Aspire wins $100,000 John P McNulty Prize
- Education
- Login to post comments
-
-
Aspire, founded by a TiE CM wins $100K Prize money
$100,000 MCNULTY INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2012 WINNER ANNOUNCED
Awarded to organization bridging gap between rural talent and new economy jobs.
New Delhi, October 11 --Aspen Institute India and Anne Welsh McNulty, Trustee of Aspen Institute US named Amit Bhatia, the fifth winner of the John P. McNulty Prize annual award at a gala function here on Wednesday night.
Amit Bhatia is a Charter Member of TiE Delhi Chapter and the CEO of Aspire, a firm that nurtures talents to meet the demands of employabillity education.
A committee of judges including Madeleine Albright, Olara Otunnu, Shashi Tharoor and Anne McNulty selected Bhatia, in recognition of his impact in training over 50,000 students from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds to be English-fluent, tech-savvy, problem-solving new recruits and ready to fuel India’s new economy.
"By teaching the skills to take rural and semi-urban youth from education to employability, Aspire is democratizing opportunity in the world's largest democracy,” said Anne McNulty. “The jury was inspired by his determined efforts to lead his country toward a better, more prosperous and productive future,” noted McNulty.
Mr. Amit Bhatia, CEO of Aspire gives youth studying in semi-urban and rural educational institutions the knowledge, skills and behavioral skills to gain employment and succeed in their chosen career.
While announcing the award last night, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP and author, and one of the judges for the 2012 McNulty Prize, said, “"We are a country where 540 million young people are under 25. In theory, while the rest of the world is ageing, we should have one of the most productive and dynamic workforces on the planet. That will only happen if these young people are educated and trained by organizations like Aspire to take advantage of the employment opportunities that the 21st century Indian economy offers them.”
Prior to founding Aspire, Mr. Amit Bhatia served as CEO of WNS Knowledge Services, a division of WNS Inc, listed on the NYSE in 2007, and had successful stints at Freemarkets, American Express, and McKinsey & Co., where he created the McKinsey Knowledge Center.
In 2007, after becoming an India Leadership Initiative Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, Mr. Bhatia decided to leave the private sector and founded Aspire, a for-profit social enterprise created to address the critical gap between education and industry. India, a country of 1.2 billion, has 320 million youths in schools and colleges. However, less than 25% are employable due to knowledge, skills and attitudinal gaps. Aspire has trained over 52,000 students enrolled in 80 institutions across 16 Indian states till date.
"Winning the McNulty Prize has inspired the Aspire team to stay on-course for our target of one million trainees by 2022. We salute the young Indians we trained from across India, who despite challenged education and economics, won careers by building employability skills our education system failed to provide. They will inspire the 500 million new job seekers in India to claim their destinies, so India can seize its demographic dividend and reclaim its great economic legacy," explained Bhatia.
Gautam Thapar, Chairman Aspen India and Chairman Avantha Group applauded Amit Bhatia for his vision in addressing India’s challenge for market ready talent availability and employability through Aspire. "Amit’s vision and commitment in developing India's youth began when he scaled up his Aspen India Leadership project. He put in his passion and belief and transformed it into the success it is today. India needs more role models like Amit and his Aspire project for creating value for the larger community and taking "thought to action", noted Thapar.
The McNulty Prize seeks to galvanize efforts to address the foremost social, economic and political challenges of our time by recognizing the very best in high-impact work that Fellows from the Aspen Global Leadership Network undertake as part of their Fellowship. This work is assessed on creativity, impact and sustainability.
(In the picture - Left to right Gautam Thapar- Chairman Avantha Group and Chairman Aspen India, Kiran Pasricha – CEO Aspen India, Walter Issacson – CEO The Aspen Institute and Author of Steve Jobs, Margot Pritzker– Trustee The Aspen Institute & Chairperson Aspen Leadership Programs, Shashi Tharoor – Member Lok Sabha, Amit Bhatia – Founder & CEO Aspire)
Aspire India