How a social entrepreneur is helping to solve basic issues in the country

Social entrepreneurship seeks out innovative solutions to society’s pressing social, cultural and environmental problems. It is an altruistic form of entrepreneurship that goes beyond the top-line and bottom-line approach of conventional businesses and focuses on social and environmental impact – education, livelihoods, energy access, women’s empowerment, etc.

Typically, social entrepreneurs not only address a given core issue(s), but also attempt to understand the larger context, and develop cross functional, multi-disciplinary solutions that can catalyze sustainable as well as scalable change that impacts society and environment. They straddle issues across the environmental, governmental and business worlds in a manner that neither government nor business individually can, and to that extent, can play a key role in a country’s development.

This is particularly relevant in the Indian context, where healthcare, sanitation, waste management, pollution, energy access, education, etc. are basic issues afflicting large cross sections of the population even today, and where, even as the country develops, increasing disparity between the haves and the have-not’s is a matter of serious, growing concern.

By reaching out to underserved individuals and communities and fostering sustainable livelihoods and entrepreneurial pursuits down the line, social enterprises have the power to supercharge India’s social and economic growth, and move unprecedented numbers of its citizens out of vicious cycles of unemployment, deprivation and poverty, and into virtuous circles of prosperity and development.

The social entrepreneurship space in India has seen several notable individuals and organizations address key social and developmental issues over the years – Jeroo Billimoria of Child Helpline International, Ajaita Shah of Frontier Markets, Harish Hande of SELCO, Sumita Ghose of Rangasutra, Hanumappa Sudarshan of Karuna Trust, Akanksha Hazari of m.Paani, to name a few.

The Mrida Group (www.mridagroup.com, www.facebook.com/mridaassociates), is a Social Business Venture that seeks to build financially viable business models aimed at sustainable and scalable, holistic development at the Bottom of the Pyramid, using energy access (solar micro grids) and farming interventions (development initiatives and creation of market linkages for small and marginal farmers) as tools.

Since its incorporation in 2014, Mrida (Sanskrit for ‘Soil’) has impacted over 20000 lives across 38 villages in 6 States in the country, clocking a turnover of Rs. 5.8 crores, figures which it aims to scale up to a million lives and a turnover of over Rs. 150 crores over the next 8 years.

The Start-up India initiative launched in Aug 2015 was well intentioned to give a new dimension to entrepreneurship in India and nurture the start-up system as a whole, which is key to further employment generation and wealth creation. Other govt initiatives like Stand-Up India and the Mudra Yojana were also intended to provide easy access to funding for start-ups, for women-folk and for disadvantaged individuals and communities.

The intentions of the govt have no doubt been laudatory. The execution and the results on the ground so far however, have not quite lived upto expectations or potential. Rather than focus on the past, specific action points that could see a reversal in trend in future include :

Simplify procedural bottlenecks to make the start-up selection and registration process as system driven as possible, with minimal human intervention and discretionary powers

Specific focus on semi urban and rural areas of the country, where the need for such support, and the potential for impact, is maximum

Specific support for agri and agri led businesses which can spur the rural economy

Support in creation of market linkages, which is often possibly the single largest impediment to success of new entrepreneurial initiatives, particularly in rural India

Encourage industry-academia partnerships through creation of business incubators and business accelerators, with suitable funding support

Course corrections on the above lines can go a long way in realizing the well intentioned policies of the Government, and creating a thriving, impactful social entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country.