Unnati wins the Power to Empower Challenge – NSDC and India@75

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and India@75 have announced Ramesh Swamy of UNNATI and Arindam Dasgupta of Tamul Plates Marketing as the winners of the Power to Empower 2013 Challenge (P2E 2013).Supported by the Muthoot Pappachan Foundation, the CSR arm of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, the P2E 2013 Challenge was launched in October, 2013 with the aim of identifying, selecting and rewarding the best solutions bridging the gap between the supply and demand of skilled labour in India.

Supported by the Muthoot Pappachan Foundation, the CSR arm of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, the P2E 2013 Challenge was launched in October, 2013 with the aim of identifying, selecting and rewarding the best solutions bridging the gap between the supply and demand of skilled labour in India.This year, ‘Power to Empower’ received a record 1,004 applications from over 150 cities across India and was managed by Ennovent and TiE Delhi-NCR.The applications were accepted as part of two distinct categories – Idea and Operations.P2E 2013 received 724 Idea and 280 Operations applications with the highest number of entries coming from New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune respectively.

The winning idea submitted by Guwahati based Tamul Plates Marketing focuses on generating rural livelihoods by producing and marketing biodegradable dinnerware.In contrast, the winning application within the Operations category, UNNATI is a Bangalore based organisation that runs a 70-day vocational training program for economically backward youth with an assured job at the end of the training period.

The finalists and winners were selected after multiple rounds of expert evaluation by an esteemed jury panel consisting of S. Ramadorai, Chairman, NSDC; Rajan Navani, Chairman, India@75; Pramod Bhasin, Vice Chairman, Genpact & Chairman, The Skills Academy and Thomas Muthoot, Executive Director, Muthoot Fincorp Ltd., amongst others.

S. Ramadorai said, “My heartiest congratulations to all the winners, finalists and the participants. P2E as an initiative was designed to sensitize and encourage entrepreneurship in the skills space. Reaching out to grass-root entrepreneurs and enabling them to scale up their businesses is a step towards nation building. I hope through this effort we develop a system that not only encourages the concept of entrepreneurship, but actually works towards the achievement of creating a skilled workforce of 500 million by 2022.”

As part of the prizes for P2E 2013, UNNATI and Tamul Plates Marketing will receive Rs. 1.5 lakh and Rs. 3.5 lakh cash respectively by the Muthoot Pappachan Foundation, the CSR arm of the Muthoot Pappachan Group. Upon rewarding the prizes, Thomas Muthoot, Executive Director Muthoot Fincorp Ltd said, “The finalists did a great job in clearly explaining their solutions for enhancing the skill ecosystem in India. P2E 2013 has been a real eye opener, and a great initiative that we would like to be part of next year as well.”

Both winners will also receive access to the high profile capacity building Empretec program, an initiative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as well as access to the iDiya program at ISB Hyderabad.In addition to the above, the winners and finalists in each category will receive access to the Sankalp Unconvention Summit 2014 and to the Diffusion workshop by ISB, networking opportunities and national visibility.

Further talking about the ‘Power to Empower 2013 Challenge’, Chairman Rajan Navani, National Committee, India@75 said, “The Power to Empower 2013 Challenge aspires to encourage young and budding entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and scalable business models working in the skills eco-system, so that they can contribute and decrease the demand – supply gap in the entry level workforce across sectors.”

At present, of the 15 million individuals who enter the work force, only 3 per cent undergoes any form of vocational training due to limited access to such training opportunities in a fast growing economy.As a result, a majority of India’s population cannot realize the employment opportunities necessary to improve their income leading to a more prosperous life.

Ennovent managed P2E 2013 on behalf of NSDC and India@75.In addition, TiE Delhi-NCR served as a knowledge and delivery partner for the Challenge and National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) as the key outreach partner.