Bengaluru: DELL Technologies was awarded at 10th India CSR Awards 2021for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship among students on December 10, 2021, at Ritz Carlton, Bengaluru.
Archana Sahay, CSR Head-APJ of the company received the award from Basavaraj Bommai, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka and Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog, in the presence of Padma Shri Mohan Das Pai, Chairman Manipal Global Education; Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson Biocon; Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel and Rusen Kumar, Founder and managing editor of India CSR.
In order to transform the future of work by 2030, Dell partnered with NITI Aayog on their flagship initiative called the AIM – Atal Innovation Mission. This partnership led to the setup of a number of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL), community makerspaces, supporting winners of Tinkering marathons to embark upon the journey of entrepreneurship, making ATL’s center of excellence by adopting them and much more.
This partnership has paved the way to the launch of Student Entrepreneurship and SheCodes Innovation Programs, first of its kind initiatives in the school ecosystem that promotes development of entrepreneurial skills in students. The initiativesaim to transform 1,25,000 budding innovators by providing them with the requisite skills training and mentoring support that introduces them to the nuances of business world at the school level whereas SheCodes Innovation Programencourage girls to tinker, create, innovate and thus, promotes STEM education among girls
The major objectives of the programs:
- Support to budding innovators by inculcating necessary skill-sets such as product design, strategic thinking, branding, sales, time management, communication and much more
- Provide industrial learning experience to develop a minimum viable product
- Provide expertise & learning support on patenting their products & launch
- Bridge the gender gap by empowering girls to innovate & lead in a male-dominated STEM space
The project has witnessed 30 student product ideas reaching the stage of commercial production, with 24 of these even achieving provisional patenting. The resounding success stories of both the programs is invoking interests among thousands of other students, mentors, and schools to be a part of the program.
The student entrepreneurs have received appreciation and accolades at National & Global level. Additionally, the programs gained Global Recognition by represented India at Inspreneur 3.0 – India-Singapore Innovation and Start-up summit organized by the High Commission of India, Singapore which was a showcase innovation landscape from the school segment. Also, the team represented India at Indo Russian Summit organized by Government of India in collaboration with Government of Russia.
