XLRI brain to boost not-for-profit business - Professor Madhukar Shukla joins seven to co-author teaching manual on social entrepreneurship

From The Telegraph

Madhukar Shukla with the Academic Contributor Award at his Jamshedpur residence on Tuesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

A mentor in the steel city is leading the way to author a social entrepreneur’s bible in India.

XLRI professor Madhukar Shukla, who heads the institute’s Social Entrepreneurship Trust, will team up with seven academics from across the nation to produce a teaching handbook on social entrepreneurship to guide faculties and students alike.

Shukla, who was presented the Academic Contributor Award for 2011 by the Villgro Innovation Foundation and IIT-Madras’s Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, conceptualised the handbook that the group aims to pen within six months.

Shukla co-authors are Shambhu Prasad of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar; Harish Hande of Faculty of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University; Sourav Mukherjee of IIM-Bangalore; Ankur Sarin (IIM-Ahmedabad); P.K. Biswas, Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal; Satyajit Majumdar, TISS, Mumbai, and Krishna Tanuku of Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.

He explained that few dealt with social entrepreneurship as a subject in India. “There are many who would like to take up social entrepreneurship as a subject or start a social venture. As most of them tend to get no support, the teaching handbook has been planned to streamline issues and topics in the area for their benefit,” said Shukla, a faculty member of organisational behaviour and strategic management.

The group of professors met at the Khemka Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at ISB-Hyderabad to discuss the initiative in November.

The handbook will comprise guidelines for starters, besides an outline of related courses offered by institutes and professional bodies and classroom material such as case studies, articles, documentaries and research papers.

“We will upload it on the Internet. It may also be given the shape of a social networking site or website. We may later publish hard copies,” Shukla said.

The professor has been driving force at XLRI, which acts as a link between students and financial institutions to help them start their ventures.

Parichay, one of the businesses started by students on completing the social entrepreneurship course at XLRI, has been employing tribal artisans to churn out bamboo products in Jamshedpur.

The other ventures started by XLRI graduates are Dream4others, Samanvay and Green 4others.

“Social entrepreneurship is an exciting and active playground. However, to make a positive change you need to know what is happening in the sector,”said Payal Randhawa, director of Delhi-based Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, which is eager to support the teaching handbook project.

“Academics are very important, as they know their field better and are connected with young minds. The handbook will be the first ladder in sharing ideas with the community of social entrepreneurs,” Randhawa added.