40
AUG 2021
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fountainhead of excellence
H
eartlines refers to emotional
Kumar
This story talks about business
equity in connecting with
commenced her speech with a quote of
goals, social impact and feedback
people at the grassroots
John F Kennedy, “If a free society
mechanism. The emphasis was on
level. Social entrepreneurship is all
cannot help the many who are poor, it
serving the poor and keeping them
about impacting and changing the lives
cannot save the few who are rich.” She
happy while filling the coffers. This is
of the underserved—not undeserved
narrated the story of an ancient king of
the essence of social entrepreneurship:
—consumers,
the
Asia whose kingdom flourished in trade.
targeting the poor and deserving yet
Heartlines; making good business
The king imposed three rules on these
making a business model out of it. It
decisions and capturing the ‘Headlines’;
merchants in his kingdom:
involves keeping the ears on the ground
and turning the ventures profitable and
•
They can sell the products at any
to know what people (customers) want
price provided they sell their
and accordingly serving them.
thus
targeting
Dr
generating healthy Bottomlines. A smile on the face of a farmer or
price. •
needs. It is also a sign that alongside wealth creation there is a commitment
Rajagopalan
products to poor people at a lower
bangleseller is the first sign that corporate goals are meeting human
Lata
A portion of the profit must be deposited with the royal treasury.
•
Excerpts from the talk: Underserved segment includes
The traders must engage with the
urban and other neglected groups, but
to improving the quality of life of the
people and bring back valuable
a majority lives in rural India—places
underserved. And, it is a sign of
information about their needs and
where there is iniquity in demand and
changing times.
wellbeing to the king.
supply; places which have inadequate
BUSINESS MANDATE
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41 AUG 2021
largest electronic repository in the world. And did you even know that India
And did you even know that India had digital transactions
had digital transactions of over 25
of over 25 billion real‐time online transactions in 2020,
billion realtime online transactions in
beating China which was at 15 billion?
2020, beating China which was at 15 billion? Digitization has overcome many of the structural challenges and equities
infrastructure and technology; places
transformed marginally, disappeared or
where there are traditional asymmetries
completely adapted themselves. They
in
are:
accessing
information
and
affordability. With all these issues, can you even believe that the size of this market was estimated at hundreds of billions of US Dollars according to a Nielsen report of 2018? That is about several lakhs of crores of rupees. The Four Vectors How's that even possible? Over the years, there have been many noticeable developments in these markets. Four important vectors have either changed, 42
AUG 2021
and created new opportunities. Bill Drayton is widely credited for coining
the
term
social
•
Intermediary
entrepreneurship in the early 80s. He
•
Distance
founded Ashoka, a global association of
•
Time
social innovators. Ashoka identifies
•
Information
mentors
All these happened because of the
entrepreneurs across the world. They try
disruption in technology, the most
to learn from the patterns in their
significant
innovation and mobilize a global
change
transformation
in
being the
in
the
mode
of
and
supports
social
community of changemakers.
commerce. It has leapfrogged from cash to credit and digital. Digitization has empowered
rural
India.
‘Touch and Tech’ Change‐Makers
Between
I am sure all of you have read about
Aadhaar and Jan Dhan, India has the
the people here in India who created
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headlines with social impact business ideas. Social media is exhausted with information. Still, we talk about a few
Social media is exhausted with information. Still, we talk
innovators who have made significant
about a few innovators who have made significant impact
impact using market principles and
using market principles and technology for change and
technology for change and adding
adding purpose to profits.
purpose to profits. I call it Touch and Tech. Let me go through two or three
company, giving access to credit and
provide preschool education to 35
categories which have made an impact.
livelihood
micro
million children, most of these lack basic
entrepreneurs. In India, the company
infrastructure facilities and have severe
works with communities to create more
manpower issues with the result that
inclusive
growth
only 31 percent of the children attend
opportunities for the underserved. Arth
the centres regularly. That's not very
gives affordable credit loans through a
good.
Fintech: Finance with Technology Fintech has empowered and made capital available for small businesses in small places. In fact, World Bank has published that financial inclusion is a fastest way to reduce poverty and boost prosperity. India has about 150,000 bank branches and 210,000 ATMs as of December 2019. It is probably more but still access to commercial cash remains a challenge in rural and semirural areas. Borrowing at very high rates has ruined families; it has made doing business unsustainable over the long run. The Story of ARTH I would like to talk about Seema, a mother of two in UP. She lost her husband in 2018 and her world fell apart. She had no savings for livelihood or access to microloans. ARTH, founded by Shweta Aprameya, stepped in and transformed her life. Shweta is an alumnus of Sloan, MIT, with long years of experience in Fintech. Arth is a social impact finance
services
and
to
sustainable
deep branch network that is supported
Private, preschool segments are
by userfriendly digital processes. It is
largely unaffordable for lowincome
very important to be userfriendly.
communities. According to the 2007
The impact has been a footprint of
Annual Status of Education report
a phenomenal 18,000 pincodes, 25,000
(ASER) on Rural India, 86 percent of
selfemployed women, 2 lakh micro
students in the 14 to 18 age group are
businesses and 350 crore microcredit
still within the formal, education
disbursement. These are just not
system, yet poor education quality and
numbers. Each is a story with a name
teaching
behind it. This is the power of
infrastructure and facilities has kept the
transformational finance. It has given
rural areas lagging behind.
techniques
and
lack
of
social and economic independence to micro entrepreneurs, especially women.
LearnFatafat LearnFatafat
The Edutech Sector We
look
at
is
an
edutech
company that converts educational another
sector.
content into videos. The startup was
Education with technology is one of the
founded by Pankaj Chhajed in a small
biggest sectors in India where startups
town called Bhusawal which gave him a
can emerge and create an impact.
better understanding of what the
According to India's 2011 census report,
students needed. It was a challenge to
there are approximately 99 million
arrange amenities and to find suitable
children in the 3 to 6 age group. While
regional content. It had to be affordable
the government runs anganwadis to
and accessible. LearnFatafat was able to
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the gap in demand and supply in India. Nearly 70% of the rural population The basis of social entrepreneurship is about having
(about 850 million people) is served by
empathy for the less fortunate, underprivileged and the
less than 30% of the country’s combined
underserved.
medical services. There is one doctor per several thousand people on an average. Many families simply have no access to
cover nearly a hundred percent of the
impact. KLC runs around 300 primary
good health. In rural communities, this
syllabus into affordable videos.
school centres with 700 teachers. In
is further complicated by long distances,
Karnataka alone, it benefits over 11,000
lack of infrastructure, lack of education
children
and poverty.
So students could easily access the information and study without books and importantly, without internet which is very significant. The impact was self study through anytime, anyplace videos
and
500
communities,
transforming early years education in
Around 12 years ago, iKure started
rural Karnataka. This is sort of a viable
providing
lowcost model.
health care in rural and semirural
comprehensive
primary
and this has reduced the dropout rates
Our own Chennaibased startup
areas. iKure was started in 2008 in
in these places. It has enhanced learning
Classle has a mission is to bridge the gap
Kolkata by Sujay Santra. It operates
and reached places where school,
between
educators;
through a hubandspoke model, which
infrastructure
teaching
employers and skilled people. It was
is very interesting. It has a hub or centre
support were inadequate. Over 7,000
started by V Vaidya Nathan, exglobal
where the core medical team sits. This
videos cater to 50,000 students.
innovator at Cognizant. Classle has a
centre is equipped with modern
twofaced
has
procedures and equipment. The centres
individual students and users, while the
are stationed in certain vantage points.
other side has customers who are
They train community workers and
potential employers of these students.
health workers from the villages, after
and
other
HLC and Classle Then we have the Bengalurubased Hippocampus Learning Centres (HLC). This was founded by Umesh Malhotra in 2010 with the idea of opening preschools in rural areas. The startup recruits, trains and manages a network of teachers in rented village centres and charges an affordable, monthly fee for quality education services. They are now looking at online solutions.
learners
model.
and
One
side
Classle is an online social learning platform and has included mobile services for students in rural parts of India. It has attracted funding by Chennai Angels. Due to their impact, currently Classle has 2 lakh registered
multiple
investors
for
the
communitybased kindergarten in rural
44
In
addition
to
this,
patient
which in turn projects the course of Meditech: iKure’s Hub‐and‐Spoke
treatment, if needed. After a couple of
Model
months
where technology has just begun to fill
AUG 2021
provide healthcare.
be viewed at the hub by the expert team,
opportunities in these areas. Look at the
creating
from the hub. On site, they are able to
other partners in their network.
Yet another category is health care,
while
These peripheral clinics are farther away
information is also uploaded and it can
employment
India
peripheral clinics on a regular basis.
users and over 100 partner colleges and
HLC has raised a total of 21 million from
which the trained workers are sent to
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fountainhead of excellence
in
the
program,
these
community health workers become self sufficient
and
selfsustaining
entrepreneurs. They generate their
key takeaway from the study was that
income by selling and promoting
within a given region and time frame,
products from iKure supply chain.
development
from
penetration
of
•
They have been able to attract and groom quality professionals.
•
They have achieved their business
The impact of this project was that
products like two wheelers and cell
goals, created wealth and improved
iKure has touched 10 million lives in
phones was higher than that from
quality of life at the grassroots level.
eight states in India. With 10 hubs and
UNDP programmes which were ongoing
160 touch points, 2.5 million have so far
at that time in West Bengal.
been treated in 6000 villages. They use the help of community workers and local selfhelp groups along with their several tech partners. As an aside to this, I have personally been involved in a research project that studied the impact of product penetration on quality of life in West Bengal. The categories were two wheelers and cell phones. The study used the indicators defined by the human development index (HDI) to measure the quality of life. The
results
were
boringly
the bottom line. A
key
metric
for
social
entrepreneurs is how they impact the
Enterprises?
quality of lives. The basis of social
The commonalities in all the social
entrepreneurship
is
about
having
enterprises that we have discussed are
empathy
as below:
underprivileged and the underserved.
•
They were started by professionals
The key difference between a social
with empathy and conviction.
entrepreneur and a normal business
They have localised their models
entrepreneur is that the objective of
and used local resources.
social entrepreneur is to serve the needy
They have come up with great ideas
people and make an impact on their
and innovation.
lives. The rise of social entrepreneurship
The products are affordable and
shows that most solutions to global
accessible.
problems do not necessarily depend on
• • • • •
education, employment, healthcare and leisure. Leisure is a legitimate measure
They have added social impact to
What is Common in Social
predictable. The ability to communicate and commute naturally meant improved
•
•
They
offer
technology
based
for
the
less
fortunate,
charity or government aid. They come
solutions.
from individuals from any background.
They have run successful, profitable
If people like us can touch hearts and
businesses.
change lives without giving up our
They have attracted investors.
dreams, we must indeed do that.
of quality of life according to HDI. One
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45 AUG 2021