Outlook magazine recently profiled a new breed of social entrepreneurs in India (The article: The Spirit of Ants, can be read for free once an account is created at Outlookindia.com)

When I last wrote about a micro financier role in partnering for financial literacy, I did not know that Chetna Gala-Sinha was well ahead of us. A Yale World Fellow and true social entrepreneur, Sinha launched a ‘business school’ with a difference. For less than 3 cents a day, poor women at the school gain a better understanding of money and take their first steps towards financial independence and self-sufficiency. In an environment in which old solutions of subsidies and vocational training cannot sustain, the women are finally receiving education relevant to what they really need.

The Outlook article speaks of 60 year old P. Mukundan who found an investor in Vineet Rai (Aavishkaar) for his idea of an efficient stove-burner. The National Innovation Foundation has an outstanding database of grassroots innovators and their ongoing projects. When I had the chance to be part of a presentation by rural innovators identified by NIF, I noticed that innovators took pride in being selected for a government subsidy. Would they not be keen to be selected for an investment?

It is exciting to read of Solomon Jaiprakash of livelihood development initiative Maya Organic who says:

"The cause we serve is fine, but we don't want people to buy our products because we do that. We want them to buy them because of their exceptional quality. Our focus is on building a brand. Sympathy is unsustainable in the long run."

Gala-Sinha could have used the money she received from HSBC to fund an elaborate mini-MBA for women.
Vineet Rai could have donated to the stover-burner project.

Jaiprakash could have actively pursued grants.
For as long as these would last.

Many are excited by the renewed interest in social innovation. I am excited that experience is teaching us, even if slowly, the difference between solutions which merely sound good and those which sustain.

Every month in Bangalore, a team of volunteers – many from the IT industry - collaborate to prepare Sattva, a newsletter on social innovation. These are members of a non-profit consulting firm I Think I Have A Solution (ITIHAS)

The vision at Sattva is:
To be an effective platform for the sharing of news, views and appreciation of the social change process, thus raising awareness and encouraging individuals and organizations to meaningfully contribute to society.

Every issue of Sattva is based on a particular theme, with the last few issues covering themes such as Environment and Sustainable Transport. Editor-in-Chief Aarti Mohan writes:

We had a simple aim- there was a lot of good work happening in Bangalore and that's what we would tell people about. Slowly but surely, Sattva grew and we with it. From being an issue every month, we have bloomed into an organization with goals, plans, people management challenges – Sattva has indeed been a character building experience for all of us!

The latest issue celebrates their 1st anniversary and profiles young change makers in Bangalore. To subscribe to the SATTVA e-magazine, send an email to subscribe.sattva@gmail.com

Editor's note: This issue of SATTVA includes a profile of NextBillion.net's own Nitin Rao. Do be sure to check it out!

Who reads the thousands of sustainability reports that corporations release each year? And more importantly, what do they think of them? As of today, there is a better way to answer those important questions.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its partners—including the World Resources Institute and its New Ventures project—have unveiled the GRI Readers' Choice Awards. It's a pioneering attempt to capture and share readers' thoughts on the value of corporate sustainability reports, and get those that information to potential new readers. The GRI Readers' Choice Awards will highlight the reports that are most helpful to communities, investors, customers, journalists and non-governmental organizations.  (World Resources Institute powers NextBillion.net).

In addition to an Award for the report with the overall highest score, there will be Awards issued based on the perspectives of key information user communities such as investors, civil society, employees, corporate governance and management, and media; and special reports for non-corporate, smaller enterprises, and non-OECD companies. "Developing the methodology behind the scoring system was a unique challenge for us and the other partners involved" said Jose Luis Blasco, Director, Advisory, Global Sustainability Services, at KPMG. "We had to ensure the system would be a fair representation of report readers' perspectives, including GRI and non-GRI based reports."

The World Resources Institute has partnered with the GRI Readers' Choice Awards to highlight the inaugural sustainability reports of 11 sustainable small and medium sized enterprises - many of which serve unmet needs in BoP communities. Participating companies have been identified by WRI's New Ventures project, and hail from Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and China. New Ventures supports sustainable enterprises by accelerating the transfer of capital to outstanding companies that incorporate social and environmental benefits. Sustainability reporting - using the internationally-recognized GRI methodology - helps measure the direct benefits these firms' operations create.

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Last week, I attended the NESsT 10^th anniversary party at Pangea Artisan Market & Cafe in the International Finance Corporation (IFC) building (2121 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington DC). The store has an interactive education component, with computers that provide information about the store’s artisans and their designs. The place is great and it matches really well with the idea of NESsT – promoting social enterprises in the world.

NESsT is an organization that works in emerging market countries "by developing and supporting social enterprises that strengthen civil society organizations' financial sustainability and maximize their social impact."

NESsT combines the tools and strategies of business and entrepreneurship with the values of philanthropy. It supports the development of social enterprises in emerging democracies worldwide. Former NextBillion staff writer Lauren Abendschein blogged about NESsT a couple of months ago.

At the event last week, I met the co-founders and CEOs of NESsT, Nicole Etchart and Lee Davis, both wonderful and insightful people. Nicole is from Chile and she works at NESsT’s offices in Santiago. During the event, a NESsT board member gave a speech recalling the story of when Nicole and Lee started with their idea in Baltimore, and how difficult it was for them to convince people to support them and to believe in the ideas that NESsT embraces. Today, after ten years, NESsT is one of the most recognized social enterprise catalysts in the world. They work with four initiatives, including a venture fund, university support, consulting, and a marketplace.

In some ways NESsT is similar to New Ventures, because aside from providing one-on-one relationships with the companies in its portfolio, it also to strengthens the field of social enterprise through training, forums, workshops, and publishing. The entire team at NextBillion congratulates NESsT on its 10^th Anniversary and wishes them to continue the good work!