line with our mission to make Telangana a global hub for technology-enabled social innovation, Action For India is proud to announce a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the key players in the local impact community; IIT-Hyderabad, IIIT-Hyderabad, and THub. This session will discuss the vision and the impact we aspire to ignite with this cross-functional consortium.

“No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come”, a quote Shri KT Rama Rao has embodied since the first day he stepped into office. Our Chief Guest “KTR” will be addressing barriers to innovation, the power of impact-minded investment, and the latent potential embedded in the social enterprise ecosystem, and India at-large.

Rural-urban health disparities and overcrowded hospitals are just a few stark challenges that healthcare entrepreneurs are tackling today. Dr. Sangita Reddy of Apollo Hospitals Group will examine how new developments in healthtech, digitalization, and telemedicine are increasing positive outcomes and accessibility to care in India.

Hyderabad, the capital of India’s youngest state, as well as its surrounding communities have been trailblazers in building a thriving startup ecosystem, attracting massive tech investment, and creating a multitude of new professional opportunities. Our first Plenary Panel with take a deep-dive into the burgeoning social innovation occurring in Telangana.

AFI and its Investment Partners will discuss the Fund’s strategic objectives, sector foci, and its mission to leverage the Indian diaspora in Silicon Valley to create larger social impact here in India.

At IIT-Hyderbad / Action For India, we believe that given the right tools and mentorship, social enterprises have the potential to scale beyond measure. Join AFI board members Amit Jain and Sanjay Kadaveru along with Prof. UB Desai and Prof. Venkhatesham of IIT-Hyderabad as they unpack this groundbreaking partnership

Scaling social enterprises does not take place within a vacuum. It takes an array of interdisciplinary partners to achieve growth metrics and to create sustainable solutions. This multifaceted session will explore how public and innovation policy is influenced by the Government, how media platforms allow social enterprises to effectively share their stories, and the ways in which private corporations can provide tools and infrastructure for technological development.

Innovation Across Industry: Sector-Specific Breakout Sessions

Education

Healthcare

Energy

Livelihood

Agriculture

Financial Inclusion

Other

Creating sustainable and long-lasting social change requires disruption in all sectors and facets of society. AFI has curated an expert composition of industry experts and thought-leaders driving innovation across Education, Healthcare, Energy, Livelihoods, Agriculture, and Financial Inclusion. The AFI Sector Champions will facilitate these parallel interactive discussions, discuss expectations from government and ecosystem enablers, analyze key trends particular to each sector, and engaging panelists from tech, government, and entrepreneurship.

In each sector-specific panel, two Sector Champions will lead the discussion among the panelists. It is intended to be an interactive, engaging discussion where the audience is expected to participate as well.

Innovation Across Industry: Sector-Specific Breakout Sessions

This capital-focused session is composed of expert panelists who have each successfully raised millions in venture capital and impact investment. Our speakers will share their "secret recipes" to increase investor buy-in, shed light on how they raised money at critical junctures of their scaling journeys, and best-practices they would like to impart to the next generation of social entrepreneurs.

A networking space designed to facilitate meaningful engagements between participant social entrepreneurs and influencers. Utilizing posters as visual aids, SE’s will be able to concisely communicate their targeted social issues, product and service offerings, capital structures, and partnership opportunities. Social entrepreneurs will remain stationary for this session.

Virtual Keynote address (via live vIdeo-feed)

21st century social challenges necessitate that we use an arsenal of technologies to alleviate disparities, leverage data, and create impact. This Plenary Panel session will engage participants on the latest innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc.

Building effective cross-functional teams, implementing novel technologies, and raising capital are all daily challenges that social entrepreneurs face. This selection of domain and function-specific sessions will address prevalent business-critical issues that many SEs encounter on their scaling journeys.

Building effective cross-functional teams, implementing novel technologies, and raising capital are all daily challenges that social entrepreneurs face. This selection of domain and function-specific sessions will address prevalent business-critical issues that many SEs encounter on their scaling journeys.

A networking space designed to facilitate meaningful engagements between participant social entrepreneurs and influencers. Utilizing posters as visual aids, SE’s will be able to concisely communicate their targeted social issues, product and service offerings, capital structures, and partnership opportunities. The Social Entrepreneurs will pitch their enterprises sand collaboration opportunitites whilst the Influencers rotate through the facilitated space.

The path from the “whiteboard”... to solution implementation... is often not a straight path. To shed more light on these multifaceted challenges, our panelists will discuss effective methodologies and tools that removed many of the barriers for their product launch, community building, and impact evaluation success.

According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, women constitute around 14% of the total entrepreneur base in India. The AFI team believes with more innovation and institutional support, we could see these numbers move towards parity. Plenary Panel 6 will discuss the entrepreneurial journey with a gender lens.

They Top 10 Social Entrepreneurs have prepared, executed and inspired! Now they pitch to the SVC Jury in the last and final stage of the Silicon Valley Challenge to earn one among the 5 tickets to California.

A vote of appreciation and gratitude for the work being done, and the fellowship had at this year’s Annual Forum.

A televised panel touching on this year’s innovations, achievements, and vision.