Dharmananda Bhoi and Shanti Murmu of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) have been selected as best Youth Venture by Ashoka Foundation through a panel discussion held on August 5 and 6 in Bangalore.
As many as 19 short-listed students from various States had participated in the discussion where, Dharmananda and Shanti were selected as best social entrepreneurs. The project presented by Dharmananda on ‘Unnati’, explained his idea about how to engage rural people in sports activities. Dhramananda is an international Rugby player who has visited many countries. He is interested to promote sports in his community. The idea of Shanti is to give a better life skill education to her community. She presented her project ‘Parivartan’, where she explained her idea regarding development of society through life skill education.
The rural people could live a healthy life through various life skills, she explained. Dharmananda and Shanti are the first ever tribal youth ventures in India selected by Ashoka. After getting selected, these two students will receive support in the form of extensive mentorship and training through a structured programme, and become part of Ashoka’s Global network of Social Innovators and Entrepreneurs. Ashoka is one of the largest networks of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with over 3,000 Ashoka Fellows in 70 countries creating large-scale impact through new innovations.
Expressing his satisfaction, KIIT and KISS founder Dr A Samanta said a new era has started after selection of two tribal students of KISS as best social entrepreneurs.