Wadhwani Foundation

The Wadhwani Foundation is a philanthropic organisation founded by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, whose mission it is to "accelerate economic development in India and other emerging economies."[1] The Wadhwani Foundation principally works through partnerships with like-minded individuals, organisations, corporations, and governments.

Wadhwani Foundation
Nonprofit Organization
FounderDr. Romesh Wadhwani (Chairman & Founder)
HeadquartersBangalore, New Delhi & Palo Alto, U.S.
Key people
Dr. Romesh Wadhwani(Chairman & Founder) Dr. Ajay Kela (CEO)
ServicesEntrepreneuship, Job Creation, Skills development, Educated Disabled
Websitehttps://www.wfglobal.org

Conceptualised in 2000, 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.[2] 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.[3] 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 entrepreneurship programs at leading institutions of higher learning.[4] Today, over 500 of the top 1,000 colleges in the country support the Foundation's entrepreneurship development programs,[2] and over 50,000 students graduate out of these programs each year. In addition, NEN 200,000 registered online members.[2]

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.[5]

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.[6] 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.[7]

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 for Bioengineering

In 2009, the Foundation also contributed USD 5 million towards setting up the Wadhwani Research Center for Bioengineering at IIT Bombay.[8] The grant was to fund and equip "a worldclass research centre in bioscience and biotech."[8] Wadhwani is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.[8]

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.

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.[9][10]

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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.

Advisory panel

References
  1. "Wadhwani Foundation homepage". Wadhwani Foundation. 2012.
  2. "About NEN". National Entrepreneurship Network. 2012.
  3. "Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development". Indian School of Business. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  4. Kanth, K Rajani (5 June 2012). "NEN nurtures start-ups at college campuses: The objective is to create high-performance entrepreneurs and generate jobs". Business Standard. Hyderabad. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 March 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. VijayRaghavan, K. (25 January 2012). "Romesh Wadhwani, IT billionaire and philanthropist, tops up funding to support inStem's Shanta Wadhwani Centre for Cardiac and Neural Research". NCBS news. National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS). Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  7. Sengupta, Aniket (8 February 2012). "Charity Begins at Home: The Shanta Wadhwani Centre for Cardiac and Neural Research". NCBS news. National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS). Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  8. "Government should support startups with loan guarantees: Romesh Wadhwani". The Economic Times. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  9. Mehta, Rajeev (13 September 2012). "Haryana State Government Directorate of School Education along with Wadhwani Foundation unveils pilot for the National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework (NVEQF) programme". Lotsbuzz Times. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  10. Minutes of The 1ST Meeting of Project Approval Board for The Scheme "Vocationalisation of Higher Secondary Education" held on 07.02.2012 (PDF), 07/02/2012 Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. "Joint effort by Wadhwani Foundation and TeamLease – I.I.J.T. to empower persons with disabilities". Disability News and Information Service. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  12. PTI (1 December 2011). "Wadhwani foundation, NASSCOM join hands to place disabled". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  13. "Wadhwani Foundation and American India Foundation Partner to Implement Differently-abled Skills-training Program" (Press release). American India Foundation. 12 October 2010. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  14. "Leadership Team". Wadhwani Foundation. 2012. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
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