It has been decades since the term “Social Entrepreneurship” was coined; yet, it has still not made its way past public debate in Nepal. Although there are many social enterprises in Nepal, the idea of capitalizing on a social good, instead of providing it for free, is met with hesitation. To remove such dogma and to promote successful social enterprises, King’s College organized the International Conference on Social Entrepreneurship with the theme “Rebuilding Nepal through Social Entrepreneurship.”
The first day of conference kicked of with addresses by the Chief Guest and Chair. The keynote speech on Social Entrepreneurship and Social and Economic Reconstruction was delivered by Professor Jay Mitra of Essex Business School; he highlighted the differences between businesses and entrepreneurs. Sessions that followed aimed to define social entrepreneurs. SmartPaani was among 30 social entrepreneurs that put up a stall to showcase their products and work they have done.
On the second day, Research and Development Manager, Bipul Raj Manandar presented his reflective paper on SmartPaani during a session on 10 Points of Social Enterprising. Said session had an array of panelist including Rustam Sengupta of Boond, India and Professor Satyajit Majumdar of Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The moderator was SmartPaani’s Managing Director, Mr. Suman Shakya.