And for an action packed Friday – Launch of ICAT at the Taj Mahal Mumbai. Some thoughts….
I am amazed at the childlike enthu and the incredible motivational skills of Nobel Laureate Dr. Mohammad Yunus who arrived from Paris into Mumbai and charmed every one along.
For the first time, large corporates in India will have the services of an “Incubator” to create in-house Social Businesses. You don’t have to second guess, this Initiative is being sponsored by – who else but the Tata Trusts. Trust them to support such path breaking “never-before-ventures”.
It was coincidentally also the day of the tenth anniversary of the award of Nobel Prize to Dr Yunus.
Indian Corporate Action Tank (ICAT) mission is really noble – improving the lives of marginalised communities by using the core business skills of Indian corporates to drive social impact at scale.
One individual, Vinatha Reddy, inspired by Dr Yunus, started Grameenkoota in Bangalore in a very small way in 1999 and she grew it to an NGO and then to an NBFC and now an NBFC-MFI, approved by the RBI. She has disbursed loans to more than a million small and marginal woman entrepreneurs, 9613 crores of loans and only 0.01{aff5a224634bf574f692c8c7d068a0713fecca4ea38a30d3005107227dbb12e7} write off. Hats off to such iconic but silent creators of Modern India.
Each one of us is far more capable than what we think of us. It’s just that we have to tap our Inner Energy and Potential for Nation Building, the SEEGOS way.