Indian cos team up with Yunus

MUMBAI: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday said some Indian companies have agreed to team up with him on his ‘‘social business’’ venture on the lines of French dairy major Group Dannone and German sports apparel group Adidas.
Yunus, founder of Bangaldesh’s Grameen Bank, did not reveal the name of the companies nor the amount committed by them. ‘‘I leave it to the companies to make the announcement,’’ he said.
Yunus describes ‘‘social business’’ as commercial activity where businesses whose primary goal is to help the poor, reinvest their entire profits back into their work, rather than giving it to shareholders.‘‘We are multidimensional; we have selfless parts and we have a self-centered part. Today’s businesses as they are designed focus on the self-centered part. It is all about me. It’s all about maximising profits. But social business is all about you and the others. The objective of social business is not to maximise profit,’’ he said.
Yunus’s Grameen Group, which is mainly into rural credit, recently tied up with Adidas for low-cost shoes for the poor. Earlier, it had entered into JVs with French major Veolia for clean water and Germany’s BASF to produce chemically-treated mosquito nets.
Godrej group chairman Adi Godrej, Yes Bank CMD Rana Kapoor and Edelweis founder chairman Rashesh Shah were present at the meet.