[1] The most successful social entrepreneurial ventures in South Asia have historically worked on initiatives that alleviate poverty, focusing on increasing access to capital.
While successful in addressing rural poverty with extremely high returns to capital, which is well-expected in low-income countries,[7] urban poor left out entirely.
He founded the Grameen Bank in 1976 with the mindset that lending money to poor people could build the credit they need to work their way out of poverty while being profitable.
[8] For his work in microcredit, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "efforts to create economic and social development from below".
Due to the Grameen Bank's success, it has inspired a multitude of individuals to also seek out ways to improve human wellbeing through business, especially young entrepreneurs.
[12] Yujuico emphasizes that social entrepreneurship works to create interventions that mobilize capital to aid those who are disadvantaged.
[15] Current impact investments in South Asia are growingly interested in agro-business, health, information technology, and bottom of the pyramid initiatives.
[15] There are currently 50 country-specific impact funds in India, 7 in Pakistan, and 9 in Bangladesh that have deployed a total of 720.4 million US dollars worth of capital in South Asia.
In South Asia, she states, social entrepreneurship is shaped by the political problems that these countries have faced since their independence from Britain.
In Bangladesh, social businesses like the Grameen Bank and Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC) address issues related to government inefficiencies, which often ignore rural poor.
Poor people often aren't able to meet their basic needs, like education and health, because for three reasons: access, quality, and affordability.
[20] Research has even been done to show poor people can mobilize capital to purchase goods only if they are made at a price point that is affordable to them.
In India, the two most common legal statuses for social businesses are private limited companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
[11] In Bangladesh, sole proprietorship is the most common form of registration, often because it is the easiest type of business structure to start up especially for those with limited resources.
[22] Still these initiatives remain too broad to support social entrepreneurs, whose models often don't fit into traditional systems.
Laws are starting to be initiated that provide policy guidelines social innovation but they are being introduced unequally across South Asia.
[26] In these writing, he discusses a series of social programs that he implemented in order to ensure the wellbeing of his citizens, including bringing in essential medicines for his people and creating roadside facilities for travelers.
[26] Ashoka's model is to first find those people are addressing big problems, then supply them with the funding and services they need to be successful.
[28] People have also worked to reduce barriers to female engagement in social entrepreneurship through implementing focused, women-only trainings.
With women-only trainings, women can not only gain the skills they need to start their companies but also build a community that inspires them to keep working.
In Pakistan, the Higher Education Medium Term Development Framework II emphasizes the importance of teaching entrepreneurship to all University-age students.
[4] Much of the discussion of social entrepreneurship and innovation has been from a Western lens, with only recent research focusing on other locales like South Asia.
This can often limit social enterprises as there are strict definitions of NGOs in India, specifically related to the movement of capital.
[39] Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) is an organization that focuses on spurring innovation at the community level.
A modern social enterprise, Piramal serves 5,000,000 people daily through 800 purification units and 400 water ATMs, all while generating 4 million dollars for the economy annually.
[41] The Hashoo Foundation is a leading social impact agency working to support Afghan refugees through skills training and income generation.
Their work also focuses on supporting women economically in order to improve their opportunities in a male dominated labor market.
[42] A more profit-focused social business, Ghonsla seeks to provide insulation made of recycled materials that is economical and sustainable to underserved markets.
[44] JITA Bangladesh is another leading social business that trains bottom of the pyramid rural women as distributors or products and services in untapped markets.
[45] bKash, founded by Kamal Quadir, provides a mobile platform for financial transactions, and currently has 30 million registered users.