In the early 1970s, armed with an Economics degree from the United States, Muhammed Yunus was delighted to head back home to Bangladesh. "I had many ideas I wanted to execute and was confident that I had the solutions to solve the many issues my newly independent country faced. I wanted to help the people of my country and offer my skills to better their lives."
Once the future Nobel laureate and father of the microcredit movement landed in a Bangladesh ravaged by famine, he realised that his economics degree did not teach him to deal with these issues. " I realised I studied the wrong subject. I had learnt nothing that would help improve the quality of life of the people. I had never learnt about the best way to deal with loan sharks and so on. In an attempt to help people, I began to lend money. In due course, we set up a system of offering credit facilities for the poor, based on trust. We did not take collaterals and set up base in rural areas, offering credit based on trust. We got the banking licence in 1983 and then the idea just took off."
In the decades since, Grameen has set up branches across the world and Muhammed Yunus shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the bank in 2006. Yunus has written many books on his experience and theories of social enterprise. In the city for the latest edition of Social Business Day conference, he spoke about the need to combat growing inequality, encourage small entrepreneurs and the need to regulate artificial intelligence.
The theme of this edition of the Social Business Day 2018 is “A World of Three Zeros: Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, Zero Net Carbon Emissions” that underscores Professor Yunus’s vision of creating a world without poverty, unemployment and environmental threats. The book is based on practical examples that have been implemented all across the world.
Speaking about the spectre of rising inequality and its ramifications, Yunus says "I think one of the most important problems we face is from the lopsided distribution of wealth. This situation cannot go on. "
Are there any solutions to fix this? Yunus points out, " Yes. It requires us to junk economic theory that we have learnt for a long time and fashion a new theory. I think the present economic theory has resulted in people losing their creativity and individual strengths in the mad rush for jobs. That must change. Human beings must not be spending all their times looking for employment. Throughout history, humans have been entrepreneurs and not job seekers. At this juncture, humans mould their skills and ability, according to the demands of the companies. This has not happened in human society and must be changed. Helping society must also be a motive for entrepreneurs and businesses alongside making money. We must junk the theory that all humans are selfish and self-centred. A lot of companies are promoting social enterprise”
Yunus points out, " For inequality to be eradicated, it is also very important for setting up banks in rural areas for the poor. I am not advocating government running all businesses. I am only against small groups of individual or entities owning most of the wealth generated in the country.”
Yunus also warns about the rise of technology and its implications for the future of jobs.
"Artificial intelligence is shaping up to be one of the biggest challenges of our times. It can easily replace people in jobs cutting across skill sets and could in the distant future out think human beings. I think that though technological growth is important, we need to bring in some regulations. A line must be drawn."
Prof. Yunus will be giving the closing remarks at the Social Business Day at the Infosys campus today.