Get out of civilisation based on greed: Yunus

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus today urged everyone to get out of the civilisation based on greed and move on with a farsighted vision addressing global issues.

Dr Yunus came up with the call while inaugurating the eighth Social Business Day organised by Yunus Center at Infosys Electronic City Campus in Bangalore.

In his opening speech, Prof Yunus said people are becoming profit-driven robots with an aim to pursuit profits only. "Profit is important but we need to put on bifocal glasses with a near and a farsighted vision," he said.

Mentioning that one percent of the global population controls 73 percent of the wealth, the Nobel Laureate said greed will start swallowing up everything creating conflicts everywhere.

"Technology is both blessing and curse. While a large number of youths remained unemployed, many are losing their jobs because smart machines are taking away their jobs," he said adding that it is needed to be determined whether to use technology as a blessing or curse.

Social business can both bring profits and work solving the global issues while it is fighting against poverty, said Dr Yunus.

"No problem is beyond human capacity," he said.

Emmanuel Faber, global CEO, Danone, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, and Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, Managing Director of Narayana Hrudayalaya also spoke at the opening session.

The two-day event was arranged in collaboration with Yunus Social Business India, global IT company Infosys and INK, a platform for innovation operating at the intersection of science, technology, community and culture.

The theme of Social Business Day 2018 is 'A World of Three Zeros: Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, Zero Net Carbon Emissions'.

Muhammad Yunus will deliver the opening speech addressing the distinguished guests at the event.

Keynote speeches will be delivered by Emmanuel Faber, global CEO, Danone, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, and Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, Managing Director, Narayana Hrudayalaya.

Over 1200 delegates from 42 countries have registered to participate in the event on Social Business Day.

The Social Business Day 2018 is designed, like in previous years, to exchange experiences and ideas and also work on plans to create social businesses that tackle the most pressing problems of society.

A number of plenary sessions and panels were scheduled to be held during the two days.