SOCIAL BUSINESS .....In view of MD. YUNUS

World of opportunities without poverty  

Md. Yunus

Muhammad Yunus (Bengali born 28 June 1940) is banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As a professor of economics, he developed the concepts of micro-credit and micro-finance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through micro-credit to create economic and social development from below". Yunus has received several other national and international honors . He was awarded the U.S.Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, and presented with it at a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on 17 April 2013.

In 2008, he was rated #2 in Foreign Policy magazine's list of the 'Top 100 Global Thinkers'.

In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. He is a member of the advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in Bangladesh. He published several books related to his finance work. He is a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation, which support micro-credit.

Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998 by American philanthropist Ted Turner’s $1 billion gift to support UN causes.

His works :-

He is famous for his Idea and implementation of micro-credit and micro-financial structure of Grameen bank .

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea.

From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.

His speech in Amory University

In his speech he explained how he developed the micro-finance model in the poor villages of Bangladesh which eventually got replicated all over the world. He set up a system of Social business whose main purpose was not profit maximization but serving the most pressing problems of the society.He explained , how simple non collateral based loans can transform the lives of poor. He visualized " we have created a society that does not allow opportunities for those poor people to take care of themselves because we have denied them those opportunities".

Poverty -a survey

Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.Poverty refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live. Most similar problem that poor peoples face in current scenario of the banking system is that the don't get money for their  business and farming .Its because the banks are made so as to get profit out of the loans sanctioned and they believe in materialistic way of dealing with clients rather than socially helping them out.

A data of poor peoples of the world is shown in the chart below :

As from the survey we can see that South Asia ranks 2nd in the poverty ranking of the whole world contributing about 36% of the total world's poor people. So to eradicate this poverty someone like Md. Yunus has to be there.

This was achieved by the model of Garameen bank made by Md. Yunus .

His model of banking was innovative and opposite to collateral based conventional banking system. While the conventional banks grade the loan takers on the basis of their creditworthy assets and worship the principle the more you have, the more you get , Md. Yunus gave maximum loans to the poorer strata without taking account their credit-worthiness i.e.  the more your pressing need, the more you get- so it can be said he set up a new kind of capitalism that serves humanity's most pressing needs.

The most common thing for any new business is understanding the demand. He understood that 'Opportunity' is the missing factor in the lives of the poor and this prevents them to transform their lives. So, by giving them loans, he was actually showing them the path to build their own fortune through small scale industries and services. In the video he gave an example where he met a girl with her mother- the latter got benefited from the loan and was able to help her daughter build a bright future of a doctor. He thus made us understand that the main stumbling block before the illiterate mother was "poverty" and "lack of opportunity" and not ability to repay the loan amount.

He was also one of the main reasons of pouring ADIDAS and Water Purifying Companies into the Social welfare service . This proved a way out for Adidas so as to make a slogan " no one remains barefooted ". Yhis gained market easily and in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility was also fulfilled with both the company and the poor people getting benefits .

The whole class was very inspirational and motivating in understanding the basic problems that poor people face around us, how the schemes become unfruitful and how to create and deliver value to our society through innovative ideas . This type of models take CSR to a very high level and the companies can help in establishing such fruitful organisations across the world so that no one dies of hunger and poverty.