Webinar with Prof Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate on NoGoing Back : Forging a New Future after COVID -19

FLO, the Women’s Wing of FICCI organised a webinar with Prof Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate on No Going Back: Forging a New Future after COVID -19 on July 6, 2020.

Professor Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983, fuelled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.

As a part of its activities, FLO brings together eminent personalities from various arenas for interactive sessions on breaking through challenges and innovating change to achieve success. 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus pioneered the concepts of microcredit and microfinance with the objective to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.

In this webinar, Prof Muhammad Yunus shared his vision on creating opportunities out of the Covid 19 challenge and redesigning the world based on social and sustainable businesses, with special focus on the role of women.

Yunus said, “The crisis brought on by the pandemic has given us all an opportunity to pause in our tracks and reroute to a different direction – one that enables us to rediscover ourselves as better human beings.” Speaking about the Yunus Social Business model that was created to tackle poverty bottom-up, Prof Yunus said that it is imperative to integrate selflessness in a market dominated by selfish pursuits of profit. Institutions, in the past, have been designed the wrong way, he said. Maximising profits seem to be the only goal for businesses. Therefore, two kinds of businesses need to be created – single interest businesses and common interest or social businesses.

Prof Yunus added that a staggering 97% of the 9 million borrowers of Grameen Bank are women. He shared that the first borrower of Grameen Bank, a lady who needed money to buy a single piece of bamboo to make a table, is the memory that brings a smile to his face.

It was a very apt opportunity for FLO members to have a deeper understanding on social consciousness, business values and their initiatives to drive the change they wish to see in the new ‘post-Corona’ world.

FLO President, Jahnabi Phookan said, “In March 2020, the world, as we knew, had changed and in these unprecedented pandemic times, sustainability has taken centre stage. Indeed, it is only through women’s sustainable livelihood that can lead to her empowerment and only women’s economic empowerment that can lead to an equitable society. As a business chamber working towards women empowerment, it would also be very enriching to be guided by non-other than Mohammad Yunus on the ways to look at the future post-Covid.”

Rinku Mecheri, Chairperson FLO Chennai Chapter was the Day Chair for the session.