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That’s what social entrepreneurship is about creating business models revolving around low-cost products and services to resolve social inequities. And the realisation that social progress and profit aren’t mutually exclusive has led to many social ventures taking root in India as well.

Examples of successful social projects like Amul or SEWA were few and far between. However, with the slowdown taking the shine off urban, higher-income target markets, organizations focusing on ‘bottom of the pyramid’ audiences have become a reality. But the days of easy funding are over. Given the employment squeeze, it would be natural for aspiring social entrepreneurs to stick to their secure jobs instead. Surprisingly, they continue to launch social enterprises with a vengeance.

In May 2008, 27-year old Rajnish Sinha and his IIM-Kozhikode batchmate Siva Cotipalli started Bangalore-based DhanaX. A fascination with microfinance and the idea of clubbing it with person to person (P2P) lending led them to quit their jobs to launch DhanaX, a platform where people contribute small amounts online as loans. NGOs take up the task of disbursing these loans to needy communities in their areas of operation.

Interest is charged at 24%, of which Dhanax keeps approximately 6%. This model has worked in other countries as well. So far, DhanaX has helped its four partner NGOs acquire loans of Rs 20 lakh. While yet to recover their initial investment of Rs 25 lakh, Sinha is confident of success. “In future, we may partner with wealth management companies or treasury departments of large corporations to keep the pipeline running,” he says.

Richa Pandey, a marketing MBA, was a media sales professional in New Delhi for eight years. But her calling was rural India, partly because of her roots—her grandfather was a farmer in Uttar Pradesh. “The retail and BPO sectors were creating job opportunities in a big way. I zeroed in on vocational training for rural youth in these areas,” Pandey recalls.

In October 2007, she approached the Rural Technology Business Incubator (RTBI) at IIT-Madras with a business plan outline. “The RTBI platform helped add magnitude to my plan,” Pandey says, adding, “Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala assisted me in launching a pilot programme in three districts of Tamil Nadu under the banner of eJeevika.” Around the same time, she got a lucrative offer to head the marketing division of a large media firm. Pandey turned it down and continued focusing on designing course content and online training programmes in three areas: retail sales, data entry and security services.

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Dr. V. V. S. K. Prasad holds B.Com. from Andhra University, M.Com. (Accounting & Finance) from Acharya Nagarjuna University and MBA (Finance) from Ambedkar Open University. He also finished his Doctoral Research on "Leadership Styles & Organizational Effectiveness" from Ranchi University in 1992. Since then, he has been in teaching profession. He is currently serving as Professor & Head - MBA at The Hindu College, Machilipatnam.