Growth Economy Venture Challenge - Nokia announces $1m competition for mobile apps designed for poor

Nokia’s Calling All Innovators competition has always been about trying to find the best big ideas for mobile applications from developers around the world. This year, Nokia is taking that desire to find big ideas to a whole new level.

In fact, it is safe to say that this time "big ideas" are not enough.

To be blunt, we’re looking to invest in an idea that is worth $1 million!

Nokia’s Growth Economy Venture Challenge will provide a venture capital investment in the winning proposal of $1 million (USD). Bear in mind, this is not a gift, grant or prize. It’s an investment aimed at creating a strong, vibrant business that will also improve people’s lives.

What are we looking for? We’re looking for one idea that stands above all the rest.

* An idea that could truly change the way people use Nokia mobile devices.
* An idea that demonstrates how mobility improves the lives of millions of people in emerging markets worldwide.
* An idea that recognizes a good business opportunity can also contribute to "doing good" – and making a dramatic difference in the lives of people in developing nations.

There can only be one winner in this competition, but the winning idea will make people stand up and take notice. And let’s be clear, this Venture Challenge is about more than just mobile apps. The winning idea might be hardware, software, or a new service opportunity.

As Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia President and CEO, stated during his keynote address at CES in Las Vegas: "We are challenging developers and innovators around the world to take action. We want you to come up with new and innovative ways to help people and promote upward mobility around the world."

He went on to say: "We’ve seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportunities. We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world."

Want sources of inspiration for your own ideas?
Take a look at the Progress Project, where Nokia and Lonely Planet are showing the world how mobility is connecting people to what matters. For instance, Nokia Tej in Kolhapur, India, is demonstrating how mobile phones can be used to increase sales efficiency and productivity in the textile industry.

Another excellent example is Nokia Life Tools, which is helping farmers in places like Maharashtra, India, to use their mobile phones to get the latest market prices for their crops, as well as weather forecasts and governmental advice on modern farming techniques.

Criteria
The winning proposal in the Growth Economy Venture Challenge will meet the following criteria:

* It must include a clear mission statement; and provide a product or service plan that will undeniably raise the standard of living, and/or enhance the lives of people living in emerging market countries today.
* The initial target market must be located in a region with per capita income significantly lower than what is found in industrialized nations today (e.g., sub-$5 per day).
* It must include a viable business model that has a high likelihood of providing a strong return on investment for the venture funding provided.

Submissions for this unique investment opportunity will be accepted now through 11:59 pm PST Sunday, 18 April, 2010.

The winner will be announced in June of 2010 at a to-be determined venue on a to-be announced date.

Do you have a million dollar idea?

Download and complete this application form, and then submit your proposal to Nokia’s Growth Economy Venture Challenge.

Source from: http://www.callingallinnovators.com/venture_challenge.aspx

ICICI Fellows is a social leadership programme

This programme nurtures the leader in you by enabling you to envision a future, mobilise people, thoughts and resources to create a brand new India

It's the first ever comprehensive leadership programme in India which has the right balance of management training, experiential learning and personality development.

It's a 2 year intensive, experiential learning programme that will equip you to take on any professional challenge. It will bring about a 360 degrees change in the way you think about the world, challenge your existing belief systems and redefine your ideologies.

At the end of 2 years, as an ICICI Fellow you will be a professional who will lead India into a better tomorrow.

ICICI Fellows is structured to have 3 tightly interlinked components.

Management Training

The fellowship will commence with a one month management training programme designed by Institute of Financial Management & Research (IFMR), one of the leading business schools in India. The principles learnt here will then be applied to development issues in a real world classroom - amidst the Niligiri Hills in South India.

Experiential Learning

As the entire programme is designed for you to gain a true pulse of the country, there are many modules which focus on experiential learning.

After the management training you will be deployed with a leading NGO in a managerial capacity anywhere in India, to gain a deeper understanding of rural sensitivities of the country. Here, you will work closely with an experienced team of senior professionals from the organization on various issues faced by the local community. Every 6 months you will join other ICICI Fellows on a journey to far and wide corners of India - in the North east, amidst the Himalayas and in the Thar Desert. These outward journeys will bring you close to your inner self. And this will bring about an unfathomable self transformation.

Personal Development & Mentoring

At the beginning of the programme, you will be assigned a personal coach for a period of 2 years. The coach will interact with you on a fortnightly basis helping you put together a personal development plan, enabling you to achieve it and helping you overcome roadblocks in between. To shape the leaders in you, you will also be mentored regularly by senior professionals from the organisation.

Source from:http://icicifellows.org/talkserver/page/Learning/show

Swedish Institute Young Leaders Visitors Program

The Swedish Institute Young Leaders Visitors Program (YLVP) is an intercultural leadership program that focuses on social media as a tool for positive change. The program invites young opinion-makers from Sweden and selected countries in the MENA region who are actively working for social change in their respective contexts. This year the program will have an extensive focus och social entrepreneurship and applications from Yemen will also be considered.

The YLVP promotes exchange of knowledge and creativity and helps strengthen young opinion-makers leadership and ability to work actively for social change on issues related to democracy and human rights.

The Swedish institute is now reaching out to young determined visionaries who are covering social developments and working for a positive change in the following countries; Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and Sweden. Do you know anyone that would be well-suited to participate in the program?

Application deadline is February 28th 2010. Application forms can be obtained by following the link below: http://www.si.se/English/Navigation/Scholarships-and-exchanges/Leadership-programs/Young-Leaders-Visitors-Program/Applicat ion-procedure/

Application instructions and more information about the program can be found at: www.si.se/ylvp

Source from: http://ngopost.org

Project Name: Drishtee Rural Training Program.

Project Description:

Drishtee has taken up a training assignment to train more than 10,000 Below Poverty Line candidates. Such a training program would be conducted at the village level to facilitate the participation of weaker sections especially women.

Designation: Training Intern

Reporting Manager: Sales Co-ordinator (Drishtee Divisional Office)
Duration: Minimum: 3mnths; Maximum: 6mths
Total Requirement: 150 (Batches of 40)
Immediate Requirement: 10
Location: Western U.P (Mathura, Hathra) Or Eastern Rajasthan (Bharatpur)
Compensation: None
Cost Covered: Accommodation, Travel related to work, Food
Hiring Manager: Division Commander, Training
Process of Enrollment: Simple exchange of letter. No agreement.
Minimum Qualifications: Senior Secondary

KRAs of Training Intern:

He or she will be a Trainer, Facilitator and Mentor:

Be a trainer to a group of nearly 40-50 poor candidates in generic soft skills such as effective communication/personality/grooming/basic accounts etc.

Be a facilitator for a batch of nearly 60-80 candidates for a specialised vocational training such as Masonry/Security Guards/Small Scale production etc.

Be a mentor to Drishtee's entrepreneurs in the same Panchayat.

Resource person for the assigned: Panchayat.

Source from :http://ngopost.org

Corporate Social Responsibility

McRaaN strongly believes that the corporate as a social group can also address the problems and evils in the society. We want and dare to make the difference. Social Responsibility policy of ours honors the triple bottom-line: People, Planet and Profit. We have evolved a self-regulating mechanism whereby on one hand we ensure the adherence to law, ethical standards and international norms and on the other, ensure our proactive contribution of time and energy for better environment and all other members of the nature.

Sharing ourselves with the society for its upliftment is our policy matter and one of our business objectives. Every member of McRaaN Family effortlessly imbibes the McRaaN's Social Responsibility policy, and works towards making world a better place to live.

We are proactively promoting our social activities through our esteemed partners CARPED and Yatna Society

Contact Us:
McRaaN Systems
Plot No 22, Road No 2, Banjara Hills
Hyderabad 500 034 INDIA
Office:+91 (40) 23555247, 65527969
Sales: sales@mcraan.com

Support poor children free from Thalassemia

Thalassaemia is the name of a group of genetic inherited disorders of the blood. Thalassemia is a disorder of the blood in which a child is born with inability to form normal Hemoglobin. This is so serious that unless the child receives blood transfusion every 2 to 3 weeks it can be life threatening by the age of 5 years of age.

More specifically, it is a disorder of the haemoglobin molecule inside the red blood cells. It is an inherited genetic disease, i.e. a disease that is passed from parents to children through the genes. It is not infectious and cannot be passed on from one individual to another by personal or any other contact, through blood transfusion, food or air.

An Appeal

Thalassemia “ is a genetic blood disease , in which all the patients have to undergo blood transfusion once in 21 days for keeping up their Hemoglobin count.

And they need medicines to the tune of Rs.3000/- per month and the only cure to them is “Stem Cell Therapy” or Bone Marrow Transplantation which will cost around Rs.8,00,000/- ( Eight Lakhs ) .

Unfortunately there are around 42 Children undergoing regular treatment ( Blood Transfusion ) in Madurai Government Rajaji Hospital and they are from economically downtrodden families who cant buy medicines for their children.

The medicines are not supplied by Tamilnadu Govt. and most of the children are without medication for a long time.

In this regards, we requested various organization and Freemasons club Lodge Meenakshi, Madurai have started donating Medicines to them from this month.

We have arranged for a Specialist Doctor from Apollo Hospital , Chennai and they made a visit and examined all the children on Sep 5th 2009 in GH itself.

As a further measure , we have requested Dr.Lawrence William Faulkner of Italy who is a leading Paediatric Haemato Oncologist with more than twenty years experience in Thalassemia treatment and care and he will be visiting Madurai on Jan 15th and will be here till Jan 17th to assist us in evaluating the thalassemia children for further treatment.

We request you to join us in this mission to help the poor children free of their miseries.

Do create awareness about the disease , donate for medicines , donate blood or you can sponsor a child for the Bone Marrow Transplantation either alone or as a group.

Do visit our website : www.thalassemiafreeindia.ning.com

Do send this message to all your friends and relatives,

For your participation and donations contact :

Nivethan Trust- Madurai, TamilNadu, India

Email: nivethan.mdu@gmail.com or visit www.nivethan.org

source from:http://ngopost.org

THE DEVELOPMENT DIALOGUE

January 27 - 29, 2010

Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship

KLE Society's BVB Engineering College, Hubli, Karnataka

The Deshpande Foundation announces the 3rd Annual Development Dialogue, one of the most engaging and innovative development conferences in the world. Over the course of three days, the Deshpande Foundation will host over 300 NGO leaders, civic activists, business leaders, professionals, academics and government officials from over ten countries and across India for a series of seminars, site visits and plenary sessions about the latest issues in development. The conference is an annual reflection on the Deshpande Foundation's themes of innovation, entrepreneurship and scale.

The Development Dialogue is by invitation only. For those interested in attending, please email ddhubli@dfmail.org with background about you, your organization and your interest in attending the conference.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

January 27th

· Site visits to NGO's working in agriculture, primary education, health and livelihoods. See the NGO's in action and meet the beneficiaries of their work.

· A mela/festival featuring over 200 socially-entrepreneurial projects by college students from across Northwest Karnataka

· An opening plenary session and networking dinner

January 28th

· Global Social Entrepreneurship Panel, featuring:

· Case study presentations of path-breaking NGO's

· NGO Exhibition fair

January 29th

· Keynote by Sudha Murthy, Chair, Infosys Foundation

· Sector/Theme based discussion sessions

· Inspiring stories from leading NGO's from around the world

January 30th

· Visit to Badami caves (optional tour for visitors from outside Karnataka)

source from:http://ngopost.org