Deshpande Foundation

VentureWell Enters Agreement to Manage the Deshpande Symposium

Raj Melville — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 15:47:09 +0000

Lowell Ma, Jan 27, 2022 – The Deshpande Symposium, founded in 2012 by the Deshpande Foundation and the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell), is excited to announce a deepened collaboration with VentureWell, a national non-profit organization on a mission to cultivate a pipeline of inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs driven to solve the world’s biggest challenges and to create lasting impact, to house and support the operational management of the Symposium in the Summer of 2022 following the upcoming event in Cleveland. VentureWell’s stewardship of the Deshpande Symposium will ensure its continuing success in years to come.

Since its inception, the Deshpande Symposium has been run completely by a volunteer team, with operational support from UMass Lowell, and has served over 3200 attendees while establishing a respected and influential profile for its convening and awards highlighting entrepreneurship and innovation in higher education. This agreement will better position the Symposium for longer term sustainability and growth supported by VentureWell’s decades of commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship, its strong operational team, and a solid track record of managing creative and effective convenings.

“As a founding member of the Symposium Steering Committee, I have seen firsthand the important role it plays in convening the university innovation community to share ideas, experience and emergent practice on how universities can partner effectively in their communities to drive entrepreneurial, science based prosperity. We look forward to supporting the success, evolution and growth of the Symposium,” said Phil Weilerstein, CEO and President of VentureWell.

As VentureWell takes the lead in organizing future Symposiums, the Deshpande Foundation and UMass Lowell and the existing Steering Committee will continue their collaboration and support. “UMass Lowell is truly excited and honored that VentureWell understands and appreciates the value the Deshpande Symposium brings to our many entrepreneurial institutions and communities each year,” said Steven Tello, Vice Provost at UMass Lowell and founding partner of the Symposium. “This agreement ensures the Symposium will continue to thrive as our VentureWell colleagues bring their experience and network to our focus on promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education across the Americas and beyond.”

“As a longtime and enthusiastic participant in the Deshpande Symposium community, we are excited to know that our powerful learning network will be well-positioned to expand its audience and influence through this strategic collaboration with VentureWell,” noted Deborah Hoover, President of Burton D. Morgan Foundation and Co-Chair of Deshpande Symposium. “We will welcome our colleagues to Cleveland in June for Deshpande Symposium 2022 and be greatly honored to celebrate the launch of this dynamic next chapter.”

We are excited to share this future vision and direction at the next Deshpande Symposium in Cleveland in June and look forward to your participation, feedback and support going forward.

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EarlySpark Katha Kalarava (Stories) – Broadcasting education to the last mile

Raj Melville — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 15:01:57 +0000

Digital divide is prevalent globally. In our initial research in and around Hubballi region when the pandemic hit showed that primary school children do not have access to their parents’ cell phones. They were missing out on all the learning in person as well as remote learning at homes. We decided to leverage the radio network since regardless of the socio economic backyard everyone has access to radio. We launched our radio program with a simple objective to broadcast interesting stories relevant to children in formative years’. Children send their responses to us via different ways including mail, text messages and phone calls. We have seen encouraging engagement with over 300 children actively sending the responses since the launch in September 2020. These children hail from over 60 villages across North Karnataka region. We see an increased participation on a weekly basis.

“We do not have access to TV or smartphones. Radio is the source of news as well as entertainment for us. EarlySpark’s radio program is keeping our daughter engaged with stories every other day. She willingly makes an effort to find answers to the questions asked towards the end of the story. She talks to the older children in our neighborhood if she does not know the English translations of Kannada words.”

Mother of Sneha Hadapad

Sneha Hadapad, Grade III, Navalli Village & Praveen M Bhavikatti Grade IV, Antur Bentur Village

We have collaborated with our region’s Prasara Bharati radio network that has ~150k listenership in villages of more than 12 North Karnataka districts. We broadcast two newly curated stories every week and repeat them in the same week, so children have multiple opportunities to listen and learn. The stories are meant to advance children’s English, numeracy and cognitive knowledge as they attempt to find answers to the questions asked during the program.

“I got to know about the radio program since we listen to the radio regularly at home. I listen to the stories regularly and note down the questions. It’s a joyous activity to write answers and mail the letter to Deshpande Foundation. I like the story telling style and the way stories are connected to our everyday life.”

Praveen M Bhavikatti, Grade IV, Antur Bentur Village

Picture containing answers sent by a children via mail/post

We are happy with our reach and success with our radio program in student engagement so far given the circumstances. We are trying different ways to close the learning gap in education for the students who are out of school and do not have access to any devices for remote learning.

“Wednesdays and Saturdays are my favorite days of the week because I get to listen to the EarlySpark Katha Kalarava (Stories) program on our radio. I enjoy listening to the stories and learning new English words with each story. I take my father’s help to message my answers to Deshpande Foundation”

Sneha Hadapad, Grade III, Navalli Village

English Baravanige (English Writing Practice) – Delivering the learning at door step

Shreya and Priya with their copywriting notebooks, Grade III, Nekar Colony, Hubballi

While the radio program is helping us connect with children beyond our local community (Hubballi), our team on the ground has been trying to engage in person with all the safety precautions. We are providing closer guidance to the students in the same geographic region. Our initial research showed that students were interested in learning English writing skills (‘English Baravanige’).

We have developed a set of comprehensive writing activities (letter writing, 2-3 letters’ words, sight words etc.) that children can complete on a weekly basis. It is very encouraging to see the gathering of parents and the community members to meet with the EarlySpark team on the weekly basis to show their progress.

Please contact us to know how you can be part of this initiative at nityanand.channur@dfmail.org

“I am a mid-day meal helper at a stage government school, both my children are enrolled in the same school. EarlySpark instructors used to support our school teachers & students prior to the lockdown. I was helpless as schools got closed and children didn’t have any meaningful learning. EarlySpark team visited our area, gave children English copywriting books and writing activities. Team visits on a weekly basis to review children’s work, provides feedback and assigns activities. This has helped our children improve their writing skills from letters to words to simple sentences.”

Ratna Chadrashekar, Mother of Shreya & Priya

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Deshpande Foundation Harnesses Resources to Support Covid-19 Crisis Efforts

Raj Melville — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 20:00:08 +0000

The Deshpande Foundation and its partner organizations have joined others in going virtual in response to the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. The Deshpande Foundation in India held productive discussions with local administrative authorities including the District Commissioner, the Police Commissioner, Zilla Panchayat CEO, Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Commissioner, and the District Health officer about harnessing the resources of the Foundation to support their efforts in managing the Covid-19 crisis. In addition, the Foundation has:

Donated 1000 face shields to front line workers manufactured by Printlyx, a Deshpande Startup
Donated 15,000 masks manufactured by Nayodyami micro-entrepreneurs to the Government of Karnataka
Worked in communities to distribute food and groceries in neighborhoods as well as encouraging use of the Arogya Setu app for Covid monitoring
Partnered with Deshpande Startup incubatees, Boonbox and freshboxx to deliver essential food and vegetables to urban and rural populations
Supported health workers and administrators with an online dashboard to track corona cases that was developed by Deshpande Startups LinkEZ and DocketRun

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EforAll addresses needs of alumni and startups during Covid-19 crisis

Raj Melville — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 20:05:27 +0000

While moving its programming and accelerators online, EforAll reacted quickly to address the needs of hundreds of its alumni who have been forced to close or have seen dramatic fall in revenues. It has compiled an Entrepreneur Resource List online of support resources for startups and entrepreneurs, created a weekly webinar series to cope with the challenges of the crisis and created an online Alumni Shopping Directory of enterprises offering products online. You can watch a recent conversation on “Managing your Business Through a Crisis” moderated by EforAll CEO David Parker with Desh Deshpande; Gail Goodman, EforAll’s Board Chair; Brad Feld, Founder of Techstars and Frank Carvalho, Co-owner of Expresso Pizza in Lowell that was part of the webinar series.

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EforAll’s Work Seeding Start-ups Profiled in New York Times

Raj Melville — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 20:56:45 +0000

“EforAll fosters local entrepreneurship by supporting aspiring small-business owners who have ideas but lack capital and connections.”

The article titled “Helping Towns by Seeding Their Own Backyard With Start-Ups”, written by Wealth Matters columnist Paul Sullivan for the New York Times, features Desh Deshpande, who with his wife Jaishree founded EforAll in Lowell and Lawrence; Gail Goodman, EforAll Board Chairwoman and a key supporter of our program in Roxbury; and Niraj Shah, who has generously supported the launch of EforAll Berkshire County, based in Pittsfield, where Niraj grew up. Read the full article here.

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Vice President Venkaiah Naidu Inaugurates Deshpande Skilling Center During Development Dialogue

Raj Melville — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 21:02:29 +0000

On February 2, 2020, the Vice President of India, the honorable Shri Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the Deshpande Skilling center, one of the largest in India. Speaking at the occasion he said that while over half of India’s population consists of youth, it is both an opportunity and a challenge. Most youth lack the skills to get jobs and there is an urgent need to change formal education by giving greater emphasis on skilling. Both schooling and skilling are critical in education.

The formal inauguration of the Deshpande Skilling center was the culmination of the annual Development Dialogue weekend which included a daylong conference focusing on Agriculture, Micro-entrepreneurship and Skill Development; the annual Startup Dialogue that brought together over 450 entrepreneurs to focus on the opportunities for startups in rural India and smaller metros; and the LEAD Yuva Summit, a gathering of over 1000 student leaders from five states.

One of the highlights of the weekend was a passionate Evening with the Legends where the audience heard from luminaries such as Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Arrin Capital and Manipal Global Education; and Ajai Chowdhry, Founder of HCL.

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DDQIC launches Spread Innovation Challenge to tackle Covid-19

Raj Melville — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 21:06:37 +0000

The Dunin Deshpande Queens Innovation Center has launched the Spread Innovation Challenge to encourage teams to develop innovative solutions to address the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis. Teams selected will be able to participate through the summer to flesh out their ideas. The Mayor of Kingston in his recent daily brief encouraged the community of …

DDQIC launches Spread Innovation Challenge to tackle Covid-19 Read More »

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Be.For.Change Tackles Profit vs Impact for Social Ventures

Raj Melville — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 19:34:00 +0000

Be.For.Change (B4C) Ventures is a program of the Pond-Deshpande Centre in New Brunswick, Canada which provides programs and services for social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs face a conundrum regarding their work: do you look to maximize the impact you are having or the profit you’re generating? To address this issue, B4C convened a gathering of alumni entrepreneurs to share their perspectives and debunk the idea that these are mutually exclusive choices. Social business owners need to look at their progress and reflect whether:
• Their actions have remained mission aligned,
• Are they making a difference in their desired community, and
• How are their fundamental business practices allowing them to maximize those positive outcomes?

Where Impact Meets Profit
Supporting businesses that make a difference in the world is what we do. Learn more about our upcoming Cohort program at http://bit.ly/B4CCOHORT or send us a message to set up a call! Massive THANK YOU to the local Founders and CEOs who are helping us facilitate necessary conversations about the unlimited potential of impact-driven enterprise.Jungle House Dance CompanyRiseGoDoProduction: www.darkfirefilms.com
Posted by B4C Ventures Accelerator on Friday, December 6, 2019

Impact or Profit?
PART 2 of our Impact Video Series: Impact or Profit? A common concundrum in the Social Enterprise Space, where do YOU and your business fall?Massive THANK YOU to the local Founders and CEOs who are helping us facilitate necessary conversations about the unlimited potential of impact-driven enterprise.Jungle House Dance CompanyRiseGoDoProduction: www.darkfirefilms.com
Posted by B4C Ventures Accelerator on Friday, February 7, 2020

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DDQIC Entrepreneurs Attend Development Dialogue 2020 in Hubballi, India

Raj Melville — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 19:54:21 +0000

Thanks to a partnership with the Deshpande Foundation, and at the invitation of its founder Gururaj Deshpande, for the fourth year in a row Dunin Deshpande Queens Innovation Center sent a delegation of 8 Queen’s students and alumni to the Development Dialogue Conference. The entrepreneurs selected for the delegation are each leading their own start-ups with a social impact.

The experience is always a transformative experience for the delegates. The opportunity to interact with leaders in social entrepreneurship from around the world, and to see firsthand impressive projects that are improving the lives of large numbers of people is a huge source of inspiration for these young social entrepreneurs. This year’s theme, Aligning Intention, Innovation and Impact, resonated very well with our group and the delegates will continue to meet to formulate goals and new ideas they want to put to practice which were developed at the conference.

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Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre Completes Eighth Cohort of I-NCUBATE Program

Raj Melville — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 19:41:10 +0000

The Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GDC) at IIT Madras conducted the eighth cohort under its flagship I-NCUBATE program at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India. Eight start-up teams based on deep-tech ideas from diverse sectors such as MedTech, AI, Data Analytics and EdTech participated in the cohort.

At the Finale held on 25th Feb 2020, Mr. Shrijeet Mishra, Chief Innovation Officer and Head Group Services, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Limited, said that the eight weeks of I-NCUBATE program will stand the teams in good stead when they delve into the depths of innovation and entrepreneurship. He proceeded to give an inspiring talk on Innovation based on his thirty years of corporate experience.

Since its launch in March 2018, I-NCUBATE program has benefitted more than 75 start-up teams and over 400 participants from nearly ten STEM colleges across India.

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