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Social entrepreneur Padma Shri Arunachalam Muruganantham from Coimbatore to speak at United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Global Investment Game Changes Summit on 18 October
SimpliCity News Team · 10 Sept 2021
Coimbatore: Coimbatore-based social entrepreneur Padma Shri Arunachalam Muruganantham, also known as ‘Padman’, is invited to speak at the Global Investment Game Changes Summit, a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development that is scheduled to be hosted virtually on 18 October (Monday).
The summit will gather pioneers, leaders and visionaries who have successfully reshaped established policy, business and industry practice in their respective fields to create innovative business and governance models reconciling economic success and sustainable objective.
In the main session of the global summit, Padma Shri Muruganantham will speak about ‘cost effective solutions for female hygiene and rural development in major developing countries.’ In the Q&A session, the Coimbatore-based social entrepreneur will pitch workable ideas that can be translated into revenue generating models in various sectors including industry, manufacturing, health and the likes, besides proving to be a boon for the society and economy.
Globally, developed economies are downgraded to developing economies
In between his busy schedule, Padma Shri Muruganantham, in a freewheeling chat with SimpliCity spoke on how entrepreneurs and economies of the world can cope with the pandemic and its aftermath, in the battle for survival. He begins with stating that beyond any doubt, the pandemic has destroyed the economy of even the developed nations of the world. “It is nearly impossible to record how much damage the pandemic has caused to the economies of the nations of the world.
While the developed economies have downgraded to developing economies, people of the developing nations of the world are struggling to deal with the pandemic and its ripple effect. Economically strong nations like Japan and Thailand are still coming to terms with the impact of the pandemic. It is sad that people of the developed economies of the world have to compromise on essentials and commodities that are used on a daily basis,” he begins. In the backdrop of this, he reiterates that the government of the respective nations cannot be blamed.
Urbanizations is the biggest culprit of the pandemic
Stating that urbanization is the biggest culprit of the pandemic, the social entrepreneur shares that “Art of problem management is the biggest lesson learned during the pandemic. Entrepreneurs must change business strategies and look for ways to survive in these tough times,” he said. He shares with us, one of the trends that he has noted is the way business owners and entrepreneurs have handled the pandemic. The well educated and well read persons do not wish to adapt different workable approaches to deal with the crises and ultimately find a way out of the murky situation. Instead, they want to stick with the mundane way of solving problems.
The Coimbatore-based social entrepreneur has a piece of advice to them “change business strategy and look for ways to survive. Entrepreneurs must think on lines of creating and implementing an inclusive development model that can improve the economy. Business is done with the aim of keeping the cash register ringing and earning profits. Business is a money making activity. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, especially social entrepreneurs must work towards becoming a change maker,” he says.
Economy can be revived, reiterates Padma Shri Muruganantham
At this time, the economy can be revived by implementing inclusive activity at the micro level. This, Padma Shri Muruganantham remarks when city life is undergoing a stress and taking into account that a majority of India’s population, as much as 65.07% as on 2020 lives in rural pockets of the country. (Numbers are according to the World Bank collection of development indicators).
Padma Shri Muruganantham is looking forward to participate in the 2021 edition of the UNCTAD World Investment Forum
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum (WIF) is organised biennially, is the leading high-level global event addressing international investment and its impact on sustainable development. The 2021 edition of the forum comes at a critical time as the world grapples with the fallout from COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the global economy. The forum provides an opportunity to hear new perspectives on sustainable investment and identify initiatives, policy action and investment opportunities that can help countries and business to recover.
Social entrepreneur, Padma Shri Muruganantham based out of Coimbatore is eager to participate in the forum and share his game changing ideas. When asked if he is the only person from Coimbatore and Tamil Nadu to participate in the 2021 edition of the UNCTAD World Investment Forum, he tells that that he could probably be the only Indian social entrepreneur speaking at the summit this year. There is no doubt in the fact that the son of the Coimbatore soil is hand-picked to speak at the 2021 edition of the summit which will be organised virtually. It is learned that the organizing committee has been watching the activities of Padma Shri Muruganantham for the last couple of years.