Problem Statement: Social Enterprise, as a combination of public welfare and business, is an indispensable sector globally, and its core idea is in line with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2022, The Ahmedabad Hub is the first hub in India to aim to curate an intervention that will stir the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the city. It targets university students to give them the opportunity to look at entrepreneurship as a viable career choice while helping their ideas grow.

The majority of India’s population is in the working-age group right now, and to reap this demographic dividend, India needs to create 100 million more jobs by 2030. Job creation is the biggest development challenge that the country faces, and the workforce needs to be equipped with the right kind of skills, knowledge and opportunities. India has to increase the pace of stimulating entrepreneurship to meet the target of the number of jobs needed.

Globally, many countries are committed to supporting and helping its development. Now that COVID-19 has slowed down the process of such endeavor, the goal has been shifted to increase the public awareness of social entrepreneurship, especially among young people, and encourage more talents to work on the frontier of social enterprises.

Target Group: 1) For the Ahmedabad hub intervention: University students interested to dive deeper into the know-how of how to become an entrepreneur and wish to grow their ideas.

2) For the Global Youth Social Entrepreneurship Summit: Social Enterprises and youth.

Proposed Solution: The hub hopes to stir entrepreneurship in the city and equip the youth with a social innovation mindset by creating awareness through knowledge building webinars that will cover a range of topics in the field of entrepreneurship, linking aspiring entrepreneurs with mentors, and incubation centers to create a path from the scratch to entrepreneurship. The initiative will bring together thought leaders from the social innovation space, and entrepreneurs to motivate our next generation of leaders to venture into their ideas as entrepreneurs.

Subsequently, The Ahmedabad Hub is the first hub from India that has stepped up to support the Chengdu Hub in different activities for the Global Youth Social Entrepreneurship Summit to further promote social entrepreneurship globally. The Global Youth Social Entrepreneurship Summit (GYSE Summit) has been established with the aim to popularize the idea of social entrepreneurship and provide a platform for young social entrepreneurs and equip them with the right tools, skills, and mentorship for the development of social enterprises.

Hub Activities: For the Global Youth Social Entrepreneurship Summit, The Ahmedabad Hub will be supporting the hosts in the followings ways

1) Support as a co-host in the GYSE SE Summit for Forum 4: Mental Health session and Forum 2: Tech for Good: Artificial Intelligence. The hub hopes to work in coordination with other hubs co-hosting these forums and contribute by providing speaker recommendations for both sessions to bring a global perspective.

2) The hub will support the hosts in cross-hub marketing, recommend speakers and help connect with partners from India for the summit.

Short & Long-Term Goals/Results:

1) Share the platform with diverse stakeholders

2) Synergize the resources for greater social impact

3) Disseminate knowledge on a diverse set of topics

4) Support cross-border hubs for the larger good of the world.

Available Metrics: So far, the summit has kick-started the GYSE SE Competition for social enterprises in China. The pitching opportunity will give the enterprises an opportunity to present their work in front of a top judging panel made of ESG experts, impact investors, and industry experts. And their projects will be assessed on their social impact, sustainability, creativity etc. The winning teams will walk away with prizes and opportunities for fundraising and partnerships. From August onwards, the summit will host the GYSE SE Summit, which covers a range of diverse topics for youth to learn about, from a set of experts bought together by us.

Collaborators: Hubs co-hosting Forum 4 and Forum 2 hubs + Chengdu Hub. This project is part of a cross-hub collaboration.