Social Enterprise rise in India
Today's article talks about the increasing number of Social Enterprises in India.
In a nuteshell, the article talks about the increasing number of people, especially students, are attracted to the idea of a social enterprise. India is still a developing country, and especially with it's large population of 1.22 billion (indiaonlinepages, n.d, para. 1) shortage of housing remain an issue. From the article, it gives an examples of how social enterprise can help solve issues like shortage of housing. The Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions at India School of Business, came up with a model that "yielded an internal rate of return of 100 per cent, despite the project’s relatively slim profit margins, while keeping costs to homebuyers controlled." (Neil Munshi, 2012, para.7) In addition, the article also discuss about how social enterprise is being seen as an attractive model, as it is not a charity, but a business
In my opinion, this article highlights all the attractive points of a social enterprise; the fact that it not just helps the people, but it is also a business to earn a living. Nowadays when people are more conscious about helping others, social enterprise can be an alternative to help others in need, and yet be sustainable at the same time. It is also seen as an attractive option to students in India, they can not only escape poverty through starting a business, they can help to spread social entrepreneurship among their friends and peers around.
Personally, I feel that it is important to let people know about the benefits of a social enterprise on a continuous basis, which can be a solution to help tackle social issues. A perfect example is as shown above, when investors can earn money through building houses, and yet the houses are at an affordable rate. This also intrigued my curiosity, whether social enterprises for housing would be able to succeed in Singapore. Housing prices in Singapore are getting more and more expensive, and has become one of the few subject of debates for the past few years. Although many people in Singapore are able to afford a house, there are still some people, especially elderly that are homeless. Maybe having a social enterprise for housing in Singapore, will help houses to be more affordable, and provide those homeless people with have a roof over their heads.
References:
Indiaonlinepages (n.d) India's Population Retrieved 3rd November, 2012 from:
http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html
Neil Munshi (29 October, 2012) Social Enterprise rises in India, Retrieved 3rd November, 2012 from:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/9fb2ee08-e7aa-11e1-8686-00144feab49a.html#axzz2AhWpWfl3
To think like a social entrepreneur means you gotta identify your market opportunities. In this sense I guess the opportunities we need to "exploit" are the prevalence in social issues. This makes India, and many other developing countries very ideal locations for social enterprises. We tend to think that more SEs should start up in such countries to be earn more, but I guess sometimes in our own little red dot there are rising social issues waiting to erupt. What you have mentioned about the rising costs of houses sparked a thinking thread. It is true when houses prices increases, many of us would find it difficult to afford, and might cause us to downgrade to smaller properties. What about those elderly or people who are living on minimum wage, where would they be housed in the future. As it is, they are already struggling to pay for their basic necessities like you've mentioned. By having foresight, we might be able to amply prepare before the problem gets too big to handle.
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