Society, Environment, Values and Attitudes (SEVA) Course

Partnership Category:

External partnerships on an Institutional level – e.g. community partnerships (such as with local government, with business associations, with NGOs)

Name of Partner:

Multiple partners across community level institutions

Name of Partnership:

Partnerships created for the Society, Environment, Values and Attitudes (SEVA) course which is a 2-credit foundation course offered to all the 500+ first year MBA students at TAPMI.

Primary purpose:

The primary of this partnership is to enhance SDG integration into the curriculum

Secondary purpose:

The secondary purpose of the partnership is also for enhanced community engagement

Contact for this partnership:

Access here the list of partners

Practical involvement:

Our partners come across various spectrums including educational institutions, non-governmental organisations, entrepreneurs, businesses and individuals. We work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such organisations working with rural artisans, persons with disabilities, local rural women and youth as well as tribal populations. We work with farmers and farmer producer organisations as well as dairy cooperatives across the local regions. Our research and prototyping work often enable us to partner with educational institutes, incubation centers and training institutions where skill development and trainings are carried out. We work very closely with local decentralized government bodies and with specific departments such as the tourism, horticulture and public works department as well as village level panchayats (decentralized elected bodies). Our work also enables such to partner with microfinance institutions and self-help groups who are often working on various income generation and livelihood projects, especially for women. We also work closely with individuals who are passionate about sustainability and are working towards bringing about positive social change through activities such as designing earth-friendly building, enabling better education outcomes through alternate education, enabling rural employment through promotion of local crafts and textiles etc. Our work also helps us connect with small and micro entrepreneurs who are working on social causes and helping develop the community. We have corporate partners who enable to us look at systemic and structural changes as well as project partners who come in forms of industry associations, associations of specific skill workers etc. this is a high-intensity partnership involving participatory processes.

Benefits of this partnership to the institution as a PRME Champion:

Through these partnerships, TAPMI has been able to understand community issues and the sustainability concerns and needs for the bottom of the pyramid partners. Further innovations and solutions of emerging markets have been delved into. The partnerships created have also given TAPMI an introduction to frugal innovations and access to innovations that have emerged from critical needs’ perspectives. Further, TAPMI students have been able to see their classroom concepts being put into practice at micro-entrepreneurial levels and their real-world applications.

Benefits of this partnership to the partner institution(s):

Through this partnership process partner institutions have had access to the research and technical knowledge available to the TAPMI community of faculty members and students. Established and tested frameworks of inventory management, digital marketing and customer engagement have been implemented to support stakeholders. Research methods have been used to further understand the needs of each specific client’s target segments and impact of their interventions have been measured and shared by the TAPMI team. Further, access to funding opportunities, innovation labs and incubation centers have been provided as well. Every team in the SEVA course has a small grant available to them which has been used by the teams for the benefit of each client/ partner. Annual client meets at TAPMI have given the client the opportunity to interact with like-minded individuals and create potential partnerships. Further product testing and solutions have been provided to clients along with solutions for specific problem statements.

Spillover effects/cross pollination/impact of this partnership:

Greater impact on community projects, better insight into field application of SDGs and enhanced learning opportunities from students to faculty members.

Lessons learned from the partnership:

Community based participatory engagement and student integration into ESG/SDG Alignment

Duration of partnership:

This process was started in 2018 and new partnerships have been created every year since then. This is an ongoing process for TAPMI.