SOCIAL

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN -Arrya Adhikari

81022018001

INDIA
In this paper we’ll discuss what social entrepreneurship is, the history of
social entrepreneurship in India and look at some of the real life
examples.
 Self-declaration

I declare that this material, which I now submit for assessment, is entirely my own work and has not
been taken from the work of others, save and to the extent that such work has been cited and
acknowledged within the text of my work. The plagiarism percentage is 23% and all relevant sources
have been cited and credited wherever possible.

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Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Who Is A Social Entrepreneur? ............................................................................................................... 5
What Makes Social Entrepreneurship Social? ........................................................................................ 6
History of Social Entrepreneurship in India ............................................................................................ 7
Challenges Faced By Social Entrepreneurship In India ........................................................................... 8
Measures To Face Challenges Effectively ............................................................................................. 11
Case Studies .......................................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 13
References ............................................................................................................................................ 15

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Abstract

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 wellbeing. 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.

Key words- Social entrepreneurship, Social Innovation, Social needs, social entrepreneurs,
economic entrepreneurs, Bottom of the pyramid

Introduction

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. This
paper is a detailed study on variety of topics related to social entrepreneurship, including the

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conceptual framework and process of social entrepreneurship. This research paper also
includes the various challenges faced by social entrepreneurs and puts forwards its
recommendations to improve the overall situation of social entrepreneurship/entrepreneurs in
India. Research paper further discusses similarity and contrast between social and economic
entrepreneurship along with explaining the traits for a social entrepreneur. The paper also
explains the concepts like social needs and social innovations from entrepreneurship’s point
of view. Social entrepreneurship has increased its scope and importance in recent years, this
paper also includes both areas as well. At last, how social entrepreneurship can change or
impact on the social setup and social fibre in India and other developed nations specifically at
the bottom of the pyramid level is also underlined in this research paper.

Entrepreneurship is the core force of economic growth; the economic development which
one experiences is just due the prevailing force of entrepreneurship. The commonality
between all the developed nations all around the world is the presence of entrepreneurship.
Economic development is totally based upon the growth of entrepreneurship and more the
entrepreneurship is grown, infrastructure as well as all the indicators of development has also
grown. In very short span of time, government of various states all around the world, have
understood and underlined the importance of entrepreneurship. Thus governments have
started working on the basic ground work/infrastructure required for the systematic
development of entrepreneurship in their respective countries. India also understood the
importance of entrepreneurship and worked a lot in the overall development of
entrepreneurship. The very basic element of overall development including social, can be
contributed to entrepreneurship’s detailed development. For the sake of understanding,
entrepreneurship was first used for business/economic context in 18th century by a French
economist Richard Contillon, who associated entrepreneurship with business risks and
uncertainty bearing. The entrepreneurship has many other types as well; it is divided on
different traits and criteria, one of the criteria being Social. This type of entrepreneurship is
very unique in nature and has different blends of components. The prime objective of social
entrepreneurship stands different than the usual objectives of entrepreneurship; here social
benefits are clubbed with economic benefits. Most of the times, social entrepreneurship is
used in synonymous with social service/work. The similarities are there, but the biggest
difference is existence of profits. In social work, NGOs or social workers only focus on work
which is being done for the poor or deprived section; it is not for profits, but for service. On
the contrary, social entrepreneurship includes profits in social service together and puts non

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personal benefits in focus. The Indian diasporas actually needed something like this where
the society gets maximum of benefits from entrepreneurial traits. Social entrepreneurship is a
very beneficial phenomenon as it addresses the bottom of the pyramid of market by offering
products and services, which are both innovative and cheap. Making the goods available to
deprived section of the market and earning profits from them. The consumers of social
enterprises are very low-income people, who have minimum income but maximum demands,
social entrepreneurs device such a product or services which can address both the

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.

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They also innovate; their innovation is referred as “Social Innovation”. ‘Social entrepreneurs
are not content to just give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have
revolutionised the fishing industry.’

Bill Drayton, CEO, Chair and founder of Ashoka said that In simple terms “Social
entrepreneurs Identify and relentlessly purse opportunities to create sustainable solutions to
social problems continuously innovate, adapt, and learn act boldly, not constrained by
resources currently in hand, and hold them accountable for achieving their predetermined
social impact; along with using resources at their optimum levels, the important thing to note
down is that all characteristics' are similar to economic Entrepreneur.

What Makes Social Entrepreneurship Social?

There is broad agreement that social entrepreneurs and their undertakings are driven by social
goals; that is, the desire to benefit society in some way or ways. This is another way of saying
that the social entrepreneur aims in some way to increase “social value,” i.e. to contribute to
the welfare or well-being in a given human community. Disagreement takes place over the
location social goals must have in the purposes of the entrepreneur or his/her undertaking.
Exclusively social goals and not-for-profit status, at one extreme are those who hold that
some social goal(s) must be the exclusive aim of the social entrepreneur. As social
entrepreneurship scholar Dees puts it, “For social entrepreneurs, the social mission is explicit
and central…. Mission-related impact becomes the central criterion, not wealth creation.
Wealth is just a means to an end for social entrepreneurs. The claim that any wealth
generated is just a means to the social end suggests that financial benefit to the entrepreneur
has no place among the goals of the undertaking. Accordingly, a large body of literature (e.g.
Dees, Emerson and Economy, 2002) locates the concept of social entrepreneurship in the
world of non-for-profit (NFP) organizations. This idea may even be taken to include
associations aimed at delivering some social good or service without engaging in any form of
exchange, i.e. with no “earned income” activities. Anderson and Dees (2002), for instance,
ask the question whether earned income generation, resulting from some form of exchange of
a product or service, is essential to social entrepreneurship. Their answer is emphatic: “No! It
is not. Social entrepreneurship is about finding new and better ways to create and sustain
social value” (192). On this understanding, a scheme to distribute grocery-store leftovers to

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the needy might then—at least as far as its goals and structure go—qualify as social
entrepreneurship. You could find social entrepreneurs inventing ways to deliver shelter or
health or education, without necessarily charging fees or looking for any return from their
beneficiaries or supporting their endeavours with earned income. The contrast is with
“complementary social entrepreneurship,” where an enterprise, which does not in itself
produce social benefits, supports some other activity meant to generate the desired outcomes
(Fowler, 2000). For example, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) not
only supports the foundation of agricultural and credit ventures to empower poor people to
support themselves, it has set up revenue-generating enterprises— the BRAC Printing Press,
BRAC Cold Storage and the BRAC Garments Factories—to generate profits that will support
its core operations.

History of Social Entrepreneurship in India

Numerous cases and settings of social and monetary prohibition have been changed over into
open doors for social business enterprise. Social endeavours (SEs) may not take care of all
the advancement issues in India. In any case, given the right biological system and support
from the state, SEs can change the monetary, social and environmental frameworks for many
Indians, barred from standard open and private division development, employments and pay
openings. This paper contends that this transformative capability of the SEs not just needs the
help of the state, yet in addition approaches to prepare the help. The last requests proper
explanation and support endeavors from the social business people themselves. The present
tightrope walk where numerous promising social advancements what's more, undertakings
fall on the wayside and are not given the space for experimentation, learning and
advancement, can turn into a potential runway for social business enterprise to take-off to
accomplish more extensive and more profound financial and social effects. Required are the
strategy and institutional changes inside the state and inside a scope of related performing
artists in the private and metro space (Villgrow.org 2018) Social enterprises (SE) represent a
fundamental innovation; in their strategies, structures, norms and values they are distinct
from the conventional non-profit organizations (Dart, 2004).

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Social business enterprise is a sort of business activity that goes for taking up a social issue
for achieving a change in the same. The individual who responds to the call is known as a
social business person and he/she utilizes standard of enterprise with the aim of making social
capital and not being basically benefit focused. The point of social business is to advance the
reason for social and natural objectives that have an effect in either in the present or the
circumstances to come. Such business visionaries are for the most part a piece of or related
somehow with some not-for-profit associations (NGO's). In spite of the fact that benefit
making is additionally as part of this idea however it may not be the sole reason for the
association.

Andrew Mawson worked widely upon the idea of social business and stretched out the same
to achieve change in the network structure. He additionally established the framework of the
Bow focus in east London. For this he was presented upon the peerage of Lord Mawson and
he works for creating associations for recovery work started by him. The terms, Social
Entrepreneur and Social Entrepreneurship, developed into basic speech in the mid 1980s,
when (Bill Drayton2002) distinguished this process as a type of business enterprise, which
attempted to discover answers for fluctuated issues of mankind, particularly poor people and
the minimized, in the entrepreneurial way. The 2006 Nobel Prize for Peace was granted to
Prof. Mohamed Yunus, a Bangladeshi investor, who reformed the economy of the
destitution-stricken society of his nation, with his development called Microcredit. In the
reference for the honor, it was commented, "financial security is the establishment for quiet
living". At exhibit, microcredit is embraced as a method for advancement the whole way
across the world. (David Bornstein2007), a writer with various books amazingly on the
subject of social advancement, had composed his first book, "The Prize of a Dream" on Prof.
Yunus and his development of microcredit.

Challenges Faced By Social Entrepreneurship In India

Social business enterprise has a major test to assume the part of changing the general public
structure in the social segment, by embracing a mission to make and maintain social esteem
(not simply private esteem, Recognizing and tirelessly seeking after new chances to serve that
mission, Engaging in a procedure of ceaseless development, adjustment, and picking up,

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acting strongly without being constrained by assets right now close by, and showing elevated
responsibility to the bodies electorate served and for the results made. Social division
pioneers will represent these attributes in various routes and to various degrees. The
significant test that Social Entrepreneurship faces today is the meaning of the objectives and
the targets. Dissimilar to the corporate area where the accomplishments are unmistakably
characterized and parts distinguished, it's only from time to time to be found in the social
division. Associations like SEWA are substance to give work to the ladies in discouraged
zones of India, yet don't have any objectives as far as the quantity of utilized ladies or the
normal pay rates, if these parameters can be defended as important objectives in any case.
Social entrepreneurship, like any other branch of social entrepreneurship also faces
challenges. All the challenges are either controllable or non-controllable, but all the
challenges are manageable. Social entrepreneurship is slightly and somehow fundamentally
distinctive to economic entrepreneurship, so are the challenges of social entrepreneurship. In
India particularly social entrepreneurship is subjected to many challenges. These challenges
are preventing the growth and spread of social entrepreneurship in India as against to other
regions and nations, who have made the social entrepreneurship a mission. The interesting
thing to note down is this; all the challenges which are faced by social entrepreneurship are
very different in nature. These all are concerned with mindset rather than based on some
physical attribute. People are mentally blocked towards the social entrepreneurship in India.
Some of the prominent challenges faced by social entrepreneurship in India are given below-

1. Confusion with social work- Social entrepreneurship is mostly in India is confused with
social work, hence it is unable to make a mark as an individual entity in India. This is starting of
challenge for social entrepreneurship.

2. The problem of creativity- The next problem which is faced by social entrepreneurship is
lack of creativity regarding thinking great ideas for betterment of society and earning profits
as well. This fusion is very hard to think and implemented particularly in India.

3. Arranging finance- One of the challenges for entrepreneurship in India remains lack of
financial sources. The social entrepreneurs offering a unique product and set of services make
it even harder to get financial aid from the established financial institutes. This is a very dire
situation and a considerable reason for the under development of social entrepreneurship in
India.

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4. Shortage of talented/dedicated workforce- This is a very unique challenge faced by
social entrepreneurship exclusively. Generally people get into jobs to get a handsome salary
and perks, but with social entrepreneurship this becomes a bit hard. Since the prime objective
of social entrepreneurship is to get social gains/benefits rather than personal gains/benefits.
Under these condition it is very hard to get people to work for the firm.

5. Setting and communicating value objectively- The important challenge of social

entrepreneurship is to setting and communicating values clearly. Usually what happens is,
value may differ from society to society based upon their exclusive needs. But social
entrepreneurs have to set common values, which can be communicated easily.

6. Elevating the individuals- The most prominent and visible challenge before the social
entrepreneurship is to elevate people from their current place of standing by making positive
and substantial opportunities. In this process each individual must be catered to their
individual requirement rather than as a society as a whole. This poses a different type of
challenge for social entrepreneurs.

7. Lack of an ethical framework- Since social entrepreneurs are very concerned about the
societal changes and upliftment of people, sometimes they adopt a less ethical way of
conducting their business. This challenge is very rarely visible yet exists in some extreme
cases in India. Since society to society the ethical parameter shifts.

8. The commercial assumption- Social entrepreneurship does not take commercial viability
or assumption as their priority. This is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to
commercial assumption of facts and ideas. Since socially things may be accepted but
financially/commercially they may not. This creates a dilemma for social entrepreneurship in
India. Commercial non viability also makes firms less motivated for the getting in to social
benefiting projects.

9. Lack of evidence- Unlike economic entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship has fewer

evidences of changes they have pioneered in society. Such changes are very hard to keep a
track of, as people move from one place to another frequently for several reasons.

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Measures To Face Challenges Effectively

There is no doubt that social entrepreneurship is subject to many challenges and these
challenges are growing with time and dynamics of society. Social entrepreneurs have to take
care and keep note of tiny details to face the prevailing (above mentioned) challenges.
Although the list of challenges faced by social entrepreneurship is not completed, some other
challenges are there apart from the listed ones. The important preposition is, how to
overcome the challenges which are faced by social entrepreneurship in India. There are few
steps/measures which can be practiced to face the prevailing challenges of social
entrepreneurship in India-

1. Proper training and development institutions- Government must open some specialized
councils and institutions for systematic development of social entrepreneurship. Some of the
institutions are working in the area of economic entrepreneurship; some must be opened for
social entrepreneurship as well.

2. Inclusion of social entrepreneurship in course syllabus- One of the most effective way
of disseminating awareness towards social entrepreneurship is to include a paper/subject on
the same at higher education level.

3. Creation of mass awareness- Steps should be taken to make the mass aware towards the
social entrepreneurship, so that people do not get confused between social entrepreneurship
and social work. Media, social media, other vehicles can be deployed for the same.

4. Providing infrastructure and basic facilities- Government and other stake holders must
work on the basic facilities to the social entrepreneurship. These facilities can attract people
towards becoming social entrepreneurs, thus the spread of social entrepreneurship will
increase to multi folds.

5. Social entrepreneurship development programmes- Like entrepreneurship development

programmes, social entrepreneurship programmes must be organized time to time to help
social entrepreneurship. Such organization will help in increasing the overall motivation of
social entrepreneurs.

6. Funding to social entrepreneurship- If the funding issue of social entrepreneurship is

resolved, the maximum level of challenges faced by social entrepreneurship can be managed
properly.

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7.Government projects should be given to social entrepreneurs- Governments of several
states time to time plan different programmes for rural and semi urban areas. If the priority of such
programme allocation is given to social entrepreneurs, they will flourish in no time. Government
machineries and other sophisticated mechanism do not understand the social issues more accurately
but social entrepreneurship does understand the social issues/inequalities better.

8. Awards and public felicitation- Time to time on proper and prestigious platforms social
entrepreneurs must be publicly awarded for their exception/distinct contribution as a social
entrepreneur.

Case Studies

VAATSALYA HEALTHCARE

While 70% of India's populace lives in semi-urban and rustic regions, dominant part of the
human services offices are in urban/metro territories and not available to these families.
Vaatsalya is crossing over this hole by building and overseeing doctor's facilities/centers in
semi-urban and provincial zones and bringing medicinal services administrations where it is
required most. Its vision is to change the personal satisfaction in India by bringing moderate,
productive and amicable social insurance inside the span of the normal individual. Vaatsalya
as of now has seven clinics crosswise over Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Vaatsalya
Hospital, is a honor winning social undertaking, concentrated on building a system of doctor's
facilities in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns in India. serving a sum of 500+ beds. Vaatsalya is the
biggest healing center system of its kind in India with a mission to construct an across the
country system of doctor's facilities crosswise over Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. While 70% of
India is living in semi-urban and country territories, 80% of human services offices are
situated in urban/metro zones.

UJJIVAN

As a MFI, Ujjivan's IT foundation is thought to be the best in India and this has helped the
organization to rise as the pioneer in MFI advances. Ujjivan's ability to investigate and try
different things with new IT developments has empowered the organization to effectively
convey monetary administrations productively to clients throughout the years, while always

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enhancing the accommodation of exchanges by means of new innovation. By and by, IBM's
cloud-based Virtualized Server Recovery (VSR) arrangement gives Ujjivan an oversaw,
round-the-clock arrangement intended to help application progression and lessens operational
expense and information misfortune. The utilization of handheld gadgets encourages the
execution of exchanges at the client's doorstep both in on the web and disconnected modes.
Further, the need to catch more information and build up new procedures to meet
administrative necessities is met by IBM Filenet, the strongest programming for DMS,
Content Management, Workflow and Process Management. With all the best MFI
innovations set up today, Ujjivan has the ability to process 4 lakh credits multi month which
is at standard with a portion of the main banks in India. Looking forward at the future and
changing into a Small Finance Bank (SFB), Ujjivan has united an amazing troupe of world
class IT majors. The best of the breed innovation arrangements suppliers for the up and
coming bank IT framework incorporate Finacle Core Banking Solution from Infosys, Oracle
Financials, IBM Middleware et cetera. As an organization whose tasks will keep on
remaining client driven, Ujjivan will utilize the CRM Solution from CRMNext to guarantee
that each client appreciates best-in-class benefit. One of RBI's commands to Ujjivan post the
conceding of the on a basic level endorsement is that the organization ought to grow
administrations to the unbanked country zones. Handheld gadgets and portable saving money
will assume a tremendous part in making such administration a plausibility. Further, Ujjivan
has cooperated with I-Exceed to utilize its Mobile Unified Platform to guarantee versatility in
handheld gadgets.

Conclusion

Social entrepreneurship can change the face of society in India, there have been many such
examples and projects which run under the banner of social entrepreneurship and proved to
be life altering for people of that vicinity. In India especially social entrepreneurship has
better prospects as the social problems are at full swing here. Social entrepreneurship is a
unique combination of entrepreneurial traits and philanthropy. In social entrepreneurship
products and services are designed to make maximum social impact along with making
considerable profits for the firm. Here the working area of firm is typically the area/region
which are generally ignored by big firm of economic entrepreneurship. In a way the product
and service offerings of social entrepreneurship is quite unique and caters the societal
requirement better then economic requirements. This is an exact situation of entrepreneurial

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traits being implemented for a social cause/problem. Other than that all the basic elements of
entrepreneurship are similar to its parent entrepreneurship. If the government and other stake
holders can work out the challenges of social entrepreneurship effectively, then social
entrepreneurship is beyond any doubt is the most important tool which has the full capacity to
change the very face of society in India. The study has the following findings-

Social entrepreneurship is a best combination of social service and entrepreneurial skills to

look for social problems. Social entrepreneurship has the capacity to socially innovate. These
innovations are the exact and creative answer to social issues/problems which are prevailing
in India. There are many examples of social enterprises which are working in India and
changing the very face of society in India by their unique offerings, which involves the local
expertise to create social values. The growth of social entrepreneurship has reflected upon
the employment and infusion of skills among people at the bottom level. The best example in
this regard is barefoot college of Rajasthan. The level of education and healthcare has also
increased due to social enterprises and their growth in recent times in India. Social
entrepreneurship is facing a lot of challenges in India and these challenges are very evident as
the growth of social entrepreneurship is very low as compared to the other regions in
developed nations. Government is slowly realizing the worth and impacts of social
entrepreneurship in India and taking proper actions to increase the aptitude of people towards
social entrepreneurship. Since all the social entrepreneurship ventures are set in such areas
where economic entrepreneurship do not wish to operate, thus we can say that the social
upliftment of those backward areas are made due to such ventures only. The best of such
incident can be exemplified in Grameen Bank’s endeavour. The study further underlines that
the attitude towards the social entrepreneurship is growing that is despite of all the challenges
which they face. Finance has been identified as one of the most important element in the
growth of social entrepreneurship in India. Government is making special arrangement for it.
Some venture capitalists, angel investors, crowd funding etc. are being used for filling the
funding gaps. It also observed during the study that social entrepreneurship is subject to
challenge and those challenges can be addressed by proper and substantial planning and
measure, which are mentioned in the research paper.

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