Govt can play key role in supporting social enterprises
This article of mine was published in all editions of The Financial Express today. Glad to share it here:
A social enterprise, by definition, is a business created to espouse, support and further a social purpose and cause and is typically aimed at a specific group of people who are socially disadvantaged. A sustainable enterprise aims to achieve this in a financially sustainable and scalable manner.
A primary duty and responsibility of any government is to look after and help uplift the socially and economically disadvantaged of the country. That is the reason it exists. However, whereas governments in several Scandinavian countries have been able to do this for their people through efficient governance, systems and processes, emerging economies such as India have fallen way behind in this respect. Social enterprises in India have recognised the gaps in the system and have come up to address this need in diverse development areas and sectors.
In a country like India, where the social equation is still very skewed despite an ever burgeoning middle class, the government’s primary responsibility should lie in correcting that equation. Which is why it very clearly needs to re-evaluate its priorities and ascertain whether it should at all have anything to do with businesses other than infrastructure – airlines and hospitality, for instance, just to take two examples. I find there is very little reason for them to exist in these two sectors, when ideally their focus should be on upliftment of the socially and economically challenged sections.
The government has to support the social enterprises much more actively, and play a very clearly defined supporting role in nurturing them. There are two ways in which this can be done. One, by supporting them. The support does not necessarily have to be financial. It can come in various other ways and one possible way that comes to mind is formulating a very fair and transparent system of rewarding and recognising the value that is being created by the social entrepreneurs.
The second way is stepping in when scale-up is needed. At a very basic level, the governments, both central and state, can help make social endeavours widespread and scalable. The media too can play a role in spreading awareness about these enterprises.
Content Developer | Media Consultancy | Documentary Producer
9 年the sector actually needs innovative appraoch
Global Strategy, Leadership & Talent Development Consultant. Certified Independent Director and Adjunct Professor of Finance.
9 年Thank you for pushing the government to re-look at the social sector. One aspect that bothers me is the mushrooming of NGOs that operate for facilitating money laundering and other nefarious activities. We need to set up systems that screen out such NGOs and bring in better transparency and accountability.
Reliance| EX- Udaan |Pradohill | Samsung | Lava |Tata group | XISS
9 年Great article Sir and hope that our Honorable PM is thinking on these line and has some plans for Social entrepreneurs.
Heading Entrepreneurship & Innovation-Amity University I Former Executive Director-St. Xavier's University, Dy Director -Indian Chamber of Commerce, Brand- ABP I LAUNCHED 9 Business Models I Multi Sector-Function-Market
9 年Very enlightening article Sir.
Dean - NSHM Media School | Fellow -Bath Business School UK | Fellow (Aus)| D.Litt| Author | DBA (US) | Ex Editor-in-Chief | Ex Managing Trustee | Academic Council ACMIT (US) | Indo British Scholars Association | Mentor
9 年A very insightful article Sir.