Varun Shetty (MPPA ’13) has been selected to participate in a social and environmental entrepreneurship forum next month, to be held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Shetty is one of 200 young potential business leaders from around the world who have been accepted to attend the Global Innovation Forum. During the three-day program, participants will collaborate to develop concepts for viable “constructive businesses,” which focus not only on making a profit, but also and equally on developing social and environmental benefits.
“The forum provides me with a great opportunity to network with international policy and business experts,” said Shetty. “In addition, it will help broaden my knowledge of entrepreneurship in general, building off of my own international development experience.”
As an undergraduate at Cornell University, Shetty spent a summer working on public health projects in the Indian state of Karnataka. His perspective as an economics major proved useful in this role, allowing him to help find ways to improve the efficiency of the public-private partnership that runs that state’s ambulance program. During his time in Karnataka, Shetty also partnered with a local microfinance operation to analyze the loan and savings statistics of some rural villages.
The Global Innovation Forum is sponsored by Athgo, a nonprofit that promotes young adults’ entrepreneurial efforts that maximize social and environmental returns. Athgo works closely with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Co-hosts of the forum include the World Bank, the International Telecommunications Union and the U.N. Broadband Commission for Digital Development.
The Center for Public Policy and Administration is the hub for interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Its program is the 2011 recipient of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration’s Social Equity Award, created to honor a public administration, affairs or policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.