Ravishankar A is the creator of a new model called eSafal. The vision of eSafal is to transform agriculture and create new opportunities for economic activity and wealth creation through increased farmer's income. In the first year, the model was tested in 6 villages with 400 farmers, creating significant value to the farmers. Previously, Ravi nurtured three successful startup units in the agriculture and software service industries and was known for his strong business focus and results-oriented approach. After successfully using his entrepreneurial skills to pilot a value chain in agriculture, he is currently designing a scalable process for eSafal, using IT to create new opportunities to kick-start the rural economic engine. A post graduate in operations research, with over twenty four years of work experience, he is a strong believer of customer satisfaction and that business opportunities can expand through effectively managed partner relationships.

Ali Asghar was a businessman by profession when he got his first lessons in community work and microcredit after the 1990 communal riots in Hyderabad, India. He went on to be a co-founding member of COVA, a national network that works for communal harmony and peace all over the country. As part of COVA’s economic empowerment programme for women in the old city of Hyderabad, Asghar conceptualised and initiated a thrift and credit program which grew into a Mutually Aided Co-operative Thrift Society called Roshan Vikas. Today Roshan Vikas has a membership of over 5000 women from both Hindu and Muslim communities and is looking to work with Social-Impact to scale and reach significantly more women.

Click here to download fact sheet of Roshan Vikas

D. P. K. Babu leads Ashray Akruti, a nonprofit organization for hearing handicapped children and underprivileged children. The concept of inclusive education has helped over 130 children acquire good speech and language skills and resulted in their joining the mainstream education system. The unique methods developed over the last ten years have also closely integrated the development of parents, and the organization incorporates creative financing mechanisms. Today, Ashray Akruti is the leading organization in the field of education and rehabilitation of the hearing handicapped in Andhra Pradesh, India and the model will soon be scaled nationally.

Click here to download fact sheet of Ashray Akruti

Lakhi Deuri is the Executive Director of the Community Coordination Network Visakhapatnam and Andhra Pradesh, India, which works for self reliance among India’s tribal communities through facilitating economic, social, health, and educational opportunities. He assumed this role after six years of managing institutions and development programmes with a broad knowledge community based organization of Tribals. He specializes in community development, natural resource management and community based institutional building. Deuri has a MSW and MBA degree and has partnered with Social-Impact to help scale the CCN through an innovative new method which uses small teams of young tribal professionals to act as facilitators to address the communities’ needs.

Website: Community Coordination Network (CCN)

Click here to download fact sheet of Community Coordination Network

Muralidhar Ganduri is the founder and Chief Mentor of Akshara Network for Development Support Services, leading its efforts in mentoring and catalysing ideas, initiatives, individuals and organisations to ensure cost-effective and reliable quality development/livelihoods management support to the poor, their organisations and organisations that support them. Akshara helps these to take off as independent efforts. It is mentoring Akshara Sakthi (livelihoods volunteers), Livelihoods Support Organisations, Akshara-Gurukulam (D-School) and Community Livelihoods Facilitators' Forum. It is rolling out Akshara Jobs. It offers support (visioning/design/long-term) to Livelihoods (Poverty Reduction) Projects. Muralidhar is an engineer-development management professional, with intense experience in organizations such as NDDB, IRMA, GCC, NTGCF, OUTREACH, Naandi and SERP. He is partnering with Social-Impact to design a plan to scale up Akshara’s efforts and to reach over 5 million poor families in the next five years.

Website: Akshara Network for Development Support Services

Click here to download fact sheet of Akshara

Hilda Grace is one of the co-founders and is the chief executive of Centre for Rural Studies and Development (CRSD), founded in 1991. CRSD is a grassroots organization in the rural Anantapur district that works to empower poor women, dalit and marginalized communities. Specific programmes include the preventing child labour, providing primary education, creating enhanced livelihoods of dalits, providing reproductive health for women and rainwater harvesting. CRSD is also involved in state level and national level campaigns to advocate for policies friendly to the poor. A partnership with Social-Impact India will help CRSD scale its present interventions and gain managerial and professional skills.

Click here to download fact sheet of CRSD

Murali Ramisetti is the founder and Chief Functionary of Modern Architects for Rural India (MARI). MARI is a grassroots NGO and has been addressing poverty reduction and livelihood issues of the dalits, tribals and the asset poor in about 230 villages in the telengana region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Some of the key interventions of MARI are focused on education, microfinance, watershed development, restoration of traditional water bodies, organic agriculture, HIV/AIDS prevention, Panchayati Raj institution strengthening and water sanitation. The work of the organization has generated good learning and has a strong strategy to mainstream the same. In partnership with Social-Impact, MARI is working on organizational development to fully realize its growth potential and a pilot initiative of developing approaches of converging diverse strategies to accelerate the livelihoods development.

Click here to download fact sheet of MARI

N.L. Narasimha Reddy is the CEO of the Poverty Learning Foundation (PLF), which aims to deepen the poverty focus of development programmes and their impact on the lives of the poor. PLF serves over 5000 households through pilot projects and network partners. Reddy is a development anthropologist and has been associated with social development for the past 2 decades. He specializes in local situation building, micro-finance/ livelihood, PMET strategic planning and NGO-GO interface. He is associated with a range of research projects, is a member of CARE team APRLP and has led several creative projects to help the poor in India.

Website: Poverty Learning Foundation (PLF)