In the News
An Entrepreneur Speaks
Developednation.org; Dec 4, 2007
By Ashutosh Bhardwaj
Summary/Excerpts
You are not likely to find many IITians, armed with a PhD degree from US, commenting, “IIT Kharagpur motto says—In Service of the nation. But which nation it is—USA or some IT and Finance companies.” Equally unlikely is to find a Schwab Social Entrepreneur denying its concept altogether,“Once you put a term like Social Entrepreneur, people consider you an NGO, a grant based body. I am in this business since 1994. I have never taken grants.”
Harish Hande, Schwab Social Entrepreneur 2007 is apparently angry. But why? And he replies, “Regularly I meet people who praise me that they are impressed by my work and they will also take up same kind of business once they make some money. I get furious at it. Socially responsive business is something they want to do after retirement.”
As Managing Director, SELCO, an enterprise working for energy solutions, he has mapped entire Karnataka. With extremely localized team, he serves energy related needs of the poor. Why localized staff? “Because a local person can easily understand the lingua and needs of local community.” No surprisingly, he credits this award to his team of technicians and local staff.
He was in Taj Palace, Delhi to receive this award. Read an absorbing interview with him.
You have had an illustrious background of IIT and later a PhD from US. You could have gone into more commercial ventures. What prompted you to opt for becoming a social entrepreneur?
I didn’t opt for becoming a social entrepreneur. I believe that’s how businesses should be. Why do we segregate entrepreneurship into social & commercial? SELCO sits with the end client, understands his needs and accordingly focuses on energy and equitable services. Isn’t that each entrepreneur suppose to behave?
You are turning the concept of social entrepreneur upside down.
Absolutely. Why do we segregate entrepreneurship? It’s like we have segregated SCs & STs.
It’s probably that since some entrepreneurs are uncomfortable to do business in a socially responsive way; therefore, they have created this divide of social & commercial.
How do you find present business in India? Is it socially sensitive?
Business in India has gone into hard core consumerism. 8–9% growth we are talking about caters to a small population. Rural infrastructure & situation have not improved. You have not created market linkages to rural areas. And we are talking of rural markets. Rather than buying something from them, people focus on selling their products to them.
We are creating these one-sided linkages. You need to increase their income & buy products from them. You are selling them shampoos without giving them any choice to spend their money on-shampoo, electricity or cooking.
People claim rural India is a huge market, which is a very vulgar term. It’s always that poor buy from the rich & not vice versa.
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