[Editor's Note: Last year, I attended the Anantpur Cooperative Federation Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Gutturu village of Anantpur district (Andhra Pradesh). Conversations with a few farmers and related observations provided valuable insights into the workings of a farmer cooperative and the healthy dynamic between Center for Collective Development (CCD) and the cooperative. This is a (11-months delayed) Part 2 of a two-part report - Part 1 here. It focuses on my conversation with a farmer's son (Nagendra Reddy) and the gist of Dr. Trilochan Sastry's speech to the gathering. ]

Conversation with Nagendra Reddy

A confident man in his early 20′s, Nagendra Reddy was possibly the only person (that day) who introduced himself to me. The son of a Talamarla farmer in Kottacharu Mandal (not far from where the meeting was being held), Nagendra is a B.Sc (Math) graduate from Anantpur, has worked in a fertilizer company in Bangalore and speaks very good English. His family hadn’t joined the cooperative yet but he was here to do his research. Over the next two hours we had several conversations as we watched the proceedings. He listened intently but also didn’t resist the urge to make cheeky remarks when some of the speakers got boring. A persistent refrain I kept hearing from him was “all this is good but how/when do they sell?” In short, the crux of the matter (rightly so) was whether he’d make more money if he joined the cooperative. After lunch, as I headed to our vehicle, Nagendra called and said “Wanted to tell you that I’ve decided to join the cooperative. I’m satisfied with what I saw/heard.” I congratulated him and wished him well. Notch it up as another small anecdote in the cooperative movement narrative in Anantpur district.

Dr. Trilochan Sastry’s Speech

Pic courtesy imdagrimet.gov.in

He starts off with a series of questions that he intends to answer – what is CCD? how does it work? He openly voices the farmers’ sense of doubt  - does the mill work? will it get me profits?

A man deeply inspired by Dr. Verghese Kurien, it was no surprise that his answer started with the Amul/Kurien story and how it inspired him to begin the CCD journey. A key nugget he highlighted was that for every one rupee of Amul product sold, 85 paise goes to the cooperative farmer. Bringing the context immediately back to Anantpur, he mentioned some equivalent numbers for groundnut value addition (Rs. 30 worth of groundnut, after value add processing, gets sold in the market for Rs. 100/200). He had gotten the attention of the audience by now.

sabhya sangha penchali

Rallying cry in Telugu translates to “need to grow members”. Announced the goal that the coop federation needs to build 50+ mills in the next 10 years. He drove home the point about product branding using the analogy of motorcycles – it’s not just about cost. He asked the gathering whether they would buy cheaper (but adulterated) seeds from government or high quality ‘brand X’ seeds from CCD – loud affirmative from the farmers on the latter.

Farmer Anjaneyulu had a suggestion – “why not village X make product A and village Y make product B?”  Sastry responded with “making products at home in a decentralized way not a good idea because quality control cannot be ensured uniformly. Those kind of products would only get sold in villages, not in quality-conscious towns and cities at higher prices.”

He talked about the institutions and programs supporting CCD - Axis Bank, NABARD and government (godown subsidies, farmers association). He mentioned that whenever he visited government entities in New Delhi, they’d ask “why only 700 farmers in cooperative? Why not 7,000?”

He invited the gathering (especially the farmers who recently joined) to a trip to Bangalore — where they would visit all the shops selling the value added products. In his closing, he reiterated that the cooperative’s top mantra is quality and quality. Reminded everyone that the cooperative meets every month at the mill. Farmers who are considering joining the cooperative could of course attend these meetings.

…..

After Dr. Sastry’s speech ended, it was time for the cooperative members to vote for the new board. And while that was going on inside the mill, the gathering outside was entertained by Anantpur Idol – back to back singing by farmers and CCD managers. An old farmer belted out a crowd-pleasing song and returned to encores.

In two days, I return to this year’s edition of the Annual General Meeting. Hope to meet Nagendra Reddy and many of the farmers I met last year.

By now they should have changed the venue of Sankalp Forum from Mumbai to Bangalore. I attended the third edition of Sankalp in 2011. The only reason I missed it last year (and will sadly be missing this year’s edition too) is because it’s in Mumbai, and not  Bangalore.

Is there any other metro that has a vibrant and growing social enterprise happy hour club? And if that wasn’t reason enough, 20% of this year’s Sankalp finalists are headquartered in Bangalore. Well, there’s always next year I suppose. Btw, if one digresses at the beginning of an article, is it still digression?

Coming to the subject of this piece… many reasons why you should attend Sankalp Forum 2013, especially if you live in (or nearby) Mumbai.

1. It is THE largest watering hole for social enterprises and impact investors. I’ve never heard of M&A in the conferences space before but Intellecap has pulled off a merger of sorts in combining Sankalp Forum with Chennai-based Villgro Unconvention to create Sankalp Unconvention Summit.
2. Energy/cleantech social enterprises again making their presence felt – 20% of the award finalists are from the cleantech sector - Avani Bio Energy, Claro Energy, Frontier Markets, and Green Power Systems.
3. Like last year, I’ve picked my favorites from the list of 20 finalists (see below).
4. Day one of the Sankalp Unconvention Summit will host the G-20 Inclusive Business Workshop and organised by the Governments of Germany and Saudi Arabia. G20 Pillar theme – “Private Investment and Job Creation.”  Interesting to see Saudi Arabia

TechSangam’s Picks

• Banka BioLoo: Waste generated in a toilet is treated in the bio-tank beneath the toilet. The tank is fitted with bio-digesters which decompose 99% waste in a short duration. Regular toilets can be converted into bio-toilets. Current status spans Lakshwadeep and Indian Railways with 12,000 and 22,000 toilets respectively.
• Sudiksha: Promoting a model of pre-school education that is high quality and affordable (Rs. 400/month per child). Currently operating 18 schools in Hyderabad (& nearby districts) with a setup cost per school at Rs. 80,000.
• Hippocampus: Primary and basic education targeted at rural India, training women and employing them as teachers and also reducing the number of unemployable youth. Currently operating 80 schools in rural Karnataka (Mandya and Devangere).

Official press release below…..

Day one of the Sankalp Unconvention Summit will host the G-20 Inclusive Business Workshop.The event marks the Asia leg of the G20 Inclusive Business Workshop series, and is organised by the Governments of Germany and Saudi Arabia, as co-facilitators of the G20 Pillar “Private Investment and Job Creation” .

[Update (Apr 8, 2013): Simpa's CEO Paul Needham wrote back with a few details. ADB joins other investors such as Schneider Electric, DOEN Foundation, Invested Development, Hilti Foundation, Village Capital and some HNI angel investors that either joined this round or participated in earlier rounds.]

Paul Needham posing with the Simpa system (Pic courtesy entrepreneurindia.in)

More than 60,000 households in rural India will have better access to electricity by 2015 as Simpa Networks, a company supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), scales up the sales of its off-grid, pay-as-you-go solar energy solutions.

“The success of this entrepreneurial venture could lead to increased venture capital funding for inclusive business models which deliver goods and services to those at the base of the economic pyramid,” said Aniruddha Patil, Investment Specialist with ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department.

Greater access to electricity in rural India will enable children to study beyond sunset, replace smoky fuels such as kerosene with clean solar energy, improve respiratory health of household members, and improve overall productivity of rural households.

“Our mission is to make clean energy simple, affordable, and investible. Our relationship with ADB will help us advance that mission, demonstrate the commercial viability of investing in small scale distributed solar, and mobilize more funds into the sector. The end goal, of course, is to expand access to clean, reliable electricity,” said Paul Needham, President of Simpa Networks.

According to Crunchbase.com, Simpa had earlier raised $1.1 million in VC funding in Dec 2010. And going by this Villgro article, they have also raised approximately $300,000 in grant money. The Villgro article also mentions 1500+ unit sales, which is very different from the “hundreds” number quoted in the Mother Jones article. I’m sure Paul’s responses will resolve this discrepancy.

Update (Apr 8, 2013): Needham states that both the numbers (quoted in the Mother Jones and Villgro articles) are wrong. They are currently not sharing the official product sales numbers.

If you are unfamiliar with Simpa Network’s pricing model, here’s Needham in his own words:

Customers make a small initial down payment, then pay per day to use the system. After the contract period has completed, the system unlocks permanently and the customer owns the system. So it’s pay as you go, leading to ownership. We aim for a term of 36 months. But there is an option to pay it off faster as well, and we see some customers take advantage of that benefit.

The 1600 INR Pollinate lamp (Pic courtesy theatlanticcities.com)

Just read an intriguing Mother Jones article on the adoption of solar power in India’s slums. The two solar startups profiled in the article? Bangalore-based Simpa Networks and Bangalore-based Pollinate Energy. Here’s another interesting nugget – the co-founders of Simpa are two Americans and one Canadian while the co-founders of Pollinate are Australian. Australia vs. North America on neutral Indian territory? I know I’ve missed way too many Social Enterprise Happy Hours because I missed this latest batch of firangs. Welcome to Bangalore, Pollinate Energy!

Jokes apart, Pollinate seems focused on the urban slums while Simpa is selling to the rural poor. The former has already sold 400 solar systems in a short span of 5 months.

This quote from Pollinate’s co-founder (Chivers) caught my attention.

“It’s a nice idea—the poor leap-frogging the rich.”

It’s cute sounding but let’s not kid ourselves. There’s little danger of the rich-poor gap being narrowed anytime soon in India.

Another interesting quote, this from Simpa’s MacHarg.

“We’re looking to be the first electricity that a family has,” explains MacHarg.

The Simpa box (pic courtesy simpanetworks.com)

For the uninitiated, Simpa Networks is a pay-as-you-go solar system integrator. I said ‘integrator’ because inside the Simpa ‘box’ is the SELCO solar system (SELCO is another Bangalore-based solar social enterprise founded by Magsaysay-award winning Harish Hande) – the Simpa metering gizmo is integrated with the SELCO system to enable/disable the lighting system based on how many “solar credits” the customer has purchased.

Another nugget I prised from the article is a unit sales comparison. In two years, Simpa has sold over 100 solar systems while the (relatively younger) Pollinate has sold about 4X the number in 5 months.

No – this does not mean that Australians are better salesmen than Americans & Canadians.

Pollinate’s products appear to be lamp+mobile charger (essentially ‘single light’) and are priced at 1600 INR. The basic SELCO units are ‘home lighting systems’ which usually means two or more lights (in multiple rooms) and starts at 6,000 INR (if I recall my SELCO stats correctly). The sales cycle for rural customers is presumably higher than that for urban slum dwellers. Lest you still assume that Simpa Networks is a laggard in this space, they recently raised $2 million from Asian Development Bank. I need to circle back with MacHarg whether that was a Series A or B. Congratulations, Simpa!

Pic courtesy usf.vc

[Editor's Note: A few weeks ago, I had an engaging coffee chat with Unitus Seed Fund's (USF) Srikrishna Ramamoorthy and Eleanor Horowitz. The bulk of our discussion was on early stage social enterprises (USF's sweet spot) and brainstorming on social entrepreneurship's 'top of the funnel'. If you are a current (or aspiring) social entrepreneur, you definitely want to start following the USF blog. Will Poole (Founder & Managing Partner of USF and previously a Corporate VP at Microsoft) wrote an informative post on how BOP startups should pitch to them... specifically the 10 commandments to focus on (my favorites are #4, #5 and #7). Republished below with USF's permission.]

Like any venture firm, we get pitched continuously. Listening carefully is our job. We love hearing from inspired entrepreneurs, especially those that have developed a business that has the potential to positively impact the lives of hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of families living at the base of the economic pyramid in India. Helping great “BoP Startups” succeed is why we’re here. Also see 9 tips on preparing to pitch to Unitus Seed Fund

All too often, pitches are not only too long (we’ve only seen one that was too short), and they don’t answer key questions we need to understand in order to make a good decision about moving forward in the investment process. After seeing eight pitches over the past 10 days, we compiled the following list of our “Top 10” topics we need to understand about any BoP Startup.

1. What is unique / differentiated in both the short and long term for your product or service offering? What’s your “secret sauce”? What will keep others from copying you?

2. What have you learned via your pilot / proof-of-concept? We expect you’ve had some failures as well as successes – tell us about both.

3. What are you hoping to accomplish in the next 12 months? E.g. key milestones, validations, expected learnings.

4. Explain your business unit economics – meaning how do you make money and hopefully profit on each unit/service sold, excluding corporate overhead. Many BoP Startups serve local areas (villages, towns, cities) – what do the economics look like for any one of them?

5. Characterize the “Business Unit Total Addressable Market (TAM)” for your product/service around your pilot market area. E.g., how many customers are there within some stated distance from your business unit facility? What penetration of that TAM do you expect for each business unit when it’s running at scale?

6. Why is your team the right/best team to achieve your objectives? What skillsets are you missing?

7. Characterize your social impact – how do you define it? How will you measure it over time? What are key assumptions that support getting to 100k BoP families in 5 years? (Or if your ability to scale is not that fast, how do you characterize a compelling impact you’ll have on each person/family you touch?)

8. What have you learned from competitors or similar companies operating in similar areas, in India or other developing economies? Who are local and regional and national competitors, and why will you prevail over them?

9. Where have you spent the money you’ve raised/earned/been-granted so far? What valuable assets have you created with it?

10. What is the minimum amount (and if different, your desired amount) that you’d like to raise in this financing round and how will those funds be used over the next 18 months? How are you thinking that investors will get their capital back with a strong financial return?

With only an hour for a pitch and discussion, you can see that there is a lot of ground to cover. That means that other topics can’t get airtime, or can’t get much. Your meeting time-management is critical. If we get through the hour and have not learned about the ten topics above from you, we’re not going to be able to make a good decision. Our goal is to move quickly once we’ve got our head around these topics, giving quick feedback on whether there is a good fit for moving forward now, later (after you achieve some milestone), or not at all.

Pic courtesy meerasanyal.wordpress.com

Gram Vikas (GV) is my favorite Orissa organization. Heck, if I ever curated a Top 5 pan-India list, it would probably be in it. When I asked Bangalore’s rainwater harvesting guru for his Top 10 list of Indian NGOs, Gram Vikas inevitably made it there. I don’t wax eloquent about too many non-social enterprise organizations on this blog – or maybe I do and some of my readers have noticed?

I first learned about GV via Banerjee & Duflo’s Poor Economics (see health insights). Quoting from the book, it is possible to provide piped water and sanitation to poor villages at a reasonable cost. He explained to us that in Orissa, water and sanitation are social issues. Madiath (Gram Vikas’s CEO) insists that every single household in the villages where Gram Vikas operates should be connected to the same water mains: Water is piped to each house, which contains a toilet, a tap, and a bathing room, all connected to the same system.

GV was a key stop in last year’s Jagriti Yatra and won itself a fresh legion of fans (which now includes RBS’s Meera Sanyal). She writes in great detail about the House of Dignity – the name GV founder Joe Madith has given to the two-room bath+toilet structure at the heart of Gram Vikas’s solution.

On my journey through the villages of India this year, I have found that the solution to every problem one encounters, is to be found somewhere else in the country. However, despite journeying through almost 120 villages across 12 states, I had been unable to find a practical and affordable solution to providing a toilet and tap water to each home.

At Gram Vikas I was delighted to find a team of people with a simple mission and the solution to this problem. In Joe’s words “In the 21st century no woman should have to walk more than 10 steps for water, and every home should be a House of Dignity“.

The House of Dignity, is the name that Joe gives to a simple two room structure, built behind each hut, comprising of a bathroom and a toilet. Each is supplied with a tap with running water (the Gram Vikas solution comprises an integrated water supply solution based on local water sources).

Behind the House of Dignity, two septic tanks connected by a Y valve are constructed. The toilet drains into a single tank with the Y valve closed. The villagers are encouraged to plant fruit-bearing trees like coconut, banana, lemon etc. around the tanks. Through the process of leaching, the surrounding soil is fertilised, as is evident from the rich crop of fruit. On average it takes about 5-6 years for one septic tank to fill to capacity. The Y valve is then turned to allow the other tank to fill. Within a year the material in the first tank gets converted into humus and can be used as manure. This provides a permanent and hygienic sanitary solution.

The cost of construction including the water supply solution currently averages Rs 20,000 per household. Gram Vikas helps villagers to utilise funds from Government schemes, provides some grant funding but also insists on individual contributions. Another mandatory condition : the entire village has to adopt the water & sanitation solution, which ensures good Hygeine and dignity for all.

The team of Gram Vikas has done yeoman work in Odisha since 1971 in a variety of areas. For Joe and his team this has now become a Mantra : literally the Movement & Action for Transformation of Rural Areas.

For me their work in Water & Sanitation was most impressive – but I was also captivated by the aesthetics of their work, as evident from their beautiful campus. In a state where most tribal homes are a work of art, Gram Vikas fits in seamlessly.

Pic courtesy meerasanyal.wordpress.com

A year ago I had a brief encounter with a young SELCO employee (Nikhil Nair – NN) following a scintillating chat with Harish Hande. Outside in the parking lot, NN cast a curious look at my Reva while I looked approvingly at his Royal Enfield Bullet and we struck up a conversation. Two recollections stood out. NN was an MBA grad from Christ College — that’s ‘recall worthy’ since Hande is extremely skeptical about MBA grads! NN attributed his joining SELCO to a memorable few weeks spent aboard the Tata Jagriti Yatra – a few years before. Here’s how the Yatra is described on their website:

Jagriti Yatra is an annual train journey that that takes hundreds of India’s highly motivated youth (with some participation of international students) between the ages of 20-25 and experienced professionals with age above 25, on a eighteen day national odyssey, introducing them to unsung heroes of India. The aim is to awaken the spirit of entrepreneurship – both social and economic – within India’s youth by exposing them to individuals and institutions that are developing unique solutions to India’s challenges. Through this national event we have begun to inspire the youth of India to lead and develop institutions both nationally and within their communities.

I filed this as another initiative worthy of blogging someday. When Meera Sanyal (CEO of RBS India who contested parliament elections in 2009) blogged about her experience as a Resource yatri on the 2012 edition, I knew I had found the material. Sanyal’s 3-part blog series (Part 1 link) makes for great reading and the extracts below will hopefully serve as sufficient teasers.

How Meera Sanyal got hooked

A train journey of 9000 kilometres around India with 450 young aspiring entrepreneurs – the idea was intriguing…

My journey to the Jagriti Yatra started on Gandhi Jayanti this year. Invited to address theYatris at a function on 2nd Oct, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, I was captivated by the passion and energy of the young people who filled the room. Drawn from all over India, they shared how their experience on the Yatra had transformed their perspective and in some cases their lives.

Inspiring as the stories of the journey were, what was really interesting was the theme: Building India through Enterprise. This then, was more than just a fun exercise in experiential learning – Yatris were selected both on the basis of their ideals and their dreams – of a better India driven by entrepreneurship.

The idea of the trip was to provide an immersive learning experience (live in sleeper class compartments on a train for 15 days); visiting role model institutions (from Infosys in Bangalore to the Barefoot college in Tilonia Rajasthan); using Case study methodology (intensive Group discussions within Cohorts designed to be diverse) and building a support network of like minded individuals who care deeply about building a better India.

I was hooked ! This seemed a perfect continuum of the journey I had begun in April, to the villages of India. So I signed on to be a Resource person for the 2012 Yatra that commenced on December 24.

2% acceptance rate and 375 yatris…

The Yatris are an interesting bunch : 375 aspiring entrepreneurs aged 20-25, and 75 slightly older participants who form the organising and facilitating team, many of whom are ex-Yatris themselves.

This year 18000 registrations were received for the Yatra, of whom 375 participants were finally selected. 35 are international participants representing 12 countries. The Indian participants are drawn from 24 Indian states. 39% are female and 57% come from semi urban and rural backgrounds.

The chemistry between Yatris is fun to watch – adjustments as people jostle for space : physical, mental and philosophical !

Hope and dreams…

But everywhere is a common thread – the thread of dreams that range from changing India and serving our people, to building businesses that will be global giants.

As I walk through the compartments, I feel as if I am walking in the shadow of these dreams…and as these young Yatris awake to their full potential, and start realising these dreams, India will be a better place.

Day #6: sharing of stories and a rhythmic tight schedule

The sharing of stories builds a bond that grows closer in the confines of our moving home. Time and space are both limited and the schedule is a tight one. The train has been chartered from the Indian Railways and slots on the destination Railway platforms have a precise and finite time limit. Miss them and there are not just financial penalties – but a cascading effect on the entire schedule.

Early morning starts ( typically 5.30 to 6 am) are followed by breakfast either on the train or platform. The group then heads to the Role Model Institution, for an on-site visit. On return to the train each evening, different groups present critiques of the Institution to the larger Group. Two chair cars linked back to back and connected by Video and Audio act as the Conference room for upto 200 Yatris ! Those who are unable to join the Chair car sessions, crtique the role models in smaller groups in Compartment sessions. Discussions are intense & critical. The quality of presentations is impressive, with an innovative use of music, poetry (Urdu shairi rules the day !) and drama, in addition to Power point presentations

Not just the youngsters who are learning

Elizabeth the spider scholar from Kochi, researching the medical potential of spider webs; Shadab who has set up a school for 500 under privileged children in Ranchi; Manish the engineering student in Gauhati who has set up an on line travel agency specialising in tours of the North East…this is an incredibly bright and enterprising group of young people.

Our role is to act as Resource persons and provide perspective and context. Increasingly however, it is clear that it is we, who have much to learn from these youngsters ! Our visits to the Role models over the past three days has also provided much food for thought.

In closing..

As the train pulls out of Patna, I reflect on the thread that connects the role models we have recently visited. Each of them has converted their concern for others, into tangible actions that give others both hope and dignity. There can be no better way to start the new year than to spend it in the company of such people.

Role model institutions

The list of role model institutions described in Sanyal’s blog posts (perhaps partial) are: Infosys, Toe Hold Artisans, SELCO, Flipkart, Redbus, Zivame, Aravind Eye Care, R Elango, Naandi, Gram Vikas, and Nidan.

Pic courtesy indianexpress.com

Newton’s Law of Corruption: an Indian babu’s likelihood of  being corrupt is inversely proportional to the number of times he’s transferred. Higher the transfers, lower the likelihood of being corrupt.

While babudom and anti-corruption agitation are topics that are not within the primary ambit of this blog, every once in a while I feel compelled to stray (for ‘public good’ reasons of course). The (not so) curious case of Raju Narayan Swamy and rebooting IAS are notable precedents.

If you’ve been following the brazenness of Robert Vadra’s real estate dealings even cursorily, you may have heard of Mr. Ashok Khemka. This article on Independent caught my attention. 43 transfers in 21 years! That’s a transfer every 6 months. If you were keenly following the Anna Hazare agitation (the first phase), you might recollect Bollywood actor Om Puri castigating the political class — besides usual some choice words to describe the politicians he bemoaned the feudal power-play practice of transferring bureaucrats. There are several things wrong with the Indian political system and giving the ruling state (& central) governments power to arbitrarily transfer bureaucrats is one of them.

Below’s a chronological summary of the 43 positions that Khemka (actually Dr. Khemka — he’s also a Ph.D in Computer Science) has held so far gleaned from his official IAS record sheet. There are only five positions where his tenure was at least one year (highlighted in blue). Stints 3 mos or less highlighted in red. As Chief Administrator (Urban Development), he lasted 18 mos and his deputation at Warehousing Corporation was a phenomenal 21 mos!

1. SDO (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) – 11 mos
2. Under Secy (Agriculture & Cooperation – Cooperatives) – 1 mo
3. SDO (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) – 7 mos
4. Addl. Dy Commr (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) – 7 mos
5. Registrar (Human Resource Dev, Higher Education) – 4 mos
6. Dy Secy (Human Resource Dev, Technical Education) – 1 mo
7. Registrar (Human Resource Dev, Higher Education) – 6 mos
8. Addl Dy Commr (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) – 6 mos
9. Addl Registrar (Agriculture & Cooperation – Cooperatives) – 7 mos
10. Dy Secy (Social Justice & Empowerment, Prohibition) – 8 mos
11. Jt Commr (Law & Justice, Legal Affairs) – 3 mos
12. Dy Secy (Personnal & General Admn, Administrative Reforms) – 9 mos
13. * Registrar (Human Resource Dev, Higher Education) – 15 mos – Cadre Deputation?
14. Jt Secy (Personnel & General Admn, Administrative Reforms) – 12 days
    • Gap of 15 months – presumably for a continuing education gig?
15. Director (Labour & Employment, Employment & Training) – 15 mos
16. Jt Secy JAG (Communications & IT) – 6 mos
17. Dy Commr JAG (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) – 6 mos
18. Administrator JAG (Urban Development) – 20 days
19. Jt Secy JAG (Agriculture & Cooperation – Dairy) – 4 mos
20. Jt Secy JAG (Communications & IT) – 6 mos
21. In Charge JAG (Commerce) – 6 mos
22. Jt Secy JAG (Communications & IT) – 15 mos
23. Director (Human Resources Dev) – 6 mos
24. OSD JAG (Personnel & General Admn) – 6 mos
25. Dy Commr JAG (Land Revenue & General Admn) – 4 mos
26. Chief Administrator JAG (Urban Development) – 18 mos
27. Spl Secy (Finance) – 8 mos
28. Spl Secy (Planning & Prog Implementation) – 39 days
29. Spl Collector (HQ) & Spl L A O (Land Revenue & General Admn) – 2 mos
30. Director & Spl Secy (Agriculture & Cooperation – Agriculture) – 1 mo
31. Director & Spl Secy (Rural Dev) – 21 days
32. Spl Secy (Land Revenue & General Admn) – 8 mos
33. * Managing Director (Industries) – Warehousing Corporation Ltd, Panchkula – 21 mos
34. Director (Consumer Affairs, Food & PD) – 3 mos
35. Member Secy (Personnel & General Admn) – 1 mo
36. OSD (Planning & Program Implementation) – 1 mo
37. Spl Secy (Social Justice & Empowerment) – 12 mos
38. DG (Social Justice & Empowerment) – 10 mos
39. Managing Director (Communications & IT) – 2 mos
40. Spl Secy & DG (Communications & IT) – 2 mos
41. DG (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) – 1 day?
42. DG (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) – 1 day?
43. Spl Collector (Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn) - 1 day?
    

More observations..

• In 16 of the positions, the duration was 3 months or less; of these 10 were 1 month or less. What could the possible reasons have been? “I don’t like the look of this guy!” or “I can smell incorruptible on him” or “Oops! You were supposed to be transferred to Office of Assery and Thuggistan. Who sent you here?”
• 10 of the positions were in the Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn. While he was clearly a thorn in the flesh of corrupt land administration officials, the bane of the IAS cadre system must be such that he couldn’t have been transferred anywhere else?
• The last 3 roles must be some aberration because all lasted ONE day?

Just for grins, I briefly perused the IAS record sheet of the 8 other officers in Haryana cadre. Here’s what their transfer count looks like:

• Anil Malik: 24 transfers
• Vineet Garg: 17 transfers
• Abhilaksh Likhi: 18
• HS Malik: 17
• Sandeep Garg: 20
• Apoorva Singh: 28
• Shrikant Walgad: 27
• G Anupama: 23

Mr. Ashok Khemka: may your tribe proliferate. More importantly, I pray that system be reformed and the arbitrariness of transfers reduced drastically.

Bike parking lot on Commercial St receives TUI makeover

Last evening, I visited the The Ugly Indian Facebook page after a long time. While I was sleeping, they’ve apparently continued doing what they do best, you know, beautifying Bangalore and changing people’s behavioral patterns. The latest iconic street that received their makeover was Commercial Street.

It’s all Mr. Manivannan’s fault that I’m writing this post.

Who is Mr. Manivannan you ask? He’s the Managing Director of BESCOM, a man who’s setting a high bar for efficient babudom.

Who is The Ugly Indian you ask? Well, you must be new to this blog since I’ve dedicated an entire category to them. But if the reverse-chronologically-ordered category appears daunting, may I suggest this 3-part photo-blog series (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3) that reads like a suspense novel? And if you are a video/picture-abjuring Twitter addict, you could just read five amazing things about The Ugly Indian.

When Bangalore’s favorite babu writes to Bangalore’s favorite un-organization professing  his admiration and offering his help, it’s a blogworthy event. The short and sweet conversation on TUI’s Facebook wall reproduced below..

MD Bescom Manivannan I appreciate the idea very much! Indeed only such voluntary initiatives can bring a conducive Eco-system for systemic changes in sanitation. I wish that this group grows into a movement. I am willing to join your initiative to clean up. Let me know. Thanks and best wishes! MD Bescom Manivannan, 9663369333.

The Ugly Indian MD Bescom Manivannan, we appreciate your offer and welcome your support. A lot of work that TUI has done over the past two years is focused on protecting public property, including BESCOM assets (RMUs and Transformers). We believe that if the public works along with the departments, together we can create a clean and beautiful city.

MD Bescom Manivannan I m ready to join your effort anytime. We can also explore a formal engagement with BESCOM. Let me know. You can reach me by email: mani1972.work@gmail.com or SMS to 9663369333.

I can’t wait to see where this collaboration will lead to.

Update: 21 days later, this is what it leads to – BESCOM ropes in NGOs to clear garbage. Is anyone still wondering why Mr. Manivannan is Bengaluru’s Citizen of the Year 2013? (Namma Bengaluru Awards)

Pic courtesy cartoonstock.com

[Editor's Note: Ennovent, an early stage social investor fund which morphed into an accelerator of innovations for sustainability in low-income markets, recently hosted a gathering of entrepreneurs and mentors. The insights from the gathering were gleaned into an article which their Communications Manager (Perzen Patel) has shared with me. How mentors are different from advisors and how/why mentors should have skin in the game are some of the key insights in the post below. For an example of a mentor in the social enterprise space, you need to look no further than DesiCrew and Rajiv Kucchal.]

The term innovation refers to the notion of doing something different – a novel idea or method that offers added value through the development of effective products, services, processes, technologies and beyond.

However, successful innovations, especially those tailored for low-income markets, require the creation of an ecosystem – an ecosystem that brings together entrepreneurs and leading business mentors, among others.

A strong ecosystem is required because in many cases, while early-stage entrepreneurs understand their customer’s problems, mentors often have the years of diverse on-ground experience required to develop and scale a business.

Nowhere is the need for a relevant and supportive ecosystem more evident than with entrepreneurs working to create innovations for sustainability in low-income markets. While many early-stage enterprise catalysts have exceptional ideas or concepts, they often have limited technical expertise, business experience or networks to effectively bring their ideas to market. As a result, many potentially high-impact ventures fail to address the needs of low-income communities.

With this in mind, Ennovent, in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), hosted an exclusive gathering of entrepreneurs and mentors on February 8, 2013 to understand the challenges faced by early-stage entrepreneurs in taking high-impact ideas to market. By bringing together entrepreneurs and mentors, the aim of the event was to gain cross-sectional feedback regarding how enterprises can better achieve milestones through increased access to relevant and effective mentorship.

Perhaps surprisingly, entrepreneurs identified early on during the workshop that defining the role of a mentor within their organization is challenging.

“There is a difference between an advisor and a mentor. While an advisor may provide strategic guidance on a one-off basis, the mentor needs to have skin in the game, be subject matter experts and be committed to providing hands-on help to a startup”, said Rustam Sengupta, founder of Boond – an enterprise that sells rural survival kits to some of India’s poorest villagers – who attended the seminar.

While there are a growing number of business leaders in the evolving entrepreneurship ecosystem today that are able to offer guidance to entrepreneurs as advisors or in other related roles, it was identified during the workshop that this is frequently not enough to support high-potential ventures.

Entrepreneurs often require a more structured level of engagement to be able to benefit from the mentorship process.

“Entrepreneurs don’t require mentors that come in and simply provide theoretical knowledge. What they need is for the mentor to be the pseudo-boss, an authority to report to,” noted Puneet Jhajharia, Senior Investment Officer at Grassroots Business Fund, an impact investment fund that also provides a wide range of business advisory services.

On the other hand, mentors identified the challenge that entrepreneurs often ‘don’t know what they don’t know’, so to speak, and are hence unable to access the help their enterprise may need.

Therefore, it becomes important that mentors identify this knowledge gap to help render high impact ventures successful. Rather than provide top-level advice, the mentor must understand the mentality and values of the entrepreneur and add a layer of connections and networks enabling the enterprise to achieve milestones and market viability.

“I like to call mentors ‘Market Makers’,” said Shivendra Sharma, a consultant with the International Finance Corporation, during the session. “This is because they are the ones that connect entrepreneurs to investors and customers.”

Sharma also added that mentors cannot expect entrepreneurs to connect with them over phone and email. Rather, mentors must establish the trust with the entrepreneur by going ‘to the field’, providing hands-on support and insights that have the potential to make a strong impact.

During the workshop the group also discussed how personal views may impact business decisions at an early stage.  For example, when entrepreneurs establish startups, especially ones that cater to low-income markets, these innovators normally approach the venture from a personalized view. The result is sometimes clouded judgement and decision-making.

It is therefore the mentor’s role to challenge the entrepreneur’s personal biases and basic assumptions about the market, customer base or the innovation design itself. Mentors can add the most value when they enable the entrepreneur to leverage their market experience to analyse business opportunities and challenges.

Despite diverse views, the session participants postulated that in creating or supporting an innovation for low-income markets, above anything else, motivation is key.

While entrepreneurs receive motivation from seeing their innovation’s impact, mentors are frequently excited to apply their specific experiences to foster new, and sometimes unexpected, positive changes for an early-stage impact-focused venture. However, at times, even this emotional return is not enough.

Rohit Luthra, Managing Partner at PVC Partners, a venture accelerator and partner for early-stage businesses added that, “Free services of a mentor are never valued. There should be some ‘skin in the game’ by the entrepreneur in the form of milestone-based sweat equity to ensure that the mentor can remain engaged and be linked to the growth of the enterprise in the long-term”.

This exclusive session that brought together entrepreneurs and mentors strengthened the belief that while an entrepreneur is the one that challenges the system, it is the mentor that enables him to structure the innovation and maximize its impact.

Within the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and globally, Ennovent acts as a facilitator and brings together the various groups that are focused on accelerating innovations from concept to scale, especially innovations for sustainability in low-income markets.

It is through sessions such as the one hosted on February 8 by Ennovent and GIZ that an effective dialogue can take place between mentors and entrepreneurs – as well as other relevant groups – to effectively accelerate innovations. Rather than making assumptions, it is the understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and mentors at the grassroots level that will enable the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India to realize sustainability and have a positive impact on low-income markets.

Learn more about how Ennovent is working with early-stage enterprises and mentors to accelerate innovations for low-income markets here.