Contents
Why Social Initiatives at ABS ? 2
Goals for the Social Initiatives at ABS 3
How is the Social Initiatives program implemented at ABS ? 3
Focus areas for Social Initiatives 4
Social Entrepreneurship Course 8
Social Activity/Enterprise Project 9
Social Enterprise Projects of Batch 2010-12 10
Introduction
Why Social Initiatives at ABS ?
With an aim to nurture managers with Values, Knowledge & Skills and Actions, which would make them more humane and globally responsible citizens, ABS has set up ACT (Aurora Cares for Them)to undertake social initiatives . ACT attempts to encompass the virtuous integration of Heart, Head and Hand through these social initiatives. The social initiatives at ABS is implemented through a program, which we believe would help evolve students to manage and run modern businesses, as a true global citizen with a sense of responsibility and commitment towards the environment and the society at large:
Goals for the Social Initiatives at ABS
The knowledge and skills aimed to be imparted through the Social Initiatives at ABS are outlined here.
- To equip the students with an understanding of socio-economic issues and challenges faced by the poor and the disadvantaged, and to also make them aware of issues threatening the environmental sustainability of the planet.
- Provide exposure to enterprises and innovations which are trying to address these issues.
- Impart knowledge and skills to pursue carriers in social enterprises or to start social enterprises
Besides these knowledge and skills, the activities planned through the Social Initiatives are expected to reinforce the following values that ABS aims to instill in all its students:
- Empathy: Through the undertaking of activities and projects which give an opportunity for students to make a positive contribution to the Environment and Underprivileged people.
- Openess: Shape their knowledge and skills through exposure to various initiatives being undertaken by several Social Enterprises
- Professionalism: Encouraging the students to apply the various professional skills that they students have gained in addressing various social and environmental problems, in their social activites and projects.
- Ethical Behaviour: to reflect in all their efforts in these initiatives
- Self Esteem: To create a sense of achievement and fulfillment among students by encouraging them to undertake result oriented and innovative ideas while undertaking social activities and projects.
How is the Social Initiatives program implemented at ABS ?
The Social Initiatives program is implemented at ABS through a program that has the following features:
- Continuous participation and engagement of the students in social initiatives through all the 4 semesters of the management program. This ensures continuous learning for the student on the issues that they are participating in, thereby improving their depth of knowledge and experience in the area of their activity.
- The social activities are undertaken with a fine blend of action based learning, by spending time in real social activity projects and combining that with class room lectures including those given by social entrepreneurs, presentations, which provides an environment of Action, Reflection and Learning
- Continuous evaluation of the students performance in these activities and projects, and awarding of formal course credits for their performance in every semester. This ensures that the social initiatives are undertaken with utmost seriousness by both students and faculty.
With these guiding principles the social initiatives program at ABS is designed around the following 4 components as outlined in the table below. Details of each of these components are elaborated in respective chapters in this document.
| S No | Initiative Title | Semester | Duration | Academic Credits |
| 1 | Experience India Visit | Before 1 | 4 Days | Nil |
| 2 | Social Entrepreneurship Course | 1 | 10 classes (90min class) | 1.5 |
| 3 | My India Project | Between 1 and 2 | 2 Weeks | 3 |
| 4 | Social Activity/Project | 1 to 4 | Entire semester | 1.5 per semester |
Focus areas for Social Initiatives
The ACT strategy is outlined in the schematic below. The focus of the strategy is make a positive contribution to the suitability of the Environment and its elements, which are critical for the health of the planet and people. It recognizes the interconnect between the wellbeing and welfare of the planet and the people and that every individual can ACT to make a different to this cause. Based on the challenges being faced in the environment, ACT focuses on the following action areas:
- Improving the Green Cover of the Planet,
- Reducing usage of HydroCarbon fuel sources of energy,
- Promoting potable Drinking Waster Solutions,
- Promoting Organic and Health Foods and Diet and
- Adopting Zero Waste Management Solutions and Promotion of Ecofriendly packaging and carry bag solutions.
The guiding principle of “Concentrate, Collaborate, Contribute” is applied in choosing the focus areas for the social initiatives program. These are all environmental issues to which every individual can contribute in their personal capacity, unlike areas like education and health which require significant inputs from institutions including the government. ABS would also like to concentrate in a few areas to ensure focus in application and have a better chance of showing results and impact in the chosen area.
While the students are encouraged to focus their activities in these areas, they are given opportunity to participate in activities outside of this list if they are passionate about a cause and want to apply a systematic approach of working on these causes.
A brief outline of ideas on the four focus themes are presented here:
- Improving the Green Cover of the Planet
Reckless exploitation of our forest cover, felling of trees in the city and greener belts and the increase in deforestation have led to climatic changes and imbalance in the ecological system .It’s now time we all take environment and nature seriously and join hands in going green.
- Facilitate each member of its organization in planting trees on special occasions. With the help of organizations and bodies like WWF and HMD would promote planting of more trees across the twin cities. ABS would take up initiatives at the institution level by
- Turning into a paperless office for which measures already being taken by setting up a portal / ERP system which takes care of all official correspondence and documentation.ABS would use only mails avoiding paper for all correspondence as much as required.
- Promote the usage of recycled papers as it helps save trees. Every tone of office paper saves 24 trees
- Reducing usage of HydroCarbon fuel sources of energy,
To reduce air pollution and avoid increase in temperature of Earth and to reduce the green house effect, ABS has taken up a challenge of promoting the usage of bicycles. Automobile exhaust contains toxic carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide which are the major contributing factors for global warming .It is high time to ‘act’ on energy conservation, reduction in fuel usage, turning off electrical appliances when not in use and green environmental issues. ABS would promote the usage of vehicles sparingly. Cycle rally, road shows, poster exhibitions educating common public most importantly school children about the ill effects of global warming the need to save the globe .The other prominent initiatives that ABS would take up are:
- Motivating faculty staff and students about the benefits of cycling for health and environment
- Promote the use of car pooling
- Posters and collaterals on cycling
- Setting up a website
- Networking with cycle users and promoters
- Working in association with Cycle manufacturers to help us on funds and holding exhibitions.
- Talking to Government organizations to facilitate cycle paths and lanes for the cycle users at least on select roads.
- Switch to use of alternate sources of energy like solar energy, which is readily available, renewable, and non-pollutant.
- Oath taking by the participants to use cycles once a week
- Holding vintage cycle exhibition to promote cycling.
- Promoting potable Drinking Waster Solutions,
As the ground water is being polluted at alarming levels there is an immediate to provide clean drinking water. ABS as its ACT initiative would identify these areas and work on the following action plan:
- Establish water plants, award those who are doing great works in providing potable drinking water to the needy
- Conduct exhibitions in the school about the carcinogenic impurities effecting drinking water.
- Promote cost effective water purification technologies and spread awareness about the need to save water.
- Award those who are doing great works in providing potable drinking water to the needy.
- Conduct exhibitions in the school about the carcinogenic effects of drinking water and the need to save water.
- Conduct competitions in schools and colleges to spread the awareness about the scarcity of pure drinking water.
- Working in collaboration with agencies and organization producing inexpensive and high quality water purification units and setting them in highly polluted places such as Nalgonda District
- Educating people about the industrial effluents and joining in the movements of Green Peace, WWF and such other organizations in this regard.
- Promoting Organic and Health Foods and Diet,
Excessive usage of chemicals in agriculture production, combined with risks posed by increased processed and preserved food consumption, are increasing the health risk profile of entire population. Besides, the chemical pollutions severely deterioting soil quality in many places posing risk for further sustainable agricultural activity. These are challenges that ABS has decided to focus on starting in 2011.
- Adopting Zero Waste Management Solutions and Promotion of Ecofriendly packaging and carry bag solutions.
Improper waste management and increased disposable plastic packaging material are grave threat tot the health of the environment and the people. ABS would focus on initiatives to reduce mitigate these challenges through the following initiatives.
- Promoting “Kachra Daan, Karo Kalyaan” / “Do not Waste, Donate your Waste”, a citizen driven waste manage initiative providing twin benefits of Waste Management and resource generation for providing services for the poor. This is one of the key initiatives being adopted by ABS in collaboration with organisations like UC ( www.yousee.in ) and several other organisations.
- Encourage Zero Waste Management Solutions at the campus and other institutions, in collaboration with organisations like Sukuki Exnora.
- Reduction of usage of Polythene bags within the campus and the individual level
- Promotion of usage of cloth or jute bags or any other eco friendly products
- Ensure the usage of safe disposal of e-waste.
- Educate citizens about throwing and disposing off wastes after sorting which means better waste management and limiting the damage to the environment.
- Refraining from dumping garbage plastic into drains , rivers and lakes
- Educating and encouraging the usage of bio-degradable plastic and jute bags
- Educating all students, staff, parents and other connected people about the dangers of plastic consumption and encouraging them to use jute bags.
- Promote the concept of the use of recycled products
- Posters would be sent across to the corporate, schools, colleges to involve more number of people to make a strong likeminded people’s club.
- It would also promote biodegradable plastic technologies.
ACT at ABS while concentrating on these four important issues connected with environment would collaborate with several social organizations representing corporate bodies, government organizations and NGO’s, Students of ABS would contribute to the society by involving themselves in various developmental initiatives.
Experience India Visit
Before the commencement of the 1st semester course work, the students go through a 4 day program called Experience India Visit. It comprises of a 2 day visit to organisations engaged in Social Development activities in the environment space, followed by a presentation of their observations, learnings through Exhibits at the ABS on the fourth day.
Objectives
The objectives of this visit are as follows:
- To create an opportunity for students to visit to rural/urban/semiurban location to study a problem situation and to encourage them to use problem solving methodologies to document issues observed (like fish bone analysis etc)
- To orient the students to approach the entire Social Initiatives program at ABS through more practical and action oriented approach, through these field exposures
- To prepare the students to participate in the Social Entrepreneurship in the first semester in a more informed manner.
Implementation
Before making the visits to designated organisations, the students have an orientation session to the overall Social Initiatives Program (ACT) at ABS. The session also covers the action plans for the Experience India Visits and the expectations from these visits. The students are also given or referred to reading material related to the organisations and the issues that they work on, prior to making these visit so that the visits are more fruitful. The students are divided into groups of 5-6 members and each groups visits one organisation. Care is taken to ensure that the students in each group have a good diversity among them in terms of academic and professional backgrounds so that they can contribute mutually to the outputs of the visit.
Outputs
The students groups are expected to present their observations and analysis from these visits through Exhibits on the 4th day at ABS. Outputs on each of the assessment topics could be put on A4 or Chart size sheets in the group exhibit. Visuals from the project also form part of exhibit. In addition all the student groups also submit in a report format, all the outputs from these visits.
| Visuals from Experience India program for Batch 2010-12 | |
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| ABS students at a Zero Waste site managed by Sukuki Exnora in APARD campus in Hyderabad | Mr. Madhavan, Chairman, AWARE Group at Student Exhibits |
Social Entrepreneurship Course
Course Objective/OutcomeTo provide an understanding of the development challenges faced across the globe and in our country in particular, and to illustrate how social entrepreneurship is both a need and how its presents an opportunity to address these challenges in through innovative models. The course also aims to provide an insight into attributes of successful social entrepreneurs and social enterprises, and about the challenges faced by these entities in achieving their objectives and the responses that they have adopted in this effort.
Course PedagogyThe course delivery would be done through a combination of Lectures, Lectures by successful Social Entrepreneurs, Case Study discussions, Video Case Studies and Student Presentations.
My India Project
The My India Project is undertaken by the student groups during gap period between the 1st and 2nd Semester. The project is undertaken for a period of 2 weeks, during which the students get an opportunity to work intensely in the field on their own ideas relating to social enterprise or with social enterprises engaged in areas that ABS focuses on.
Objectives
The objectives of this component are:
- Give students an opportunity to test marketing and operational ideas through on field work in social enterprises.
- Gain a firsthand experience of challenges faced in realtime social enterprise work
- Reflect , Analyse and Document the experiences gained through the My India project.
Implementation
The field visits take place for two weeks usually between 1st to 15th of January. The Social Enterprise activity and project are expected to be chosen by the student groups during the 1st semester itself. Preliminary work too on these projects is expected to be commenced as a part of the Social Activity component in the first semester. The My India Project then gives an opportunity for students to directly entire to action based work on the field during the short two week period of this project.
Outputs
The output from the My India Project is presented in the form of a report and presentation by the student groups at the end of this project period. These two outputs are evaluated based on the following assessment criteria.
Social Activity/Enterprise Project
Social Activity program at ABS is implemented through the Social Enterprise Project undertaken by the students. This project provides the students a continuity thread, integrating all components of the Social Initiatives at ABS through the 4 semesters. It helps the students to assimilate the inputs from the other Social Initiatives, and also from their regular courses too, to gradually plan and execute a Social Enterprise Project of their choice within the focus themes of ABS. The Social Activity/Project is also enriched with inputs from the following activities:
- Talks by Social Entrepreneurs and Activists working in the fields of Social and Environmental Issues
- Field visits to Social Enterprise organisations undertaking significant work on social and environmental issues.- eg: SAVE, SukukiExnora, APARD, DailyDump
- Collaborating with above such organisation in their respective Social Enterprise Projects.
- Writing articles for newsletters, wall magazine, social media forum and also their respective Social Enterprise Project websites.
- Holding small exhibitions, Workshops to present their work and progress made.
- Attending seminars, workshops and conference on these themes.
- Celebrating important days connected to their social enterprise themes
- Movies and videos screening on their social enterprise work and issues.
Objectives
- Provide an opportunity for the students to research, conceive, plan and execute a long term social activity project.
- To provide an opportunity for the students to simulate and if possible, incubate a Social Enterprise through this project.
- Ensure application of various management subjects to the project being pursued.
- To achieve reasonable level of Social Outcomes for the efforts and resources deployed through this project.
Implementation
The Social Enterprise Activity or Project work is carried out through the 4 semesters. The projects are undertaken by a Group of 5-6 students. With inputs from the Experience India Visit and inputs from the early sessions of the Social Entrepreneurship, the students are expected to finalise Social Enterprise project by the mid of the 1st semester. The research and field work related to these projects are carried out primarily outside of the regular class hours. However, ABS has a couple of sessions each week dedicated for various group activities of the students during which the students can plan, research, discuss and review the progress of the projects with faculty members. The students groups are encouraged to simulate enterprise environment in their projects by taking on functional responsibilities like Marketing, Finance, Operations etc within their groups and asses their performance in these roles and rotate these roles aswell.
Outputs
The Outputs from the Social activity are continuous and so too is the evaluation. To consolidate the outputs in location, the students groups create a unique website for each of their projects and constantly update progress and reports on their social activity/enterprise projects. The students are given assessment scores every month for their participation and progress made each month and these add up to give the overall score for their performance each semester
Annexures
Social Enterprise Projects of Batch 2010-12
| Team No | Team Name | Weblink for reports and status | Area of work |
| 1 | ReThree | http://rethree.webs.com/ | Green Packing(Paper bags etc) |
| 2 | Buy Cycle | www.buy-cycle.webs.in | Promotion of Bycycling |
| 3 | AuroEcoFreindly | http://auroecofriendly.yolasite.com/ | Green Packing(Paper bags etc) |
| 4 | Sreekaar | http://sreekar.yolasite.com/ | Waste Management |
| 5 | Aasara | http://aasara.yolasite.com/ | Waste Management |
| 6 | Helfen | http://helfen.yolasite.com/ | Waste Management |
| 7 | GreenPack | http://greenpack.webs.com/ | Green Packing(Paper bags etc) |
| 8 | GreenSpecies | http://greenspecies.webs.com/ | Waste Management |
| 9 | JalShudh | https://sites.google.com/site/jalshudh/ | Drinking Water |
| 10 | Oasis | http://www.wix.com/absteam10/oasis | Drinking Water |
| 11 | Prakriti | https://sites.google.com/site/prakraticom/ | Waste Management |
Faculty profileMr. P S Gunaranjan is the Founder and CEO of UC (www.yousee.in), a not-for-profit company whose objective is to improve access to Education, Health and Energy&Environmental services, especially for the poor. UC promotes result-based and post-paid development funding for these causes and a broad range of livelihood services. Prior to UC, Gunaranjan has worked with BASIX (www.basixindia.com) and headed its Insurance Business. He has experience in insurance product development and IT solutions for Insurance Services. He has also headed BASIX operations in the north eastern states of India, which included setting up the Common Services Center (CSC) project in the state of Meghalaya. The CSC project is a National E-Governance project being executed in a private public partnership model to bring access to various services, to citizens in all parts of the state. He was also involved in business process reengineering efforts at BASIX, including setting up of Rural Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) centers. As a part of the BASIX consulting services group, Mr. Gunaranjan has undertaken consulting assignments in the field of micro insurance in a few countries in Asia, Asia-Pacific and Africa. He continues to provide advisory services in the field of Microinsurance, Microfinance and Social Enterprise. Gunaranjan did his Masters in Physics and MBA from the Sri Sathya Sai University at Puttaparthy.
