No-Cost Extension with Deval Sanghavi - Your intent is to make impact , there is no machine that can actually test that says Vineet Rai

Your intent is to make impact , there is no machine that can actually test that says Vineet Rai

09/14/21 • 50 min

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Vineet Rai, the Founder and Chairman of Aavishkaar Group, a leading global impact investment platform. Although they have very different perspectives when it comes to development and social change, they share a long friendship that goes back to their early years in the development sector. Listen in as Vineet and Deval talk about the shared idealism that shapes their values, their history of travelling together across the country to learn and understand how issues play out on the ground, how capitalism and philanthropy each approach development, and what impact investing is all about.

(30:00) "Our passion or our argument was that if we can wean away a significant amount of $300 trillion from the “greed is good” narrative to a narrative that is “sustainable is resilient” - that you should be able to create a more equal world using this capital. Then you will be able to have a much greater outcome for the world as usual, maybe not as an investor for yourself."

Vineet Rai is the Chairman and Founder of the Aavishkaar Group, whose ecosystem includes Aavishkaar Capital, an impact fund manager focused on the global south; Arohan, one of India’s largest microfinance institutions for low income households; Ashv Finance, an NBFC that works with MSMEs; IntelleCap, a global impact advisory firm, and Sankalp, a networking platform for impact investors.

Previous Episode

What would happen to those lives if I closed the shelter down? Sharda Nirmal and Karen Doff from the Sharanam Centre

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Sharda Nirmal, the founder of the Sharanam Center, a home for girls in Dharavi, Mumbai, and Karen Doff, the founder of the Aasha Foundation and a longtime collaborator of the centre. The Sharanam Center is not an institution - it is a home. Sharda talks about how she established the Sharanam Center as a young woman and with her husband over twenty years ago. Karen first encountered Sharanam as a visitor, but soon became a close collaborator, working with Sharda, and finding ways for many people - from her mom’s hairdresser, to her colleagues at work - to support the centre. Listen in as Karen talks about what giving, scale and sustainability really mean when dealing with the lives of individuals, and how to inspire everyday givers to contribute to the long, hard work of working with children in the development sector.

Sharda Nirmal is the force behind the Sharanam Center, a shelter home for girls in Dharavi, Mumbai that is a part of the Community Outreach Programme (CORP India). Sharda and her husband set up Sharanam twenty years ago, when Sharda was twenty-two years old. Karen Doff is the founder of the Aasha Foundation.

(18:20) "At least for me, what the Sharanam Center has exemplified is that realization to begin with - you can't measure love on a results framework... but you can see love and clearly everything that the Sharanam Center stands for is about love. And I think the second is really about doing what we can as we would do for our own children. That is not just a statement clearly and we can hear it in your voice, but it is a way of life for you. And I think many times when we look at the development sector, those that want to give back at times look at [...] what is the bare minimum that we can provide, and really it's about survival, I guess, versus thriving communities. And I think what you and the Sharanam Center have exemplified is really about survival is the bare minimum. And that's not what we stand for. It is about thriving in society. It is about giving the same opportunities that we have been given, if not better."

Next Episode

Hansal Mehta asks Deval Sanghavi, What's Bad Philanthropy?

This special episode is a conversation between Deval and Hansal Mehta that took place earlier this year at Dasra Philanthropy Week. Listen in as Hansal speaks to Deval about his perspectives on philanthropy, what he believes is real impact, and his lockdown beard.

Hansal Mehta is a well-known National Award winning filmmaker, director, and writer. Some of his well-known films are Shahid, City Lights, and more recently, the web series Scam 1992. Hansal is a longtime friend of the development sector. His wife Safeena Husain is a social worker and the founder of the non-profit, Educate Girls in Mumbai.

(14:27) "I think it's really important for us not to look at a metric of I'm giving 1% or 0.1% or 0.03%. It needs to be about what is the problem in front of me that we need to solve? And I think that's critical. And so for me, I guess it really starts with that. Which is, are we trying to really move people out of poverty and enable them to thrive? Or are we complacent when they survive? And I say this because many of the metrics that globally are looked at in terms of poverty are really mortality rates - is somebody living or dying? Literacy is defined by whether you could read or write your name, not whether or not you can read and write enough to gain an education, which leads to some sort of employment or that you can sign documents that you ensure are not cheating you, or that you can read even what's available to you with various government schemes and take action. And so I think the bar unfortunately is so low in terms of survival versus thriving societies."

The interview and the Q and A that followed have been edited. For the full version you can go to Dasra’s Youtube channel. For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra.