Rules and Regulations

Definitions

Honours	NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours 2011
Owner of the Honours / Honours Management / NASSCOM	NASSCOM Foundation (herein referred to as ‘NF’ or ‘Honours Management’) – organizer of the Honours and holder of the property rights of the Honours
Honours management	Personnel from NASSCOM Foundation or appointed / engaged by NASSCOM Foundation, who are responsible for the conduct of the Honours, or a part thereof
Applicant	Any organization / individual who sends in an application to participate in the Honours as per these Rules and Regulations
Initial Jury	Group of persons selected who will evaluate the Applicants on pre defined parameters
Nominee	An Organization / individual short-listed to be evaluated by the Final Jury
Final Jury	Group of persons selected who will evaluate the Nominees on pre defined parameters
ICT	Information, Communication and Technology
EY	Ernst and Young Private Limited, process advisors to the Honours
Rules and Regulations	These Rules and Regulations governing the Honours, as may be amended from time to time
Level 1 Application	The form that needs to be completed and submitted on the website www.nsih.in to be considered for the Honours.
Level 2 Application	The form that would be available to applicants that have cleared the first round of screening (based on Level 1).

Objectives of the Honours

To recognize information and communication technologies (ICT)innovations that have met a social development need or helped organizations achieve their social development objectives.

Honour categories as defined by the Rules are as follows:

Honour Category	Definition
ICT led Social Innovation by a ‘Not For Profit’ Organization	An innovation by a nonprofit organization for social development
ICT led Social Innovation by a ‘For Profit’ Organization, as a Business Model	An innovation by an organization (whose objective is making profit) for social development, as a part of its business plan
ICT led Social Innovation by a ‘For Profit’ Organization through Corporate Social Responsibility	An innovation by an organization (whose objective is making profit) for social development, as a part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives
ICT led Social Innovation by a Government Body	An innovation by a Government department / body for social development
ICT led Social Innovation by Individual/Group	An innovation by an individual or a group of individuals for social development
ICT led Innovative Social Concept by Student(s)	An innovative concept by college student(s) for social development
ICT led Social Innovation by Multi Stakeholder Partnerships	A project initiated by two or more stakeholders for social development

The Honour categories may be changed / modified / split / merged / increased or cancelled by the Honours Management and / or Jury based on the number of entries received in any category, and the quality of the entries. The decision in this regard will be final and non-contestable. The Honours management will not entertain any queries in this regard.

Call for entries & participation

The call for entries for the Honours will be announced in one or more relevant edition(s) of a leading publication, online through the website and / or by direct communication with potential Applicants, and that shall be construed to be adequate notice for call for entries
Applicant can apply for the Honours by submitting the necessary details on ‘Level 1’ on the website www.nsih.in. Only applications submitted on www.nsih.in will be considered valid for the purposes of these Honours.
Honours Management and / or Jury have the right to nominate any person/ organization in any Honour category to build the quality of entries in that Honour category
Applicant can apply in more than one Honour categories subject to fulfillment of rules and regulations mentioned herein
An Applicant can provide more than one entry in an Honour category if the entries are for different initiatives. A different application form needs to be used for each initiative.
If separate application forms are received for the same initiative, from different individuals / organizations, such entries will be treated as one entry
Honours Management has the right to reclassify application forms from one category to another, at its discretion

Eligibility Criteria for participation in the Honours

Category	Eligibility Criteria
Not For Profit organization For profit organization Government	Organization / Departments of Government applying for the Honours should satisfy the following criteria: They should be Indian entities or foreign entities with a registered presence in India The innovation being applied for the Honours must benefit India, or a community in India The Project and Organization / Department of Government should have been in existence in India for over one year (on or before 31st March, 2011) The initiative entered by the Project / Organization / Department of Government should not have been recognized by the Honours in the previous two years
Multi stakeholder Partnerships	Organization applying for the Honours should satisfy the following criteria: They should be Indian entities or foreign entities with a registered presence in India The innovation being applied for the Honours must benefit India, or a community in India The Project and Organization should have been in existence in India for over one year (on or before 31st March, 2011) The initiative entered by the Project / Organization should not have been recognized by the Honours in the previous two years The Project should have a minimum of 2 stakeholders as party to the initiative
Social Entrepreneur(s)	The individual or group of individuals applying for the Honours should satisfy the following criteria: The individual / group of individuals should be Indian citizens The group should not be registered under the Societies, Trusts or Company’s Act The innovation being applied for the Honours must benefit India, or a community in India The group can have a maximum of 6 members The said innovation must be either at implementation stage or a prototype stage Each member of the group should have completed 18 years of age as on date of Application
Student concept	Student groups applying for the Student Concept of the year category should satisfy the following criteria: The student / group should be a representative of an Institute* affiliated with a state board or should be a registered deemed university The said project may be either a concept or in operational stage. The student group can have a maximum of 6 members Each member of the student group should have completed 16 years of age as on date of Application

Institute / Institution for the purpose of the Honours is defined as an institution / college / university, which is affiliated with a State Board, or is a registered deemed university

The Honours Management may modify the eligibility criteria from time to time with retrospective effect
The Honours Management holds the right to disqualify any application which does not meet the eligibility criteria without assigning any reason whatsoever

Receipt of entries

Participation in the Honours in any manner will be construed as an acceptance to the Rules and Regulations stated herein
Form A must be submitted on the www.nsih.in by 18:00 hours on 01/09/11
Receipt of application forms after last date of receipt specified may be permitted only at the discretion of the Honours Management
Honours Management may not be consider / be responsible for application forms that are in incorrect format / received late / corrupt etc.

Completeness of entries/ Disqualification

The application form needs to be complete in all respects; else it may be disqualified from participation.
Entries will be accepted in English language only
Disqualification of entries is at the sole discretion of the Honours management / Jury, on a case by case basis
If at any time, any information provided by any Applicant is found to be incorrect in any manner, then the Applicant will be disqualified from the Honours
If after the conclusion of the Honours ceremony, any information provided by any Applicant is found to be incorrect in any manner, then the Applicant will be liable to return the award provided to the Applicant under these Honours
Determination of whether information provided by the Applicant is incorrect or not rests with Honours Management
Honours Management has the right to ask for documentary proof of information provided/ audit the information provided. If such a request is made and the Applicant does not comply within 3 days from the date the request is made, the Applicant could be disqualified from participation in the Honours

Screening of received Application Forms

Applications received would be collated under each Honour category for evaluation by Honours Management
Determination of the Honour category to which an application belongs is at the discretion of Honours management and may be made in consultation with Jury members. Honours management reserves the right to make the final judgment in case of any ambiguity in rules / disputes over suitability
Any clarifications required will be obtained through interviews with the Applicants (See – ‘Information pertaining to application sent’ section) on a best effort basis
Honours Management would appoint experienced personnel to screen application forms to ensure eligibility criteria are met.
The applications considered eligible would be sent a ‘Level 2’ that would have to be completed and sent to the Honours Management within a period of 15 days.
Only completed ‘Level 2’ applications would be considered for the next round of the Honours. All rules mentioned in ‘Completeness of entries/ Disqualification’ section of the Rules & Regulations are applicable to Level 2.

Short-listing of nominees for each Honour category

The Initial Jury will select upto 4-5 nominees per Honour category based on pre-defined parameters.
In the event no entries in a category are found to be worthy of inclusion in the Honours, the Honour category will be cancelled
Upto 4-5 nominees will enter the final round
The decision of the above short-listing is binding and final on all Applicants
Jury reserves the right to re-categorize any entry which in their view is incorrectly categorized
Jury’s decision on the short-listing and disqualifications will be final and binding on all Applicants

Validation of information provided

Honours Management may appoint an Independent Agency to conduct field visits to the location of the Nominees and verify the details submitted by them
Honours Management will make the best efforts possible to conduct field visits to the Nominees, but the Honours Management shall not be responsible if the persons do not participate or do not agree to the conduct of the verification, or are not contactable.
In such case, Honours Management may, at its discretion, disqualify participation or continue in such other manner, as deemed fit.

Winner determination

Applicants shortlisted will be contacted by Honours Management to inform them of their shortlisting, and to provide them with the date, venue and presentation format in which they would be required to present their application and case study to the Final Jury
The Nominees would need to make presentation of upto 7 minutes in the specified format to the Final Jury, followed by upto 3 minute question and answers round. The Jury may decide to extend such time lines at its discretion.
The Final Jury would score / rank the Nominees based on the presentation and question and answer session
The Jury’s decision is final and binding on all Applicants
The Jury may decide, in order to maintain high standards of the Honours, that there could be no Winner in a particular category
Cost of appearing before the Jury will be borne by the Applicant
Applicants may be contacted for any additional information or / and conduct field visit to verify the information provided.
Information provided by the Applicant will be confidential and will be used only for the limited purpose of evaluating the applicant’s entry to these Honours.
In case if it is not possible to contact any Applicant, interview them, etc, such Applicant will be disqualified from further participation

Information pertaining to application sent

At any time during the Honours process, the Honours Management may contact the Applicant for additional information / clarifications for the information provided in the Application form.
Honours Management will make the best efforts possible to contact the Applicants, but shall not be responsible if the person do not participate in or does not agree to the conduct of the verification, or are not contactable.
In the event of it not possible to conduct a verification of the Applicant, for any reason beyond its control, Honours Management may, at its discretion, disqualify participation or continue in such other manner as deemed fit.

Timelines

The Honours will follow the following timelines:

Process	Date
Deadline for sending ‘Level 1’	1st September,2011
Intimation of clearing Level1	8th September,2011
Deadline for sending ‘Level 2’	23rd Sepember,2011
Selection of nominees for final round	November
Presentation dates	December- January
Determination of winner	14th February,2011

Efforts will be made to adhere to the defined timelines. However, the defined timelines are subject to change based on unforeseen circumstances
Honours Management and its sub-contractors shall not be held accountable / liable for any disruptions / stoppages / interruptions or cancellation of the Honours or its ceremony or any part of its processes on account of any factors beyond its control

General

Applicant understands and agrees that merely by applying for these Honours does not entitle the Applicant to a prize or to any other form of consideration
Participation in the Honours will be construed as an acceptance of the Rules and Regulations stated herein
Decision of Honours Management and Jury on all matters is final and binding on all Applicants and no correspondence will be entertained on the same
The process is not subject to review of any applicant. Honours Management will not entertain any communication in this regard from any applicant
Honours Management will not be liable or held responsible for loss of information submitted for participation on account of failure or delay by internet service provider
Applicants and winners permit free of cost, the use of their name, information about them and their companies as sourced from public media, and factual information about their participation, in public media (for the build-up to the Honours, during the Honours ceremony, etc.) and do not have any right to any revenues earned through intellectual property rights generated by the Honours, if any
The Honours Management cannot and shall not be accountable / liable for any disruptions / stoppages / interruptions or cancellation of the Honours. The Honours Management and its contractors cannot be held responsible for matters out of its control and for force majeure reasons
Honours management reserves the right to make the final judgement in case of any ambiguity in rules/ disputes
The Honours Management reserves the right to, at its discretion, withdraw or amend or add to the Rules of the Honours at any time, with prospective or retrospective effect, and does not take responsibility for any loss or damage that any individual or organization may suffer as a result of participating or attempting to participate in the Honours, the Honours being withdrawn or its Rules amended
Should a Applicant wish to withdraw from the Honours, he / she can inform the Honours management at any time upto one week prior to the final Honours ceremony. No reimbursement/refund of costs borne by the Applicant would be made.
All disputes relating to or arising out of the Honours shall be subject to the laws of India, and shall be subject to the competent jurisdiction at Mumbai
The Applicants agree that they shall hold harmless the Honours Management, its employees, officers, contractors, partner or other persons used by them in relation to these Honours and shall defend them against any loss, claim, demands, costs, damages, judgments, expenses or liability arising out of or in connection with any or all claims whether or not groundless, that may be brought against the Honours Management by any third party in connection with participation in or winning the Honour
In the event these Rules do not cover any question or complaint in relation to the Honours, the same will be concluded on by the Jury (for winner determination issues) or Honours Management (for all other issues)
If Applicants are unclear as to the rules or any element of the Honours or have any queries/concerns pertaining to these Honours, they can e mail their questions, problems or queries to nsih@nasscomfoundation.org or write to us at NASSCOM Foundation, Samruddhi Venture Park, Ground Floor, Office # 14-15, Central MIDC Road, Andheri East , Mumbai- 400093. The Honours Management shall endeavor to the best of its ability to respond thereto
NASSCOM Foundation and EY will not be liable for any claims / disputes made by the Applicants or Nominees in relation to the Honours.