India-Japan Social Entrepreneur Exchange Program in 2013 Founder of AyurVAID, India, to Visit JapanPublic Event "The Potential of Social Innovation Viewed through the Eyes of Japanese and Indian Entrepreneurs"
In Sendai and Tokyo (The Japan Foundation Headquarters)
In February this year, the Japan Foundation (JF) dispatched Japanese social entrepreneurs to India. The participants went to New Delhi, Mathura, and Bangalore to conduct fieldwork and visit local social enterprises, and had a participant report meeting. This time, we have invited two entrepreneurs that we met in India to participate in a variety of exchange activities, and will organize public events combined with reports in Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture and at the JF headquarters in Tokyo.
From India, we have invited Rajiv Vasudevan, founder and CEO of AyurVAID, which adopts quality control methods to standardize and provide high-quality service in the field of traditional Indian medicine. Also from India is Arathi Laxman, managing partner of SVP India, a global network to support social entrepreneurs. The Japanese participants include members dispatched to India in February, and other people engaged in innovative efforts in various areas.
Social entrepreneurs working at the forefront in India and Japan will talk about their experiences and thoughts on their businesses. The Sendai event will be a workshop, while the JF headquarters will play host to a cultural exchange event where participants will have a chance to enjoy Indian culture.
Read a report of the event written by Tetsuo Kato, Managing Director of WiA, in Wochi Kochi Magazine.
Overview
| Date | Thursday, July 25, 2013, 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. (doors open at 10:15 a.m.) |
|---|---|
| Venue | Rental Meeting Room 42, Humos 5 1-10-1, Chuo, Aoba-ku, Sendai |
| Languages | Japanese, English (English to Japanese simultaneous interpretation will be provided.) |
| Organized by | The Japan Foundation |
| Fee | Free, but please reserve in advance. |
| Presenters |
|
| Program |
*The presenters and audience will be divided into five groups at the workshop, and discussions will be held twice. *The program is subject to change. |
| How to apply |
Please e-mail your name, occupation, phone number, and e-mail address to(India-Tohoku＠jpf.go.jp) by July 17, with the subject stating:“Applying for the July 25 Sendai Workshop.” *When sending e-mail, please enter a half-width character "@" instead of a full-width character "＠." *Applications will no longer be accepted once the capacity is reached. |
| Contact | Asia and Oceania Section, Japanese Studies and Global Partnerships Programs Dept., The Japan Foundation Person in charge: Maekawa (Ms.) TEL: +81-(0)3-5369-6070 FAX: +81-(0)3-5369-6041 E-mail:India-Tohoku＠jpf.go.jp (When sending e-mail, please enter a half-width character "@" instead of a full-width character "＠.") |
| Date | Friday, July 26, 2013, 2:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 1:30 p.m.) |
|---|---|
| Venue | JFIC Hall “Sakura”, The Japan Foundation 4-4-1 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo |
| Languages | Japanese, English (Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation will be provided.) |
| Fee | Free, but please reserve in advance. |
| Organized by | The Japan Foundation |
| Presenters |
*Tetsuo Kato was the coordinator for the India exchange program in February. The other Japanese participants were dispatched as part of the exchange program. |
| Program |
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Opening speech, presentations, and Indian cultural experiences *The Japanese presenters will talk about their businesses and what they experienced and learned from the program in India. The Indian presenters will introduce their culture and talk about their businesses.
6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Open discussion with the presenters *The order and content is subject to change. |
| How to apply |
Please e-mail your name, occupation, phone number, and e-mail address to(India-Tokyo＠jpf.go.jp) by July 17, with the subject stating: “Applying for the July 26 JF Headquarters Public Event.” *When sending e-mail, please enter a half-width character "@" instead of a full-width character "＠." *Applications will no longer be accepted once the capacity is reached. |
| Contact | Asia and Oceania Section, Japanese Studies and Global Partnerships Programs Dept., The Japan Foundation Person in charge: Maekawa (Ms.) TEL: +81-(0)3-5369-6070 FAX: +81-(0)3-5369-6041 E-mail:India-Tokyo＠jpf.go.jp (When sending e-mail, please enter a half-width character "@" instead of a full-width character "＠.") |
Profiles
Invited Speakers
Rajiv Vasudevan (Founder and CEO, AyurVAID)
Rajiv Vasudevan, the founder and CEO of AyurVAID, has brought innovation to Ayurveda, an Indian traditional medicine, by incorporating statistical management methods. He has assumed various leadership roles in the private and public sectors, such as serving as the Indian representative of Motorola. He also worked for the government of Kerala as CEO of Technopark, and as director of Kerala State IT Mission.
Vasudevan holds a B.Tech in mechanical engineering from National Institute of Technology Calicut, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He qualified as an “assessor” of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), Quality Council of India, in 2007, making him the first person from the Ayurveda sector to receive this accreditation. Further, he is a member of the technical committee constituted by the Government of India for the formulation of NABH accreditation standards for Ayurveda hospitals.
Arathi Laxman (Managing Partner, Social Venture Partners, India)
Arathi Laxman founded the Indian branch of Social Venture Partners (SVP), a venture charitable organization with 26 branches around the world, and is the CEO of the SVP Philanthropy Foundation (SVP India). The branches of SVP gather individuals who aim to make a difference in local communities by funding grants, conducting volunteering activities, and developing the capabilities of non-profit organizations. Before joining SVP, she was involved in a radical project with waste pickers funded by the World Bank and Accenture. She incorporated these people into a sustainable business that makes products from recycled paper, and showed an example of a cross-sector business model. This organization now supplies products to major chain retailers such as Staples and Walmart.
Laxman now works in social arenas, but her previous 25-year career was mainly in the technology and information system fields where she led professional services as a member of business management teams at American and British software companies. Her career includes experience at Siebel Systems, Kana Software, and Sybase. She was responsible for the organizational development of Elgi Equipment in India, providing consultation and advice in technological fields when starting up the company. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Richmond, The American International University in London.
Presenters
Masashi Ara (Representative Director, HITOTOWA Inc. / Representative Director, NPO GoodDay)
Masashi Ara was born in 1980 and graduated from the School of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, in 2004. He joined Cosmos Initia Co., Ltd. (then Recruit Cosmos Co., Ltd.), won the grand prize in the 2006 New Business Competition, and established a CSR department. Generally focusing on CSR, he was also responsible for corporate branding, and housing planning and promotion. Several residences he was involved with won the Good Design Awards. He went independent and established HITOTOWA Inc. in 2010, which focuses on CSR and social business consulting, urban community support, and social football businesses. Ara concurrently serves as a representative director of the non-profit organization GoodDay, which has been operating since 2005. He is also the organizer of Community Crossing Japan, a project to create regional bonds.
Tomohiko Okabe (CEO, Kotolab LLC)
Tomohiko Okabe graduated from the Department of Architecture, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, and has been involved in local revitalization projects based in Kotobuki-cho, Yokohama, since 2004. He is working to utilize the city’s resources and create new industries, while at the same time changing the image of the city through urban development by creating "concepts" rather than "material objects." Some examples include the YOKOHAMA HOSTEL VILLAGE, a simple lodging transformed into an inexpensive hotel for travelers; a promotional movie introducing the city and the projects being carried out; in cooperation with universities, the operation of "Kadobeya," where students can learn about and experience the region; and the creation of an environment to support the rehabilitation of the socially vulnerable.
In recent years, Okabe has provided his expertise in hostel management to organizations in Ishinomaki City in the Tohoku region. He was appointed a local revitalization missionary in 2007 and was awarded the Yokohama Cultural Award Culture and Arts Encouragement Award in 2008. In 2011 he was appointed to the board of Kannai Innovation Initiative Co., Ltd.
Tetsuo Kato (Director, World in Asia Managing)
Tetsuo Kato was born in Osaka in 1980. He serves as the managing director and management consultant of World in Asia Managing, a general incorporated association which invests in social entrepreneurs aiming to reconstruct the Tohoku region. As an entrepreneur and business development professional, he has been involved in social venture reform, in addition to scale-out planning and its practice for approximately 10 years. Kato engaged in the regional implementation of entrepreneur training models at the non-profit organization ETIC., and then led the restructuring of the non-profit organization G-net as its director. He travelled to 12 countries from 2009 to 2011, after which he published his case study on social innovation titled Henkyo kara Sekai o Kaeru (The world is changed from its frontiers).
Takashi Kawazoe (President, Carepro, Inc.)
Takashi Kawazoe graduated from the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, Keio University, in March 2005. He acquired knowledge of retail clinical and in-store healthcare business conditions while training at the Mayo Clinic in the United States during his third and fourth years at university. He also worked at a management consulting firm as a student. His encounter with diabetic patients while working as a nurse at the University of Tokyo Hospital made him recognize the need to prevent lifestyle-related diseases, which eventually led to his founding of Carepro, Inc. in 2007. Kawazoe is currently developing a "one coin checkup" targeting the 33 million Japanese who have not had a medical checkup in the past year.
Kuniyuki Takahashi (Representative Director, NPO Porepore)
Kuniyuki Takahashi was born in Tokyo in 1973. He travelled to Estonia in 2000, an experience which led him to import and sell Estonian handicrafts for approximately 10 years. This endeavor also contributed to the local economy by creating jobs for elderly women, islanders, and farmers during the agricultural off-season. Based on this experience, he founded a non-profit organization designed to open markets for products that can provide solutions to social problems in developing countries, and holds international exchange events at wholesale destinations.
Along with humanitarian aid and efforts to alleviate poverty in developing countries, Takahashi also promotes multicultural understanding and local revitalization around Japan. He participated in launching online shops such as the Kenya Nut Company after visiting Kenya in 2011. He has developed wholesale destinations since October 2012 and is currently dealing with 11 companies. In January 2013, he started working in cooperation with the SEDC, which creates job opportunities for illiterate Cambodian women.
Akio Hayashi (Former Manager, NPO BEPPU PROJECT)
Akio Hayashi was born in Tokyo in 1984. After graduating from the College of Asia Pacific Studies, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, he became involved in the non-profit organization BEPPU PROJECT. There he planned art performances and lectures at various places including shopping streets, public spaces, and commercial buildings. He now works freelance.
In 2009 Hayashi visited London as a member of the International Exchange Placement Programme. He also served as the manager of NPO BEPPU PROJECT in 2012, and as the bureau chief for the Beppu Contemporary Art Festival 2012 “Mixed Bathing World” held in Beppu City in 2012.
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