Last evening, September 13th, I attended an informal gathering (as the invitation had put it) of people working and interested in the social development space. The event was organized at the Acumen Fund office in Hyderabad. It was a very informal networking event with a presentation by Sasha Dichter and Karthik Chandrasekar. Sasha talked about Acumen Fund and its activities in India + South-east Asia while Karthik talked about their work in the energy sector, particularly one organization – Husk Power Systems. Readers of this blog would also know about Husk Power Systems.

Coming to my experience at the event – I was able to meet some really interesting people who are doing great stuff. I met Niranjan Seelam who has started playsportz 2 months ago. Playsportz intends to rent unused land or grounds (school/college) to provide recreational facilities for children. It was great meeting him and listening to his story of how he made the jump from a well-going corporate-goer to a social entrepreneur.

I also met Mr A.K. Rao of One Child One Light. His organization has developed a LED light to be used by children for studying. Nevertheless, the light has other uses too. His USP is that he used some of the finest materials to make the light. This has resulted in a very good quality product – thought at INR 250 – it is not exactly affordable by people. He hopes to achieve economies of scale to bring down the product cost.

Correction: Niranjan Seelam was written as Niranjan Saleem earlier.

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