Growth Engine. Emerging Tiger. Brain of Asia. These are just some of the names India has been rightfully called in the last few years. Along with China, India has been rapidly changing the way developed countries have traditionally viewed Asia. However to ensure India emerges the winner in this race and be viewed as the next economic superpower, it has to urgently deal with four major issues – Poverty, Unemployment, Education and Healthcare.
One may debate this as a chicken-and-egg problem. But I strongly believe that education is at the crux of this vicious cycle. Due to lack of adequate education, the knowledge base of the population never gets a chance to become informed, knowledgeable and employable. This restricts job opportunities available to them thereby increasing unemployment. Lack of jobs also means lack of enough income in the hands of poor people. And without enough monetary resources, these people cannot invest in fulfilling their basic necessities like food, shelter and clothing. In parallel, healthcare spend takes a backseat for want of fulfilling basic needs first. Thus, poor people get pushed into a vicious loop from which they probably can never escape in the short term. Over time, most of them lose hope of escaping from this cycle and this makes the situation worse, possibly also increasing the crime rate.
To break this cycle, we need to identify the points of intervention. And the thrust is needed not in phases or tackling one issue at a time, but rather in one giant step. This is because given the volatile political environment of India, any one institution, government or individual cannot eradicate even one issue in its tenure. The lag between action and reaction, or between effort and consequence, is very short. So by the time a government introduces reforms to tackle one issue, it may find itself voted out of power; sometimes even before the end of its term! Such is the power of opposing forces in the society, who cannot look at things in the long run.
But if an all-encompassing program is launched to deal with all these four issues simultaneously, I believe change would be brought about in a much better and swifter manner. No doubt, it will be tough . But only such a bitter pill can combat four deadly diseases in a single shot. The catch is – such an action can only be initiated by a potent change agent, like an outstanding leader or maybe a social entrepreneur. He is one who recognizes a real need for development in the society and uses either his existing enterprise or creates a new company to tackle the issue. For him, it is about developing a sustainable social innovation in a creative manner. The rationale behind the success of social entrepreneurship lies in the fact that it combines business with development. Through it an entrepreneur can channelize his energy and his resources into developing innovative solutions that tackle the development gap in the society.
Social entrepreneurship is a step ahead of pure charity done by NGOs. It combines the passion of the entrepreneur for bringing about a social change with professional management, innovation, and more efficiently utilized funds. The key to effective social entrepreneurship thus lies in building and maintaining effective partnerships with society. Such a partnership is based on the fact that the entrepreneur promises to develop the neglected, un-served and under developed section of the society and in turn gets business for his enterprise. In the process, social entrepreneurs play the role of ‘change agents‘ rather than just ‘change managers‘ in the society.
An off-shoot of social entrepreneurship is the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility or ‘corporate philanthropy’. I am rather amused whenever I read or hear about any debate on corporate social responsibility, for I have always believed that it is a ‘must-have‘ rather than a ‘nice-to-have‘ responsibility. Yes, I too believe that the aim of business is to create shareholder value. But this cannot be done in isolation with the society, whose resources are used by the same business. By supporting socially worthy causes, CSR implies a much bigger (and prettier, if I may say!) picture than pure philanthropy. It encompasses anything that impacts and develops people and the quality of their lives. The keyword in CSR is partnership, whereby the company seeks to develop the society, with the ultimate goal of making them self sufficient and competent. I personally believe CSR to be a ‘very’ long term strategy through which the company seeks to shape the future of the society in which it exists.
Moreover, the current business scenario demands managers to manage double or triple bottom lines, of which social development is a key constituent. There is a silent but mutually reciprocating-and-benefiting contract between business and society. Both are duty-bound, as well as dependent on each other for opportunities and gains. Hence, the very fact that society enables businesses to earn profits is an indication that they also expect something in return. By integrating development as a part of the vision and mission statement and the culture, I believe that it can introduce sustainable development of not only the company but the society as a whole.
If I were to support a cause, it will have to be education. Empowering the masses with knowledge would enable them to get jobs and equip them with sufficient weight in their voices to present their opinions to the right decision making bodies. Education would also provide more opportunities and increase acceptance of such people in the society. All these changes would make people less vulnerable to negative societal forces that oppose such reforms. With a developmental plan hinged on the back of education, I propose to attack the root cause of poverty in India.
From another viewpoint, if I were to advise as a consultant, I think my most urgent recommendation would be to run the government like a public company. There is a critical need to forge partnership with the private sector and the academe, both to encourage flow of funds and to bring in professionalism and a correct thinking for tackling development issues. It is a well known fact that our government’s coffers are flush with funds. However the proper utilization of that is not happening. Given the quantum of funds available to the government, it should seek to recruit fresh-thinking MBA graduates and task them with the job of development. With courses like CSR, Social entrepreneurship, Corporate Governance under their belt, the thinking of such graduates has changed dramatically in recent years.
Speaking from my own experience, such people are very keen to work for the betterment and development of our country. But the current way of working of the Indian government, which is riddled with bureaucracy and corruption, makes them look in the other direction. That is why the lure of plush corporate jobs, salary and perks drives them away from the world of developmental work, which doesn’t have any glamor or money to offer.
This type of revolution again needs change in one drastic sweep, whereby state governments should bring in young graduates and replace their aging bureaucrats. And I see no reason why the government cannot offer us salaries competitive to multinational companies. For a fresh graduate who is looking at a career full of ‘responsibility, challenge, fast growth and diversity’, I think a job to develop and uplift one’s immediate society, state and country cannot match even the most promising investment bank or consulting posting. After all, in the latter case, one can only be a part of a change which anyways would soon be forgotten, if at all it is noticed by all. But changing the face of the country is a change that is lasting and permanent and shall be fondly remembered by coming generations.
I would personally feel more proud telling my grand children that I was the person involved in changing the face of India through education. I sincerely hope I can create a social enterprise model to do this soon.
(This is a guest post written for ‘ISB iDiya for IndiChange’. More details can be found here http://www.isb.edu/idiya/)