Reality TV show ‘Eth Pavura’ to promote entrepreneurship and impact investment

Tuesday, 27 June 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Lanka Impact Investing Network Chairman Chandula Abeywickrema addressing the press conference. Also present from left: HNB DGM Jude Fernando, ITN Working Director Dhanushka Ramanayake, ITN CEO Chandana Thilakaratne, Social Enterprise Lanka Chairman Eranda Ginige and Horizon Campus CEO Ajitha Wanasinghe – Pic by Indraratne Balasuriya

By Poorabi Gaekwad

In an effort to promote social entrepreneurship and impact investment in Sri Lanka, ITN will soon launch a new weekly reality TV show called ‘Eth Pavura’.

The main aim of this show is to create a platform for social entrepreneurs to promote their business, products and services on television and to pitch their new social business idea or an existing social business in order to secure investment money as venture capital.

The show will be headed by an elite panel of impact investors who will make an investment decision then-and-there based on the feasibility of the proposal using their personal judgment in front of an audience of over one million.

With such an exciting format as a reality TV show, Social Enterprise Lanka CEO Mario De Alwis wishes to inform the public about the term “social enterprise” and what they can do to help other people as well as generate profit at the same time.

The terms social entrepreneurs and impact investors have become popular in fairly recent terms, where the former aims at solving social and environmental problems through creative business models and innovative products and services, and the latter invests in social enterprises expecting a financial return as well as a measured social impact.

This is why Lanka Impact Investing Network Working Director Chandula Abeywickrema wants to bridge the gap between them. “We felt it to be important to create a match-making between entrepreneurs and investors,” he said.

Abeywickrema also believes that the Sri Lankan financial landscape is more titled towards a more commercially oriented lending program, and there is a problem of indebtedness among the micro and the macro-level entrepreneurs.

“We also felt that it is time that we see that we need to move the entrepreneurs away from the great indebtedness into a commercially responsible access-to capital environment with accessibility and affordability.”

Eth Pavura is open to all above the age of 14 years. The show will be conducted in Sinhala as well as Tamil with reciprocal subtitles.

The show is supposed to start shooting in late August and air by September. Interested participants can download the applications from the website.