SSE India is officially open!

We are delighted to announce that today at the British Council in Delhi we formally launched The School for Social Entrepreneurs India.

British Council and PwC India are both providing funding to support the set-up of the new franchise and will provide funding and mentors for the inaugural Fellowship Programme. The Fellowship Programme, which is currently open for applications, will support twenty social entrepreneurs in Northern India to develop new social impact organisations that aspire to tackle inequality and social disadvantage.

The foray into India is SSE’s first venture into a developing country and marks an exciting new step towards realising our vision of a of a more equitable and just society which values, actively supports and empowers all individuals seeking to engage in entrepreneurship for social benefit. In the last year alone SSE has received over 41 international enquiries from individuals and organisations interested in opening a SSE franchise.

Alastair Wilson, CEO of The School for Social Entrepreneurs said:

“We have spent the past twelve months building a foundation of knowledge and refining our approach so it works the best it can for the Indian context. We look forward to supporting our first cohort of social entrepreneurs in India to make a real lasting difference in their communities.

We are thrilled to witness that The Indian Government has enacted various legislations to initiate and continually support social development. In developing a School for Social Entrepreneurs in India, we intend to contribute to and support this vision.”

The event, hosted at British Council’s Delhi offices, included addresses from Hon. Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Deepak Kapoor, Chairman of PwC India, Jaivir Singh, Vice Chairman of PwC India Foundation, Rob Lynes, Director of British Council India and CEO of SSE, Alastair Wilson.

Alastair Wilson travelled to Delhi with SSE Fellow Annie Francis who founded UK based social enterprise Neighbourhood Midwives after attending a SSE Fellowship Programme. Talking about her experience of the programme in London she said “I have loved the sense of support and generosity of spirit from both the SSE staff and fellow students. Working in this sphere can be very frustrating and actually quite lonely at times but coming in to SSE was always a bright spot and I never failed to come away re-inspired and re-invigorated. It is great that this support is now accessible to Indian social entrepreneurs.”

SSE is funded by a number of large corporates in the UK, its longest standing strategic partner is PwC, who are now supporting SSE India as a Founding Partner.

Mr. Deepak Kapoor, Chairman PwC India said “Social entrepreneurs are playing a very crucial role in our society today by fostering much-needed innovation at the grass-roots level. This initiative is in line with PwC’s purpose of building trust and solving important problems. We are proud to be partnering with SSE in further propelling the spirit of social entrepreneurship in the country through this learning and mentoring programme. As a Founding Partner, PwC will contribute its domain expertise to fuel SSE’s model and passion to address fundamental challenges through the brigade of social entrepreneurs solving critical social problems plaguing India’s development trajectory.”