JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), School of Commerce, organized an online conference titled International Enactus Stakeholders’ Colloquium on October 5, 2021. The informative conference intended to bring forth the ongoing and upcoming projects of Enactus – JAIN (Deemed-to-be University). During the conference, panelists propounded ideas and improvisations for the projects undertaken by Enactus-JU. The students and faculty of JAIN (Deemed-to-be University) at the Jayanagara campus took part in the event.

Pratham Motwani and Khushi Bharadwaj hosted the conference. The panelists included Dr. Anand G. Padmanabhan, Chairman - I LOVE TO CARE Foundation, Mr. Dhruv Jatti, President - Bangalore Student Community, Dr. Divya Gupta, Founder - Jwala Foundation, Lazar Rajan, State Director - (TN, India), ISDO NGO, and Swati Van, Founder - Seva Group Ghana. Dr. Dinesh Nilkant, Dean (Management) and Director of JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Centre of Management Studies, welcomed the gathering and presented his ingenious insight into social entrepreneurship and how we can create innovative ideas and solutions while caring for nature and society.

Dr. Anand discussed how humankind accepted virtual life during the COVID-19 pandemic. He further added that his organization strives to implement all the UN’s SDG goals in India and Canada and asked the youth to join hands with the NGO to make their social dreams come true. Mr. Jatti spoke on how India has one of the most thriving populations, and it is increasing at an exponential rate year by year, which indicates that the youth impact the economy of the country. He then presented a way to reach out to the rural class through the usage of sustainable farming to explain social entrepreneurship. He concluded by pointing out a key aspect as to how the practicality of this situation can only come in when there is enough enforcement from the United Nations and governing bodies of the countries to make social entrepreneurship important, especially in developing countries like India. Dr. Gupta provided an introduction about Jwala Foundation, an NGO that works predominantly with women. And she stated that if we do not focus on the female population of the country, then the goal we need to achieve will not be possible. She encouraged the youth to come forward and impart to women with useful skills to turn their lives around. She concluded, “As long as we have positivity and determination inside us to bring out the change we wish to see, it will happen.” Mr. Lazar discussed how his organization helped people who were heavily affected by the pandemic by the usage of digitization. He shared that his NGO generates income by charging clients with a larger sum and outsourcing the work to freelancers who are professionals and are willing to charge less for charity. Ms. Swati started by mentioning that her organization, Seva Group Ghana, works predominantly with women, and she believes that if an individual can contribute around Rs. 200 to 300 periodically it can change the lives of many. She said, “If we are alone, we can do little, but when we are together, we can do so much.” She expounded more on how the organization was able to help many families during the pandemic with the growing digitization of the world.

Mr. Nikhil, the faculty coordinator of Enactus-JU, directed a Q&A session with the panelists. Dr. Gupta answered the question regarding the challenges faced by women during the pandemic to take the products made by them to digital platforms by saying that small NGOs can’t avail the benefits from the government, hence there will be a shortage of funds. In addition, selling on large e-commerce platforms costs a fortune and they’re unable to make sales despite having numerous products. Dr. Anand said, “A volunteer is a volunteer, it does not matter where he or she lives.” when a question about the difference seen on digital platforms in regards to social entrepreneurship in India and Canada. He mentioned that in India there is an issue of availability of funds since NGOs mainly rely on Government funds and 2% CSR funds from MNCs. Whereas in Canada, they have stringent rules and regulations in terms of running an NGO but the population of the country is lesser in comparison to countries like India.

Presentation of the ongoing and upcoming projects of Enactus JU was led by the hosts following which the panelists guided how to improvise the project.