Joining the Founding Class of UNLEASH: Reflections, Adventures and Possibilities

I was among the 50 Global Shapers selected for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos this year. Right after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s keynote, in a largely serendipitous meeting with Flemming Besenbacher (thank you, Susan), I learned more about his vision of a global platform for youth to work on innovative solutions for the UN SDGs. I was struck by his indefatigable energy, clarity of thought and unflinching belief in the collective power of youth to shape an equitable, sustainable future.

Soon after, UNLEASH was launched and thousands of young leaders from almost every country applied. I am happy to share that on August 13, I will be joining the Founding Class of UNLEASH in Denmark for a 9-day immersive experience structured to design, develop and mentor pathbreaking ideas that will translate sustainable development goals into sustainably implemented actions.

Platforms will be the drivers of innovation in the 4th Industrial Revolution. Transportation, hospitality, banking, computing and scores of other industries are already leveraging platforms to redefine themselves. With the launch of UNLEASH, some of the hardest global challenges will follow a platform-based approach to crowdsource intelligence, identify disruptive moonshots and support the ones with greatest potential stakeholder value. Going forward, it is critical that innovations across sectors are measured on stakeholder value, not just shareholder gain.

There are three aspects of UNLEASH that make it unique and differentiated. First, it attempts to bridge the chasm between ideation and implementation, a major challenge in most development interventions. Second, it is not a one-off event but a continuum where goals have clearly been articulated. Third, in a world that is getting obsessed with building walls and firewalls, UNLEASH is inviting youth to build bridges across regions, religions, cultures and nationalities and co-create solutions for an equitable future. This particularly resonates with me and is the core reason why I founded Network Capital.

Network Capital is a global peer-to-peer skill sharing platform with over 12000 carefully selected members from 89 countries. It aspires to democratize inspiration and offer personalized mentoring and career guidance to every person on the planet. My core hypothesis is that everyone has something to learn and something to teach, and people learn most from peers who don’t necessarily think like them. On Network Capital, we have mentor-mentee pairs that include Democrats-Republicans, Adam Smith aficionados-passionate Marxists, Iranis-Israelis, Indians-Pakistanis, Russians-Americans. In the process of mentoring, they learn more about each other’s convictions and define a new normal for public, technology and foreign policy.

I experienced the power of cross-border mentoring recently at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian where I was sharing insights of building and scaling rural innovation, drawing upon my experience of being a part of the team that built India’s first smart village. Audience members included leaders from Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Africa, Philippines, United States, Burma, Nigeria, among others. They gave me precious feedback, made introductions, challenged my assumptions, offered insights and some even agreed to leverage the smart village framework for their respective countries. This experience reinforced my belief that shared global aspirations have the power to unite us and serve as catalysts for overcoming all conceivable differences.

I am joining the Founding Class of UNLEASH with a hunger to learn and willingness to share. UNLEASH has 7 themes this year and my focus would be on “Education and ICT”. I have four specific goals in mind and am confident that UNLEASH will catapult me in ways I cannot even imagine. First, inspire a global movement of smart villages that combine the best of tradition and modernity. Second, scale my pilot of building and nurturing SDG champions – both students and teachers - in schools (especially low income and rural ones) across the world. Third, build an on-demand mentoring platform within Network Capital focused on young leaders working on SDGs. I hope to pilot it among the 1000 inspiring SDG talents. Fourth, work towards a financial instrument that provides both seed investment and mentoring to startups solving SDG related challenges in under-developed parts of cities and rural areas.

While I have tried to keep my objectives clear, I am approaching UNLEASH with an open mind. This is the first year and we are the Founding Class. With exactly a month to go, there is a deep sense of adventure and possibility among each of us. Yes, there are shards of uncertainty too but that makes the adventure of discovery even more exciting.

5 years ago, before heading out for my MBA, I graduated from the Founding Class of the Young India Fellowship. The experience of being a Founding Fellow was one of the most transformational experiences in my life. I look forward to unleashing a whole spectrum of possibilities along with my global cohort of SDG talents in Denmark.