Wadhwani Foundation – Accelerating Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies
Romesh Wadhwani, Chairman, CEO and founder of Symphony Technology Group is a philanthropist with a passion for development. He has always envisioned strategic, large-scale, and high-impact social change through economic acceleration. This is not surprising, given his penchant for wealth creation. It is this passion which led to the establishment of Wadhwani Foundation eight years ago, with the launch of its first initiative, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN).
The Foundation Mission and Work
Wadhwani Foundation has a mission to accelerate economic
development in India and other emerging economies. By creating
employment opportunities and making our youth employable we believe
we can impact large scale economic growth. We work through five
major initiatives, all of which were developed and deployed in
India to great success, and some are now ready for extension in
other emerging economies:
1. Encourage Entrepreneurship: We inspire,
educate, mentor and support first-generation entrepreneurs, thus
creating millions of jobs. We have set up the National
Entrepreneurship Network to train, mentor and support millions of
next generation entrepreneurs.
2. Build Vocational Education and Skill
Development: We help build world-class vocational training
and skill development colleges to create millions of highly-skilled
knowledge workers. We have collaborated with central and state
governments to create Skills Colleges to educate, upgrade and train
millions of post-secondary school dropouts for market-relevant
jobs.
3. Promote Research: We propel India towards
leadership in innovation by enabling outstanding research and
associated industry creation. We have set up, funded and equipped
world-class Research Centers to enable innovation of the highest
standards in science and technology.
4. Empower the Disabled: We mainstream the
educated disabled through training and placement in thousands of
high grade, quality jobs.
5. Impact Policy: We strengthen the India-US
relationship through a shared vision and a policy framework for
economic acceleration. We have established chairs with the Center
for Strategic and International Studies (Washington DC) and ICRIER
(Delhi) to create a joint India-US Policy Framework for Economic
Development.
The Core Team
- Dr Ajay Kela, President and CEO, Wadhwani Foundation
- Laura Parkin, Executive Director, Wadhwani Foundation The Mentors
- Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, ICRIER
- Mr. K V Kamath, Chairman, Infosys and ICICI
- Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon
- Mr. S Ramadorai, Vice-Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services
Contact Us
India
SRIT
No. 113/ 1B, "B" Block, 3rd Floor
ITPL Road (Landmark: Next to Brook Fields)
Kundalahaly, Bangalore- 560037
Phone: +91 80 41689192
USA
2475 Hanover Street
Palo Alto
CA 94304, USA
Phone: +1 650 935 9544
info@wadhwani-foundation.org
www.wadhwani-foundation.org