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Two Indian non-government organisations are among 22 institutions to be awarded $615,000 each by the California-based Skoll Foundation for using "innovative approach" in addressing social issues.
Barefoot College (Social Work and Research Centre) in Rajasthan and International Development Enterprises in Delhi, will get the amount over a three year period, the Foundation announced on Thursday.
The winners of the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship were selected through "an open competitive process that identifies social entrepreneurs who have piloted innovative programmes and are ready to take the next steps toward systemic social change," it said.
The SASE awards will be presented on March 31 at the second annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University in England, the Foundation said.
Barefoot College in Rajasthan's Ajmer district has been active in training poor rural people in appropriate skills and modern technologies.
International Development Enterprises is engaged in identifying product needs of the poor, developing suitable products and creat market chains.
"Each organisation in our portfolio of Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is tackling a complex social problem in order to promote healthy, sustainable communities," said Sally Osberg, president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation.
Earlier in the months, two more Indian NGOs won the prestigious 2005 Atlas Templeton Freedom Prizes for promoting free market solutions to poverty and social entrepreneurship.
India's Centre for Civil Society won first place in the Free Market Solutions to Poverty award for their Law, Liberty and Livelihood Campaign, which is inspired by Hernando de Soto's book, The Other Path.
The Templeton Freedom Prize for Social Entrepreneurship was awarded to International Development Enterprises India for their successful programme to increase the income-generating potential of poor, rural Indian families by providing them with low-cost and effective irrigation systems.