The weekly wrap: The top social entrepreneurship stories from the week that went by
1) Impact investing: Unleashing institutional capital
The interest surrounding impact investing has not yet translated into a substantial increase in the amount of capital deployed. But that may be changing. This article throws light on how that might happen.
2) Are social businesses the way forward?
As more young professionals are now considering self employment as a career alternative, many among them are turning to social start-ups with an aim to contribute to the greater good. India has the potential to become one of the hubs for global social entrepreneurship. Considering the realities with the economy and jobless growth, social enterprises might help withe how to successfully deal with the future.
3) Let’s promote social enterprise and get young people into work
A similar story to the one before, but this one is from the UK, where the economy is perhaps worse off than in India. This post argues why social enterprises could be a way to get young people employed in a hard economy.
4) Nuns With a New Creed: Environmentalism
The environment is having a tough time. These Catholic nuns have decided to do something about it. From a variety of orders—Dominican, Mercy and Passionist they are digging gardens and offsetting carbon. Learn more about them.
5) Nitin Desai: Towards 2050 – social protection
India will have to learn from more advanced economies to design social safety nets that are both effective and sustainable. In 2050, India will be a capitalist economy with the bulk of the economy under private sector management. The goals of poverty elimination and social protection would no longer be reachable by deploying vast amounts of budgetary resources and public sector benevolence. A much more structured, policy-oriented approach that combines capitalism and social justice will be required. Read on for more.
6) How can cows be good savings vehicles?
MOST people do not save enough. That is because humans are myopic: it is more pleasurable to buy an extravagant present for a loved one today than to squirrel money away in a savings account for tomorrow. For many people in developing countries, myopia is especially painful. Economists would like the world’s poorest people to save more: with higher savings, the argument goes, there would be more investment in education and healthcare. But in practice, saving is difficult. Why do some economists now argue that cows are the answer to the savings conundrum?
7) The disturbing trend of women shrinking in both the rural and urban workforce
The labor force participation rate (LFPR) of rural women has been declining from 31% in 1983 to 24% in 2012, and roughly stable for urban women from 18% to 18%. These numbers are for “principal status”. Principal status (PS) is defined as the main activity undertaken by an individual for more than six months in the year. If we take into account subsidiary status (activities taken up for less than six months), the rural LFPR dropped from 37% to 30% and the urban one from 21% to 20%. Learn more…
8) Bharat Tutors is changing the way students and tutors connect in India
Supplemental educational services, such as tutoring, can be a great way for a student to overcome their struggle with a particular subject or area of learning. In general, it increases mastery of academic skills, improves confidence, decreases drop out rates and students can benefit from instruction tailored to their specific learning styles and needs. When Vivek Singh, founder of BharatTutors.com, found out that Indian local tuition-bureaus were charging hefty amounts of money, he came up with the idea to build an online platform especially focused on connecting students and tutors online around the country.