Pune: Authors of PIC playbook discuss ‘waste to wealth’, circular economy; Offer lessons for social entrepreneurs
Pune, 31st January 2024: After the launch of PIC’s playbook on ‘Enabling Waste-to-Wealth and Circular Economy’ in early January, its authors on January 31 came together for a stimulating conversation on the book and its ideas. They shared valuable insights on the startup ecosystem at the event moderated by Mr. Dinanath Kholkar, former Global Head, Partner Ecosystems and Alliances, TCS.
Sanjay Kanvinde, one of the authors, and founder of Lavni Ventures, said the playbook gives a platform for entrepreneurs to share their experiences and is “experiential” and founder-centric, rather than academic. Acknowledging that the initiative was a drop in the ocean, he said a lot more needs to be done and stressed the importance of active government policy intervention and market making. Storytelling is a critical and a great accelerant for startups, he noted.
Gireendra Kasmalkar, author, and Managing Partner at Pentathlon Ventures, said the idea behind the book is to share experiences that will be useful for somebody, and it is not meant to be prescriptive.
Amit Bhargava, author, and Associate Vice President at Birlasoft, pointed out that finding co-founders with complementary skills and locating startups close to raw materials were key to mitigating risks of startups. He said the playbook was for people who have an idea but do not know how to start, and for those who have started but do not know how to go about it. He also urged looking at the impact of the startups in employment generation and environment.
Earlier, tracing the history of social innovation at PIC, Mr. Prashant Girbane explained how it had started as a movement at the think tank. The playbook comes as it was felt that there was a need to publish more, he added.
Authored by PIC Social Innovation Lab mentors Mr. Amit Bhargava, Mr. Anil Kulkarni, Mr. Gireendra Kasmalkar, Mr. Pramod Athalye, Mr. Ram Iyer, Mr. Sandeep Chawda, Mr. Sanjay Kanvinde, and Mr. Shekhar Jadhav, the playbook is compiled by PIC’s SI Lab. With eight compelling examples of social enterprises making strides in the waste-to-wealth sector, it serves as a guide for enabling other social enterprises by sharing valuable insights, patterns and lessons learnt by those enterprises.
View Playbook on PIC website: https://si.
