Shrashtant Patara
Shrashtant Patara has been with the Development Alternatives Group since 1988, providing research expertise, management capability and strategic direction to teams working in the areas of Entrepreneurship Support Systems, Habitat, Renewable Energy and Waste-to-Wealth initiatives.
His current work is focussed on systems change, social innovation and entrepreneurship, resulting in the co-creation of multi-stakeholder based service delivery models that promote sustainability through local economic development, regeneration of the environment and greater social equity.
Over the last decade, Patara has been responsible for the management of initiatives aimed at creating triple bottom line benefits in rural areas of India, the most recent among these being the “la Caixa” Foundation and SBI Foundation supported, “Work4Progress” initiative, HSBC supported “Entrepreneurship for Empowerment” and “Energy Transitions for Economic Empowerment” program and Rockefeller Foundation supported “Smart Power for Rural Development” program.
Patara is a Fellow of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Program on Social Innovation, has been a member of the Indo-German Expert Group on Green and Inclusive Economy, a jury member for the international SEED Awards for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development and has completed a program on Leadership for System Change conducted by Harvard Kennedy School in conjunction with the Schwab Foundation.
He has been instrumental in the establishment of several social businesses within the DA Group and currently leads the Indian Micro Enterprises Development Foundation, a platform to deliver enterprise support services at scale and “TARAurja” - a renewable energy based micro-utility business.
Patara, or “Pat” as friends and colleagues call him, is an architect by training from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and is currently pursuing an M.Phil. in Inclusive Innovation at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town.
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- Model
- Hybrid Social Enterprise
- Sectors
- Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Sustainable Development
- Headquarters
- India
- Areas of Impact
- South Asia, India
Development Alternatives
The Development Alternatives Group (DA) is the premier social enterprise working in the field of sustainable development. Established in 1983, and headquartered in New Delhi, it has built up a global presence in the fields of economic development, social equity, and environmental management. The DA Group consists of the not-for-profit Society for Development Alternatives (DA), which is responsible for innovation and policy outreach, and Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), whose for-profit subsidiaries are responsible for taking DA's innovations into the market on a commercial basis. The DA Group is recognized as a national-level research institution by the Ministry of Science and Technology and a major partner with several ministries and industrial associations nationally and numerous bilateral, foundation and corporate partners worldwide.
DA’s vision is to help create a world where every citizen can live a secure, healthy and fulfilling life in harmony with nature. The Group’s objectives are: to facilitate multi-stakeholder action for empowering people and communities; to effectively promote and support the large-scale creation of green jobs; and to design and demonstrate low carbon pathways for development. Some of the impacts created in last 35 years include 900+ projects with revenues and grants of over $200 million; 500,000 houses built by rural enterprises using various TARA eco-technologies; more than two million persons have new livelihoods or improved living conditions resulting from TARA interventions; 48,000 environment conservation initiatives through our network of 1.25 million school students; several hundred thousand beneficiaries of environmental improvements designed or promoted by DA; more than seven million households assisted directly or through network partners; some 2 million poor enabled to claim their rights and entitlements; and 200,000+ women made literate and numerate.
awardees
Our awardees
Robert Roth
Martin von Hildebrand
