Harvard South Asia Institute and Tata Trusts concludes project on ‘Livelihood Creation In India’

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Showcases project outcomes in three publications released in the event

The Harvard South Asia Institute (SAI) in collaboration with Tata Trusts successfully concluded the 18-months project on ‘Livelihood Creation In India’ in an event hosted in New Delhi. The event was graced by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, who also delivered the keynote address.

The event showcased an overview of ‘Livelihood Creation in India’ that focuses on three key areas: Rural Livelihood Creation in the handicrafts and handloom sectors; Educational, Social and Economic Empowerment of Women; and Science and Technology-based Social Entrepreneurship.

Dr Shashank Shah, Visiting Scholar, Harvard Business School and Project Director and Fellow Harvard University SAI, who led the project said, “The Harvard SAI Team visited over 40 crafts enterprises across 10 states in India to study various implementation models and understand the challenges and issues faced by grass root organisations. These provided valuable insights. The major challenges faced by the sector could be classified into eight broad categories: policy and regulatory environment; working with artisans; sales and marketing; fundraising; human resources; scaling up; communications; and monitoring, evaluation and quality control.”

The project aimed at addressing these challenges and filling the capacity gaps through residential workshops jointly conducted by Harvard Faculty and in-region experts. Over 50 crafts enterprises from 15 states of India were shortlisted for the workshop, which focused on themes including artisan outreach, product design, process innovation and supply chain efficiency, branding and merchandising, fundraising, policy and certifications, scale, management and growth, and the use of online platforms and social media. During the workshop, the participants were immersed in the signature Harvard Business School case methodology. The workshop on science and technology based social entrepreneurship was conducted in collaboration with IIT Delhi and focussed on diverse themes including business perspectives to social entrepreneurship, perspectives from the government, design for success and impact, perspectives from the industry, and leveraging external resources. Over 25 social entrepreneurs from 14 states were shortlisted for this workshop.

A vital part of this project was to stimulate interventions and scale up existing initiatives that can lead to greater impact in select geographies. Social innovation grants totalling Rs 50 lakhs were given to 12 budding social entrepreneurs and crafts enterprises in India to achieve this objective.

Two panel discussions were held, the first one was on ‘Rural livelihood creation in the indian crafts sector,’ anchored by Dr Vandana Bhandari, Former Dean and Professor National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi. The second on ‘Science and technology based social entrepreneurship,’ which was anchored by Khanna.

As a culmination of the project, the Harvard team released three publications which include reflections by subject experts and showcase some high impact interventions by participating organisations. These included:

• Innovation in tradition: Rural livelihood creation in the indian crafts sector
• Science for society: science and technology based social entrepreneurship
• Task-shifting in healthcare: Reframing the AYUSH debate

‘Livelihood Creation In India’ will host a web portal that will include information generated during this project. It will focus on the above mentioned thematic areas to promote the socio-economic advancement of women. The portal will also showcase best practices and innovative interventions, feature organisations outlining the work they do, include developments in technology, training programmes and resource material created by organisations, and collate precedents on data collection, research capabilities and data evaluation.