Joys of ‘implementation’…………..

Full respect and honor to all those who are into research, IT, consultancy etc. Looking back when the ‘working at the grassroots’ bug had bit me during the fag end of my management days, I realize those moments when this life at the grassroots had compelled me many a time to reconsider the decision which I had taken. Challenges were many…..meager salary when others were earning handsome bucks…..non existent facilities to work comfortably (office hours were spent under the sun, not in AC office)…..working with goat and sheep rearers in the scorching Rajasthan heat……travelling with these rearers many a time continuously from morning till sunset…….travelling at least 100 kms daily……working with leather artisans…..touching and smelling and feeling raw and processed leather (now my dad is going to kill me if he reads this) to understand the subtle difference between cow, goat, sheep and buffalo leather……working with these innocent souls and facilitating them in earning their livelihoods…….getting flat tyre with weather having other ideas…..controlling my anger and bearing the eccentricities of government officials…….having my forearms tanned to the extreme while the other half of my arm hinting at an altogether different past……it goes on and on.

What did I gain? Love and respect from my parents….are you kidding? Admirations……well yes, some genuine ones others coupled with pity and sardonic smiles. Money…..well yes to a certain extent; I can afford to pay installments for my bike and laptop!

Then what did I gain? Well its difficult express outrightly but it was explicitly evident few days back. Few months back I was successful in getting a shelf space for the products of leather artisans, with whom I am working, at Rajasthali - the grandest handicraft showroom at Jaipur. I had defeated a big cartel of filthy rich leather businessmen of Rajasthan to secure the shelf for my poor leather artisans. Of course I had to resort to various ‘bihari’ strategies to get the vital nod from the decision makers.

Few days back I went to the showroom to check the amount of money my villagers were to get for goods sold.

What did I gain for working at the grassroots? The sense of fulfillment after seeing my villagers competing with ultra rich businessmen who, at one point of time used to exploit them, is something which gives me immense pleasure. My small efforts have given these poor souls hope, and its their sense of pride and optimism which make my senses go sublime and confidence soar to epic proportions - let me be here, let me be among them, let me work here - this is my work and this is my life - NOTHING ELSE WILL MAKE ME HAPPIER.

Yash Chopra can fool all the people all of the time………….

I grew suspicious when I watched Dhoom-2 but finally my fear has been vindicated by Ta ra rum pum. What a pathetic performance by each of these actors! And yet look at the crowd enjoying Rani’s gyrations and Saif’s somnolence. Pooor chap Victor Banerjee. Will anyone tell what the hell he was doing in the film? Mighty banal commercial bollywood cinema - it can cripple one and all, make stars out of thin air and can even reduce shining actors to a non entity.

Ta ra rum pum was not the first time I have felt so wretched. It was Dhoom 2 which made my heart a waterloo for Yash Chopra. Great location, beautiful scenes, nice actions, sexy sartorial assemblage - but hey… didn’t acting go for a toss?  

Comments are welcome…………………………..

My blog inspiration get a small space on my blog!!!!!!

Friends, Indians and country men (and women) and all those who visit my blog

Prepare to get loads of inferiority complex as my blog would link all of you to the world’s best blog, among whatever I have seen till date.

Santosh is a good friend of mine and incidentally happens to be my junior from IIFM. Our bonhomie started long before he came to IIFM.

Trust me folks he is one in a million guy with the most perspicacious head on his shoulders. Most mature and affable boy next door.

And one thing more - he is the best tech geek without a tech degree n can give any IITian a run for their money n degree.

ENJOY HIS BLOG - www.santosh.wordpress.com

P.S.- It was his bloggin activities which inspired me to start my own blog.

Carbon credit…….’debiting’ climate

The whole aspect of carbon crediting, which is attracting the best minds from throughout the world to jump in the bandwagon and make profit, is being thrust upon the rest of the world as being a win-win concept for everyone - the polluter and the climate of the world. It has always been very hard for me to digest its reasoning - that since the polluter is made to pay so everyone benefits.  Will this concept lead to lowering down of emmissions is evrybody’s guess?

The recent article, albeit a small one, in the Times of India says it all. The news item starts with the following lines - “British companies are handing over millions of pounds to an Indian chemical plant so that western firms can continue to pump out thousand of tons of green house gases .”

I am not a pundit in the field of carbon crediting so my mindset might only come up with a set of juvenile reasonings. So be it.

The aspect of carbon crediting does not seem to, in any way, compell the companies to emit less GHGs. The rate for credits to is very minimal and varies a lot if one comes from any western country to India. So in a way the polluters pay peanuts but peanuts in dollars are not at all peanuts in India!!

How to screw your chances……..(contd.)

I knew it, and now it has been validated in first person, that I am not the only one committing absolute morongiri  in the interviews. Hear what my close pal Ranjan has to say (from his own experience)….

1. Kick the interviewer …..while making yourself comfortable on the chair…say “sorry… Cant help it I am too tall…”

2. keep looking at the interviewer below her neck… when ever her dupatta slips…and smile innocently

3. When asked questions from mechanics (physics)…say “my core expertise is Nano technology and I can forsee certain signatures that biology and nano tech will merge one day…” and look thoughtfull.

How to screw your chances…….(contd.)

3. Your formal dress for the interview is comprised of pink shirt, green jacket, creamish trousers, metallic blue tie and black shoes.

4. Frequently pointing fingers behind your back (where there is no one) while answering

5. When asked why you want to do MBA after Physics (H) you answer (most laconically)  - “why not MBA”

                                                    ……………………to be continued….

                     

How to screw your chances in interviews at top B-schools!!!!!!!!!

1. “My favorite novelist is Sidney Sheldon….. ” (and then after realising the enormity of the goof up) “…and Ayn Rand and Eric Segal and Jeffrey Archer.”

2. Questioning the faulty selection process of the institute.

                                                              ………to be continued

Rural Poverty in India

About two thirds of India’s more than 1 billion people live in rural areas, and almost 170 million of them are poor. Although many rural people are migrating to cities, three out of four of India’s poor people live in the vast rural parts of the country. For more than 21 per cent of them, poverty is a chronic condition.

Where are India’s rural poor people and who are they?

Poverty is deepest among scheduled castes and tribes in the country’s rural areas. India’s poorest people include 50 per cent of members of scheduled tribes and 40 per cent of people in scheduled castes.

On the map of poverty in India, the poorest areas lie in parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal.

Large numbers of India’s poorest people live in the country’s semi-arid tropical region. In these areas shortages of water and recurrent droughts impede the transformation of agriculture that the Green Revolution has achieved elsewhere. There is also a high incidence of poverty in flood-prone areas such as those extending from eastern Uttar Pradesh to the Assam plains, and especially in northern Bihar.
Poverty affects tribal people in forest areas, where loss of entitlement to resources has made them even poorer. In coastal fishing communities people’s living conditions are deteriorating because of environmental degradation, stock depletion and vulnerability to natural disasters.

Why are rural people poor?

A major cause of poverty among rural people in India is lack of access for both individuals and communities to productive assets and financial resources. High levels of illiteracy, inadequate health care and extremely limited access to social services are common among poor rural people. Microenterprise development, which could generate income and enable them to improve their living conditions, has only recently become a focus of the government. 

Women in general are the most disadvantaged people in Indian society, though their status varies significantly according to their social and ethnic backgrounds. Women are particularly vulnerable to the spread of HIV/AIDS from urban to rural areas. In 2005 an estimated 5.7 million men, women and children in India were living with HIV/AIDS. Most of them are in the 15-49 age group and almost 40 per cent of them are women.

Source: IFAD

Who says development sector is all about selfless service!!

I am reproducing this article verbatim for those who are not avid readers of TOI and also for those of my friends who are not directly related to the development sector.

Source:TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Great ideas often spawn in the most terrible circumstances. One such idea is microfinance, often credited to last year’s Nobel prize winner Mohammad Yunus, who founded the immensely successful Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.

Yunus began by giving a micro-loan of $27 to 42 impoverished families after witnessing the horrors of the great Bengal famine. But the idea, which was inspired by misery and depends on the poor, ironically, is attracting savvy, super-rich investors.

“Microfinance is now sexy,” says Vikram Akula of SKS Microfinance, which has just received $11.5 million from private equity funds Sequoia Capital, Unitus Equity Fund, Odyssey Capital, SIDBI and venture capitalists Vinod Khosla and Ravi Reddy.

Khosla had earlier invested in Varanasi-based Cashpore. That profit-seeking capital is flowing towards microfinance institutions (MFIs) suggests that the sector is gradually growing out of its fledgling age.

“Capitalisation was the first bottleneck in the development of microfinance. Now it is not,”says Brahmanand Hegde, joint general manager, rural and micro banking group of ICICI Bank, which has lent Rs 4,500 crore to MFIs over the past three years.

Still, Hegde estimates that the sector needs about $5-6 billion of pure equity capital.

There is good reason why private pools of money, which are always on the lookout for ways to maximise returns, are showing interest in Indian MFIs. Many of them have built up a strong client base.

The big few have captive clientele of at least half a million. There are 49 MFIs that have a client base of over one lakh.

MFIs like SKS and Spandana, who follow the Grameen model to the T, are helping rural households to rise from grinding poverty by encouraging entrepreneurship. There repayment rates are near 100%, better than any bank in India. And they are slowly breaking even.

“We see microfinance firms generating huge cash flows from different channels. MFIs can create potential customers as they upgrade them into micro and small-scale entrepreneurs. That will generate demand for various financial and commercial products,” says Mohit Bhatnagar of Sequoia Capital.

Akula says that some of the small businesses generate huge returns on capital invested. For example, micro diners SKS lent to made returns of as much as 246% and pottery as much as 236%.

Even vegetable vending generated returns of 57%. As the clients’ financial condition improves, they become potential customers for other products such as insurance or a cell phone.

At that stage, MFIs can tie up with insurers or telephone companies to sell products to their loyal base, which in turn will earn the company commissions boosting profits.

“In the Grameen methodolgy, once you break even, you grow fast and become very profitable,”says Vijay Mahajan, who founded Basix, the country’s first MFI born with a corporate structure. Basix was also the first to attract foreign investment when IFC, Washington, the private funding arm of the World Bank, Triodos Bank of Holland and Shore Bank of the US together invested $1.5 million in 2000.

“The investors in this sectors are typically patient investors — willing to wait for seven or 10 years. But they know that ultimately there will be profit,”says Mahajan.

Listening to Fuzon

After almost four years I got to hear my favourite song, Khamaaz from Fuzon, a pakistani band. The velvety melody of this song made me remember my graduation days. Coupled with a deja vu comment by Ranjan on this blog compelled me to spare a moment for the times when we all were together in Delhi. Wasim, Ranjan, Kundan, Akhtar, Anil and others. Living with the qualities and eccentricities of each other was pure fun. Afterall a lifelong bond gets established especially when you frequent Ridge thana dhaba at 2.30 am to grab something to eat……or share your evening tea at Ramjas- Daulat Ram traffic light and exercising your fundamental right to eat anything and ‘look’ anyone.

Wasim is in Bangalore. He has become a globe trotter and remains on holidays most of the time. When he is free from all these he claims to put all his effort for his Phd. Did I hear astrophysics?? Wow. Ranjan is doing things which are beyond his qualifications. At least thats what he claims from New Jersey. Akhtar, as always, is perpetual introvert and seems to be engaged in some research work at IITKanpur. Kundu has become a professional and is truly ‘committed’ to his cause at Noida. Anil Da is hell bent to give me company in the development sector.