20th December 2006, Chennai India, my first professional presentation before an experienced and intellectual international crowd. As per the programme, Dr.Harish Hande, our Managing director was supposed to address the international conference on Innovation & new product development about the experience of SELCO. As Dr. Hande was busy in some other schedule, Mr. Thomas, General Manager (Operations) was all set to depart for Chennai but due to some unavoidable reason, he was unable to attend. Then I received a call from Mr. Thomas, asking me to address the conference. It was less a surprise more a fear for me. Though I delivered lot of public speeches, presentations and participated in state level debate competitions during my study but It was completely a different situation. I was afraid, whether I `d be able to make justice with this responsibility or not.
Finally with the help of Mr. Thomas, I got ready to depart for Chennai. After arriving at Chennai, I got Mr. Suresh Subramanian Chief Operating Officer of International Development Enterprise India, as my room mate. I got some strength and confidence, talking to him. By the time, my presentation was 12.15 PM but it got delayed by one hour. I attended some other speeches by different speakers. A couple of them I remember, Prof. Suzuki from Japan, he gave a definition on quality, which was quite impressive. As per him, “quality can not be measured by the strength, durability or Materials used in the product. It completely depends upon the customer satisfaction. If the customer is satisfied with the performance, then the product is of best quality, no matter if it doesn’t last long”.
Dr.RAvi Chitturi of Lehigh University, US described about Emotion in Design. Dr.A.S.Rao, Scientist, ‘G’, DST, Govt of India explained about various opportunities on product innovations. Mr.Vineet Rai, CEO- Avishkar Micro venture capitals, presented an excellent concept of “Business at Base of the Pyramid”.When my number came, It was 1.30 PM and looking at a hungry crowd, I was more nervous than before. But after my introduction by Dr. K. Chandrasekharan, vice-president , PDMA India, I started my presentation “Product Innovation- sharing of experience”. My first line was “I know I am too young to address such an experienced and intellectual crowd but hope, I can make justice with my job”. Then I put lime light on SELCO`s experience in product, service and Financial innovations. The definition given by me “Innovation is much beyond technology. Its a combination of product, finance, supply and service, which adds value to the end user's quality of life” was highly praised by the conferences.
It was a great experience all together when people came to me, asking more about us and the work we do. Some were very much interested in having a future partnership with us. This exposure really boosted my confidence and my strength too. Thanks to Harish sir and Thomas sir for providing me such a great opportunity so early.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
Technology for Poor
The problems of poor are like never ending horizons of an ocean. Beginning from basic necessities of life up to social security, everything is unaffordable for them. Around the island of enterprises in the developing world, there is ocean of poverty. Lots of organisations as well as individuals are fishing out of this ocean in the name of charity and development. But still the there are more addition in poverty than deaddition. Since last 5-6 years the globe is experiencing a golden era of technological development in both IT and non-IT sector. Developing countries like India are also not far behind in the race, rather in some sector, they are far ahead of developed countries.
But how many percentage of the global population are well accessed to these technologies??
The answer is very very negligible portion because, the hi-fy technology is not able to address their day to day problems and even some are able to address some of their problems, its never the less a dream to afford these technology for the poor people.
Still there are lots of grassroot level innovations in technology, which are coming out from the problems itself and are well equipped to address the basic day-to-day problems of the poor household. Unfortunately thousands of these technologies are coming and dying due to lack of required finance to promote these. Sometimes it’s the approach, which prevents the technology to make a sustainable reach to the end users. There is a need of support from institutions, Govt. and public to make these innovations successful and sustainable, so that our society can be a better place to live. The lack of grassroot experience and the institutional willingness are some of the major obstacles to make the technology accessible to poor.
We (SELCO Solar Lights Pvt. Ltd.) are trying to promote the innovations in technologies, which are meant for addressing basic household problems which includes, lighting, cooking, drinking water, sanitation and many more. Our main objective is to make this globe a better place to live in, using alternative source of energy. The difference is, we don’t believe in charity, we believe in provide fee for quality service, which can lead to better income generation activities for the end user. This approach of us has been successful in making the service chain and technology promotion sustainable for ever, not putting extra financial burden on the end user.
As a part of this effort, we are promoting a new cooking technology, innovated by some students of “Colorado state University”, US. The device is called starlight stove which generates electricity when cooking food on it. It’s a normal cookstove, equipped with a thermoelectric generator, charge converter, battery. When we cook food on the stove, using the regular bio-mass fuel, the heat passes throught the thermoelectric generator and the battery gets charged, which we can use for further lighting or using a small electronic equipment. The calculations are as such. , If you burn the stove for four hours, it can light a 5 W CCFL for 3 hours.
Now four of these stoves are under demonstration at four poor households of Gujarat, who are also clients of SEWA Bank. As a part of technological innovation and creating a sustainable service chain of it, SEWA bank is partnering us under the name of “Project Urja”. Objective of SEWA is to provide better technological solutions to their client. Role of SELCO is to provide these solutions in a better financial package which can lead to a better business model as well as enhance income generation of the end user. SEWA bank is their to finance to end users for the product and ensure a productive use of the technology using their huge and strong network.
The Starlight Stove seems to be very energy efficient and multi beneficial, which can be effectively used at the road side fast-food vending shops for a better solution for cooking and lighting. The demonstration is going on, so we expect better results out of it, so that it can be replicated elsewhere in the country.
But how many percentage of the global population are well accessed to these technologies??
The answer is very very negligible portion because, the hi-fy technology is not able to address their day to day problems and even some are able to address some of their problems, its never the less a dream to afford these technology for the poor people.
Still there are lots of grassroot level innovations in technology, which are coming out from the problems itself and are well equipped to address the basic day-to-day problems of the poor household. Unfortunately thousands of these technologies are coming and dying due to lack of required finance to promote these. Sometimes it’s the approach, which prevents the technology to make a sustainable reach to the end users. There is a need of support from institutions, Govt. and public to make these innovations successful and sustainable, so that our society can be a better place to live. The lack of grassroot experience and the institutional willingness are some of the major obstacles to make the technology accessible to poor.
We (SELCO Solar Lights Pvt. Ltd.) are trying to promote the innovations in technologies, which are meant for addressing basic household problems which includes, lighting, cooking, drinking water, sanitation and many more. Our main objective is to make this globe a better place to live in, using alternative source of energy. The difference is, we don’t believe in charity, we believe in provide fee for quality service, which can lead to better income generation activities for the end user. This approach of us has been successful in making the service chain and technology promotion sustainable for ever, not putting extra financial burden on the end user.
As a part of this effort, we are promoting a new cooking technology, innovated by some students of “Colorado state University”, US. The device is called starlight stove which generates electricity when cooking food on it. It’s a normal cookstove, equipped with a thermoelectric generator, charge converter, battery. When we cook food on the stove, using the regular bio-mass fuel, the heat passes throught the thermoelectric generator and the battery gets charged, which we can use for further lighting or using a small electronic equipment. The calculations are as such. , If you burn the stove for four hours, it can light a 5 W CCFL for 3 hours.
Now four of these stoves are under demonstration at four poor households of Gujarat, who are also clients of SEWA Bank. As a part of technological innovation and creating a sustainable service chain of it, SEWA bank is partnering us under the name of “Project Urja”. Objective of SEWA is to provide better technological solutions to their client. Role of SELCO is to provide these solutions in a better financial package which can lead to a better business model as well as enhance income generation of the end user. SEWA bank is their to finance to end users for the product and ensure a productive use of the technology using their huge and strong network.
The Starlight Stove seems to be very energy efficient and multi beneficial, which can be effectively used at the road side fast-food vending shops for a better solution for cooking and lighting. The demonstration is going on, so we expect better results out of it, so that it can be replicated elsewhere in the country.
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Enterprise Solutions to Poverty
Enterprise Solutions to Poverty
For too long, approaches to economic development and eradicating poverty have centered around official development assistance. Live8 concerts around the world provided a highly visible and robust focus on global poverty, designed to increase foreign assistance commitments from G-8 countries to the poorest countries – an important, but by no means the best hope, for eradicating poverty. Rather, it is the sea change that is taking place in attitudes and in the proliferation of non-governmental efforts to address poverty that offer the best hope.
The urgency, one might say the fear of global poverty and its impact has prompted many to think outside the box and to diversify the approaches to poverty and its related ills. Encouraging, bold and innovative efforts are underway. Grameen Foundation led the way with lending to the very poor who lacked collateral and microfinance mechanisms proliferated. Organisations like S3IDF (Small scale social Infrastructure Development Fund) are expanding access to the rural and poor for a more effective and efficient social infrastructure and micro enterprise development. And now funds for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are growing as increasing numbers of multinationals are getting serious about corporate social responsibility.
Various organisations are taking a merchant bank approach “to catalyze and scale-up market and enterprise solutions to poverty”. People have started appllying business solutions to eradicating poverty, directing financial resources and transferring “business DNA” (imparting technical and business know-how) to SMEs.
There is a great deal of microfinance, a good bit of project finance and venture capital for the big projects but insufficient financing for the SMEs which face the same problems that microfinance addresses, i.e., no collateral, no business track record and therefore deemed a high risk by lenders and investors. Yet SMEs are often the engine of employment growth for many economies. Capital is needed to grow a business and to take it to scale. Grants never seem to end the dependence on that funding nor enable projects to reach a self-sustaining level.
The fight against global poverty is continuing and it needs an entrepreneurial approach and enthusiastic social entrepreneurs, who can really take over the whole responsibility and win the war. There are examples, which proves the ability of SMEs in eradicating poverty and accelerating development. We an feel the change in social environment due to various reasons, which is forcing us not only eradiating poverty but also growing fast in order to survive in this era of competitions. Even if a significant number of individuals and organisations are coming forward to accept this challenge, we need a combination of multiple resources from multiple sources. More efficient steps need to be taken from the Private side as also from the policy makers.
There is no doubt, that this approach will make important contributions. It may be even broader and more significant yet by providing a model of assistance that can be replicated by hundreds, even thousands of foundations and corporations around the world. That would offer the best hope to “make poverty history.”
"Enterprise leads to employment which further leads to income generation and results in poverty reduction and improve in quality of life"
For too long, approaches to economic development and eradicating poverty have centered around official development assistance. Live8 concerts around the world provided a highly visible and robust focus on global poverty, designed to increase foreign assistance commitments from G-8 countries to the poorest countries – an important, but by no means the best hope, for eradicating poverty. Rather, it is the sea change that is taking place in attitudes and in the proliferation of non-governmental efforts to address poverty that offer the best hope.
The urgency, one might say the fear of global poverty and its impact has prompted many to think outside the box and to diversify the approaches to poverty and its related ills. Encouraging, bold and innovative efforts are underway. Grameen Foundation led the way with lending to the very poor who lacked collateral and microfinance mechanisms proliferated. Organisations like S3IDF (Small scale social Infrastructure Development Fund) are expanding access to the rural and poor for a more effective and efficient social infrastructure and micro enterprise development. And now funds for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are growing as increasing numbers of multinationals are getting serious about corporate social responsibility.
Various organisations are taking a merchant bank approach “to catalyze and scale-up market and enterprise solutions to poverty”. People have started appllying business solutions to eradicating poverty, directing financial resources and transferring “business DNA” (imparting technical and business know-how) to SMEs.
There is a great deal of microfinance, a good bit of project finance and venture capital for the big projects but insufficient financing for the SMEs which face the same problems that microfinance addresses, i.e., no collateral, no business track record and therefore deemed a high risk by lenders and investors. Yet SMEs are often the engine of employment growth for many economies. Capital is needed to grow a business and to take it to scale. Grants never seem to end the dependence on that funding nor enable projects to reach a self-sustaining level.
The fight against global poverty is continuing and it needs an entrepreneurial approach and enthusiastic social entrepreneurs, who can really take over the whole responsibility and win the war. There are examples, which proves the ability of SMEs in eradicating poverty and accelerating development. We an feel the change in social environment due to various reasons, which is forcing us not only eradiating poverty but also growing fast in order to survive in this era of competitions. Even if a significant number of individuals and organisations are coming forward to accept this challenge, we need a combination of multiple resources from multiple sources. More efficient steps need to be taken from the Private side as also from the policy makers.
There is no doubt, that this approach will make important contributions. It may be even broader and more significant yet by providing a model of assistance that can be replicated by hundreds, even thousands of foundations and corporations around the world. That would offer the best hope to “make poverty history.”
"Enterprise leads to employment which further leads to income generation and results in poverty reduction and improve in quality of life"
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