DR. GUNWANT SINGH MONGIA: RESOLVED TO DISRUPT THE NOT-FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS SPACE WITH FUNDAMENTAL INNOVATIONS

When most industrialists and corporate leaders worldwide are busy rethinking and re-organising their business models and processes to recover from the unprecedented shockwave that Covid-19 has caused, Dr. Gunwant Singh Mongia, Chairman, Mongia Steel Limited, is putting in place a well-researched plan to disrupt the not-for-profit business space. His fascinating vision and plans could make a gigantic impact in the way non-profit and for-impact businesses are practised in India and Internationally.

This hard time has rekindled Dr. Mongia’s vision for bringing larger good to the society to ensure that our socio-economic growth is more inclusive, far-reaching, and sustainable so as to reduce the stress on the underprivileged class when such global crisis situations arise.

Dr. Mongia, Founding President of the Birhor Vikash Samiti which is involved in rehabilitation and mainstreaming of the Birhor tribe, one of the most endangered tribes of Jharkhand and that of India, feels that even though he did his best to help all his employees and many others elsewhere too during Covid-19, but such efforts were still not enough. He felt that his efforts were just like a tiny drop of water in an ocean of needs.

Dr. Mongia has been involved in active philanthropic work since the year 2000, and specially since 2009 when Vandana Dadel, the Deputy Commissioner of Giridih, asked him to lead the formation of the Birhor Vikash Samiti and made him the President. As the President of the Birhor Vikash Samiti, he has been actively involved in adopting Birhor children for mainstreaming and rehabilitation. The Samiti maintains a hostel in Giridih where Birhor children get free accommodation, clothes, food, and education.

Dr. Mongia has been involved in sponsoring higher studies of tribal students. He has sponsored numerous other tribal community development and welfare projects. He has been involved in organising skill developmental programs for students, entrepreneurs, and home makers to enhance their livelihood and income generation opportunities.

He feels that even though commendable work is being done globally by governmental and non-governmental enterprises and philanthropists in almost all conceivable sectors of social work, there are still enormous scopes to expand the reach of such work as there are wide gaps between what is needed and what is being done.

For example, India’s Mid-Day Meal scheme provides a daily meal of 450-750 calories to 9.17 crore children across the country. For many such children, Mid-Day meal is the only good meal that they have in a day. A growing child in the age group of 6-14 needs 1400-2600 calories a day depending upon her activity profile. India is among the 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025. This is a major concern.

Need for disruptive innovations in the non-profit and for-impact business space

The above examples clearly establish the case for disrupting the conventional non-profit business model of rolling out schemes with pilot studies done over a long period of time first and then scaling up organically. India needs models, which, rather than scaling up organically, can scale out horizontally in a short span up time. This needs disruption, fundamental innovation, and rethinking of the entire ways we do things in non-profit.

An innovative technology platform for the not-for-profit sector

Mongia Green Foundation, for which Dr. Gunwant Singh Mongia is the Chairman, is building a technology platform to ensure that the intended benefits from any social project, scheme, or any entrepreneurial or individual effort reach the last person in the remotest village in India. Any Governmental or non-governmental project can also ride on the platform to reach every intended beneficiary directly across India. Once established in India, the Foundation will take it internationally to South East Asian and African countries within three to five years. This platform will help philanthropic efforts to scale out faster rather than scale up organically over a very long period of time.

For more information write to mail@mongiagreen.org or visit https://www.mongiagreen.org/