Primary health care and nutrition an area of concern gets a helping hand

It is a beautiful winter morning. The mood is festive as little children accompanied by their mothers and at time fathers, stream in to the free medical camp organised for the children from the neighbouring slums (Vidhate Vasti) by the Aundh Shakha of the RSS (Rashtriya SwayamSevak Sangh) in Pune.

Children from the age 2.5 to 15 years are invited to the camp, about 198 turn up at the the camp that goes on well into the afternoon. A team of four doctors listen to their complaints and do a basic clinical examination. Free medicine is provided for ordinary ailments like cough and cold, with nutritional supplements provided wherever necessary. More involved cases are referred for further medical investigation and treatment to other doctors and hospitals.

The free medicines come courtesy the PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation), the doctors offer voluntary service for the day. Volunteers from the RSS contribute their time to spread the message in the community and help around at the medical camp.  The cost of such a camp is about Rs 2000-3000, spent in renting the desks and chairs, snacks for the volunteers and sweets for the children. 

This camp is the fourth this year organised by the Aundh Shakha of the RSS. The earlier ones organised at Indira Vasti, Kasturba Vasti and Chondhe Vasti brought in about 125-150 children each. A permanent clinic is also set-up at Kasturba Vasti for follow-up check-ups at a minimal registration fee of Rs 10/-

RSS runs hundreds of such camps across Maharashtra and India every year, trying to contribute its bit to alleviating the deficiencies in an important area of Public health - Primary Healthcare and Nutrition for children. 

A Study of Prevalence and Household Socio-Economic Determinants of Malnutrition among School Children in Mumbai Metropolitan Region conducted by Sanjay Rode and published in the Global Journal of Human Social Science states that the incidence of malnutrition among school children is higher in slums.
Severe malnutrition among males is higher in Ghatkopar, and among females, it is higher in Kalwa. Highest severe incidence of malnutrition is found among males and females of 6-8 age groups. The children of illiterate mothers have higher incidence of severe malnutrition. But the incidence of severe malnutrition among children is higher, even with the father’s secondary education.
The health status of schoolchildren is related to future physical growth, intellectual capacity and income. But malnutrition at an early stage among children can impact physical growth and intellectual capacity. -The Indian Express 

The problem is widespread with IndiaSpend reporting - Up to 86% of the rural population (717 million people) and 82% of the urban population (309 million people)  without health expenditure support.

It is therefore laudable that organisations such as the RSS are providing relief through such voluntary efforts.

What is particularly admirable is the breadth of geography and length of time over which such programs have been running e.g. Jankalyan Samiti a self-help organisation affiliated to the RSS has been running free clinics and blood banks for over 25 years now. Or consider that the National Medicos Organisation, also an affiliate of the RSS, is an organisation of qualified doctors and students of allopathic system of medicine, covering all the medical colleges and states in India. Organising and motivating allopathic doctors for serving under-privileged sections of the society, settled in the tribal villages and slum areas across the country. NMO has been active for over 37 years now, running various health check-up programs in schools, free medical camps and carrying out relief work in disaster hit areas.

“We’d like to do more but it is hard to make time. We need more people to give a little of their time to such work.” - It’s not a complaint, the Swayam Sevaks look quite happy going about their work at the camp, clearly motivated by their desire to serve and be of use to their people.

A Case for a Universal Collaboration System for the Government

The corner stone of the Digital India program is to make Government services more easily accessible to the ordinary citizens. 

The objective is to deliver timely service to the citizens with least cost and hassles. The resulting benefits are greater accountability and transparency in the citizen-government interface. 

The use of social media to gather ideas and grievances and report progress adds to the improvements of the this interface (others being digital portals, smart phone apps and public email ids of ministries and government functionaries) and is likely to bring about a much better impact than say the RTI in improving services to the citizens. 

It turns on it’s head the ‘mai-baap’ raj that continued much after the British left. Where people were treated as subjects of an empire rather than the masters of a republic, in which the government functions as a servant to its citizens.

But while this is a great initiative, it address only the deficiencies of the external exchange (between the government and the citizens). The inner working of the government is still riddled with inefficiencies and lack of transparency. A lot of that inefficiency and lack of transparency comes from the use of paper based systems within the government that make it hard to track, search and analyse data and information e.g. while citizens can file income tax returns on the digital portal and receive acknowledgements on their email ids and mobiles phones through SMS, the inner working of the income tax office like issuing notices, internal noting etc. all happen over paper. 

“Where some projects have been initiated to create electronic document filing and tracking mechanism, the outcomes have been uneven and limited. Sometimes, a combination of public and private communication networks are used to get work done without concern for security or privacy. Disparate systems are creating information and data silos, making it difficult to secure and track information.” 

Problems with today’s systems

• Inefficiencies because of incompatibilities between systems (multiple platforms in use to communicate and collaborate)
• Large amounts of data / knowledge gathered / captured during the process is fragmented and therefore hard to leverage for further analysis, insights and action.
• Trail of conversations and action taken, broken and therefore hard to trace.
• Networks don’t get formed (incomplete/broken network graphs), leading to under-utilisation of the expertise within the government
• Sensitive information could reside in public networks 
• Possibility of loss of Information - because it resides in people’s personal accounts and devices
• A universal collaboration platform (like AADHAR)

Just as AADHAR has been useful in creating a universal, unique and digital identity for the citizens, making it easier to track and exchange information between different public and private agencies for replacing the inefficient erstwhile system of multiple ids, a high quality universal collaboration platform in government establishments can make for much improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in the inner working of the government. 

The benefits of such a common collaboration platform would be as follows

• It would bring about uniformity and compatibility, ensuring easy movement of information between various government departments, agencies and working groups.
• It would create an overarching system to handle exceptions, coordinate and manage the working various government agencies and departments
• It would ensure a greater data security and privacy (with discontinuance of use of public communication networks)
• Enable the creation of a central repository of information gathered in the normal course of work which could be mined for references and intelligence, to further improve government response
• It would creates a government social network that can comprise of people from across departments, retried government officials and consultants who can collaborate over ideas, problems and issues
• It’d create a platform to build more advanced and specialised collaboration solutions for different needs of the government.

Possible Approach

The platform can be built using open source software and open standards data for message exchanges using easily available building blocks. Here is a suggested five step program the government can follow to adapt collaboration technologies for their internal functioning.

• To start with all correspondences made over the electronic mail (regardless of the system in use) should be archived at a central location for reference, analysis and scrutiny in the future. This will also ensure recovery from any data loss due to breakdown or accidents.
• Make it mandatory to use electronic mail for internal and external exchange of correspondence in addition to / or instead of paper based correspondences.
• Encourage the use of more collaboration mediums like video chat, chat etc. as a way to speed up the inner working of the government departments. PM Modi has used such a system (as part of the PRAGATI program) to great effect.
• Develop dashboards and workflow applications specific to different government departments on top of the basic messaging and communication systems to further improve efficiency and deepen collaboration.
• Open up the platform for other people to develop applications / tools that can leverage the platform** to provide enhanced functionality

(**like Aadhar or the IRCTCs Railway booking system) 

Benefits

“A study done by Gary Hamel & Michele Zanini estimates a 3 trillion dollar loss annual loss to the US GDP due to unnecessary bureaucracy in US companies. It could well be that India is losing massively due to the slow movement of the government bureaucratic machinery.”

There is tremendous benefit to be had in making the inner working for the government more effective, efficient and transparent. Collaboration systems can help break artificial barriers impeding progress, helping in turn to arrive faster at decisions, leveraging the experience and information present in the government network and accumulating intelligence to make more effective decisions. 

Often due to a system of transfers and lateral movement of the government staff, a lot of effort in expended in learning and re-learning the subject and matter at hand, slowing the response of the government. Collaboration systems can enable quicker sharing of knowledge, capture of that knowledge in searchable form for future reference and create knowledge networks amongst the government staff, for faster transmission of the learning.

PM Narendra Modi himself uses a video conferencing system to review and speed up projects. Meanwhile hundreds of cases in the courts and tribunals move at snails pace due to lack of knowledge, information sharing and oversight.

The Economics and Politics of Water

I am with a delegation of businessmen invited by the RSS to witness the drought relief work done by them. We're heading out to see the drought relief work done by them in Patharadi Tehsil of Ahmednanagr district. 

It must be about 46-47 degrees Celsius in the sun. Not a blade of green grass for miles and miles. Not a drop of water to be seen anywhere. The rivers here used to be perennial till a few years ago, now dry. The wells all around are dry as well. Water tankers bring drinking water once in a day to these villages. Life here is tough. 

Nimba Daitya Nandur (Pathardi), our first stop is a village were work is going on on 4 “Patticha Bandhare”  (check dams) to help increase water level in the region. This village, with approximately a population of 2800, was no 1 in district in past for onion production but due to water crisis since last 4-5 years production has fallen drastically. 

The heat is unbearable as we step out from our AC cars to to have a closer look at the work being done.

A Longer-term Perspective to Drought Relief Work

RSS's Jankalyan Samiti is working on 5 drought relief work in Patharadi Tehsil of Ahmednanagr district, to help increase Water level/resources in the region. 

Everywhere we go, the villagers are excited to tell us their story. They’ve been waiting for us for hours despite the heat.  Work has been going on through the day and night to remove the silt clogging the natural drainage system, the river is being deepened and widened to collect more rain water. The longer term plan is to make these rivers perennial again with a series of check dams. For the moment, the plan is to collect enough rain water and let it seep into the ground to recharge the wells nearby. The expected seepage into the ground would be about 10 times the water collected overground, recharging the nearby well for a year round supply of water.

In Village-Mohajdewale (Population of 3100) e.g. the check dam being build will collect around 15 crore liters of water with about 10 times that amount seeping into the ground, recharging all the nearby wells for a year round supply of water.

The work goes beyond providing immediate relief with the objective to ensure long term water security, which in turn would make these villages self-reliant once again.

Economic Impact of Water

The water resource development work done by the Jankalyan Samiti has been transformational for these villages in Ahmadnagar district. A study conducted by the Praj foundation (which provides support for this work) for similar projects elsewhere, showed an 8 fold growth in farmers income within a year from a sharp growth in agricultural produce and life stock population. 

The study also showed a doubling of the area under irrigation, multiplying the number of farmers benefiting from it by as much as 3 times in some villages.

The sarpanch of the village we’re visiting tells me that if they have water, there is little else that the farmers need.  

The program is run with a contribution of at least 25% of the cost from the farmers themselves. Wider participation is expected as stories of the benefits spread. The idea is to teach them responsibility & self-reliance and move them away from dependency on political masters. It’s a new kind of cooperative movement with only a situational coming together for collective long term benefit. No rigid and permanent structures. 

Each project covers approximately 250 acres or more, deep into the hinter land, rejuvenating the natural drainage systems and traditional water resources.  It’d be difficult for any canal system to reach here. The initiative ensures water security without the need for big projects that cause ecological damage & people displacement.

Similar work is going on all around, on hundreds of such projects lead by Art of Living foundation, Maharashtra Government’s Jalyukta Shivar, & through the Central Government’s MNREGA program. The rains will not just bring immediate relief but also start their journey towards more self-sufficient and prosperous villages.

Impact on Politics

Agriculture now accounts for less than 14% of India’s GDP,  but still is a source of livelihood for about 50% of our people, with water as the core need. 

Most of India’s land and rivers are rain fed. Especially so in peninsular India. Rains are uneven & erratic across time and geographies (as most natural systems are). Water management is an absolute necessity. But age old traditions of water conservation have been forgotten with detrimental consequences.

In the light of this, the water resource development work being done by voluntary groups and under government programs is commendable and much needed.

Investment in water resources and farm sector has already given great benefit to Madhya Pradesh with an agricultural growth averaging over 20% over multiple years 

Water resource development, taken together with other initiatives by the government, like Water efficient irrigation systems, Soil Health Card, Organic Farming, Farm Insurance, Rural Roads, Rural Electrification, DTS, etc., can bring about a great transformation in our village economy. It would spur the growth of the agricultural economy, kicking-up the overall economic growth. It would revive the local economies, making the overall economy more complex and therefore more resilient. The second order of growth would come from food derived products, creating millions of new jobs.

Multiplication of the farm and village income should bring about a qualitative shift in village life. It should hold back people wanting to escape the miseries of village life. 

It should free people from the dependence on dole. And with that will come a deep impact on the direction and quality of politics. 

How then will the politics of reservations, doles, favours and inter-state river water disputes, village versus city - play out then?

Modi@2 and what could be his Agenda till 2019

Modi government will complete 2 years this May. Has the government done enough to lay the foundation of a transformation that India so badly needs? Has it done enough to return to power in 2019? And what should be its agenda for the three years it still has in office?

Transformation

As a keeper, guardian and manager of the natural and economic resources, the government has the primary responsibility of managing them in a way so as to creates an environment where people can go freely in pursuit of their happiness and their enterprise. 

India has critical challenges to address here in managing it’s natural and economic resources. Improper management of these resources impoverish people and creates impediments in their pursuits.

Natural Resources - We have a serious limitation here. Bad management of these resources so far has resulted in poor air quality, water shortage, soil degradation, food and water contamination etc., seriously threatening the wellbeing of individuals and communities and imposing huge costs on the economy. Is enough being done to conserve, rejuvenate and make best use this wealth?

Human Resources - Over 400 million young Indians need jobs, a way to express themselves and explore their potential. It is critical to engage their energies not just to mitigate social discontent but to make for a nation of happier, richer and more confident people.

Financial & Economic Environment - This is the foundation of all economic activities. Here again poor management worsens the distress originating from limited resources. The more effective we are at managing and building these resources, the more we multiply our potential for growth and economic strength, the greater our economic strength, the greater the degree of our freedom.

These are at once big challenges and great opportunities for India at the moment. Poor management so far has resulted in painfully slow progress for our people as measured against almost all counts of Human Development Index.

So how has the Modi government fared when measured against the above framework to effect a transformation? 

The government does seem to be working well in reversing this trend. 

A combination of programs for Clean Energy, expansion of Energy Efficient Public Transportation, creation of a new Digital Infrastructure, Rejuvenation of Rivers & Farms and Pro-Environment Policies by the government are likely to make a significant positive impact on the environment & management of natural resources. 

Platforms such as the JAM, Rural Electrification, eNAM, Stand Up India, Start Up India, Rural Roads, Skill Development etc. are opening up immense opportunities for the young with the potential for transformational impacts on their lives. 

Innovative economic measures such as a new mobile payment mechanism, cleaning up the banking system, an under control budget deficit and inflation, attracting historically high FDI, and creating new opportunities in the manufacturing sector all bode well for the immediate growth prospects of the economy. The government has also done well in opening up new business opportunities for large and small enterprises through initiatives such as private defense production, smart city projects, solar power, infrastructure projects etc. 

Accelerating the Transformation Agenda

Despite the many good initiatives addressing the three pillars of transformation, a long list can still be made of things yet to be done. And it is important to recognise that the government cannot attempt to do all of this by itself. The government must focus its agenda on creating a platform that enables private enterprise to participate in these initiatives. The task is enormous and participation of the private enterprise is the best way to expand the resources available for such transformational projects. The government can never match the execution focus of the private sector, although it can provide the execution capacity via capital expenditure.

Finding innovative ways to engaging the private enterprise is badly needed. Take an example of the much hyped Namami Gange project. It is not very difficult to involve private enterprises for water treatment and putting in place pollution control equipments and systems. Such an involvement makes for a good public relations case for the private enterprises. Currently, we see several dedicated individuals running sharamdaan programs. While extremely well-intentioned, these volunteer efforts can never match the organisational & execution capabilities of enterprises. Why not extend Modi’s clarion call of volunteer work from individuals to enterprises? As the Ministry of Power has shown, such participation need not even be subsidized. The private enterprises only need to be shown a profitable opportunity to participate in a government program at a large scale and they will be happy to contribute to a social cause which makes them money in these tough global economic times.

Another area that could benefit from large scale private investment is expansion of quality education. The several opportunities which India has today will remain unexploited if the underlying delivery depth does not catch up. Opening up the education sector to private enterprise with a focus on enabling regulations to ensure quality is perhaps the biggest reform this government can take up in the next three years.

Winning 2019

First the bad news - without a growth in its core vote share, BJP risks losing many state governments to a combined opposition. With it comes the constant threat for obstruction and slow adoption of transformational initiatives, driven by vested interests. More importantly it can eat into Modi’s authority within the party giving room for disgruntled elements to manufacture trouble and create unnecessary distractions.

But here’s the good news - Congress doesn’t look like it has learnt one bit from its 2014 defeat. It has done nothing in the last two years to recreate the capacity to mount a serious challenge to the Modi government in 2019. And because it is the only likely centre of gravity for a possible alternate government, Modi isn’t yet at risk of a 2004 style debacle.

But to win 2019 comprehensively (which he would need to deliver on his longer term economic & social transformation vision)  Narendra Modi needs to engage people at three levels - create clearly identified personal economic benefits, drive emotional engagement and nurture a positive sense of community.

The Agenda for 2019

Modi government seems to be doing a lot for benefiting individuals at a personal economic level like - affordable life Insurance, access to cooking gas, skilling programs, farm insurance and so on. But is this enough to win in 2019? Maybe not. What the Modi government seems to be falling short on is in emotionally engaging the people and building a strong sense of community. 

Modi’s popularity across India came from him reminding the people of the best of our history. He filled the voters with hope and belief that those glory days of the past could be resurrected. It is time to retell those stories in greater depth, with a wider perspective and to spread them further. Maybe changing school books might not be possible without kicking up a storm. But it should be possible to create dedicated history channels on TV and social media, to tell the stories of the best of our past. Linking our heritage to the direction of the current economic program via available media like Doordarshan and AIR and exploiting the reach of social media is critical. The experiment of the DD Bharati channel should be replicated to cover our history, tradition, geography and modern day achievements of our people. 

Temples and festivals have always been at the centre of economy, culture and community for centuries in India. It is time we rejuvenate them and strengthen those linkages. The minimum the state and local BJP governments can do is to undertake measures ensuring cleanliness and improving facilities to make these places popular again, including to the young who should be persuaded to view this from a socio-cultural lens rather than a religious one. 

Rarely do we see a celebration such as when India won the world cup in 2011. People poured out on the streets and celebrated till late into the night. It was a spontaneous outpouring of joy and emotion. Sports can bring us together as a people cutting across the boundaries of casteism and regionalism. Bringing the junior world cup football to India in 2017 is a great start. More investment needs to be made to propel us upwards into the league of top sporting nations and instil greater belief and pride in ourselves. Besides it would be a very useful channeling of energies of our young. 

The lack of pride, confidence and emotional connect with our traditions, community and land, makes our people easy prey for the mongers of hopelessness, fear and defeat, in other words people who play the politics of entitlement, poverty, caste, regionalism and division.

The economic benefits can be promoted and pushed alongside three hitherto unexploited channels for emotional engagement - history, temples, and sports. 

In summary, the Modi government needs to find innovative ways to co-opt the private enterprise for a quicker and larger transformational impact. And to win in 2019 Narendra Modi must work on emotionally engaging the people into common cause and strengthening their bonds with the community and the nation. 

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The author wishes to thank Aashish Chandokar (@c_aashish on twitter) for his very useful inputs in making this article more readable

The article originally appeared in an abridged form in SwarajayaMag on 9th May 2016 

Cleaning up a 'Dirty' Economy

“In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace”  

~ Wangari Maathai , Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 

It was with some dismay that I began to notice the growing amount of filth everywhere. Around the years 2001-2 the economy had begun to pick-up speed again and in a couple of years I had almost begun to hope for a slow down. Maybe I thought, we should slow down, rethink our path to economic progress.  It seemed like we were paying a very high price for economic growth. Something of great beauty and value was being lost in all the hurried pursuit for prosperity.

With every passing year things would only get worse. Every where you went the heap of rubbish got bigger. Plastic bottles, wrappers, carry bags and broken plastic stuff had made it everywhere - into the country side, along highways and railway tracks, in farms, on hills, in forests, in rivers, lakes and ponds. Anywhere you went, it was impossible not to encounter thrash. It was only higher up in the mountains or deep into the forest that you could escape it. 

While homes, offices, hotels and malls became swankier, public places grew more chaotic and dirtier. Filth was not the only thing that grew with the economy but also the chaos on the roads, at the airports & train stations. I mostly chose to stay at home. Whenever I did go out, it was depressing to see the filth ruin the most beautiful of places.

“Wouldn't we all benefit from living in societies that were more careful, more resourceful, more respectful and more forward-thinking?”  

~ Jane Davidson, University of Wales Trinity Saint David

I wrote a blog a few years ago on the conflict between environment and human aspiration, how both were necessary for our survival & living. And that the solution to the conflict may lie in technology (in its refinement and sensible application). Also as I looked around at the struggles of well meaning people to do their bit for environmental conversation, I realised how the the onslaught of mindless action of many was negating the little progress that few could muster to counter the environmental degradation. The offenders always outnumbered and out did the defenders. I came to believe that Government intervention was the most powerful instrument to reverse this. That it was the most effective instrument we had to drive the behaviour of the people and businesses towards a more sustainable patterns of activities and consumptions. That it could be the prime driver for refinement and application of technology. That what it does and does not do can have big impacts on the environment.

So it was great pleasure that I began observing an interesting pattern emerging on the intent of this government on the sustainability and environmental damage mitigation front. To see the government leading the change is most welcoming.

“Some people are of the opinion that environmental protection and development are against each other. But the truth is that they can both be achieved at once.”  

~ Prime Minister Narendra Modi

India has a huge population and the littlest of things they do gets aggregated to big impacts. The current problems have stemmed from infrastructure inadequacy, a loose policy framework that encouraged expedient behaviour, lack of systemic view in finding solutions to economic and social problems and public apathy. 

So the Modi Government is clearly heading in the right direction. It seems to be using a combination of several instruments to drive this change - Expanding Public Infrastructure, Systemic Changes, Public Programs, Policies, Direct Action, Encouragement for Voluntary Action and above all Pursuit of Technology Solutions, to create a more eco-friendly economy.

As a result of some direct and purposeful action to reverse environmental damage, and may be some as consequence (intended or otherwise) of its drive to make the lives of its citizens better, the government is ensuring that the future carbon foot print for India will be substantially contained.

While a lot of local action is needed to conserve the local environments, the measures taken by this government is likely to have an overarching positive impact on the environment. Let’s take a brief look at what it is working on. 

Infrastructure

Woefully inadequacy of public infrastructure and an inefficient public systems have resulted in generating huge waste so far. The government in trying to change this primarily with a combination of Clean Energy, Expansion of Energy Efficient Public Transportation Infrastructure and Digital Infrastructure that let’s people do more from wherever they are, cutting down the need for travel and transportation.

E.g. about 7 Billion People travel by Indian Railways every year (or about the size of the population of Australia, everyday!). And yet, there is ample room to move even more people to this more energy efficient (and cleaner) transportation system.  - by growing the rail network to connect more cities and towns, improving connectivity, increasing capacity, de-bottlenecking of high traffic routes, expanding suburban rail network, building Metros in cities etc. 

A target driven program for clean energy would likewise have a positive impact in cleaning up the air.

But of these three things, the creation of the digital infrastructure (physical infrastructure and services) under the #DigitalIndia program is likely to have the biggest impact in reducing waste, arresting and reversing the environmental damage, as it helps in reducing travel & need for physical infrastructure and accelerates the sharing economy.

The table below summarises some of these initiatives

Programs

India has approximately 17.5% of the people and 20% of the Cattle population with just 2.5% of the land mass and 4% of share of fresh water resources. That makes these resources very precious requiring their efficient, effective & sustainable use & management.

From farms to the cities this government is devising some commendable programs to improve the quality of life for its citizens through better management of the environmental resources of Land, Water and Air. The Smart Cities program e.g. has a conditional transfer of central government funds to the local city governments with emphasis on minimising the environmental impact through recycling waste and water, generation of energy from waste, efficient use of space, multiple use infrasture etc. to reduce the environmental impact of urban centres.

See the quick summary below on some of the programs that could have a positive environmental impact

“When we realize we can make a buck cleaning up the environment, it will be done!”  

~ Dennis Weaver

Policy

Driving public behaviour towards sustainability through taxes, incentives and regulations can be an area that can bring about deeper changes through nudging the private enterprise to explore technologies, methods and products that minimise and reverse environmental impact. It is also an instrument that can drive consumer behaviour. Though the government is actively pursuing change through this means, it is under exploited. Hopefully there would be further momentum in this direction as the government gets more room for action in this arena, with improvements in its finances and the economy.

The table below shows some of the recent policy initiatives of the government 

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”   

~ HG Wells

Education

Lastly, the Prime Minister, has been making earnest effort to send out the message of our responsibility towards the environment, backed by social messages on the national Radio & TV, but what can make things even better is a combination of structured education program, setting up of new standards and replicating innovative initiatives at every level of the government (and by businesses and self-help/voluntary groups). It would help drive the change deeper.  More importantly, if India hopes to provide leadership to the world in the 21s century, it must lead in environmentally friendly practices.

The Prime Minister appeal to people to take responsibility and volunteer for programs such as #SwachhBharat (CleanIndia), has been finding enthusiastic support especially from the young, it would help a great deal if these private initiatives find encouragement and supported at every level of the government.

Here is a table of some ideas the government could take up to accelerate the creation of a clean economy

In summary it is welcoming to see the government lead the change. It should gladden the hearts of all those individuals and groups that have so far been fighting lone battles in their quarters, this time the government seems to be fighting the battle with them.

Look forward to your comments and ideas.

The Making of a New Business Eco-System

A bad system will beat a good person every time.  ~ W. Edwards Deming

Complexity, Opacity, Lack of Access is a barrier to the start-ups and small businesses, favouring the established and mostly the larger enterprises.

That’s how things have been for all this while. 

It is what the much celebrated ‘liberalisation’ of 1991 failed to achieve -  The democratisation of the business landscape. The complexities & limitations in the business environment continued to ensure that the established businesses got the bulk of the benefits. 

The big businesses continued to be seen as the engine of growth. With government policies and actions seen in the light of the impact it had on them 

The Modi government seems to be building out a new business eco-system. It is going bottom up. That’s why Budget 2016 must be read differently. 

Budget 2016 is another step in the direction of upending the established business eco-system in India. Will this be the beginning of the end of crony capitalism? I sincerely hope so. And I have good reasons to believe so. 

The little guys have been at a disadvantage as a result of lack of access to resources, poor infrastructure support, and a complex regime for doing business in India.

The established enterprise with their battery of lawyers and armies of accountants and clerks could navigate and maybe even thrive in a complex environment for doing business. Big businesses had enough resource to compensate (even build their own) infrastructure. Available resources were quickly hogged by those with the means (and ways) to access them. 

The little guy so far had been left to his wit and grit to pursue his enterprise.

To make it easy to understand, let’s look at the how this new business eco-system is  being built, from three different perspectives - Access to Resources, Support Infrastructure and Simplification of the Business Environment.

Access to Resources

Mudra Loans, Stand-up India Assistance, Start-up India Fund, New Bank Licences, Railways Start-up Fund etc. have the potential to giving access to resources to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses...
Of course one can argue that not all these investment will end-up producing value or result in a sustainable enterprise but the seeding is wide enough and large enough to increase the probability of a substantial number of them making it through. 

Supporting Infrastructure 

While large and established organisations can create their own support infrastructure or build systems to compensate for it’s lack, it is severely limiting and detrimental to the growth of small businesses...therefore, ensuring availability and access to Power, expansion of the Railway Infrastructure, Reviving Small Airports, Rural Roads & Electrification, Improving Connectivity (WiFi at Railway Stations etc.), Expanding Skilled Manpower Availability (SkillIndia), Low Cost Life, Health and Accident Insurance,  Digital India (E-filings, E-Tendering, M-Banking, M-Governance etc.), EPF contribution by the government, National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Business Hub, Tax Breaks for Start-ups, Lower Taxes for newer and Smaller Businesses (first)…are initiatives that will have the biggest positive impact for the small businesses & entrepreneurs. 

Simplification of the Business Environment

Ease of doing business matters more to the start-ups and small enterprises with limited resources...The New Bankruptcy Code, E-Filing of returns, a new Tax Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Transparency and Speed brought about by use of Digital Technologies in the tax compliance, Guarantee of Quick Tax Refunds, Simplification of Tax Compliance for small businesses, Freer Access to AgriMarkets, Opening up of the bidding for government business to smaller enterprises, Measuring the performance of the Centre and States for Ease of Doing Business across nearly 300 parameters...are all adding up to make for a less daunting regime for doing business in India.

Pardon my excessive enthusiasm but I see all this as addressing the maladies I have faced in my experience as an entrepreneur.  Things that increase the cost of doing business and odds of success. 

Taken together, it seems like, the Modi government’s effort towards building out a new business eco-system. Something that has the potential to completely alter the politics and economics of this country. It’s a deep democratisation of the business landscape, with potential for a deep impact on people’s psyche.  Stand-up India seems like the most appropriate slogan for it - people standing up for themselves and standing-up to change things around them, versus hankering for whatever dole they can bargain for. It’s a shift from dependence to taking responsibility. And it’s only fair that those who choose to stand-up for themselves and others, those who mean to contribute to wealth creation, get better (maybe preferential) treatment.

These initiative are pushing me towards unmitigated hope. Of course more needs to be done. Yes, implementation is important.  But that’s on going work.

Maybe I am imagining it all up.  But it is a vision worth pursuing for the government. It is a one that has the potential to do a lot of good all around. Also, hopefully Narendra Modi and his team will get enough time to realise the full extent of this vision.

So what do you think?

I would also love to hear from you of initiatives that I may have not listed here that add to this impact.