The Rise of Social Enterprises in India:The Case of DesiCrew

Gone are the days, Corporates perceived rural India with poverty, ilhteracy and agriculture and more specifically as the recipients of their charity. On the other hand, the present day Corporates in India have well understood that they could make fortunes at the base of the pyramid by including the low-income communities into their business operations, therefore derive profits from a largely untapped market and all together, they strive to make substantial social impact also.

Not only the big Corporates, many young entrepreneurs have also put in all the efforts to establish successful social enterprises and transform their business strategy to include the underprivileged rural people as their consumers, employees, producers and entrepreneurs.

DesiCrew Solutions Pvt. Ltd (DesiCrew), a rural BPO company kicked off by the young social entrepreneur Ms.Saloni Malhotra (Saloni), is one among them.

The rural BPO, by converting villages into BPO hubs, strive to bag the large Indian Corporates and multinationals as their clients for providing quality and cost effective back-end services through rural BPO centers.

Started in 2007, with a decentralized business model providing competitive outsourcing solutions to clients and meaningful employment opportunities in rural hinterlands, DesiCrew proved itself as a scalable social business enterprise in just 3 years of its inception.

This case facilitates discussion on the importance of promoting the culture of social entrepreneurship in India. It mainly discusses how DesiCrew, kicked off by the then 23 years old young social entrepreneur Saloni, has evolved into a scalable social enterprise. The case has also been prepared to provide scope for discussion on the suggestive measures that would substantially throw up new possibilities in rural hinterlands for social entrepreneurial ventures.