MUMBAI, India : SPJIMR hosted The Social Impact Awards 2022 (SIA) on November 1, 2022. Organised by the Department of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC), the awards acknowledge and celebrate the contribution of social sector organisations and enterprises to society.
With an evaluation process spanning over eight months, a total of 250 organisations participated, from which 70 were shortlisted, and 29 made it to the final round. More than 45 experts from academia, the social sector, and corporations selected the winners.
The Social Impact Awards 2022 winners across six categories are:
Women empowerment: Udayan Care, New Delhi
Health, nutrition and water (WASH): CORD, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh
Sustainability: Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal, Nanded, Maharashtra
Education and skill development: Lepra Society, Secunderabad
Disability: Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra
Agriculture and Livelihood: Sahaja Samrudha, Bangalore, Karnataka
Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Founder of Grameen Bank, Prof. Muhammad Yunus, was the keynote speaker at the award ceremony. Other category speakers included: Alpana Mallick, Teach for India; Akhil Paul, Founder Sense India International; Chetana Gala Sinha, Founder and CEO Mandesi Bank; Harish Hande, CEO, Selco Foundation; Neeraj Jain, Country Director and South Asia Director, PATH; and Siva Devireddy, Founder and Managing Director, Gocoop Solutions.
Speaking at the event, Prof. Yunus said: “Poverty is not created by poor people. It is created by the system, so design institutions that help poverty disappear.” He urged the youth to strive for a world of three zeros: Zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions.
Director of the Department of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC) at SPJIMR, Dr Chandrika Parmar shared the underlying belief that underpins the award and the organisational process followed. “SIA is anchored in the belief that management education needs to be sensitive to the social concerns that plague our society. That managers of today, to be wise leaders tomorrow, need to be both aware of societal issues and be ready to serve in locations where society most needs them. It is anchored in understanding wicked problems and looking at both existing and potential solutions for those problems,” she said.
