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Our Vision
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Our vision:
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| What is eCoexist? Are we an NGO or a company? eCoexist is a social enterprise. This concept which is fairly new to India has been defined in several ways.. here is the one from Wikipedia that clearly applies to us. Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which trade in goods or services for a social purpose. Their aim to accomplish targets that are social and environmental as well as financial is often referred to as having a triple bottom line. Social enterprises are profit-making businesses set up to tackle a social or environmental need. Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose is central to what they do. Rather than maximising shareholder value, their main aim is to generate profit to further their social and environmental goals. Therefore some commentators describe them as 'not-for-profit' as their profits are not (at least primarily) distributed to financial investors. Others dislike the term as it suggests they have an unbusinesslike attitude. An ingenious solution to this quandary is to call them for 'more-than-profit' (a term used at the Social Enterprise Institute Conference, Heriot-Watt University, in 2003).[1] Red more about the concept at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise |
eCoexist is |
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Opportunities with eCoexist eCoexist in the news! Contact Us |
On the eCoexist team:
Bhushan, Manisha, Lolita Natalie Abida, Lolita, Manisha Sunil
Sheefalika
Swati
Manisha Gutman, Founder, eCoexist
To know more about Manisha visit http://ecoexist.blogspot.com/
Lolita Gupta
Lolita is an educationist who after several years of primary school education, is now handling all aspects of operations at eCoexist. She conceptualises and executes education material, helps design and promote products. With her elegant Bengali training, Lolita brings a level of patience and perseverance to our work which often involves impossible deadlines. Ever willing to learn, Lolita believes that eCoexist brings her unexpected new opportunities to learn, be it while teaching children or shooting off letters to municipal authorities.
Abida Khan
Several years of experience of working with an NGO called Saathi, have brought Abida the skill and endurance it needs to train women in new skills. Fabric is Abida's first love and she is happiest when surrounded by tons of it! Abida is a coutourier par excellence and has a highly refined sense of aesthetic and design. She has spent nearly ten years working directly with women prisoners at the Yerawada Jail teaching them patchwork and crochet. She now trains women in fabric art. She is deeply involved in all eCoexist products which are related to fabric.
Natalie Leek
Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Natalie has been one of the first ones to believe in the vision of eCoexist. Offerring us seed funding to start our basic operations, Natalie has been consistently supportive even at a long distance. With a human resources degree from Case Western University, Ohio and several years of work in the corporate and university sectors, Natalie is deeply aware of both the environmental and marketing angles of small enterprises. She can be contacted for inquiries about our work and to see samples of our products in the US.
Bhushan Krishnan
K C Bhushan, alumni of IIT and IIM, created and managed his own IT software company called Cashtech which employed 400 people, for several years before selling it to turn to more socially sensitive activities. Currently he is on the team of MUKTA, an NGO that addresses issues around AIDS, and continues to be on the advisory board of Cashtech. His training and experience, give him strong business skills, while holding deep social and environmental values. Bhushan, has been advising eCoexist on development of a business plan and unfoldment of its vision. His experience in running his own company provides us invaluable grounding in management and financial strategies.
Mona Doctor
Mona Doctor, has been an independent businesswoman for past two decades, owning and directing a large printing firm in Mumbai. She holds a Diploma in Natural Resource Management and has worked with the Friends of the Earth in the UK. She is a member of the Executive Council of the Trusteeship Foundation, an organisation that promotes the concept of Trusteeship amongst the business world and helps produce a news magazine called Gandhi Today. She comes from a family of freedom fighters and has had close contact with Gandhian philosophies and principles.
Her varied background gives her strong business and organisational skills, along with deep values of social justice and environmental conservation.
Sunil Jalihal
Sunil Jalihal, is an entrepreneur and green products, organic food enthusiast. IT professional by training, he worked for CMC, Wipro, Hewlett-Packard before co-founding a few technology start-ups in the telecom, mobile data services space. His earlier start-ups have been venture funded by JP Morgan Chase, Reuters Greenhouse Fund, Intel Capital among others. He has a keen interest in art, HR and community concepts, green architecture and gourmet food. He is currently co-authoring a book – Romancing The Chilly and running MobiMedia a new technology start-up in Pune. He believes in “bringing together people with passion and energy to create sustainable products and concepts” !!
Volunteers / Interns
Sheefalika Misra
In pursuit of a Bachelors degree in Textile Designing at NIFT Bangalore, Sheefalika spent a month as an intern with eCoexist. She was keen on working with a group where she could be exposed to every stage of product development from conceptualisation to marketing. Her time at eCoexist also gave her insight into the social angles of ethical business.
Rohit Kanaglekar
Rohit Kanaglekar is a volunteer with eCoexist. He has an education in mechanical engineering in India and abroad. He currently works Siemens PLM Software where he specialises in engineering software product development, specifically CAD. Rohit is inspired by organizations that are trying to take responsibility for social issues through innovative business models. He has volunteered for other NGOs such as Maya Organic in Bangalore and is now helping eCoexist reach out to the corporate world. He also coordinates the CSR group at Siemens PLM Software.
Meenakshi Kapoor
Meenakshi completed her B.Sc with Life Sciences from Hansraj College, and B.Ed from Central Institute of Education, Delhi University. She is a Post Graduate in Environmental Management from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. For the past three years, she has been working with ‘Kalpavriksh- an Environmental Action Group’ on the issues concerning biodiversity conservation, community rights and ecological sensitivity. In 2008 she did capacity building in around 50 schools of delhi and Gurgaon under the 'Kids for Tigers' programme being run by Sanctuary
Asia Magazine to protect our forests, tigers and thereby the planet. Meenakshi handles all the distribution of eCoexist products in Delhi and is a budding entrepreneur herself. She thus combines her education with the natural business sense she recieved from her family.
Swati Verma
Swati studied Electrical Engineering from Pune University. She has worked with Larsen & Toubro Ltd. in the ESP (Electrical Standard Products) (Marketing) department as a trainee. Swati has a passion for social entrepreneurship and this is why she chose to take two months as an intern with the eCoexist team. During this time she helped develop marketing strategies for the Green Ganesh campaign and also helped create systems to manage the project and products. Swati dreams of setting up her own social enterprise in the future.
