We should all be social entrepreneurs?

That's right. If we cannot do it full time, there is absolutely no reason why we can't do our part by joining the movement and contributing in whatever we can. And I appeal to the TiE community to do their part because you understand the value of bringing solid business approaches to solving problems of the world.

According to the latest UNICEF report, India is among the worst countries in the world when it comes to feeding children under five. 47% of the Indian children are undernourished (compared to 2% here at home, though I still don't understand why this number should not be zero in the richest country in the world with two out of us clearly "over-nourished"). As many as 7.8 million Indian babies are born underweight every year.

While India offers tremendous opportunities for new business, we cannot forget the importance of helping the poorest, particularly children. I am very proud of the fact that TiE community has responded to this challenge and all the way from charity work to impacting public policy, it has done its part. It is clear that social-entrepreneurship is taken as seriously as other areas of entrepreneurship. But there is still more to be done.

We have to agree that we collecitvely have more powerful voices and policymakers in India pay attention when we speak. In fact a few of them will be attending TiECON this year. I invite you to attend the session on Social Enterpreneurship and learn how you can be part of the process. We will have Vanessa Kirsch of New Profit and Iqbal Qadr, Founder of GrameenPhone to talk about how they are employing the principles of entrepreneurship for social change.

- By Jay Dwivedi

Photo courtesy: Faisal Sohail