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you had referred earlier to the idea of
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a social business and you explained how
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that differs from a conventional
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business and one example of that is
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gramine Denon Foods uh what I find
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really remarkable is that you are able
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to to produce uh Power yogurt or Shakti
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DOI for 5 cents for an 80 uh for uh for
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an 80 g cup how can you explain how the
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economics of that works and whether that
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model is scalable yes very much because
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it's a business that's what the whole
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idea is should be running as on business
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principles that you have to cover your
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cost and generate some Surplus so that
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uh the business can keep running but the
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idea of social business is investors
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have invested the money not for the
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benefit of their owns it is invested to
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achieve a social objective in this case
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of gramin Danon objective is to bring
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nutrition to the m narish children what
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we have done we put all the
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micronutrients uh which are missing in
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the children in the yogurt and make it
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very tasty children love it they pay
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that 5 cents to buy a cup and if a child
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eats two cups a week and continues to do
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so for 8 to 9 months he or she gets all
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the micronutrients back and become a
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healthy playful child so that is the
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objective of the company uh so that is
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how it is done and others it's a cost
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it's a question of how much it cost the
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milk cost how much processing cost
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equipments and distribution cost and so
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on once you're in Social business lots
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of cost go down because you don't need
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to inut those costs for example you
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don't need any elaborate or fence see
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marketing because as long as people know
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what you're doing and they're interested
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in it they so you don't have to go on
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television or
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newspaper uh we are here and life is uh
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meaningless without eating uh uh sh we
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don't say that uh uh we explain what it
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is as the people come and gradually it
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spreads um and that's it so the
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marketing cost goes down and we have in
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our design we made it sure that extra
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cost are cut off uh trimmed off for
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example we made it a very small
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plant so that uh you don't produce too
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much uh around your own plant there's
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enough consumers to buy it rather than
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go at a long distance the idea is to cut
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down the cost of coal chain if you're
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producing in a big plant you have to
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carry all this to long distances and you
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need coal chain and coal chain is a very
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expensive item so we reduce that we
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eliminated that so our idea is to have
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many many many small plants all around
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the country so that you reach out to
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everybody this is number one plant which
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is already operating then we are getting
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ready for the number two plant we want
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to have about 50 plants to cover all the
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children in Bangladesh and each one is
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self-contained each one makes money Prof
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it will cover the cost and so on
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sometimes you get to uh difficulties
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like suddenly during the food crisis
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last year the milk prices jumped
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uh we couldn't maintain that price uh
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tag that we had on the uh product so we
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are wondering what we should do we came
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up with many kind of alternatives to
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keep the prices down uh at the same time
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without losing the micronutrients and so
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on so quickly we came out with the shock
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the drink so that the milk becomes less
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other elements becomes more water and
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other things but keeping that and have a
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good taste for it keeping the price uh
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low as before but we are lucky milk
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prices went down again we continued and
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so so we have to cope with those kind of
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fluctuations without losing the whole uh
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focus of the company in in addition to
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uh gine Denon and and Intel I think you
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have a relationship also with BASF for
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antimalarial Nets do you have any joint
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ventures or Partnerships with other
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companies in the works yeah many
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countries uh many sorry many companies
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are coming up with ideas uh to work with
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us for social businesses and we're
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giving them ideas uh one already is in
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operation as a very important social
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business that we have right now is a
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gramine violia violia is the water
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company is a French water company one of
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the largest water company in the world
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uh many of the US cities are served by
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violia for their water so we this giant
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company we persuaded them to create a
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tiny little uh water treatment plant in
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The Villages of Bangladesh to serve
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50,000 uh people in the village because
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our problem is a big problem in
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Bangladesh with arsenic in our water
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very high level of poison uh in the
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water and millions of Bangladesh is
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almost half the population of Bangladesh
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Bangladesh has a total of 150 million
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people so half the population is 75
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million uh they drink um water with high
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level of Arsenal
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so we are putting up this company to
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supply clean viia Quality Water to every
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household in the village and they will
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be paying for it very small amount
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nobody will mind paying for that uh and
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it will cover all its cost and it will
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become a social business V is not there
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to make money out of it but the fact
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that people are drinking poison every
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day uh now we can do this we can
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overcome that uh nothing is happening
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through any other program so we said
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let's move on and do that so this
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becomes another example of social
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business and once you can do that
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successfully for
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50,000 uh people in the village you have
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developed a
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seed then all you need to do is to plant
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the seed in other places because each
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one is self-contained so you can do as
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many as you want and cover all the
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people so development of the seed is the
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most important thing in Social business
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like Gamin Danon is a seed
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now you can take it you can take it
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anywhere any country uh we have been
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already approached by India we have been
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approached by China they would like to
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have gamine done on in China in India
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and so because they have the same
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problem malnutrition is a very common
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problem so if this one works and uh
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Health authorities uh saying that yes
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this is a big problem and uh this works
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and we have invited gain Global Alliance
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for improved nutrition which is a a big
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NGO based in Geneva concentrates on the
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uh monitoring of the nutrition situation
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globally to monitor whether this is
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really true whether this is just a
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gimmick that we do or is a real are the
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children benefiting and the nutrition
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level is increasing and so on so you
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have the gramine done on and you have
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the gramine violia gramine Intel and
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there are some in the pipeline and very
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interesting programs like one shoe
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company uh very big shoe company uh we
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have they approached us what can we do
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said well one I would say you have a
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theme and the theme would be or a motto
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would be nobody in the world should go
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without shoes as a shoe company this our
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responsibility make sure to do that so
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you come up with shoes that the poorest
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people can afford it's a good quality
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with your brand name so that it's not a
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second class third class thing so you
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take the ownership of that shoe and make
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it very cheap they like that idea then
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they suggested why don't you start with
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making shoes for uh under
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$1 so you cover the people who can who
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never be able to use that brand name
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shoes in their lifetime ever but now
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every kids everybody will be doing that
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and so on so there are many on the
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pipeline BSF is one already we signed
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agreement and do the moscon Nets treated
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mosqu net and also nutrition s for
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pregnant women and malnourished women
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because women nutrition is again another
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area where uh not as satisfactory as you
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one would like to be so this company
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would be producing that and uh and make
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it possible for everybody to afford that
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nutrition at the same time while we are
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having this uh nutrition supplement
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we'll be focusing on the diet itself
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because it's not forgetting about the
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diet and just going to the artificially
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taking the nutrients inside the body so
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we'll be also encouraging them to have
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uh right kind of food as they go on
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