Corona brought up the plight of poor forward, we need strong micro entrepreneurial sector and social business model - Prof Muhammad Yunus

-         Mumbai Chapter of FICCI FLO discussed about the benefits of being a job creator versus job seekers with Prof Muhammad Yunus in conversation with Faye D’Souza 

Mumbai, June 25, 2020. The current Covid 19 situation proved that economist have failed and focus on micro entrepreneurs is the way forward, job seekers are like soldiers who fight the wars on behalf of their owners said Prof Muhammad Yunus, at the webinar organised by the Mumbai Chapter of FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO). In the interactive session winner of Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Grameen Bank, spoke on different issues like importance of social business, failure of capitalism, devastation of poor people by the pandemic and way forward.

Speaking on the current COVID 19 situation Prof Muhammad Yunus said, “This is a great opportunity to reflect. Basically, whole world got behind the closed doors beyond 90 days and the poor people have struggled a lot, most of the people have lost jobs. We are on the verge of explosion & massive amount of unemployment and Corona has made them visible right up front and demonstrated how Capitalism and Economics have failed. Now, corona has given us an opportunity to select our new path also it lead to a less of global warming as most of us were at home & not going to offices”

He further added “Economics only have taught pursuing self-interest as we take care of ourselves, but common collective interests are the way forward and a social business is the right approach. We created a wrong world, it sucked up wealth from bottom and sent it up for select few”.

Talking about Grameen bank Prof Yunus said “Informal sector is long ignored, I call them micro entrepreneurs, in country like India it’s around 80% of total work force, but they are not in mainstream and there are no institutions to take care of them. Countries like India and Bangladesh need strong Micro Credit institutions, which lend money to this large workforce, as no bank of capital economy gives money to them. This is what Grameen bank is all about, 97% of our borrowers are women and we strongly believe in empowering women. Today Grameen bank loans out to so many, we lent out more than 3 billion dollars last year and our performance is amazing with repayment of about 99%”.

Prof Yunus said “Capitalism is based on Self-interests and not Common collective interests. Economics have only told us to create organisation for Profit. We teach young children in school & home that you can either be a job seeker but not enough focus on how to be a good human, the point is what you want to do in your life. The moment you have your job, you sacrifice your identity, thus entrepreneurship is a way forward to grow economy. Corona has given us the opportunity to think do we really want to go back to the earlier normal, it has proven that we need to find a new destination.

Giving a background to this webinar, FLO Mumbai chapter chair Maloo Natarajan said, “The idea behind this multi award winning concept of micro credit is that everyone is a national entrepreneur. The first tipping point was in 2008 when financial crisis answered one of his question about financial credibility of the poor versus the rich. The second tipping point is the current Covid 19 situation which has proved that entrepreneurship is the way forward”.

She further added “This current natural cause is the blessing in some ways to help us reboot, reimagine and reform, Flo Mumbai vision this year is based on UN sustainable development goals with special emphasis on entrepreneurship and environment. The national theme is sustainable livelihood and we are looking at it across the urban, semi urban and rural space. We strongly believe that entrepreneurship is the way forward”.

About FICCI FLO

FLO is the women wing of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). FLO was established in 1983, as a division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) which is the apex body of industry and commerce in India. FLO has been promoting entrepreneurship and professional excellence among women through workshops, seminars, conferences, training and capacity building programmers etc. As an All India Organisation for women, FLO has 17 Chapters pan India - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Northeast, Pune, Amritsar, Northeast & Uttarakhand, with its Head Office in New Delhi.  Its members comprise of entrepreneurs, professionals and Corporate Executives.