What if a million issues found a million crusaders? What if each one of us transformed into a social entrepreneur? What if each one of us picked up one of the many intractable challenges confronting society, and tried to address it, in ways small or big? It’s a powerful thought indeed, perhaps a far-fetched one, a pie in the sky. The 50 people whose work, mindset and philosophy this special issue shines a light on may not think so. Chiselling away at solutions and bringing them within the realm of the possible is what these 50 people have demonstrated. Their tribe is growing. Stan and Marie Thekaekara from the Gudalur Valley of Tamil Nadu are trying to humanise globalisation by linking adivasis from tea plantations with low-income enclaves in Europe. Dharavi’s Jockin Arputham is enabling slums dwellers in Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Phnom Penh to craft housing and hygiene infrastructure solutions on their own.

In Mumbai, Anurag Gupta of A Little World uses mobile networks to enable banks, financial institutions and governments to conduct financial transactions with over 3.5 million people spread across 8,300 gram panchayats in 22 states. It’s yielding amazing dividends for him and the people embraced by the technology.

The New Changemakers

Bill Drayton too believes in the ocean-like expansiveness of crusaders. He also believes that our future depends a great deal on seeding millions of such men and women. It’s difficult to cast away Drayton’s conviction as the yearnings of an incorrigible romanticist. After all, he’s the one who coined the term ‘social entrepreneur’ in the 1980s, much before it became fashionable and entered popular lexicon.

"The young can lead social change by starting small. It’s about moving ideas from local adaptations to pattern changes in society...I’d like to see the day when 20-30% of young Indians are changemakers before 21."—Bill Drayton, CEO and founder, Ashoka: Innovators For The Public

Drayton began by defining the term ‘social entrepreneur’ in a simple way: “men and women with system-changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.” He went on to create Ashoka: Innovators For The Public, a vibrant community of over 2,000 social entrepreneurs across 60 countries. Ashoka provides professional support and funds to social entrepreneurs in their early days. The late Anil Agarwal of the Centre For Science And Environment was one of the first Ashoka fellows in India, in 1982. Since then, an eclectic lot of over 300 have got the fellowship, including a large posse of human-rights activists, who wouldn’t really fit in the present day construct of a social entrepreneur.

Ashoka fellows, typically, are of the grassroots variety. They are different from the emerging lot of social entrepreneurs, who craft ventures that seek solutions for bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers through a variety of products and services—solar lighting, community water plants, low-cost healthcare, and the like.

Now, in a game-changing move, Drayton, the high priest of the global social entrepreneurship movement, is crafting a broader category. He roots for the word ‘changemaker’. He has devised a programme christened the Youth Venture, which embodies his vision of “everyone a changemaker”.

He is beginning to foster a global ecosystem for the young, even teenagers, by telling them that they too can lead social change by starting small. “It’s about moving ideas from local adaptations to pattern changes in society,” he says. The youth under the programme are expected to gain skills and confidence to remain powerful change-agents long into their adult lives. Ashok Rathod, a 20-year-old from a chawl in Mumbai, runs a football club for school dropouts. He is from the new breed that Drayton has taken under his wings.

Drayton believes the progress of a country, city, or even a company or organisation, will depend a great deal on the number of changemakers thrown up by the system. “Why is Bangalore a successful city,” he asks, and also proffers an answer, “because it’s attractive to changemakers.” The 66-year-old has set himself a tall task: he would like to see the day when 20-30% of young Indians are changemakers before they turn 21.

Touching Lives

While we wait for the new crop to emerge, we have attempted to showcase the work of 50 inspirational social entrepreneurs who have, over the years, changed forever the lives of the people they have touched.

"Social entrepreneurs have to be self-destroying entities. We have to morph into commercial entities. Otherwise, we have no reason to exist. We are basically transitioning products."—Vineet Rai, founder and CEO, Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund

These 50 deploy entrepreneurial strategies to drive social change. They are a bunch of “unreasonable people”, as John Elkington of the think-tank SustainAbility and Pamela Hartigan of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford like to describe the tribe. Several from the list have a public profile, many continue to work unmindful of recognition.

They are not a preserve of innovative Bangalore alone. They can be found across the country, in Spiti Valley of the Himalayas, the highlands of the Nilgiris, in the remote interiors of our states, in the dry Thar, in municipal dumping grounds, in slums of Mumbai, in low-cost hospitals, in artisan clusters, on shop floors…

There are veterans who started work long before they were even recognised as social entrepreneurs and whose influence runs beyond India’s borders. Ela Bhatt of Sewa, the ‘gentle revolutionary’ is one of The Elders, a global grouping of 10 leaders put together by Nelson Mandela. Ashok Khosla of Development Alternatives is President of the Club of Rome, a global think-tank on development challenges. Bunker Roy is helping conflict-torn Afghanistan with renewable-energy solutions.

The Indian elders have apparently inspired shoals of the younger lot. Some of them are educated in Ivy League universities, IITs and IIMs, and are former bankers, consultants and technocrats. Some of them are utterly unlettered. They are all ushering in disruptive innovations in the social space.

Kaushlendra is perfecting a vegetables supply chain in Patna. Solomon JP and Gayatri from Bangalore are addressing the challenges of migration and skills. Varun Sahni and Anant Kumar are rolling out a low-cost maternal care hospital every 27 days. Nedjip Tozun of D.Light Design is tweaking a model to manufacture millions of solar lanterns. Kousalya Periasamy is the face and voice of thousands of HIV-positive women across India.

The list is only representative of the wonderful work being done by social entrepreneurs. There are scores who merited being here, but didn’t make it for space reasons. In the limited space we have, we have attempted to present a diversity of activities undertaken by social entrepreneurs—education and skilling, livelihood generation, agriculture, healthcare, water and sanitation, responsible tourism, renewable energy, disaster management, and more.

What we have deliberately left out is microfinance. In recent years, microfinance has turned into a veritable industry with its own ecosystem. Vikram Akula of SKS Microfinance, the scale-up warrior, and Vijay Mahajan of Basix, who intertwines livelihood approaches with microfinance, are sorely missed on these pages. Both are exemplary social entrepreneurs. In many ways, it was microfinance that turned the attention of mainstream businesses and investors to the immense possibilities in the social sector.

As microfinance triggered the interest of mainstream investors, the economic meltdown is also doing its bit in reshaping a world order favourable to social entrepreneurs. “Capitalism, which focused only on the generation of wealth hitherto, will now have to concentrate on the issue of wealth distribution too,” says Vineet Rai, founder and CEO of Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund and also the moving spirit behind Sankalp, a forum for social enterprises and investors.

New Capitalism

"It’s a hugely exciting time…this (new capitalism) is fertile ground for creating a ‘phoenix economy’ that rises from the ashes of the old, driven by accelerating entrepreneurial approaches and disruptive innovations."—Pamela Hartigan, Director, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

The future of capitalism is being redrawn for a more “inclusive” or even a “creative” one, as Bill Gates put it. In the new order, social entrepreneurs are expected to play an integral role in laying the road ahead. “This is fertile ground for creating a ‘phoenix economy’ that rises from the ashes of the old, driven by accelerating entrepreneurial approaches and disruptive innovations, including new technologies, new business models, new laws and regulations, all geared towards creating new market systems,” says Pamela Hartigan of the Skoll Centre. “It’s a hugely exciting time.”

Rai and Hartigan also nurse the rather radical hope that, in the not too distant future, the distinction between a social venture and most businesses will vanish. “Who would have thought they would hear Jack Welch say ‘maximising shareholder value is the dumbest thing in the world’,” asks Hartigan.

Successful companies of the future will be those that generate a unique value proposition: one that appeals to the hearts of all its stakeholders, not just shareholders keen on profit maximisation. While companies, big and small, grow social shoots, on the other end, social enterprises are expected to eventually resemble commercial enterprises.

SKS Microfinance was a traditional NGO till about 2005. It reinvented itself as an enterprise and is now bang in the middle of a transition. Some say it’s now more commercial and businesslike in its approach than many traditional businesses. “Social entrepreneurs have to be self-destroying entities. We have to morph into commercial entities. Otherwise, we have no reason to exist. We are transitioning products,” insists Rai.

‘Patient Capital’

The times indeed are changing. We know it’s truly changing when the finance guys get into the act. “Change first happens on the operating side. Finance is a laggard. They follow,” says Drayton.

A whole new investing edifice is now being catalysed by big names in global finance, including the US-based Rockefeller Foundation. It is being described as ‘impact investing’ or ‘patient capital’. The emerging industry comprises of investors endeavouring to generate financial return, and social and environmental value.

Impact investors offer a bridge between traditional philanthropy and the capital markets. “Impact investors are willing to provide seed funding to an enterprise to refine a business model or take first-loss position to reduce the risk of an investment,” says Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation.

Again, SKS comes to mind. In its initial years, a band of investors with a soul chaperoned it with small sums of money. Later, mainstream investors like Sequoia Capital, with no social conscience whatsoever, took over and are now taking the company to stratospheric heights. The model apparently works.

“We are looking at timelines of even nine years before we exit an investee company,” says Varun Sahni, India Director, Acumen Fund, as if to reinforce the ‘patient’ in patient capital. Funds like Acumen, which has invested $20 million in 12 Indian social enterprises, are comfortable with compounded returns of 6-8%.

A recent study by the US-based Monitor Institute says the impact-investing industry could be as big as $500 billion within the next decade. Quaintly, it’s a philanthropic foundation that is leading the charge to catalyse the industry. “With the advent of a strong impact-investing market, philanthropy’s limited resources can be focused laser-like on where we are most needed: to fund crucial activities markets will never fund,” says Bugg-Levine. “These include movements for social justice, human-rights campaigns, and outreach to the most poor and remote communities.”

Social Businesses

"With the advent of a strong impact-investing market, philanthropy’s more limited resources can then be focused laser-like on where we are most needed: to fund crucial activities the markets will never fund."—Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation

The financial sector is undergoing a churn. Businesses and the social sector are responding with an amazing variety of hybrid models. NGOs are partnering corporations in a more comprehensive and uninhibited manner, and are metamorphosing in strange ways to link with market systems. These hybrids, more often than not, combine a commercial activity with service provision and even social activism. Looks like the most viable and sustainable approach to social progress is partnerships between NGOs, government, business corporations and philanthropic outfits. Boundaries are clearly blurring.

Bill Drayton is certain the proliferation of hybrid value chains (HVCs) is the most innovative structural change to happen in decades. In Mexico, Cemex, a large cement company, provides low-cost engineering services to slum dwellers who save up money for cement to rebuild their homes. Lafarge, a multinational, and several others are now cementing ties with such communities.

Swayam Shikshan Prayog, a Mumbai-based NGO, is not only co-creating innovative products for rural markets with Godrej & Boyce, but is also helping the company market them. Hybrids now seem an imperative not only for not-for-profits, but also for corporations. “Companies not engaged in HVCs are exposing themselves to grave risks,” warns Drayton. Socially relevant projects are now good business.

Interestingly, companies engaged in renewable energy, waste recycling—the cleantech companies, so to speak—are also being bracketed as social enterprises. This is despite the fact that many entered the space because they saw a business opportunity, and not because they nursed a social heart.

So, is Pramod Chaudhuri of Praj Industries, the green fuels company, or Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon, the wind energy giant, a social entrepreneur? Yes, in a generous sense. They do address some pressing, socially relevant global challenges. But to bracket them with, say, Harish Hande of Selco India, who provides solar-energy solutions to underserved rural households, would be incongruent. “Selco is social-focused and is addressing the most difficult part of the business. That’s why he is different,” says Aavishkaar’s Rai.

Hande doesn’t just sell solar solutions. He focuses on livelihoods of the poor households he serves. Women who purchased solar lamps to fix on their sewing machines realised they could sew more garments now that they also had the night. They turned to Hande to find markets for them, although it’s not his mandate to do so. You know a social entrepreneur when you see one.