THE LAST WORD: Building successful social eco-systems

Pune City Connect is an institution that has been mentioned several times in this column but the tremendous response of over four hundred beneficiaries and over forty donors, corporates and NGO partners to the PCC annual event in March motivates me to write about the value of Public-Private Partnerships afresh

Government and PCC felicitate MD of Principal Global

A partnership that started in 2016 in Pune at the behest of then Municipal Commissioner, Kunal Kumar with a focus on Skills. Digital Literacy and Municipal Schools have been blessed in the last three years with over twelve crores of CSR and Philanthropy money invested in running six lighthouses, twenty digital centres and two digital literacy centres generously provided and equipped by the Corporation. The ongoing support by Kunal’s successor Saurabh Rao and the Additional Commissioners and local department heads of the Corporation has ensured that this is one Public-Private Partnership that will see no brakes in its progress.

The choice of PCC’s new vision “Sampoorna Pune” is appropriate given the fact that the only way to a sustainable transformation of societies is when the vision is holistic and built on a robust platform of inclusion and scalability. Most readers would know that there are fifteen Municipal Wards under the Pune Municipal Corporation and the vision is that each of the two lakh plus households in underprivileged communities should feel the impact. There could be a child studying in a transformed school, a youth being prepared for employment or entrepreneurship in the lighthouse or even a family elder becoming digitally and financially literated in the ward. Whatever be the touch point, the commitment is that during this journey, there will be an opportunity for upliftment provided to every citizen in the PMC. Which is why the participation of donors, corporate and NGO partners, Government and beneficiaries is so important. The photo that shows each of these categories of eco-system participants holding up cards of distinctive colours at the recent event is only a visual illustration of the vision that resides in all our hearts.

What gives the thirty strong team at PCC more power to do what they do so well is the recognition they receive for their selfless endeavours? A super supportive Board of ten leading names in the city, recognition as the best social project among all smart cities in India and a recent selection as the India nominee for support by a significant global Youth Initiative organisation give us the conviction that we are serving our purpose and given the open source nature of all the artifacts and technologies that PCC uses and creates, there is delight that so many entities – in India and soon the world is taking pieces of our model, innovating on it and implementing it in other parts of the country.

There is delight that so many entities – in India and soon the world is taking pieces of our model, innovating on it and implementing it in other parts of the country

Ganesh welcoming Rubal Agarwal Addl Municipal Commissioner PMC

Corporates NGOs Government and Citizens hold up collaboration cards

Two national initiatives that will hopefully see the light of day in 2019 are also inspiring in the process of social eco-system development. The Ministry of IT is considering a plan to set up a chain of Technology enabled Skills Centres in various parts of the country with the support of the Confederation of Indian Industry and techsavvy NGOs which will add to the solution for job and entrepreneurship creation in the country. And the Smart Skills Mission is in multi-city consultations for a plan to develop incubation and acceleration centres in all smart cities to encourage and enable funding and opportunity access for all entrepreneurs who want to find solutions to the very real problems facing India’ cities.

Collaborating for social causes is truly the way to build a great country. At Pune City Connect we have shown the way. Additional Municipal Commissioner, Rubal Agrawal acknowledged the value of such partnerships at the function. If there is an active collaboration of everybody in the eco-system, a successful country with millions of social entrepreneurs and micro-entrepreneurs is surely within our reach!

By Dr. Ganesh Natarajan