The weekly wrap: The top 10 social entrepreneurship stories from the week that went by
Our weekly wrap brings you the most interesting and engrossing stories from the world of social entrepreneurship. This week contains stories Google’s Rs 12 crore pledge to Indian non-profits that use tech for social good, a Brazilian inventor who makes light using no electricity and Datahalli, India’s first village BPO to employ an all-woman team
Enjoy the read.
1) Meet Alfredo Moser, the ‘bottle light inventor’ who is proud to be poor:
How can you light up a room with no electricity and no bulbs? Moser, a Brazilian, has found a way using nothing more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach.
His innovation, that uses the power of refraction, is spreading throughout the world, and is expected to be in a million homes by early 2014.
2) India leads the developing world in solar energy development:
Thanks to the Indian government’s resolve through the 2010 National Solar Mission, in becoming more self-reliant in energy, the country topped the list of developing countries in market potential for solar energy development.
There is many a slip between the cup and the lip, and the government’s target of installing 20 GW of solar power by 2022, or of reaching the interim target of 10 GW by 2017, might remain a pipedream if it does not execute.
3) Pulse Savings uses the power of mobile to put more food on the table of the poor:
A 5-student startup, from Hult International Business School, called Pulse Savings is using the power of mobile phones to boost the savings of the poor and thereby help them put more food on the table. They have recently concluded a pilot study in two slums on Ahmedabad, with 25 women participants, that provided proof to their concept. On an average the women have saved Rs 360
4) Datahalli – a village of data – empowering its women through rural BPO:
As part of our women entrepreneur series we look at Datahalli, a rural BPO, was started as a project by a corporation and is a self sustained social enterprise today. It was started by JSW Foundation and was the first women-only rural BPO at Vijaynagar, Bellary. In Kannada it means the ‘village of data’.
As part of the CSR initiative of JSW Foundation, Datahalli started off in 2005 with the intention to give back to the society, especially the women in rural India. The aim was to leverage and capitalize on the latent potential of educated girls in rural India in order to eradicate poverty and empower women. Prior to the setting up of the BPO, rural girls with all the right education and skills were either used for household chores or just married off.
5) Google to give away Rs 12 crore to 4 Indian tech-focused non-profits:
As part of its ‘Global Impact Challenge’ initiative, search giant Google plans to give away Rs 12 crore (about $2 million) to 4 non-profits, in India that are using technology for social good. India is the second country that Google is launching the challenge after it was debuted at the UK in March, this year.
“On the eve of India’s independence day, we’re celebrating the spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship of the world’s largest democracy by spotlighting the best local nonprofits that are using technology to make the world better. Today we’re launching the Google Impact Challenge in India, inviting Indian nonprofits to tell us how they’d use technology to improve people’s lives,” wrote Nikesh Arora, senior vice president and chief business officer in a post on Google’s official blog. Besides the Rs 3 crore, winners will also receive technical assistance from Google.
6) Social impact bonds are a new innovation: here’s a lucid explanation to understand how they work:
Social impact bonds (SIBs) made their debut in the UK, as a financial instrument involving the government, non-profits and the taxpayer. SIBs have now made their way to the US and India; and many other countries that are evaluating their usage.
This article breaks down what constitutes an SIB.
The Guardian in this article as always as pertinent questions. If you decide you want to invest your money in social enterprise, how are you going about it? The truth is you would find it difficult. Even though there are many really exciting investments available to the general public, it is virtually impossible to find out what there is to buy and how to go about buying it. The result? Social investment is only open to the truly committed – the hard core.
This article explores how social investing can be made easier for the individual investor.
8) Social impact bonds come to India:
Social impact bonds (SIBs) have been hailed as one of the most important financial innovations that support social entrepreneurship. So it’s a welcome sign that the first experiment in SIBs is taking place in India at Sirohi, Rajasthan.
Educate Girls has embarked on a novel payment-by-results initiative across 200 government schools. “The Sirohi pilot has the potential to change service delivery and implementation standards across the social sector in India,” says Husain, executive director of Educate Girls.
9) 8 defining moments in the India’s social entrepreneurship journey:
As India celebrates its 67th year of freedom, Perzen Patel from Ennovent writes a riveting piece on the key moments in history of social entrepreneurship, in India starting with the birth of Amul.
This is a hugely enjoyable read.
10) Corporates wanting to get into social enterprise will need time and resources:
The term corporate social enterprise activity can be used to describe a situation where a company engages in a project using its core commercial skills or intellectual capacity, not to deliver a profit, but instead explicit social or environmental outcomes. Over time a strategically planned and executed corporate social enterprise (CSE) should also be of commercial value to the business.
This article talks about how GSK, Save the Children and Danone waded their way through the often times difficult waters of making CSR work.