As India continues to grapple with the pandemic that has sent millions of migrant workers back to rural villages, extreme poverty and inequality threaten an entire generation.
Can rural entrepreneurship be the key to resilience in rural India? Can smallholder agriculture be made profitable enough to stop rural migrants from returning to the cities for their livelihoods?
Join AVPN in a fireside chat with the philanthropist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist Dr. Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande, as he shared his vision on the importance of skilling rural youth for entrepreneurship and his foundation’s approach to revitalizing drought-prone rural villages through Farm Ponds. Vivek Pawar, CEO of Deshpande Foundation, joined the conversation and shared plans to scale this innovative model from 6,000 to 100,000 farm ponds in the next 5 years (FY 2021-2026).
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Deshpande’s journey towards promoting youth entrepreneurship and his perspective on leveraging technology and innovation to scale the social sector
- The importance of co-creating solutions with the communities they seek to serve
- How like-minded funders can join with Deshpande Foundation and HDFC, Karnataka Grameen Vikas Bank (KGVB), and Nabfin to scale the Farm Pond Initiative and layer on top additional interventions for rural villages from education to health