CITI MICRO ENTREPRENEUR AWARD

It is well recognized that micro finance can be a key driver for economic and social empowerment and sustainable development and micro enterprises have a significant role to play in building financially self sufficient communities. The fact however remains that over 80% of all households in developing countries, and this includes nearly all the poor, do not have access to institutional banking services and rely largely on family, friends and moneylenders The Citigroup Micro Entrepreneur Award program is an endeavour to mainstream micro finance in the country, recognize the individual micro entrepreneur who has risen from poverty to self sufficiency, and commend the spirit of enterprise in the pursuit of economic freedom and social justice for the poor and the marginalized Conceptualized by Citi India (earlier referred to as Citigroup India), the program was launched in India in 2004. ‘Partners in Change’ is the Process Implementation Partner for the program since its inaugural year. The Awards program, supported by grant funding from Citi Foundation (earlier referred to as Citigroup Foundation), is an annual feature, and has the following objectives :

  • Recognize and honour micro-entrepreneurs who have exhibited the best performance that has helped them emerge out of poverty, create jobs and add value to society.
  • Analyze and disseminate select best practices derived during the award process.
  • To invest in the skill and knowledge building of these exemplary micro entrepreneurs, so as to support the development of state-of-the-art micro enterprises, and the creation of role models who could inspire and mentor future generatio of entrepreneurs.

The Journey Thus Far

In its inaugural year 2004, the Awards program was piloted in the urban areas of the country only. An encouraging response from the micro entrepreneurs and other stakeholders such as NGOs, MFIs, Banks etc, motivated its continuance as an annual award. In 2005, the scope of the award was extended to cover rural areas as well and the response was overwhelming, with an increase of 213% in applications over 2004. In that year, the Awards program was launched in association with the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards (GMA) launched by the UN across 30 countries to mark the International Year of Micro Credit 2005. UNDP partnered with the Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards in India. Shri P. Chaidambram, Union Minister of Finance and Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry were the Chief Guests in 2004 and 2005 respectively, and gave away the awards. For the Awards program in 2006, a total of 933 applications were received, an increase of 242% over 2004 and 9% over 2005. Of these 933, 46% were women and 61% of the applications came from rural areas. The applications came in from 22 states of India, with Nagaland, Manipur, Pondicherry, and Madhya Pradesh as new entrant states. 11 Awards were given away last year, and 7 of these 11 winners were women. Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Commerce, was the Chief Guest who gave away the awards. .

Award Process Highlights
  • For the award purpose, the country is divided into 4 geographic regions – North, East & North East, West & Central, and South. The Awards process will be guided by a National Advisory Council (NAC), comprising eminent personalities from industry, media, multilateral agencies and government bodies.
  • Applications will be invited from NGOs, MFIs, banks etc.
  • These applications will then be screened by 4 reputed management institutes that have partnered with the awards process as Screening Organizations, one for each region. After screening 40 applicants will be shortlisted, 10 from each region.
  • Field visits will then be carried out for each of the shortlisted applicants by the screening organizations and PiC representatives and field-visit reports will be prepared.
  • The National Jury, comprising eminent personalities from industry, NGOs etc, will then examine the cases and the field-visit reports and identify the winners.
  • Each of the Winners will be felicitated at a high profile national event, wherein they will be given away trophies, citations and cash awards by the Chief Guest
  • Each of the National Winners will receive Rs 2,00,000 each and the National Runners Up and Winners in the Social Responsibility Category will be presented Rs 1,00,000 each.
  • In addition, as a token of appreciation the NGOs/MFIs that nominate the winners will also be invited to be part of the Awards Ceremony and will be presented with citations.

Award Best Practices

  • Previous winners of the Award are tracked to assess their training needs as also the impact of the award on both the micro entrepreneur and the micro enterprise. This continued association with past winners is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Citigroup Micro Entrepreneur Award and adds to its sustainability.
  • With a view to addressing the third award objective as described above, an in-kind award has been introduced for the winners, which comprises need-based trainings to help the entrepreneurs strengthen their micro enterprises. An assessment of training needs of past winners was conducted as part of the Winners’ Conclave held in Faridabad on 5-6 Feb 2007.
  • Each year, a compilation of success stories, comprising brief case studies of all the Winners for the award for the year, is printed and widely disseminated

    • The National Advisory Council

    Shabana Azmi
    Noted Actor and former Rajya Sabha member

    N.R. Narayana Murthy
    Former Chairman, Infosys Technology Ltd (Need to check his exact design)

    Shekhar Gupta
    Editor-in–Chief, The Indian Express Group

    R. Gopalakrishnan
    Executive Director, Tata Sons Ltd

    Deepak Parekh
    Chairman, HDFC Ltd

    Maxine Olson
    UN Resident Coordinator & UNDP Resident Representative

    Anu Aga
    Chairperson, Thermax Ltd

    The Screening Organizations

    • North: Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi
    • South: Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore
    • East: Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kolkata
    • West: S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai

    The National Juries

    National Juries

    1. Gautam Thapar, VC & MD, Ballarpur Industries
    2. H N Sinor, Chief Executive, Indian Bankers’ Association
    3. Kumar Ketkar, Editor, Loksatta
    4. S K Tamotia, Vice Chairman, Visa Steel
    5. M S Thimmappa , Vice Chancellor,Bangalore University
    6. Ms. Rohini Nilekani , Chairperson, Akshara Foundation