Week 3 - SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ON THE RISE ~

Just today, a news article on The Financial Times online caught my attention instantly. Titled "Social enterprise rises in India", I had to open it right away. Why, you may ask, did this have any relation to me whatsoever besides the fact that it was an article on social enterprises (SEs)? Well this article affects me greatly for a couple of reasons. In this final semester of mine at school, I am juggling not only schoolwork but also the challenging task of leading a YEP team to India and helping an NGO there set up a social enterprise arm to which I would be helping them handle it for the next three years. Therefore, with SEs on the rise in India, this definitely concerns me.

Image from socialearth.org

Business schools in India now are trying to develop all-rounded leaders, who are capable in securing both a corporate job in large corporations as well as being innovators to start up small businesses to take on the many social issues faced by the Indian community with the profits made. In other words, social enterprises. (Munshi, 2012, para.2). This sudden rise in awareness of social entrepreneurship and the need for it in India only began a couple of years back, after India’s social problems were not seemingly getting resolved at all and were instead on the rise. Research showed that "almost 80% of India's population was surviving on less than $2.15 a day (in PPP terms). That is, about 800 million people." (Shrivastava, 2006, para.5).

Not only are business schools changing the approach  in their curriculum, there are more and more organisations and foundations that aim to promote social entrepreneurship throughout India, such as UnLtd India which looks for, provides funding and support to quality entrepreneurial individuals who are passionate and possess ideas and skills to curtail the social problems that have been plaguing India for such a long time. (Sivaswamy, 2012, para 1-4).

“Given what is going on in India with the social needs and the disparities, there is a need for talent to go in that direction ... there is a realisation that only-profit motive will not help the country.” - Madhukar Shukla, Professor at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources



Image from ecowalkthetalk.com

We attended a talk held at National Youth Council - Brown Bag Lunch with Anshu Gupta, founder of GOONJ. GOONJ had won the India NGO of the Year Award in 2007 for its efforts to promote the need for the most overlooked basic need; clothes. More people in India or in developing countries die from climate conditions (harsh winters) in comparison to people who die from natural disasters, and the reason is due to the lack of proper clothing for such conditions. GOONJ focuses its efforts in handing out clothing to the poor people in India, especially for the winter season so as to reduce the mortality rate during this season. Anshu Gupta and his dedicated team are such people that India hopes to see arising in the country. The work done by GOONJ is really inspiring.



"India is THE place for new social innovations to experiment in." - Anshu Gupta, Founder of GOONJ

P/s, I cannot wait for when it is my chance to experiment in India! ☺☺


References

Munshi, N. (2012, October 29). Social enterprise rises in India. In the Financial Times. Retrieved on 29 October  2012 from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/9fb2ee08-e7aa-11e1-8686-00144feab49a.html#axzz2AecoL7nR

Shrivastava, A. (2006). Measuring global poverty: India on 20 cents a day. Infochange. Retrieved on 29 October  2012 from http://infochangeindia.org/poverty/analysis/measuring-global-poverty-india-on-20-cents-a-day.html

Sivaswamy, R. (2012, January 25). UnLtd India - Providing crucial incubation support to social enterprises. In TheBetterIndia. Retrieved on 29 October 2012 from http://www.thebetterindia.com/4684/unltd-india-providing-crucial-incubation-support-to-social-enterprises/