This op-ed was submitted by Suresh Pramar, and is a user post. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of TC-I, but we feel that it is important to cultivate opinions from all sides.

India like the rest of the world has not escaped the impacts of the current downturn. The sudden rush in retrenchment and forced salary cuts is an indication of the prevailing financial meltdown the result of corporate greed and irresponsibility. It needs to be emphasized that not all in the corporate sector are to blame. While middle level and junior staff have worked long hours expecting rewards for their efforts top management have given themselves unearned bonuses.

What is needed now is leadership with vision to steer the country out of this situation. A vision that speaks to small and medium-sized businesses and at the same time one that attends to the pressing requirements of our community.

India fortunately has an active and growing social enterprises sector which is engaged in delivering the much required services to the community. Many of these social entrepreneurs have earned distinction and awards for the good work they have done and continue to do in the service of the people.
Among these is Dr Harish Hande whose company SELCO, using solar technology, has lit up hundreds of thousands of households with ‘clean’ lighting. About 65 to 75 percent of the beneficiaries are small farmers who earn between Rs 100 to 200 a day After reaching 80,000 clients across Karnataka and Kerala SELCO moved into Gujarat.

Solar electrification has brought in brought about a dramatic change in the social and economic lives of the beneficiaries. It has helped children secure better academic results since they can now study at night. It has increased livelihoods and incomes of night-time vegetable vendors. Additionally it has ended the use of dirty and dangerous kerosene lamps. For the environment, the 80,000 systems deployed avoid emissions of approximately 24,000 tones of CO2 equivalent per year that would have been released by the use of kerosene lamps.

Dr Hande’s efforts have earned him the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ 2007 by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation Recently SELCO won the FT-ArcelorMittal ‘Boldness in Business’ award in the CSR category.

In Ahmedabad Rajendra Joshi’s Saath works with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to ensure that slum residents receive basic sanitation, water and drainage services at the household level and paved roads and street lights at a community level. It has created mechanisms through which the urban poor can save and pay the user charges.

Saath is also demonstrating models of public-private partnership where the urban poor are key stakeholders. It tailored profit-based solutions for electricity supply in Ahmedabad’s slums by altering the user fee, increasing business volumes and bringing in government contribution. As a result, 200,000 slum households today pay for electricity with the business house, Torrent Power, reporting a 30% increase in profits

In Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and Rajasthan. Arbind Singh’s Social Enterprise, Nidan is helping to build profitable businesses and ‘people’s organizations’ which are led by asset less, informal workers. Nidan, over the past years has launched a range of cooperatives, Self Help Groups (SHGs), trade unions, and individual and community businesses These have positioned unorganized workers as legitimate competitors in globalizing markets of India.

In 12 years, Nidan has launched and promoted 20 independent businesses and organizations that are governed and owned through shares by 60,000 urban and rural poor members. The enterprises include 4618 SHGS, 75 market committees, 19 co-operatives, two societies and one company—all envisioned and led by a complex of waste workers, rag pickers, vegetable vendors, construction labourers, domestic helpers, micro-farmers, street traders and other marginalized occupation groups.

The economic downturn is also hurting many of such enterprises. Social enterprises, however are not seeking charity; they want the support of business to complement their roles Business can play a proactive role in creating and promoting social enterprises. This they can do be creating social intrapreneurs within the organisation who, with the blessing of management, seek opportunities for their companies while using the core skills and resources of their employers as the basis for their projects.

Social Intrapreneurs are creating and delivering new products, services and business models. These not only generate business value but address some of society’s most pressing challenges. They compel their companies to look out of their comfort zone to see the strategic risks and opportunities that exist beyond the purview of traditional business units.

John Elkington, founder and chief entrepreneur at SustainAbility, believes companies should try to give employees space and permission to think about social innovations, and then mentor, coach and support the most promising intrapreneurs and initiatives. “They might need to select projects with the coldness of a venture capitalist and build a portfolio of projects with different levels of risk, accepting that some of them are bound to fail,” he says.

To help to strengthen social intrapreneurs to counter the present recession Governments can also pitch in to fund part of the costs of social intrapreneurs This will provide the company a new source of income during the downturn, the community gets the benefit of much needed services and products..

It is now generally agreed that we need both the social entrepreneurs and social intrapreneurs. While ensuring societal change, social intrapreneurs are also necessary for a company’s survival in an environment of rising expectations of the role of business in society.

Looking for interesting conferences to attend over the course of the next two months? Well, look no further! Below are three upcoming conferences that we recommend you attend – The Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Conference (March 1, 2009), The Harvard Business School India Business Conference (March 15, 2009), and the Harvard Kennedy School International Development Conference (April 3-4, 2009). ThinkChange India will be live blogging at all three conferences, so if you are unable to attend, we will be sure to update you with key highlights from the three respective conferences!

Some brief information about each of the conferences follows below:

HBS Social Enterprise Conference – March 1, 2009

The Social Enterprise Conference provides a forum for exploring the synergies between for-profit, non-profit, and public sector approaches to addressing critical social issues. This goal lies at the heart of the Harvard Business School mission “to educate leaders who make a difference in the world” and the Kennedy School of Government mission “to prepare leaders for service to democratic societies.” The Conference is entirely run by students from these two schools.

Exciting speakers include Priya Haji, CEO of World of Good, Inc., Linda Rottenberg, CEO of Endeavour, and Bill Drayton, CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. Expect to also see panelists from organizations such as the Clinton Foundation, Agora Partnerships, the Acumen Fund, One Laptop Per Child, IDEO, Skoll Foundation, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, TechnoServe, ACCION International, and many more! Click here if you would like to see the agenda in its entirety.

HBS India Business Conference – March 15, 2009

The HBS India Conference is one of the largest student-run conferences in the US and has a strong legacy of creating a platform to allow business men and women, policymakers, and those involved in academia to meaningfully debate and discuss how India can fulfill her global potential.

This year’s conference will feature presentations by prominent keynote speakers as well as twelve panel discussions / debates on the following areas: Building Brands in India, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Global Indians, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Knowledge Economy, Media and Entertainment, Private Equity, Retail, Social Enterprise and Venture Capital. In addition, the Conference will provide an opportunity for the attendees to network and interact closely with prominent members of the Indian business community and to learn about their industries and companies as well as gain insights on potential career opportunities.

HKS International Development Conference – April 3-4th, 2009 (website is yet to be updated)

15th Annual International Development Conference at Harvard University, which will be held at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts from April 3rd to 4th, 2009. The International Development Conference is a student-run event providing a world-class inter-disciplinary forum on global sustainable development. Each year the Conference attracts over 400 participants and serves as a forum to foster dialogue among various stakeholders, including senior level policy makers, academics, and practitioners.

Many people dream, but some people dream big.  Dr. Ashok Khosla is one of those that dream big – but also puts the dream into action.  As founder of Development Alternatives, Khosla plans to bring wide-scale employment to India’s rural areas.  IndiaWest reports:

“Poor people are seeing more products, but have little access to them. The poor do not have purchasing power,” said Khosla, the 2002 winner of the United Nations’ Sasakawa Environmental Prize, and the Schwab Foundation’s outstanding social entrepreneur award in 2004.

The Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), a partner of Development Alternatives, is a social enterprise focusing on standardizing “technology packages, which offer training, technical support, financing and marketing assistance to small enterprises.”  TARA’s products range from paper to textiles to cyber-kiosks.  Khosla aims to create 100 million jobs by 2018 through these micro-factories – no easy feat, considering that the organization claims to have created 3 million jobs in the last 15 years.

More importantly, the initiatives are created in a way that the villagers benefit above all.

In a typical model, the village will form a cooperative to purchase the equipment needed for the project, and determine wages for the workers, typically slightly above the area’s minimum wage. Development Alternatives’ social enterprise arm, Technology and Action for Rural Advancement, markets the products created by the villagers.

Tracking TARA’s progress in the next decade will be interesting and may provide further evidence of the impact of social enterprises and employment generating activities.

This week has had no shortage of announcements of accepting nominations for some competitions and the unveiling of winners from others. Today, IndiaPRwire reports that the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, Schwab Foundation, and UNDP has picked finalists for the 2008 Social Entrepreneurship of the Year Award.

The Award recognizes individuals who offer the most innovative and sustainable solutions to society’s impending social problems. The ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award over the last few years has risen to prominence among social entrepreneurs with applicant’s immensely valuing the benefits the award brings. The steady increase in the number of nominations filed for this award is proof of it growing significance

Here are the three finalists:

• The Executive Director of NIDAN, Arbind Singh.  According to the Khemka Foundation site:

Founded by Arbind Singh in 1995, Nidan builds profitable businesses and ‘people’s organizations’ that are led by assetless, informal workers. A range of cooperatives, Self Help Groups (SHGs), trade unions, and individual and community businesses launched by Nidan have positioned unorganized workers as legitimate competitors in globalizing markets of India. Nidan works in Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and Rajasthan.

• Founder of PlanetRead, Brij Kothari. Aishwarya wrote about Mr Kothari back in June and discussed his “same language subtitling” (SLS) tool. Refer to his post for more information, and the Khemka Foundation’s description below.

Using the simple tool of Same Language Subtitling (SLS) on popular song-based television programs, PlanetRead is sharpening the literacy skills of an estimated 200 million ‘literates’ or ‘neoliterates’ who have weak reading and comprehension skills, despite having attended at least primary school. By superimposing subtitles on visuals in the ’same’ language as the audio, Brij ensures that reading becomes a byproduct of entertainment already consumed by the audience.

A joint venture of PlanetRead and IIM Ahmedabad, SLS has combined the tremendous reach of India’s national broadcasting agency, Doordarshan, with the enormous appeal of film songs, to give lifelong reading practice to early literate persons.

• Executive Director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog, Prema Gopalan. The PR wire site describes SSP’s work:

SSP is launching profitable rural businesses powered by partnerships between large corporations, like BP Energy and village women in disaster-affected areas. Founded by Prema Gopalan in 1994, SSP has organized 60,000 rural women into social networks through which new retail businesses are opening up in bottom-of-the-pyramid markets. The businesses-clean energy products, organic goods, health and financial services-have led to cumulative incomes of INR 2.3 crores for village women entrepreneurs.

We’ll keep you updated on who wins the award, after it is announced this weekend at the India Economic Summit.

Update on November 18: Arbind Singh was declared the winner. Congrats!

Please send along any other opportunities to info@thinkchangeindia.org.

Jobs

• Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) is an autonomous society responsible for implementation of poverty reduction projects in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. They are looking for 3-4 interns to work exclusively on health and nutrition interventions. More information here

• The Indian School of Microfinance for Women, founded by SEWA Bank and FWWB India and headquartered in Ahmedabad India is looking for a summer intern to help them build a nation-wide financial literacy program in India, funded by Citigroup Foundation. Sounds exciting? Get the full scoop here

Competitions

• Reminder: Apply for The Social Entrepreneur for the Year 2008 – India, held by The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme. The competition was established to recognize outstanding social entrepreneurs in India. Enter by June 5th.

We have mentioned this opportunity before. But the folks from Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation wanted us to throw in a reminder to our readers about the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award 2008. The deadline is for application is 5th June, 2008 and you can access the online application here.

Here are some basic details on the award:

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship , in collaboration with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) are inviting applications for India’s Social Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2008. Five finalists will be selected following an intensive search and selection process including expert reviews and site visits. The winner will be announced in a ceremony coinciding with the India Economic Summit in November 2008.

We have previously featured last year’s award recipient Harish Hande and his organization Selco.

Please send along any other opportunities to info@thinkchangeindia.org.

Jobs

• The Institute for Financial Management and Research is looking for a Senior Researcher to work out of their Chennai office. The research will primarily comprise of the BoP energy sector. Go here for more information, and the full job description can be accessed here.

Fellowships

• We have blogged about Atlas Service Corps, before, but this is a reminder that their deadline is May 18th for applications. Go here for details.
• Ashoka is looking for its 2nd generation of Youth Fellows (12-24 yrs old) to provide seed funding and support to for creating unique ways of effecting positive change. Go here for more information. The website takes time to load, so we did not link to it.

Competitions

• New Ventures’ Accelerated Funding Program for Sustainable Enterprises is accepting business plans until May 15th. Go here for more information and the application.
• The TiE-Cannan Entrepreneurial Challenge 2008’s deadline is May 12th. Go here for more information.
• Apply for The Social Entrepreneur for the Year 2008 – India, held by The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme. The competition was established to recognize outstanding social entrepreneurs in India. Enter by June 5th.
• Jeevika, a South Asian documentary film festival, is accepting submissions on the topic of livelihoods until July 15th. You can learn more here, as well.
• Freescale Technology Forum is holding a design competition for students to design a product that benefits the environment. Winners get USD 10,000 and a paid trip to meet FTF leaders. More information can be found here. The website is here.

Other Opportunities

• Curruki.org’s Summer of Content is calling upon people like you to submit high quality educational content for middle and high school students. You can earn up to $500 for a unit, and $1600 for a semester’s worth of curriculum. Deadline is June 1st.

India is facing a looming energy crisis. The energy needs of the country’s population cannot be met by conventional energy sources (read: Fossil Fuels). We had mentioned in the space before, the importance of India leapfrogging into renewable sources like solar and wind. As part of the eleventh five year plan, GOI just allocated Rs. 600 crore towards green energy research creating incentives for adoption of renewables.

One company that has taken the lead in the renewables space is Solar Electric Lighting Company (SELCO) India. We had covered SELCO extensively in this space before. The challenge with solar energy is not just the making Photo-voltaic(PV) cells more cost-effective, but also effective financing, distribution, and maintenance of these PV units. The latter is commonly referred to as downstream solar opportunities. Started in 1995, SELCO India claims to have sold, serviced and financed 75,000 solar electric units. Recognizing SELCO’s cutting-edge work in expanding access to energy, its founder Harish Hande was chosen as Indian Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2007 by the Schwab Foundation in partnership with The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation.

The challenge for a company like SELCO now is scale. How can the organization move from servicing 80,000 clients to servicing 8 million clients? Making PV units more affordable would be a good start (currently they are priced around Rs. 800). Another key challenge would be building a effective distribution and servicing chain. There is also competition around the corner (which is never a bad thing) – we had mentioned d.light design, a silicon-valley based company with an aggressive focus on India.