The vision of Profits
for People is to empower the rural poor
in India
to actively participate in the growing economy by creating a portfolio of co-invested businesses.
The
Need: Face of growing inequity between urban and rural areas
India
has experienced rapid economic growth in the past decade with an average annual
GDP growth rate of 8.5%. While the urban India prospers in this economic
boom with gleaming new buildings and shopping malls, the 70% of the rural
population suffers silently in the shadows with harsh living conditions and
high rates of unemployment. This is the “Other India” - the hidden and nearly
forgotten India,
with 300 million people living on less than $2 a day. There is an urgent need
to create sustainable growth and development opportunities to bridge these
inequities. Opportunities that would enable the millions of people who are
living in rural India
to actively participate in the economic growth.
The
Profits for People Solution: Engaging the rural poor as co-investors
In the past few
years, microfinance has opened doors to credit opportunities for the
rural poor. However, rural upliftment depends not just on successful
infusion of credit but its guided usage for creation of sustainable
livelihood opportunities. Profits for People enables the rural poor to participate in
the growing Indian economy by creating a portfolio of co-invested businesses.
Under this innovative business model the rural poor contribute to a part of the
venture’s investment by obtaining microfinance loans, and in return receive a
share of the profits, in addition to salaries.
Current
Venture: The Rural BPO Co-investment Venture
The co-investment venture that Profits for People is
currently working on is a rural back office services venture providing high
quality non-voice services, such as data entry, digitization and scanning, data
clean-up and OCR correction, among many others.
Read more about it here.
