Wadhwani Foundation

Wadhwani Foundation

Type	Nonprofit Organization
Website	www.wadhwani-foundation.org/

The Wadhwani Foundation is a philanthropic organisation founded by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani.^[1]

The Foundation’s mission is "to accelerate economic development in India and other emerging economies."^[2] The Wadhwani Foundation principally works through partnerships with like-minded individuals, organisations, corporations, and governments.

Conceptualised in 2000,^[1] the Foundation launched its first initiatives in Entrepreneurship development. The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), opened in 2003, is now the largest entrepreneurship community in India with over 500 academic institutes, 70,000 students, 1000 faculty members, and about 200,000 registered online members.^[3] The Foundation has since scaled up its activities to replicate its success with the NEN, in four additional focus areas: Innovation and Research, Career and Skill Education, Educated Disabled, and Indo-US Policy.

Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development

One of the Foundation’s initiatives in this sector was establishing and funding the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED) at the Indian School of Business in 2001.^[4] WCED is concerns entrepreneurship as transformational for the broad-based growth of India and other developing economies. It aims at enabling creation and growth of sustainable and competitive enterprises, through innovative research, outreach and pilot initiatives.

National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)

The Foundation established National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) in 2003 with the aim of building impactful entrepreneurship programs at leading institutions of higher learning.^[5] Today, over 500 of the top 1,000 colleges in the country support the Foundation’s entrepreneurship development programs,^[3] and over 50,000 students graduate out of these programs each year. In addition, NEN 200,000 registered online members.^[3]

NEN has also initiated a program to nurture educators in entrepreneurship. As part of this initiative, NEN has trained 1,200 teachers and has established itself as a platform for networking and support. It has angel investors, venture capital firms and a research bureau to help students start and grow their companies. In 2011, about 230 companies were formed by students who enrolled for the course. Out of half a million students who take this course, 20% enroll join entrepreneurship clubs for the next level of training.

NEN also runs the annual Entrepreneurship Week India (E Week India), an annual advocacy campaign "to improve ecosystem and engage people in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Week India is India’s largest awareness campaign to build public support for entrepreneurship. Every year, more than 65,000 NEN student members come together to focus national attention on the country’s biggest opportunities and challenges. NEN E Week India 2014 saw more than 5,000 events held over a week – from rallies and business plan competitions to expositions and start-up fairs – involving more than 700,000 participants in 30 cities. The campaign ended with awards night at 4 four regional finale venues, recognizing and rewarding students for innovation, creativity and reach.^[6]

Shanta Wadhwani Center for Cardiac and Neural Research

In January 2012, with a grant of USD 1.5 million, the Foundation funded the Shanta Wadhwani Center for Cardiac and Neural Research to promote research in regenerative biology. The Center is located at inStem, the Department of Biotechnology-aided Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.^[7] InStem, in close association with the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bangalore, conducts research in cardiac and neural repair and regeneration.^[8]

The Centre also aims to bring in world leaders in stem cell biology and cardiac research, to study the mechanisms underlying stem-cell directed differentiation (cellular) and cardio-myopathies. The idea is to develop treatment strategies and purchase instruments that are not covered by conventional grants.

Wadhwani Research Center in Biosciences and Biotechnology

In 2009, the Foundation also contributed USD 5 million towards setting up the Wadhwani Research Center in Biosciences and Biotechnology at IIT Bombay.^[9] The grant was to fund and equip "a worldclass research centre in bioscience and biotech."^[9] Wadhwani is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.^[9]

Career and skill education

The Wadhwani Foundation aims at training the youth and honing their skills, making them employment-ready for the growing economy. Inherently, career and skill education is a faster, cheaper and market-driven alternative to mainstream education.

The Foundation has engaged with governing entities to set up community colleges and other schemes to enhance vocational education.

Partnering with international education organisations

This initiative provides the youth with a short-term, industry-ready associate degree, along with the flexibility to transfer credits to obtain a mainstream degree. The Foundation’s goal is to link education to jobs and meet the growing demand for knowledge workers across the world.

On 3 December 2011, the Wadhwani Foundation entered into a strategic partnership with Montgomery College (a community college in the USA) and Jindal Education Initiatives (a philanthropic initiative of Jindal Steel and Power Limited).^[10] The collaboration aims to strengthen career and skill education courses and instructor training in India through industry relevant 'train-the-trainer' curriculum and materials development. The Foundation is expected to be the technology and capacity-building partner, augmenting soft infrastructure-style curriculum as well as courseware and faculty development.

The Foundation has a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, a cooperative effort between 23 community colleges^[11] in the state of Virginia, USA. As part of this agreement, the Wadhwani Foundation can access the expertise of the Virginia Community College System in running industry-relevant professional education.^[12] It can share technical and organizational know-how as well as curriculum and teacher training. These efforts aim at identifying high-impact skill development programs in India.

On 12 April 2012, The Wadhwani Foundation, St. Joseph’s Community College and [24]7 Inc. signed an MoU to set up a program called "Career@ITworld: Earn, Learn and Grow into a Global Career”.^[13] This MoU focused on developing skills among undergraduates and improving potential employability. According to the Foundation, the initiative offers "a hybrid model combining the best of the American model of Community Colleges... and the German model of apprenticeship to produce ... knowledge workers to meet the unique needs of Indian Industries."^[13]

National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework (NVEQF)

In September 2012, the Wadhwani Foundation tied up with the Haryana State Department of School Education to implement the new National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework (NVEQF) scheme for mainstreaming employability education. This program will be implemented in 40 schools and reach around 5,000 students.^[14][15]

Education for the disabled

The Wadhwani Foundation – Opportunity Network for the Disabled (WF-OND) program has trained and placed more than 7,000 persons with a disability (PwD) in sustainable, high-quality corporate jobs by partnering with notable organisations, such as IL&FS, American India Foundation, and NASSCOM.

The WF-OND was launched to train and place over 100,000 of the country’s specially-abled people in sustainable, high quality corporate jobs by partnering with training organisations.^[16] The objective of the initiative is to influence the employability quotient of people with disabilities and put them in mainstream jobs. Through this initiative, Wadhwani Foundation also aims at helping companies recognise the business value of hiring motivated, dedicated and educated people with disabilities, thus reducing attrition.

The Wadhwani Foundation collaborated with the NASSCOM Foundation on 1 December 2011. With a substaitial investment, Wadhwani Foundation collaborated with IT-BPO companies to ensure that the maximum numbers of people with disabilities were recruited in high-quality jobs.^[17] This dual focus is helping the industry adopt an equal-opportunity practice.

A similar partnership was formed with the American India Foundation (AIF) to train and place people with disabilities, through AIF’s Market-Aligned Skills Training Program.^[18] This 3–6-month training program opens up demand-driven career and skill education opportunities for people with disabilities between the ages of 18–30.

Indo-US Policy

The Foundation has endowed two Chairs to enhance a joint policy framework for economic development. Given India’s growth potential and demographic dividend, and the United States' leadership in technology, innovation, skills and higher education, this step would help foster a better relationship between both nations. Wadhwani Foundation established a Chair in India-US Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to act as a catalyst for collaborative economic growth policy agenda. The Foundation also established a parallel program at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) in New Delhi.

The Foundation’s interests are to develop focused policy initiatives that accelerate the economic growth agenda for India. These policies include increasing foreign direct investment, investment in innovation and research, and collaboration in alternative energy technology. They also aim at deepening the collaboration in geopolitical issues, regional security and defence. These policies serve as an independent platform to increase awareness in the US. This is done by addressing critical issues facing India, and sharing Indian perspectives on the bilateral agenda of the two economies.^[19]

In February 2012, CNBC-TV18 and the Wadhwani Foundation assembled an elite panel to discuss Indo-US economic policy. Guests in the panel included Human Resource and Development Minister (Government of India) Mr. Kapil Sibal, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, President of NASSCOM Mr. Som Mittal, and Chairman of Wadhwani Foundation Dr. Romesh Wadhwani.^[20]

The Policy Research Centre organized a half-day seminar on “Promoting Innovation in MSME’s through Public private Partnership Programmes” on 19 February 2014 at New Delhi. A study titled “Promoting Innovation through PPP: An Assessment of SBIRI and BIPP Programmes” was unveiled by Dr. T Ramasami, Honourable Secretary, DST, GOI and Professor K. Vijay Raghavan Secretary, DBT, GOI. The study reviews the implementation of PPP model in innovation, with a special focus on the SBIRI and BIPP programmes of the Department of Biotechnology. It analyses the contribution of the programme to knowledge creation & identifies challenges in their implementation. The study provides a set of recommendations to help policy makers further improve and scale up the programmes to reach their full potential.

Advisory panel

• Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia: Chairman of ICRIER and Chairman of the Committee on Urban Infrastructure, India. Padma Bhushan Awardee in 2009.^[21]
• Ms. Laura Parkin: Executive Director of the Wadhwani Foundation^[21]
• Mr. K. V. Kamath: Chairman of Infosys and ICICI. Named as Forbes Asia's 'Businessman of the Year 2007'.^[21]
• Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: Chairman of Biocon.^[21] Featured in TIME's list of 100 Most Influential People and Forbes's list of 100 Most Powerful Women.
• Mr. S. Ramadorai: Vice-Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services. Former CEO of TCS. Cabinet Rank Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on National Skill Development. Selected as Business India's 'Businessman of the Year 2004.'^[21]

Partnering institutions

• American India Foundation (AIF)^[22]
• Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani^[22]
• Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC^[22]
• The Cherie Blair Foundation^[22]
• Dr. Reddy's Foundation (Dr. Reddy's Laboratories)^[22]
• Goldman Sachs^[22]
• Government of the state of Assam^[22]
• Government of the state of Haryana^[22]
• Government of India, Department of Science and Technology^[22]
• Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development^[22]
• Government of the state of West Bengal
• Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi^[22]
• Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad^[3][22]
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay^[3][22]
• Indian School of Business, Hyderabad^[22]
• Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS)^[22]
• Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bangalore^[3][22]
• Jindal Education^[22]
• National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore
• Montgomery College^[22]
• National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM)^[22]
• National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS)^[22]
• S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai^[3][22]
• The TATA Conglomerate^[22]
• Team Lease^[22]
• Virginia Foundation for Community College Education^[22]
• Youth 4 Jobs^[22]

Awards

• Dr. Romesh Wadhwani is a proud recipient of the prestigious ‘Non Resident Philanthropist’ award at the Forbes India Philanthropy Awards 2013
• In September 2012, Dr. Romesh Wadhwani was awarded the 'Asian Leadership CSR Awards' for Social Entrepreneurship
• Dr. Romesh Wadhwani was appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees at JFK Center for Art by US President Barack Obama^[23]
• Ms. Sunita Singh, NEN’s Co-Founder and Sr. Director, was awarded Indira Group of Institute’s 'Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation Award'.

References

External links

• National Entrepreneurship Network
• Skill Development Network
• ICRIER