Encourage social entrepreneurship: Wangchuk

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 1

Noted innovator and winner of Ramon Magsaysay and Rolex Awards Sonam Wangchuk today laid stress on social entrepreneurship for the welfare of people, saying “making money from start-ups should not be the only aim”.

Delivering a lecture on the theme “Innovation Amidst Adversities” at the University of Jammu, Wangchuk said it should be the focus of all entrepreneurs to address the problems of people and their aim should not be only to make money from start-ups.

The lecture was organised by the University’s Innovation Council and University Business Incubation & Innovation Centre (UBIIC) and the University of Jammu Special Purpose Vehicle Foundation, under the innovation roadmap programme.

“The entrepreneurship, innovation and resultant start-up creation need not necessarily be a commercial business model. Contrary, an innovative thought process needs to be developed, wherein, local community issues can be taken up through creation of small budget start-ups, thereby, spurring the social entrepreneurship across the region,” Wangchuk said while addressing a jam-packed gathering at General Zorawar Singh auditorium here.

Wangchuk, founder, SECMOL, Alternative School, Ladakh, Founding Member, Himalayan Institute of Alternatives (HIAL,) Ladakh, and Inventor Ice Stupa, Artificial Glacier, also categorically mentioned empathy as the biggest entrepreneurial value that needed to be harnessed for solution delivery and contentment realisation.

“In 1996, the pass percentage of schools in Ladakh was just 5 per cent but we, through innovative and alternate schooling process, were able to take it up to 75 per cent in 2015,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu, Professor Manoj Dhar, the chief guest for the occasion, Professor Parikshat Singh Manhas, president, Innovation Council and UBIIC, Professor Keshav Sharma, Dean Academic Affairs, University of Jammu, also spoke on the occasion.