Transforming Hubli – Dharwad through Social Innovation
The idea of Sandbox is to transform the areas of Hubli-Dharwad into a regional focal point for social innovation. Through an array of programs that are part of Sandbox ecosystem, its missions are to nurture a dynamic center for entrepreneurship and social innovation and to provide a graduation track for aspiring entrepreneurs, supporting individuals from various professional and educational backgrounds, with experience in different sectors and industries, to fulfill or explore their entrepreneurial ambitions.
In line with the idea, the Sandbox model includes –
- Create
Creating a pool of skilled, trained and future ready leaders in different industrial, commercial, and entrepreneurial sectors.
- Enable
Enabling budding entrepreneurs, small enterprises, and social organization to scale up in their ideas, business, and revenue.
- Engage
Engaging youth from rural and semi-urban areas with problem-solving techniques, entrepreneurial and leader skills.
- Connect
Providing a platform to connect, partner and network with other organizations and individuals to share and experiment with new ideas together.
In Development Dialogue 2016 (Hubli), Dr. Deshpande shared “If you don’t understand customers, it’s very hard to come up with a product that is appropriate. So, you need to find a way to co-create the solution for the people who need it. Secondly, even if you come up with the best solution, there is no capacity to absorb the solution. You have to build the capacity. So, if you really want a good partnership between the people who really need the solution and the people who think they can contribute to the solution, you need collaboration. And collaboration happens only between two equally strong partners. The Sandbox is really about building that strength.”