Akanksha aspires to help build a better India. A social entrepreneur, peace negotiator, and businesswoman, Akanksha was honoured by former President Bill Clinton with $1,000,000 for developing m.Paani, an innovation in development financing aimed at solving the global water crisis.
m.Paani is an innovation in development financing. Created by a team from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, m.Paani leverages strong competition in industries – specifically Telecommunications, the fastest growing industry in developing markets – that value the poor customer, to generate revenues for community-owned funds to be used for economic development at the base of the pyramid.
m.Paani was the winning solution of the Hult Global Case Challenge 2011 (HGCC). HGCC challenged students globally to develop a business model that could bring access to clean water and sanitation to 100 million people living in urban slums, over five years. Overall, Cambridge overcame more than 1000 teams from top universities, including Stanford, LBS, and IIT, among others. President Clinton honoured the team with $1,000,000 to implement m.Paani.
The winning Cambridge team was comprised of Fabio Scappaticci, Yutaro Kojima, Oremeyi Akah, Alejandro Mora, and Akanksha Hazari.
Akanksha’s Talk: m.paani: Making the Connector the Water Connection