India's Social Entrepreneurs Partner with Yale SOM Students

Yale SOM hosted a group of social entrepreneurs from India for a week earlier this fall, part of the third year of the Global Social Entrepreneurs course. The course, overseen by Tony Sheldon '84, the executive director of the Program on Social Enterprise, is intended to help Indian social enterprises address management challenges while giving Yale SOM students hands-on experience with the practical issues faced by such organizations.

Five organizations were selected from among 50 applicants; a small group of students traveled to India this past summer to help define a specific project for each. Two representatives of each organization traveled to Yale in September to meet with faculty and a team of students. The students will continue to work with their Indian counterparts by phone and email through the remainder of the semester. In January, they will travel to India to present their recommendations and to participate in a conference on social enterprise.

This year, Morgan Stanley and Tata Consulting Group are participating in the course, providing financial resources as well as staff members who will help advise the student teams. The social enterprises taking part include an eco-friendly company that runs tea plantations and other businesses, an enterprise that provides low-cost housing for underserved populations, a group that helps disseminate technology in rural areas, a company that organizes agriculture producer cooperatives, and an experimental nonprofit that works to create economic opportunities in rural villages.