Scaling Social Enterprise in India: What’s holding us back?

Many interesting and innovative social enterprise solutions have been springing up in India. However, large scale change is yet to be achieved. With insights from our panelists that have worked at various levels within the Indian social enterprise arena, we hope to understand what the constraints and limitations to scale are, and how we can try to overcome them.

The following are the panelists:

	Dr. Pradip Kumar Sarmah Executive Director, Center for Rural Development, Rickshaw Bank Dr. Pradip Kumar Sarmah is the founder and Executive Director of the “Centre for Rural Development" (CRD), a non-profit based in Guwahati, Assam, India, focussed on rural development. A Veterinarian by training, Dr. Sarmah’s initial efforts with CRD were geared towards introducing commercial breeding methods to the rural poor with the help of locally trained “para-vets,” to increase the overall productivity and income-generating capacity of small farmers. Later, in an attempt to address the plight of rural unskilled workers who were working as rickshaw pullers, CRD implemented the “Rickshaw Bank,” an innovative program designed to provide a means of self-employment to the poor and the marginalized rickshaw community. The central idea is the issue of an asset-based loan to the rickshaw puller for which installments are repayable on a daily repayment plan with one-year duration. Full and timely repayment leads to ownership of the rickshaw being handed over to the puller. This concept is in contradistinction to the existing practice in which an equivalent amount of a daily rental fee is paid to rent the vehicle, possibly for the lifetime of activity, with no scope for ownership. The innovation lies in its unique style of service delivery and design that addresses underlying causes of poverty through asset based entrepreneurship development. Since its inception in Assam in November 2004, the Rickshaw Bank concept has been replicated in multiple states including Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Tripura. For his continuous effort in the development community, Dr. Sarmah has won numerous regional, national and international awards, including an Ashoka Fellowship in January 2001. Top
	Zenia Tata Executive Director, IDE USA Zenia Tata has served as executive director of IDE USA since July 2005. Originally from Bombay, India, she brings more than 17 years experience working with non-profits in the U.S. and India. Prior to her work at IDE Ms. Tata was Executive Director of a 24-hour crisis center for five years and before relocating to Colorado, she lived in Alaska for five years, where she developed and ran rehabilitative programs for severely abused children and worked extensively with Native Alaskan tribes on child welfare issues. In India, she worked for nonprofit organizations in Bombay, teaching adult literacy programs in urban slums and coordinating medical aid for children forced to work in the sex trade. Ms. Tata’s interests include hiking, traveling and scuba diving. She is also an active volunteer, most recently working with a medical response team as a grief and trauma counselor immediately after the tsunami in South Asia. Top
	Nancy Barry President & CEO, NBA-Enterprise Solutions to Poverty Nancy Barry is President and CEO of NBA-Enterprise Solutions to Poverty. Launched in 2006, ESP mobilizes leading companies and emerging entrepreneurs to build business models that engage low-income producers as suppliers, distributors and consumers of products that build income and assets. Nancy is recognized as a global leader in building finance and enterprise systems that work for the majority. She was President of Women's World Banking from 1990 to 2006, expanding the WWB network to reach over 23 million low-income entrepreneurs and shaping microfinance worldwide. From 1975 to 1990, Ms. Barry worked at the World Bank, pioneering small enterprise programs and leading work on industry, trade and finance. Ms. Barry has a B.A. in economics from Stanford University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and has received various awards, including recognition as one of Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 2004 and 2005, and as one of U.S. News and World Report’s America’s 20 Best Leaders in 2006. Top
	Abha Joshi-Ghani (Moderator) Manager, Urban Development Department, World Bank Abha Joshi-Ghani is Manager, Urban Development, in the Finance, Economics and Urban Development Department of the World Bank. She oversees the World Bank's work on Urban Policy and the Knowledge and Learning practice of the Bank in the Urban Sector. Her Department provides policy and operational advice to the Bank?s Regional departments and clients on key urban themes such as urban housing and land, urban planning, management and municipal finance, urban environment, cities and climate change, urban poverty, cultural heritage and sustainable tourism development and local and city economic development. She is also leading the work on the Bank?s Urban Strategy. Ms. Joshi-Ghani joined the World Bank in 1992 and has worked primarily on infrastructure finance and urban development. Her experience in the Bank includes countries in South Asia, Africa, East Asia, Middle East and North Africa. She holds an M.Phil from Oxford University, UK. Top