Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, an extremely successful Indian-born hi-tech entrepreneur based in Massachusetts, is very involved in Indian Diaspora activities in the US. In the year 2006 he and his wife Jaishree established the Deshpande Foundation. The Foundation aims to bring social change to the North Karnataka region in India, in the Hubli-Dharwad area where Desh grew up.

Ashoka has crafted and has just launched a new partnership with them. Together, Ashoka and Deshpande Foundation are creating what "Desh" Deshpande calls a ‘sandbox’ in North Karnataka: an arena where Ashoka Fellows (and later other local social entrepreneurs) will be able to try out their ideas, collaborate with each other (plus local government bodies, academia and business) and benefit from synergistic support by Ashoka and Deshpande.

We are working towards a longer-term partnership (5-10 years) that would boost the India/Asia Fellowship and would serve as a model for similar partnerships for other Leading Business Entrepreneurs (LBE).

The partnership began with a 7-day trip the that Jaishree Deshpande and the Foundation's director, Nishith Acharya, made in July 2006 in order to meet the relevant Ashoka Fellows and staff, and other key constituencies. Based on this trip, and our deeper understanding of their needs and aspirations, a detailed and practical plan of action was developed. Ashoka in partnership with the Foundation will undertake the following :

• Search for and selection of social entrepreneurs and innovations: We are scanning the Fellowship for ideas, methods and Fellows that could help bring high impact social change to the ‘social laboratory’ or ‘sandbox’ of Karnataka. Each Fellow is invited to replicate his or her work (from elsewhere) in North Karnataka, with Ashoka’s strategic and professional support and Deshpande’s financial assistance.
• Investment in selected projects: We are currently helping the first four Fellows selected to develop their replication plans, to get acquainted with the North Karnataka contexts, and to establish working relationships with other relevant Fellows. A customized support package is created for each project, including specific goals, deliverables, metrics and timelines.
• Impact Roundtables and thematic collaborations: Ashoka and Deshpande Foundation will consequently bring the Fellows together in a series of thematic collaborations and a larger Impact Roundtable. In the Roundtable, all the social entrepreneurs will meet in order to learn about each other’s solutions and to examine the synergies between the individual projects. This forum will also enable a three-way dialogue among entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers from the region – bridging the divides between sectors. Moreover, it will serve as a catalyst for ‘everyone a changemaker’ activity in North Karnataka.
• The Ashoka-Deshpande Center for Social Change : We envision a possible long-term partnership with Deshpande Foundation in a hub in Karnataka, which will coordinate the selected projects, but – more importantly – also support new system-changing ideas in the region (and in India in general). It could also educate new generations of social entrepreneurs, drawing on the exemplary mentorship of more experienced changemakers. Desh Deshpande is already involved in a similar project at MIT: the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. There he supports business implementations of applied research conducted at MIT, and helps to herald and promote technological change. The Ashoka-Deshpande Center could, we think, do something similarly forward-thinking and effective in the citizen sector.

In December 2006 , the twin city of Hubli-Dharwad hosted the launch of the Ashoka-Deshpande Partnership with Ashoka Fellows and staff, the Deshpande Foundation’s people, the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Commission (HDMC) and local citizen sector organizations were all there and interacting over four days of activities that herald a future of effective social change.

Ashoka Fellows, who were pre-selected by us according to their activities, proximity and stage in entrepreneurial life-cycle, and whom the Foundation's representatives had met and learned about and had examined the possibilities for involving them in the project were invited by us to submit to Ashoka short proposal answering the following questions :

• Which of your projects could be implemented in North Karnataka?
• Why this one/s and not others?
• How would the project help the region?
• What would be the scale of such implementation?
• What resources would it require?
• What local assets/networks would it need?
• What would be the timeline of such a project?
• Who would implement this project – and how?
• Who would enjoy it?
• Would the project create a ripple effect and synergies in the region?
• What are the expected outcomes for the local communities?
• How might the project benefit from the activities of other Ashoka Fellows in the region?
• How would the project further help/develop/clarify your organization's goals and/or mission?

In online, telephone and face-to-face dialogues with us, their proposals were refined and sharpened before the meeting in Hubli-Dharwad – and these are the selections made:

Ashok Rau (elected 2002) will bring his comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and education model to Hubli-Dharwad, including a 50-bed care and support center, a laboratory, a mother and child clinic, facilities for palliative care, an educational program, and advocacy support.

Chetna Gala Sinha (1996) will replicate her Changemakers award-winning model of self-help groups for women, her new business school for rural women, and agricultural information kiosks in the region.More on her recent successes here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6213785.stm.

Ayyappa Masagi (2004) will spread his water literacy project to the cities and villages in the sandbox, aspects of which include rainwater harvesting, water-friendly landscaping and a water awareness campaign. Ayyappa is already collaborating with other Deshpande grantees in the region.

Anslem Rosario (1989), who has been somewhat disconnected from the Fellowship for the past few years, sets out – after many years of successful work on urban development and sanitation – to expand his work to rural areas, and combine sanitation, development and livelihood.

Dr. H. Sudarshan (1982), who is one of our first and most influential and respected Fellows in India, and who learned about the project serendipitously during a spontaneous visit to the Arlington office, will implement – together with HDMC – projects to provide emergency health centers, private health insurance, cheap medicines and telemedicine, as well as conservation education. His local and national prestige is invaluable for us (as we saw this in action during the visit to Hubli), while we provide him with a new challenge to sink his teeth into.

Shivaram Pailoor (2004), who lives in Dharwad will reconnect with Ashoka, integrate the work of his CAAM – Center for Alternative Agricultural Media – into the work of the other Fellows and will develop its portfolio, services and clientele.

In a large range and number of events we tried to make sure that every possible local stakeholder had a chance to learn about us and to tell about his/her own agenda and experience. Some of the key events were:

• A dinner organized by the Municipal Commissioner, in which the municipal officials learned more about Ashoka, a Q&A session clarified the scope and goals of the “sandbox” and the Commissioner concluded by saying that “learning about Ashoka was one of the best things that happened to me.”
• A working breakfast with the Municipal Commissioner, in which we heard about the priorities and needs of the region, the Fellows presented their projects and plans, and they received comments and suggestions from the Commissioner and the Deshpandes.
• A tour of the Municipal Commission, in which the Commissioner himself showed us his kingdom, stressing his anti-corruption activities and civic awareness campaign, and opened the doors for the Fellows to suggest further improvements and new projects.
• An introduction to the city’s new strategic plan, in which we were briefed about the city’s current condition and its plans for the next 1, 5 and 10 years, and we offered our help in rethinking the role of the citizen sector in the plans – as well as in the sectors relevant to our Fellows’ work, such as health, sanitation and civic/economic participation.
• A morning at the Karnataka University’s Business School, in which we introduced Ashoka to the faculty and students, learned about their community involvement projects, and invited them to take part in the Ashoka-Deshpande Partnership – as volunteers, assessors and documenters.
• Meetings with local CSOs and other investees of the Deshpande Foundation, in which we made sure that the local organizations were on the same page with us regarding the projects and their abilities to collaborate with the Fellows and benefit from their models and methods.

All these things are to be continued, acted upon and taken forward as soon as possible, in order to maintain the momentum and gain traction.A meeting of the Fellows has become a monthly feature of the program which will feature some new aspect of the region, and involve all the other actors (Deshpande Foundation, HDMC, local CSOs). We also plan to invite other Fellows for lectures and to involve Ashoka staff from India. We expect a first, early assessment of the fist projects on the ground.

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