Social Entrepreneurship in India- An Introduction

 

Social entrepreneurship has become the buzz word in India and around the world. People have found this concept of philanthropy a bit intriguing in nature. It has the best mixture of social service and entrepreneurship; this combination makes it most attractive and so unique in nature. Usually entrepreneurship is related to economic activities and being ruthlessly profit making and ignoring social benefits or societal well being. In the present era of heavy industrialization and economic growth, societal gains have taken back seat or even out of the sight all around the world, including India, with the concept of social entrepreneurship rising in India and around the world has helped in serving the society in more meaningful manner than ever before along with living the spirit of entrepreneurship with its fullest. Social entrepreneurship is not a newer concept but the positioning of the concept has risen to new heights in recent times. As government of India has made CSR a more realistic responsibility than a mere formality, corporates are now looking for their grater roles in helping the society in a way that is both economically and socially beneficial. As the definition of social entrepreneurship itself clarifies that its fine combination of entrepreneurship and societal gains. In recent times, the concept has taken new identities and shapes, and has been accepted among wider areas. Some of the prominent organizations in India has accepted this form of doing business and shaped the society in a very positive manner. This is the objective of social entrepreneurship that entrepreneurs are now more responsible for society and its well being than earning profits only. This concept also addresses social need and social innovations in its totality, in the opinion of experts; social entrepreneurship is nothing but identification of social need and addressing that need with a unique social innovation. This is where the social and economic entrepreneurship differentiate with each other, economic entrepreneurship focuses on economic need, on the other hands, social entrepreneurship focuses on social needs. 

Social Entrepreneurship is one of the important tributary of entrepreneurship, it is more than just philanthropy and has deeper and immense impact on social changes/upliftment in developing nations. Government has started encouraging social entrepreneurship to great extent so that the social inequalities can be handled and an ideal society can be achieved as well. Social entrepreneurship is meant by special sort of initiatives, which is both social work and economic in nature. Wikipedia defines social entrepreneurship as “Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact she/he has on society.” This definition of social entrepreneurship is clearly puts forward the basic components of social entrepreneurship; they are-

1. 1. It is undertaken by special group of people refereed as social entrepreneurs.
   2. It is situation where social problem is identified and solved using entrepreneurial
       principles.
   3. The main purpose stands at bringing social changes, rather than making individual
       profits.
   4. Social entrepreneurship is successful in terms of not the big profits, but the
       unquantifiable social impacts.
   5. The venture established by social entrepreneurs is called as social enterprise and
        prime focus is on social innovations for prevailing social problems.
   “Social entrepreneurship is the process of recognizing and resourcefully pursuing opportunities to create social value for society. Social entrepreneurs are innovative, motivated for resolving social issues, resourceful, and results oriented. They prepare a mind set after best thinking in both the business and non-profit worlds to develop strategies that maximize their social impact by addressing social inequalities and social problems. These entrepreneurs exist in all kinds of organizations: large and small; new and old; religious and secular; non-profit, for-profit, and hybrid. Such organizations comprise the ‘social sector”
   Who is a social entrepreneur?  Social entrepreneurs are those entrepreneurs who basically undertake social entrepreneurship. They have all the traits of economic entrepreneur, except the motivational force they have which is derived from social inequalities and social insufficiencies. Social entrepreneurs are the people who undertake any social problem or short coming and convert that into a solution cum product. They aim for non personal profits rather than a profit, the primary objectives of their existence is to serve the society rather than earning profits. They also innovate; their innovation is referred as “Social Innovation”

  

  

Land we Call India.

The land, we call India.

Earlier this month I was, as I am a frequent reader, reading a book authored by Ramchandra Guha titled "India After Gandhi". Firstly I would recommend this book to everybody for enhancing their understanding regarding this great land. It is somehow contrary to the history we all have studied in colleges and schools. During the reading of this great book, one thing came to my mind that how we can see the richness and grandness of this great land, despite of all the hurdles and shortcomings in our nation's way of existence. One thing is very evident that Britishers were not only colonized our land but our mind for so many years. This enslavement was so organized and so planned that it has left us literally brainless and only good to be administrated. This trend is still haunting our generations in many unimaginable ways. Guha has rightly mentioned the various events in India history in specific events which have deep impact on our time so far.

The one thing which has actually gained my focus was that our inabilities and immaturity in handling partition of India into two major nations (India and Pakistan), according to some experts partition could have been avoided with some efforts and tactfulness.Like the manner adopted by Patel while he made the accession  of around 565 princely states just after the Independence. The common theory is that the partition was badly handled by Nehru, although Jinnah had his role to play, but all this could have been avoided with some wisdom and foresight of our then leadership. But Nehru's hasty attitude towards the colonization resulted into the mess, which we are still suffering. The other school of thought says that it was inevitable. Apart from this the Britishers were also good at destroying the self confidence of mass along with systematically demeaning the cultural wealth of this great nation.

One must wonder that why despite of greatness of this land, Indians are still struggling to make a move or mark in more meaningful or profound manner? The answer to this question is very complicated in nature. It is how we have forgotten our great wisdom and valor. India  young generation is barely and poorly informed about the Indian ideals and values. This generation must be made aware from all these facts which were hidden deliberately by our colonial masters. The responsibilities of parents and teachers have become very important in that regard as well, where these people have to inform the right facts to the young generation. Books can again play a very vital role in informing the mass, not  just books but comics like books can also help in making generation aware from the history of India. More important than that is to knowing the nation and its very basics with full insights regarding the events that changed the course of events and people who have made impossible possible in very little time and despite of all the hardships. The another disturbing fact regarding Indian history is that we do not know about the people who have contributed in their own style.Like Subas Chandra Bose, who despite of being an ICS officer chose to be liberator of his motherland rather then helping colonial masters to cement their positions.

I strongly believe that if we take the right steps and make people learn about their nation's true journey from start till now,they will respect the nation more and shall work to make positive changes in the overall growth of nation. NO country becomes great, without its people becoming greater, this should be kept in mind and everybody must take the initiatives to make this change in their habits.

Dr. Shekhar Upadhyay.