About

Origin & Rationale

One of the foremost challenges in the social sector is the availability of trained, socially conscious human resources. The Hand In Hand Academy for Social Entrepreneurship aims to bridge this gap and create a community of young development sector professionals. The Academy is a place where theory meets practice for budding social entrepreneurs and the key drivers are ethics and values.

The foundation for Hand in Hand Academy for Social Entrepreneurship is the 10 years of grassroot level experience culminated by the Hand in Hand India team. This experience is being translated in a structured manner in the form of knowledge transfer to individuals passionate about social entrepreneurship. Since business and management principles are essential to enterprise creation, the Academy offers a range of courses from business management to banking & technology.

Vision & Mission

The Vision of the Academy is to create socially responsible professionals who will find inclusive, innovative and insightful solutions to bring about positive change.

The Mission is to offer a mix of academic programmes to passionate individuals to equip them with tools and insights for creating sustainable enterprises.

Message from the Director

HAND IN HAND ACADEMY FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP is taking shape as a place to develop employability and entrepreneurial skill set in people. It envisages helping the participants to set up their own ventures, expand their existing family businesses or be an intrapreneur.

The participants will get exposure to VALUE orientation THINK entrepreneurially.

HIH Academy through delivery of education at international standards will bridge the gap between theory and practice. The vast field base of Hand in Hand India, its parent organization will provide ample space for the participants to get adequate practical exposure and learning. The HIH Academy will motivate and educate participants in entrepreneurship by conducting awareness programmes, academic courses and training programmes. The platform of HIH Academy will provide incubation, mentoring and financial services for technology as well as business development.

The purpose of the HIH Academy is to provide an entrepreneurial ecosystem to experience and energize themselves.

Strategy

The objective of the Hand in Hand Academy for Social Entrepreneurship is to create an enabling environment for social entrepreneurship to flourish and become a sustainable proposition. The Academy envisages social entrepreneurship to be an integrated and holistic venture, which balances social mission with technical expertise, business acumen and sustainability. It’s courses address issues of scale, impact, replicability and adaptation to cultural social contexts.

The Academy aims at building alliances with other reputed academic institutions and industry partners to build synergy and to bring appropriate expertise and experience that may be required for designing, with offering of courses and students placement. Towards this, the Academy has already established such alliances with national and global institutions, which are growing stronger now.

Infrastructure

Hand in Hand Academy for Social Entrepreneurship is located in the district of Kancheepuram, bordering the city of Chennai. The academic building is a 2-floored dome structure built up over 15,000 sq. ft. housing 2 furnished classrooms, 2 air conditioned training halls, 4 non-air conditioned training halls, an auditorium, a computer lab, a library and an amphitheater in a total land area of 1 acre. The Academy is a green building that will function with natural lighting and ventilation. It is built with an aesthetic sense of promoting learning with international facilities and infrastructure.

Board Of Trustees

Dr Kalpana Sankar

Dr Kalpana Sankar is the Managing Trustee of Hand in Hand India and is one of its co-founders. She is also the Managing Director of Belstar Microfinance Limited, a leading microfinance company with a pan-India presence. Dr. Sankar has been involved in the self-help group movement for more than two decades and has specialized in participatory assessment; gender differentiated impact and monitoring tools working on UN and World Bank projects.
She has a double doctorate in nuclear physics and gender studies and an E-MBA from TRIUM.

Mr. R. Sridhar

He has over 29 years of experience in the Healthcare industry. He served as the Managing Director for Allergan India & South Asia before moving to London as AVP in the International Business. He is currently the CEO of HELYXON Healthcare Solutions. He is an excellent motivational orator and is an invited speaker in many forums. He has been a member of many industry bodies including CII, OPPI and International Management Association . He is passionate about mentoring businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs to rapidly accelerate and grow exponentially.

Dr.U.A.Balasubramanian

He is a former General Manager of Indian Bank. He has over 36 years of extensive training / teaching experience to officers of the banking industry. He was an advisor (training) to CMD / Board, Indian Bank. He is a visiting professor with NIBM & IMAGE. He has prepared the syllabi and curriculum for the Masters and Doctoral Programs in Extension Education of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. He has guided Masters and Doctoral Scholars in the field of Extension Education and Rural Development. He has done an extensive research project on “Maternity and Child Care” for UNICEF and Govt. of Tamil Nadu.

Ms Madhumathi C

Madhumathi is a dynamic Human Resource Management professional with about 30 years of experience. She comes with proven skills at formulating strategies, organising learning and development programs through innovative and trend setting activities to achieve accelerated growth. She has exhaustive experience in enhancing employee skills with emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness leading to better employee performance and application of Innovative and creative Skills in streamlining operations and designing & developing HR infrastructure.With an in-depth understanding of HR functions and armed with excellent Communication & Interpersonal Skills.

Mr. S. Chandrasekar, Director

He has more than 35 years of corporate and entrepreneur experience. His career graph includes stints at AF Ferguson, Coopers & Lybrand, and National Finance Company – Oman, Sundaram Infotech and Belstar Microfinance. Functional experience spans- audit, finance, HR, IT, credit operations, training and general management.

Dr. Y.Joe, Head

Dr. Y. Joe has over 23 years of academic, research, industrial and rural work experience. He heads the Village Uplift intervention and has overseen successful implementation of projects in more than 200 Village Panchayats across India. He also supports our environment projects and efforts to forge CSR partners.