INTRODUCTION

The spark for microfinance is the story of the Grameen (Village) Bank of Bangladesh. Founded in 1976, by 1997 Grameen had a portfolio of $260 million and 2.3 million members, most of them female, very poor, and rural. More than 98 percent of payments due had been collected. In 1997, the average disbursement was $170, equivalent to 60 percent of per-capita income. Unlike many development projects, Grameen has thrived, relieving some of the misery caused by floods and cyclones, corruption, purdah norms that constrain women, and abysmal income and wealth. Worldwide, microfinance has caught fire. In Bangladesh, Grameen clones have more than 2.5 million members. Grameen transplants operate in the United States and Europe (Conlin, 1998; Rogaly et al., 1999) as well as in Africa, other parts of Asia, and and Latin America (Hulme, 1990; Thomas, 1995; Taub, 1998; Wall Street Journal, 1998).

How Grameen works

Now this is how the birth of Grameen came about (Yunus, 1998). A young economist with a freshly minted PhD from the United States had returned to Chittagong University in Bangladesh to help to build his newly created country, but he grew frustrated with abstract theory as he watched people starve during the famine of 1974. One day in his quest to find a way to help, he met a bamboo weaver who, for want of less than $1, was enthralled to a moneylender. From his own pocket, the professor lent $0.64 to the weaver. By 1976, Grameen was born. When it became a bank in 1983, Grameen had 36,000 members and a portfolio of $3.1 million.1 By 1997, it had 2.3 million members and a portfolio of $260 million.

Behind the miracle story lays the design of products and incentives that allow Grameen to make small loans to poor people without physical collateral. This section describes the design details behind the tale of success.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF GRAMEEN BANK

Every large firm has some responsibilities to the society as their actions directly or indirectly have some impact on society. In addition, the stake holders of the firm have some rights to deserve some return from the firms profits. Thats why every firms do CSR activates to mitigate the state holders interest. Like other firm, Grameen Bank has do CSR activities but they changed the term CSR to social business, which is a remarkable theory of the Professor Dr. Mohammed Yunus, to ensure their responsibilities to the society. The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. But, unfortunately every firm uses CSR as their marketing tools. Thus CSR fails to mitigate the boarder social responsibilities. Thats why Dr. Yunus brings a new theory of social business that is a sustainable business to ensure the social needs especially for the fulfillment of the needs of the poorer people of our society, founded by a large company. Grameen Bank successfully organizes many social businesses mainly by joint venture with worlds large reputed organizations to do their duties to the society.

Grameen Danone
Grameen and Group Danone went into a joint venture to create a yogurt fortified with micronutrients to decrease malnutrition for the children of Bangladesh. The yogurt is produced with solar and bio gas energy and is served in environmentally friendly packaging. The first plant started production in Late 2006. The 10-year plan is to establish 50+ plants, create several hundred distribution jobs and self-degradable packaging.

Figure 1-Grameen Danone's yogart

Grameen Veolia Water Ltd

Grameen and Veolia Water have decided to join forces and combine their complementary skills to make clean and safe water accessible to villagers in the poorest parts of Bangladesh. It is jointly owned at parity by Grameen Healthcare Services (a Grameen subsidiary for health and hygiene) and Veolia Water AMI (Veolia Waters subsidiary for Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent) and its task will be to build and operate several water production and treatment plants in some of the poorest villages in the center and south of Bangladesh. All in all, 100,000 people in around 5 villages are forecast to be served by this initiative, for a total investment of USD 800 000. Veolia will provide the technical knowhow and the transfer of technology while Grameen will provide its local knowledge and networks in rural Bangladesh for the success of this project.

Grameen Veolia Water Ltd will develop projects in 5 different villages. For each of them, the company will invest in a production / distribution unit of drinking water, and operate it. Every plant will produce water according to WHO standards by treating surface waters. Drinking water will be, in each village, distributed via stand-pipes, through a dedicated network. At this stage, no domestic connection is forecast. Main usage for water will be for drinking and cooking. Daily consumption for a 6 person family is estimated to be 30 Litres/day. According to the social business model, drinking water will be sold at factory gate for 1 Bangladeshi taka per 10 litres (1 euro cent per 10 litres).

Grameen BASF
Grameen and BASF went into a joint venture because there are areas in Bangladesh where there is a high risk of catching Malaria (58K newly infected in 2007). The product created is a mosquito net to protect against malaria, which those families would sleep under. Half a million nets have already been produced. The idea of the joint venture was to develop affordable products for the poor that could protect them from deadly diseases. Grameen BASF has also

started the production of micronutrient sachets to sprinkle on food, which provides essential nutrients that are missing from the poors daily diets.

Grameen Intel
Today information technology (IT) excludes 80% of the world population. Grameen want to take IT to the lower income people to improve the lives of people in poverty. Grameen Intel is tasked at looking at ways to assist the rural poor by examining their needs and finding appropriate solution using IT. We will provide packaged solution consisting of the hardware and software to provide access, information and training to an impoverished entrepreneur or local entity who can offer IT services, which in turn would have a social impact in the village community. Their goal is to offer solutions and services in multiple fronts such as online marketplace, education, financial services, and many more, but targeted for the poor population. Two of our current offerings in healthcare and agriculture demonstrate the possibilities.

Maternal Health In 2 of the clinics in Savar, mobile healthcare workers equipped with smartphones are using technology to assess the risk profile of pregnant mothers who have limited access to medical care at the villages. Mothers at risk are then referred for further diagnostics, bringing the mother into the formal service for basic healthcare. They have assessed 100 pregnancies for early follow up with the goal to reduce maternal mortality. Agriculture

The solution in centered on the needs of farmers for agricultural information. In Orissa at a village of 440 farmers, we found that the majority of the agriculture lands are missing basic nutrients (e.g. urea, fertilizers and certain types of pesticides). A soil test on an annual basis and/or per crop rotation is needed, but not done. They have provided the solutions to 125 farmers to increase their crop output and manage their business more profitably. The Grameen Intel Social Business will continue to work on developing IT solutions, to ensure that the bottom income people begin to reap the benefits of information technology.Is a social business joint venture between Grameen Trust and the Intel Corporation. The purpose of this new social business is to assist the rural poor by examining their needs and finding an appropriate solution with the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT). This new company will look at how healthcare, commerce, education and economic activity be improved in rural Bangladesh with the help of ICT. This social business will start with Bangladesh but will also aim to help the poor of rest of the world with use of ICT.

Grameen GC Eye Care Hospital

In 2001, GB established the Prevention of Cataract Blindness Project, which has now become the Grameen GC Eye Care Hospital in Bogra as a social business. A second Eye Care Hospital has now been built in Barisal, in southern Bangladesh, which began operating in April 2009. Professor Muhammad Yunus and The Green Children opened First Grameen Eye Hospital in Bangladesh on May 12, 2008 Structured as a Social Business Enterprise, Facility Can Potentially Grow To Perform 50,000 Examinations, 10,000 Cataract Operations Annually They will charge patients based on their ability to pay, with wealthier clients charged at a slightly higher rate and the poor a little less. Everyone will receive the same high-quality

treatment. While all patients will be expected to pay something, no one will be denied care. Those with no funds will be asked to pay later, when they can.

The key to the success of the model is a system that delivers very high quality at an affordable cost by using high volume and having highly trained technicians doing most of the examination and preparation work so that ophthalmologists can focus on the operations. The model has been so successful in India that representatives of some of the leading medical schools in the United States have visited Aravind to bring some of the lessons learned back home.

Grameen Healthcare
Grameen aims to extend the success microcredit to health care. The mission of GH is to establish sustainable best practices in a broad range of health care services for a broad market for the entire population but focusing on the poor and poorest. GH will enable the poor to be self sufficient in addressing their health care needs such that they can accept but not require outside assistance. This mission will be developed in a number of ways that complement one another:

GH will design and develop a bottoms up health care infrastructure that can take lessons from successful efforts around the world and improve upon them to deliver the highest quality health care, in an efficient and sustainable manner, primarily to the poorest of the poor

To achieve these goals, GH will build on the network of existing Grameen Clinics which are already providing primary healthcare at the village level in various locations of Bangladesh.

Ongoing operations

GB began a health program in 1993 to provide care for Grameen borrowers and the rural poor in Bangladesh. The goal is to provide quality health services with qualified medical personnel at an affordable cost. An infrastructure was established that has grown to 51 Grameen Clinics (GCs) that include a pathological laboratory and pharmacy, and satellite camps along with community health outreach, and emergency services. Grameen Kalyan is implementing these health clinics. The GCs are led and managed by a licensed physician, who is assisted by one or two paramedics, a laboratory technician and six community health assistants. This network currently operates with 93% cost recovery. The GCs typically serve a population of 50,000 persons living within 8-10 kilometers of the clinic.