Social Impact & Development

What if the people you are trying to empower already know the answers better than any policy, consultant, or expert ever could? I learned this not through theory, but through proximity- working alongside Deaf leaders for a mission with Enable India through Niiti Consulting and Questera Foundation, that reshaped my understanding of inclusion. It wasn’t just a project, it was a humbling, daily awakening to what true leadership looks like when lived experience, not assumption, g

In my 6+ years of development sector experience, I’ve worked closely with the deaf community for a few of the years- and yes, I’m using the word deaf deliberately. Most deaf individuals I’ve met prefer this term over “persons with hearing impairment,” because it affirms identity rather than deficiency. To them, deafness isn’t a limitation - it’s a culture, a language and a shared experience. So when I look at how Bollywood portrays deaf characters, I don’t see it as just “cin

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,”  These timeless words from Martin Luther...

There is a section of entrepreneurs that are all around us, but are rarely recognized as ‘entrepreneurs’. We’re talking about nano-entrepreneurs. A nano-entrepreneur , by definition, is a person who runs a business, employing 1-2 people, and dealing with a limited amount of capital and scale. They require little overhead, and thereby, little in the form of initial investment as well.  This definition can include a wide variety of workers in India: from people who run petty sh

The idea of ‘social entrepreneurship’ has been gaining a lot of momentum lately, especially with the ever-increasing focus on self-reliance within the country. This is fueled by India’s long standing tradition of social enterprises, starting from Amul India’s establishment in 1950 as a milk co-operative that lifted thousands of dairy farmers from poverty . While Amul was not established as a social enterprise, it’s a promising and exceedingly famous example of one: after all,

With over 2 million social enterprises  registered, India is one of the most fecund grounds for social innovations in the entire world. Global interest in Indian social enterprises is also on the rise: as evidenced by the India Impact Investment trends , which shows that impact investments amounted to $2.6 billion in 2020, with a lot of momentum being shown in early-stage enterprises focused on education, development, agriculture, and healthcare. The future is limitless, as i

Unarguably, people with disabilities have experienced more prejudice and discrimination than any other group in history. They face situations ranging from minor embarrassment & inconvenience to relegation of a life of limited experience and reduced social opportunity & civil rights . Moreover, the disability experience resulting from the interaction of health conditions, personal factors, and environmental factors varies greatly across disabilities. For instance, women with d

The Economic Survey of India 2018-19 speaks of shifting gears for ensuring economic growth. The focus has been to open several pathways...

Hailing from a commerce background, I was meant to be a part of the service sector. Social sector had been an untouched domain for me,...