“India is in a unique position to solve the problems of the poor as it has the largest number of poor and huge amount of talent to address challenges faced by them. Unfortunately a lot of talent is devoted to solving the problem of the rich. Innovations are needed to solve the problem of the poor,” said Sam Pitroda as he addressed a meeting of 100 young social innovators at the first ever ‘Action For India’ Forum 2012 held at IIT Delhi on January 21,2012.

The goal of the Forum was to provide an opportunity to innovative social entrepreneurs to share opportunities and challenges they face as they try to solve the complex problems facing the nations poor and to understand how technology can make these social enterprises scale their operations more effectively. The young social innovators invited to attend were people who have made significant impact  in the field of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Livelihoods and Healthcare.  The forum was held under the leadership of leading inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker Sam Pitroda who serves as advisor to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on public information infrastructure and innovations.  

Representatives from government, the investment community, technology partners, sponsors, and social enterprise exemplars were also present. In addition to Sam Pitroda many  representatives from his office at the National Innovation Council attended the event. They were joined by representatives from the offices of progressive young political leaders such as Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for IT and Telecom, and Naveen Jindal, a Member of Parliament. 

Some of India’s most celebrated social entrepreneurs were also in attendance, helping to guide and advise the next generation. Among them were Fabindia chief William Bissell, Educational Initiatives founder Sridhar Rajagopalan, energy expert and TIDE head Swati Bhogle, rural healthcare pioneer Dr Ashwin Naik, and skill development agency chief Dilip Chenoy. Other luminaries included Aditya Natraj, founder of the Kaivalya Education Foundation, and Mark Khan, Founding Partner at Omnivore Capital.

‘Action For India’ believes that social entrepreneurs make a real difference to the everyday lives of real people and are India's best hope for long-term, large-scale social change. A billion plus people require a wide variety of solutions, and AFI believes that those solutions are already all over India, in the minds of social entrepreneurs, just waiting to be tapped.

“India is full of creative, driven, young people who have innovative solutions to the problems around them. Our aim is to identify these innovators who are addressing critical social problems and help them unleash the potential of technology to make their solutions more sustainable, affordable and scalable." says Sanjay Kadaveru, Founder and President, Action For India and a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). Kadaveru along with co-chairs Srikanth Sastri, Vaibhav Gupta and  Ranjani Saigal created a very effective Forum which will  serve as a catalyst for 100 Young Social Innovators, who have impacted the bottom of the pyramid by providing critical resources, so that they gain momentum to benefit a much larger audience.  

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