Ideas for social entrepreneurship

• Want to improve the life of the common man?
• Want to use your skills and solve a problem affecting the poor?

If you have the above persistent itch, Then you belong to the a group called social entrepreneurs.
Social entrepreneurs are people who work for the betterment of the poor. They bring about innovations which provide sustenance to the poor.

A group of techies (Ashoka Lemelson fellows) under the aegis of tech4soiety have brought about innovative products which not only help common men make a living, but also make sure they get profits.
Here is a gist of them:

Pradip Kumar has designed a cycle rickshaw which is affordable to the rickshaw puller. The rickshaw is priced at round Rs. 10,500.It is light weight and provides space for companies to advertise on it. It comes with a vehicle insurance loan. He designed the loan structure such that a rickshaw puller will have have to pay Rs.25 per day and after 18 months he will own the vehicle. Pradip is currently working on a solar powered rickshaw.
 

Delhi based entrepreneur Dipendra manocha has designed a hand held portable tablet for the blind. This device is reader cum media player. A book has to be loaded into the device and the blind person can experience “reading”by listening. He further wants to convert movies into this format such that each scene has a narrator who describes actions, feelings and facial expression of characters. It must be noted that Dipendra himself lost his eyes at the age of 6. 

Umesh Malhotra is running a low cost lending library-Hippocampus. His model  requires a one time investment of Rs.5000 recoverable in 15 months. These libraries can run from home and is mostly run by housewives. He has his libraries in villages, government schools and schools. The rental fee for each book is Rs.10.
 

Other start up
Ekgaon- Started by Aditya -Microfinance enterprise. Financial service at 15paise per transaction
Ashoka – Bill Drayton started “innovators of the public” He works at empowering children to become innovators. He teaches innovation to municipal schools..
 

Most of these start up have been started with an initial investment of less than Rs.10000. If you want to be a social entrepreneur and if you don’t have a great idea, First take a franchise of one these ideas run it. Then based on your experiences you can start you own venture.