Job Portals for Development Sector

Mr Nishant Chavan has originally shared the list of websites for employment in the Development Sector. I had added few in the list. This list gives access to job portals that would lead to a better employment scenario and less search time for exploring job opportunities.

1. Database for NGOs / Development / Social Impact Sector

2. http://www.ngobox.org/joblisting.php

3. http://www.nextbillion.net/jobsfeed.aspx

4. http://www.globalcharityjobs.com/Jobs_board

5. http://www.idealist.org/search/v2/?search_type=job 

6. http://jobs.thegiin.org/jobs

7. http://www.iimjobs.com/k/ngo-jobs-133.html

8. http://www.jobisjob.co.in/mumbai/ngo/jobs

9. http://www.jobsforgood.com/jobs.html

10. https://www.indeed.co.in/jobs?q=NGO&l=India

11. http://www.careesma.in/jobs?q=ngo&lc=India

12. http://www.devnetjobsindia.org

13. http://www.indevjobs.org/

14. http://www.karmany.org/jobs

15. https://www.devex.com/en/jobs

16. http://www.thebetterindia.com/jobs/

17. http://opportunitydesk.org/

18. http://www.sams.co.in/

19. http://www.skillfiles.com/

20. http://reliefweb.int/jobs

22. http://www.heysuccess.com/scholarships.html

24. https://netimpact.org/jobs

25. http://jobs.yourstory.com/jobs/listing

26. https://philanthropy.com/jobs

27. http://www.comminit.com/job_vacancies

28. https://www.internationaljobs.org/

29. http://www.aidboard.com/

30. http://oneworld.org/jobs

31. https://ngojobboard.org/

32. https://careers.internationalmedicalcorps.org/careers.aspx

33. http://globalhealthgateway.org.au/jobs

 34. https://www.developmentaid.org/jobs/search

 35. http://jobs.one.org/

 36. http://restlessdevelopment.org/Vacancies

 37. http://development-jobs.org/

 38. http://unjoblist.org/

 39. http://unjobs.org/

 40. https://globalnomadic.com/

 41.  https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Job/india-ngo-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,5_IN115_KE6,9.htm

 42.http://www.jobspublichealth.com/topjobs.html

 43. http://www.bsr.org/en/careers/job-openings

 45. http://jobs.justmeans.com/

 46. http://acre.com/jobs

 47. http://socialgoodjobs.org/

 48. http://commongoodcareers.force.com/careers

 49. http://ande.site-ym.com/networking/opening_search.asp

 50. http://www.headhonchos.com

51. http://www.bridgespan.org/careers-at-bridgespan.aspx

52. http://www.bridgespan.org/Nonprofit_Jobs/Search_Jobs.aspx

53. http://www.awid.org/get-involved

55. https://app.trialect.com/

56. http://www.escapethecity.org/opportunities

57. http://placementmaee.weebly.com/

58. http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/

59. https://govtify.weebly.com/home/resources-for-indian-social-enterprises-and-ngos?

60. http://usascholarships.com/category/scholarships/

61. https://hiring.accolo.com/start.htm#JSHome

62. http://www.cghr.org/opportunities/new-opportunities/

64. https://www.thoughtworks.com/careers/browse-jobs

67http://chp.tbe.taleo.net/chp02/ats/careers/searchResults.jsp?org=SOCIIMPA2&cws=1

68. http://www.aspph.org/jobs/

69. http://publichealthjobs.org/

70. http://www.globalhealthhub.org/jobs-grants-listings/

71. http://www.bdkeller.com/resources/

72. http://thepalladiumgroup.com/jobs

73. https://www.f6s.com/jobs

74. http://socialenablersjobs.org/index.php

75. https://www.impactpool.org/search

76. https://jobs.statnews.com

77. https://www.grb.uk.com/experienced-graduate-jobs

78. http://www.globalrecruitment.net/positionsavailable.html

79. https://info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/careers/resources/type-of-organisation/think-tanks

80. https://chm.tbe.taleo.net/chm04/ats/careers/jobSearch.jsp?org=DAINC&cws=1

81. http://careers.coffey.com/cw/en/listing/

82. http://www.humandynamics.org/en/work-with-us-list

83. https://www.devj.org/jobseeker/search-jobs/?_sft_country=india

84. https://www.rovingbandit.com/p/international-development-jobs.html

85. http://www.cosmopolitalians.eu/international-development-jobs

86. https://www.eadi.org/jobs-internships/

87. https://www.internationalink.net/index.php/open-positions

88. https://www.eldis.org/jobs

89. https://www.intjobs.com/jobs/development_aid

90. https://www.internationalink.net/index.php/resources

91. https://www.globalhealthjobs.com/

92. https://80000hours.org/job-board/

93. https://www.facebook.com/groups/790305567745195/

94. https://www.bamboocrowd.com/jobs/

95. https://designgigsforgood.squarespace.com/job-board

96. http://www.tembogroup.org/careers

97. https://jobboard.globalhealth.org/jobs?keywords=India&sort=score&

98. https://ssphplus.ch/en/news/jobs/

99. https://www.mcgill.ca/epi-biostat-occh/employment

Job Portals for International Development

There’s a new group of youths who are restless and constantly looking for challenging work in Non profit sector. So how can a candidate look for organizations that can utilize their skills for its benefit? I am sharing an updated list of top job sites by field and region. This post will be useful for aspiring candidates looking for a job in Non Profit, development, or humanitarian work.

1. Charityjob (UK)
2. Idealist (General + Global)
3. Impact Pool (General + Global)
4. ICT4DJobs (tech + Development)
5. SID-W (Development)
6. Humentum (Development)
7. Devex (Development)
8. GlobalJobs (Development)
9. UNJobs (Development + Humanitarian)
10. ReliefWeb (Humanitarian Assistance)
11. ALNAP (Humanitarian)
12. PCDN (Social Impact )
13. NGOJobBoard (US Nonprofit)
14. NationalNonprofits (US nonprofit)
15. NTEN (Nonprofit + Tech)
16. RezScore (Nonprofit)
17. Commongood (US Nonprofit)
18. Chronicle of Philanthropy (Nonprofit)
19. BOND (Europe)
20. Eurojobs (Europe) 
21. Third Sector Jobs (UK)
22. CharityVillage (Canada)
23. Ethical Jobs (Australia)
24. Scout Jobs (Australia)
25. Matteria (Latin America)
26. NGOJobsInAfrica (Africa) 
27. UNDP Jobs (Asia)
28. Next Billion (Global)
29. Devnetjobs (Global)

Tip: When looking for jobs and career growth opportunities in the sector, including the latest hiring trends, Warren’s top piece of advice is to “follow the money.” A donor agnecy is always more worth than a grassroot agency in professional exposure, salary and even office culture.

Also, Database for NGOs / Development / Social Impact Sector is available for those who are interested in India.

Database for NGOs / Development / Social Impact Sector.

This is a detailed landscape database of the organizations working in the NGOs/ Development/ Social Impact Sector. Organization Name Database is an essential tool if you are a:

- Development Management Professionals looking to network
- NGO Practitioners hoping for a better salary
- College Students exploring companies

You can access this database here: Firms for Development Sector Professional (Google Spreadsheet). 

The viewing access to the database comes with nominal fees of INR 100 per year. This database will help users to know the names of more than 600 companies spread across 40 domains plus additional information on Fellowships, Online Courses, and Job portals in our ecosystem. A sample screenshot is attached for preview:

* This database is in a Google spreadsheet and an immediate request will be sent to the administrator when Request Access is clicked. The next steps will be emailed to the user in 24 hours.

Information itself is big business, after all this is the age of big data. I had written before on the topic in Job Search in Rural Management Domain. Due to the limited access to information and networks, youths from Tier 2 and 3 areas struggle to get good jobs in the development sector. Youths didn't know even the names of the organizations working in the ecosystem. It is best to choose target employers where one would like to work and focus your efforts on those jobs and employers while searching for jobs. This database is delivered as solutions to bridge recruitment gaps and tap non-profits, social enterprises, and other mission-driven organizations. With over INR 50,000 Crore was spent in 4 years alone in the CSR sector and huge public welfare implementation done by Government, there is an immense chance for jobs in diverse roles.

I have a small experience in recruitment and that has got me thinking that access to information is having a detrimental effect on talent distribution in the development sector. The social sector needs democratic inclusion rather than oligarchic dominance by a few top national-level colleges and a selected network of fellows. Hence, I am sharing the database of names of organizations engaged in the social impact sector.

Rural Tourism Product Design

Rural tourism has a chance to tap the potential of India’s unique heritage through rural tourism development for inclusive growth and poverty reduction. Even rural tourism can be divided into three main components:

1. Fair trade tourism is about ensuring that the people whose land, natural resources, labor, knowledge, and culture are used for tourism activities actually benefit from it.
2. Community-based tourism is tourism in which local residents (often rural, poor, and economically marginalized) invite tourists to visit their communities with the provision of facilities and activities.
3. Ecotourism is tourism that unites conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. It implies responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people

There is a need for comprehensive research in finding out suitable locations, ascertaining market size, tourist profile, perceptions, and expectations, demarcating roles and responsibilities among various stakeholders, creating common utilities like accommodation and food, provision and management of infrastructure, promotional plans, and more importantly about the role of local government and community for the operation of the rural tourism product. Rural tourism products will incorporate developmental aspects and a commercial tourism component to ensure long-term viability. The creation of tourism products needs patient capital, community cooperation, and efficient design.

A badly designed product is doomed to fail in spite of the good execution. Even the best-designed rural tourism product takes 3-5 years from incubation to full operation. Shaam-E-Sarhad (Sunset at the Border) Village Resort, Grassroutes, and Culture Aangan has shown good examples of successful product development with a core focus on community consultation.

I will be using Design Thinking Principles to example the approach for designing the product and as a precursor to design strategy. The Discovery of the design-thinking process relates to identifying the “job to be done”. These methods concentrate on examining what makes for a meaningful customer journey rather than on the collection and analysis of data. Customer research has been an impersonal exercise. The trouble is, this grounds people in the already articulated needs that the data reflects. They see the data through the lens of their own biases. And they don’t recognize needs people have not expressed.

1. Immersion: Instead of designing just for community problems, how could the innovation team design for their strengths and pleasures? This will lead to the creation of experience activities, leisure activities, sightseeing tours, and awareness generation aimed at enabling tourism to enjoy fuller and more pleasurable lives.

2. Sensemaking: Immersion in the user experiences provides huge raw data for deeper insights. We will be using a concept called - Gallery Walk. In it the core innovation team selects the most important data gathered during the discovery process and writes it down on large posters. Often these posters showcase individuals who have been interviewed, complete with their photos and quotations capturing their perspectives. The stakeholders then form small teams, and in a carefully orchestrated process, their Post-it observations are shared, combined, and sorted by theme into clusters that the group mines for insights.

3. Alignment: The final stage in the discovery process is a series of consultative workshops for discussions that ask in some form the question: If anything were possible, what job would the design do well? The focus on possibilities, rather than constraints must be discussed with the local community. The acceptance and aspirations of the community must be aligned by establishing a spirit of inquiry. This will make it easier for teams to reach a consensus throughout the innovation process. And down the road, when the portfolio of ideas is winnowed, agreement on the design criteria will give novel ideas a fighting chance against safer incremental ones.

4. Emergence: The first step here is to set up a dialogue about potential solutions, carefully planning who will participate, what challenges they will be given, and how the conversation will be structured. We have to understand that intervention alone wouldn’t work if the local population in the cluster didn’t have the time or ability to incorporate tourism culture and didn’t have orientation on the tourism circuit —something few families in the area enjoyed. Champions of change usually emerge from these kinds of conversations, which greatly improves the chances of successful implementation. (All too often, good ideas die on the vine in the absence of people with a personal commitment to making them happen.)

5. Articulation: At the end of the idea generation process, innovators will have a portfolio of well-thought-through, though possibly quite different, ideas. The assumptions underlying them will have been carefully vetted, and the conditions necessary for their success will be achievable. The ideas will also have the support of committed teams, who will be prepared to take on the responsibility of bringing them to market.

6. Pre Experience: Design thinking calls for the creation of basic, low-cost artifacts that will capture the essential features of the proposed user experience. These are not literal prototypes—and they are often much rougher than the “minimum viable products” that lean start-ups test with customers. But what these artifacts lose in fidelity, they gain in flexibility, because they can easily be altered in response to what’s learned by exposing users to them. And their incompleteness invites interaction. Arranging prototype tours from the targeted segment are key to getting the right feedback.

7. Learning in Action: The feedback must acknowledge the concerns and engage in the co-design of an experiment testing that assumption. This is the last step to learning while in action. The learning helps in launching products on the scale, network tie-up (B2B or B2C), brand awareness, social media marketing, and community building.

(Inspired heavily by why design thinking works) and learned through major professional failure

How Mass Plantation Drive is a scam?

Ethiopian officials announced that the country had surpassed its goal and planted over 353 million trees in 12 hours. This massive project is done to tackle the effects of climate change. This is a well-intentioned action but will not be converted into a tangible impact. Why? Two reasons: Design Flaws and Corruption. This project is prone to corruption by design.

Is this the right intervention for the problem in the first place? The mass plantation approach for afforestation efforts seems to overlook previous afforestation issues by encouraging mass plantings to meet a national quota. Afforestation must be done by planning long-term duration and phase-wise distribution. The mass plantation drive is an event management and PR scenario form of intervention. The approach tackles neither development nor conservation goals without ensuring the long-term sustainability of the development or conservation impacts.

Each state like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, etc. has done these mass plantation drives a few years back. The previous Guinness World record for tree planting was held by India, wherein in 2017, volunteers in the country’s Uttar Pradesh planted nearly 50 million trees in one day. However, it had only proven to be a joke for various reasons. The Narmada Plantation Scam is a prime example of that. I will be sharing the major flaws in this approach below:

1. GIS Mapping: Implementing Geo-Tagging on a site-by-site basis can reduce corruption and help in monitoring the state of saplings. Such technological interventions aren't generally initiated for 12-hour marathons and are rarely shared in the public domain for scrutiny.

2. Saplings Logistics and Procurement: The tree plantation drive is a lottery for these departments to earn money. The modus operandi is the allocation of ambitious/infeasible targets for plantation drives to all government departments. The state nurseries don't have the capability to supply huge numbers of saplings for the drive. Private nurseries are hired to provide saplings of overpriced value. The kickbacks are built into the hiring and transportation process.  The overpriced saplings don't fetch big margins for the private vendors. The big margin lies in the transportation drive to the chosen locations. The 'ghost trees' constitute a major part of corruption money in the whole program and can be found only in files of the government.

3. Accountability: The tree saplings can not survive without any government officials being responsible for conservation in the initial years. Such drives become a straight case of corruption. There aren't any impact assessment studies done to check the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole program. Reminding the government and citizens to follow through with the desired actions of any intervention is an essential step to helping people achieve their desired goals.

4. Sustainability: Trees are sustainability power tools but such a massive drive without a follow-up plan for the conservation of saplings leads to massive irregularities and a waste of public money. There is no plan to ensure their growth and protect them for at least three years. How many survived is an important indicator of success & not how many were planted.

5. BioDiversity: Such afforestation drives can introduce damaging non-native plant species having a destructive impact on land and causing adverse effects on flora & fauna. The massive nature of the approach neglects consideration of the local ecosystem and biodiversity. Growing Eucalyptus in low rainfall areas has caused adverse environmental impacts due to competition for water with other species and an increased incidence of allelopathy.

6. Mistimed Planting Season: The thumb rule of mass plantation in India is during Van Mahotsav, an annual one-week tree-planting festival in India. This is timed with the post-arrival of monsoon (15th June) and ease of digging land pits. There have been instances of plantation drives on 15th August on a massive scale that is both unscientific and an exercise in public relations.

There is quick deforestation happening in India and with its rapidly growing population, more farmland is being used, and unsustainable forest usage is on the rampage. Chopping and selling trees add to GDP but planting them doesn’t. 1.09 crore trees have been cut down for developmental work in the last 5 years across India. As a consequence, the global economy has a distorted perception of wealth.

Tree plantation drives have to be implemented in a decentralized manner through gram panchayats and local communities. Trees must be classified as public health infrastructures. The afforestation drive can' be left to such PR relations and need more brain with a political will for a good intervention.

Industry Connect Talk

On 30th June 2019, I had an esteemed opportunity to participate in Industry Connect Talk of Xavier School of Rural Management. The talk was conducted for the Rural Management batch of 2019-21. Truth be shared, this is the first time, I’ve given a talk in public place and that too a batch of aspiring rural managers. The speech revolved around exploring diverse opportunities in two years of college stay. I also gave a brief overview of the skills, students are expected to acquire before they venture into their careers in the respective domains of their choice

Career or academic goals may vary from time to time yet few qualities always help in gaining new heights. These three qualities were insights of a colleague (Subash Kumar). These are: Relationship Management, Deep commitment to Work and Always remembering 'Bad times will last longer than good times'. Interaction with students was really good but student debt was on the mind of each & every rural manager.

PS: I am sharing a paper by Dr. Michael Halse depicting an academic history of rural management domain. This will also bring historical context into perspective for millennial. “A new institute of rural management – and a new developmental discipline?”

Call of Aravalli Biodiversity Park

I have been working in the development sector for six years, longer if you include student life in my alma mater’s rural management program. So would you believe that I have never, not once, had a meeting with an ecologist? I had only attended a small talk by Mr. Pankaj Sekhsaria in the early monsoon of 2011.

I accompanied office colleagues to a meeting at the Aravalli Biodiversity Park. We met Mr. M. Shah Hussain, Scientist In-charge, and Ms. Aisha Sultana, Field Biologist. It was a worthwhile experience to understand the technical process that went into setting up the whole park. The ecological conservation and restoration started in 2004 and 450 acres (a total area of 700 acres) have been completed by now. The whole area was Acacia acacia-dominated forest with mesquite (Vilayti Babool trees) as a dominant species. The team of ecologists replaced mesquite with forest communities present in the Aravali range in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. Their efforts have converted open mining pits into microhabitats through landscape management.

Good park management has increased from 50 to 200 bird species, and 25 to 50 butterfly species with even flourishing of jackal and blue bull. Conservation efforts are being carried out in all forms through action research, education models, and awareness building.

They also suggested that any new area for bio-diversity conservation efforts needs brief profiling, area identification, and legal acquisition. The acquisition of land for conservation is the toughest part and needs the patience to navigate legal and government machinery. Once acquired, land must be fenced and compartmentalized in small habitats. Stage-wise restoration is a better strategy even if the land mass for conservation is huge.

Additional Suggestions from our team:

1. There must be a feasibility analysis on connecting the underpass between Aravalli Biodiversity Park, JNU, and Sanjay Van. This underpass can provide a corrugated landscape for migration of the animals within large areas.

2. The promotion campaign required for community awareness is a bit missing. There is a heavy emphasis on protecting biodiversity and securing ecosystem services. But, there is less emotional connection between the surrounding colonies (posh) except considering the whole area as a jogger park. There must be the introduction of concepts like Shinrin Yoku in the park.

3. The economic value of the park in terms of reducing CO2 emissions isn't used in spreading awareness.  This park is an open facility without any fees to the visitors leading to a financially unsustainable model. There must be the concept of a polluter's fee for conservation efforts.

Thanks Note:  Nature requires the interpreter to understand the whole ecological balance. It was my honor to be educated on conservation, flora, and fauna by Mr Shah & Ms Aisha. Hats off to the team behind Aravalli Biodiversity Park for their passion and commitment.

Enjoy a video that took 7 years to make!

Analyzing Model Contract Farming Act

The agriculture ministry on 22nd May released the Model Contract Farming Act, 2018. Mr. Ashok Dalwai, CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority has chaired the committee that drafted the model law.

Contract Farming: Contract farming is a container concept that covers a wide range of contractual arrangements, which makes it difficult to draw overly general conclusions. Under contract farming, agricultural production (including livestock and poultry) can be carried out based on a forward agreement between buyers (such as food processing units and exporters), and producers (farmers or farmer organisations) frequently at predetermined prices.

The Model APMC Act, 2003 provided for contract farming however, only 14 states notified rules related to contract farming, as of October 2016. Only Punjab has a separate law on contract farming. The NITI Aayog observed that market fees and other levies are paid to the APMC for contract framing when no services such as market facilities and infrastructure are rendered by them. In this context, the Committee of State Ministers on Agricultural Reforms recommended that contract farming should be out of the ambit of APMCs. Instead, an independent regulatory authority must be brought in to disengage contract farming stakeholders from the existing APMCs. (Reference)

Salient features of Model Contract Farming Act, 2018

1. In addition to contract farming, services contracts all along the value chain including pre-production, production and post-production have been included.
2. “Registering and Agreement Recording Committee” or an “Officer” for the purpose at district/block/ taluka level for online registration of sponsor and recording of agreement provided.
3. Contracted produce is to be covered under crop / livestock insurance in operation.
4. Contract framing to be outside the ambit of APMC Act 2003.
5. No permanent structure can be developed on farmers’ land/premises
6. No rights, title ownership or possession to be transferred or alienated or vested in the contract farming sponsor etc.
7. FPO/FPC can be a contracting party if so authorized by the farmers.

Policy Analysis by Experts:

1. As per Professor Sukhpal Singh of IIMAhmedabad: The new model Act 2018 opens up agricultural markets to contracting agencies without adequate safeguards for farmers.

2. Opinion Piece by Smriti Sharma, Policy Analyst with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy on role of the government in Contract Farming Act

3. Opinion Piece by Jayshree Sengupta, Senior Fellow (Associate) with ORF's Economy and Development Programme on making contract farming suitable for Indian farmers.

Policy Analysis and Suggestions:

1. FPOs as aggregators: From the draft Model Act, it is not clear whether FPOs can also be contract farming sponsor. There may be a situation where FPOs would like to expand the cultivated area without increasing number of the farmers as members. The model law should clarify that how can FPO will be able to expand farming activities adhering to contract farming route.

2. Pro Farmer Policy: The Act lays special emphasis on protecting the interests of the farmers, considering them as weaker of the two parties entering into a contract and has been provided for reasonable protection to the weaker party to the contract, i.e., the producer, the pre-agreed price, category wise as under Section 18(2). Where no price premium exists, and a competitive price is paid on local markets, the intermediary role of FPOs may become more important for enabling higher income effects of the contract farming arrangement.

3. Capacity of State: The model contract farming Act proposes a state-level agency, the Contract Farming (Development and Facilitation) Authority, which would put contract farming outside the scope of the APMC. There is already acute shortage of extension services in Agriculture Department and current Act is proposing for an officer at the district/block/taluka level.

4. Corruption and Transaction Cost: More the responsibilities taken by the government staff, there is a higher chances of bribery for the online registration of sponsor and recording of agreement with a registering and agreement recording committee. Registration imposes extra procedure mechanism and costs on the parties, while small and marginal farmers cannot easily afford these transaction costs. Transaction costs embedded in contract farming need to be outweighed by the benefits, both for sponsoring corporates and farmer.

5. Monopoly, Fraud and& Settlement of disputes: Sponsoring agri business companies will exploit the monopoly position and similarly farmers will sell outside the contract (extra-contractual marketing) and divert inputs supplied on credit to other purposes, thereby reducing yields. There is no provision of budget for the establishment of body for dispute settlement mechanism at the lowest level possible required for quick disposal of disputes.

6. Insurance and Risk Management:  Agricultural investments always involve risk. The five most likely reasons for investment failure in agriculture are poor crop management, climatic disasters, pest epidemics, market failure and price volatility. The standard approach in agribusiness to compensate the farmer against quantity shortfalls is crop insurance. The contracted produce will also be covered under crop/livestock insurance in operation. But the government-run crop insurance schemes are proving to be unsatisfactory

7. Price Discovery and Market: Normally, contract farming does not work in an ecosystem when either party is looking to fetch a better price without any product differentiation. This is where derivative market integration with farm sector can help. This will eventually lead to both party trying to get the best price from the market instead of the each other. Where there are fixed price contracts there is no apparent risk to farmers with regard to payment for their crops. If a market collapses, the sponsor should automatically shoulder the loss. However, if the sponsor becomes bankrupt, farmers could be permanently affected. Where contracts are on a flexible or spot-price basis the stability of farmers' incomes is always at risk.

8. Farm income varies between commodities: The costs associated with contracting is high hence, it tends to be limited to high-value commodities (including meat, milk, fish, fruits, vegetables, and cash crops) being grown for processors and exporters who sell into quality-sensitive markets. An apple grower benefit from higher yields (presumably due to technical assistance), while contract green onion growers receive higher prices (presumably due to better quality).

9. Establishment of Forum: A major feature for market to work is a "market matching" exercise. This can be done by organizing forums where agribusiness entrepreneurs could meet FPO/ farmers' representatives to discuss their requirements. The forums can be followed by more detailed discussions between individual sponsors and individual cooperatives or farmer organizations.

10. Literature Review: All studies report at least one case of contract farming that has a positive and statistical significant income effect. The lack of studies on ‘failed treatments’ leads to an overestimation of the effectiveness of contract farming. The practitioner-oriented literature indicated the high risk of failure in the first years and stressed the need for adaptive management and mechanisms to settle disputes. Apart from food security effects, the role of contract farming in rural development, such as (sector-wide) innovation, and livelihood resilience, will need more research.

Conclusion: Modest expectations and careful planning are needed for contract farming to be effective and sustainable. However, it is important for policymakers to be realistic about the potential scope of contract farming. Thus, policymakers should not think of contract farming as a solution to the problems of credit, information, and market access for all small and marginal farmers . Model Contract Farming Act should be a promoting and facilitating Act as is intended, and should not end up as a over-regulating act distorting the market for both players.

New era of P2P Lending in India

Crowd-funding is a relatively old practice commonly known as “friends and family financing.” The transparency and scalability of Web 2.0 technology has emerged as a social media-based funding mechanism leading to development of Peer to Peer platform. Crowdfund investing (CFI) is the investment alternative to pledge-based crowdfunding. This term, which describes securities based equity and debt fundraising through crowdfunding platforms, has recently emerged as an alternative to more traditional funding tools such as bank loans, angel or venture capital (VC) investments for financing entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Debt crowdfunding is more popular and commonly known as peer-to-peer lending (P2P lending). It is the practice of matching borrowers and lenders through online platforms.

This is an innovation in entrepreneurial finance that can fuel the Rise of the Rest globally. In the developed world, most platforms are donation and perks-based. The early success of platforms, such as Kickstarter, has brought annual growth in the number of platforms of 60% CAGR. PwC has presented an analysis on P2P lending Peer pressure: How P2P is transforming consumer lending industry. PwC paper discusses how peer-to-peer lending platforms are transforming the consumer lending industry and the key considerations that financial institutions should evaluate when deciding on their strategic response.

Is P2P disruptive? I would say it certainly has been, but in the Indian context, it can make serious and material difference to the credit scene in the country. Access to finance is the most common constraint to growth cited by entrepreneurs in a broad range. Growth rates are higher for smaller enterprises yet the size of them becomes stagnant after a certain turnover. More recently, micro-finance has succeeded in expanding access to credit for the poor but high level of interest rates hinder the formation of surplus. By allowing customers to borrow smaller sums and lower interest rates than MFIs, the advent of P2P finance can open more possibilities for reaching the under-served than ever before. Currently the recommended rate of interest ranges from 12% p.a. to 28% p.a. and the loan tenure ranges from 6 months to 36 months.



The Fintech revolution in India had also facilitated a sudden boom in Indian P2P lending industry. The Indian P2P lending space has players like LendBox, LenDenClub, IndiaMoneyMart, Monexo, Rupaiya Exchange, LoanBaba, CapZest, and i2iFunding. Until few years back, there was no regulation in place to regulate P2P Lending. Any entity could undertake the business of P2P Lending Platform without any restriction and accountability. RBI has shared master directions for NBFC–Peer to Peer Lending Platform in 2017 and updated as on February 23, 2018. The new regulatory era began when Faircent become the First and only RBI recognized P2P lending platform.

India must find an appropriate balance between protecting investors and ensuring the flow of capital to early-stage companies. Modest and balanced regulatory schemes will more likely to accelerate formation of high growth MSMEs and crowd-funding ecosystems. The existing companies which are currently carrying on the business of P2P lending has been given 3 months’ time to apply for registration as an NBFC-P2P within 3 months from the date of the direction i.e. January 03, 2018. Recently, reports surfaced that digital payments giant Paytm is in the process of seeking a license from the RBI to operate a P2P lending platform.

Most of the MSME owners don't have the assets to present a collateral and hence don't qualify for the traditional finance. The need for collateral, from lender perspective, arises because default rates in this segment are higher and are unfeasible for profitable lending. However, only a small portion of borrowers (entrepreneurs) default and majority of this group forms a genuine customer base. But unfortunately, today there is no mechanism to segregate good portfolio from the bad in MSMEs. Hence, the lenders mandate some form of collateral to manage the risk. To reach their complete potential, this systemic hindrance & risk management must be tackled by P2P platform. Investors will be needing standardized and efficiently delivered information about business plans, use of proceeds, valuation and other disclosures in order to make investment decisions. The future is bright but the customer protection measures in place: caps on investment size, repayment frequency, tenor, margins and lending rate can lead to a sustainable Business model.

Development Consultants - Retention

A recent study of more than 600,000 researchers, entertainers, politicians, and athletes found that high performers are 400 percent more productive than average ones. Steve Jobs summed up talent’s importance with this advice: “Go after the cream of the cream. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.” But only big 4 Consulting firms and donor agencies have power over the candidate with good monetary compensation and brand value. The other organizations have to design better HR retention strategy as they don't have deep pockets.

Being a leader at development organization is a tough task. There are essentially three basic ingredients that teams expect from a leader: Direction, Trust and Hope. Hence, building high impact team is tough as each individual require set of smart goals, timely feedback, progress monitoring, and supporting mechanism in the team. Yet, being a leader can lull one into a state of complacency. In that state one tend to assume that development consultants are subject to their will. One forget that a consultant can decide to leave them at any time. A leader can't retain development consultants alone on relationship basis. The company must support the leader with multiple levers (monetary, role, culture, growth, area of work) to manage and retain talent.

Monetary rewards are important. Development Consultants are mounted with education loans, rising inflation costs and increased peer pressure that further push talented lot to frequent hopping. Job security remains the number one reason that attracts development consultants in India, while salary is the number one driver to retain them. The organizational survey data indicates that the ability to match salary demands has been identified as the most critical challenge to hire individuals in the senior (65% of respondents) and middle management (59% of respondents) cadres, especially in urban areas. [ Talent Infusion in social enterprise]

360 Degree Feedback: Development consulting firm must set a good example of managing candidate expectations by clearly defining and communicating the job role while also developing an exposure program for the new recruit. This must includes performance in probation period, annual salary increment, leave policy etc.

Fairness in Appraisal: The most averted topic always come to haunt the enterprise during this phase. Fairness is the essence of justice. When the appraisal happen in a partisan manner and often whim of CEO, there will be disgruntled consultants.

Intrapreneurship is the biggest opportunity for the managers, and can be instrumental in bringing big rewards. The monetary incentive to bring the business and client delight must be top priority for the development consultant. Such intrapreneurs must provide support the firm to start new ventures under the umbrella of the parent organization.

Overburdening the development consultant with many consulting projects without offering a substantiate reward/ promise of the reward is a regular practice in development consultancy firms. This can't be brushed under the carpet as learning curve only. The burnout is a major reason to break away from the organization.

Flexible hours: Development consultants want to have more flexibility in their working hours and remuneration packages than a pay increase. This can be introduced successfully in organizations by converting to the “total cost to company” concept and where the different generations and individual development consultants can choose to work less hours or condense their hours as well as how much of their remuneration packages is allocated to the various benefits and allowances made available by the organization.

Work from home: While permitting flexible timings of work including permission to work from remote location must be encouraged. Encouraging development consultants to have a ‘work from home’ day at-least twice a week will be a great motivator. Many development consultants end up putting in additional effort on these days as well.

Stock options:Equity in the organization is key factors in managing senior management talent. In other words, they create a sense of ownership in their development consultants who has shown loyalty and participated in the revenue of the firm.

Volunteer Experience: Encouraging development consultants to work in other organizations for short term and get more hands-on experience for develop new skills/network can be used by the firm.

Mentoring and career growth planning is important for middle and junior management. The insight into mentor's expertise by receiving critical feedback in key areas, such as communications, interpersonal relationships, client management, technical abilities, and leadership skills must be done in official manner. Gaining knowledge about your organization's culture and unspoken rules that can be critical for success and; therefore, adapting more quickly to your organization's culture.

Access to Professional Network: Professional networking opportunities like conferences, mentoring, or even secondment to other parts of the organization, where they can get deeper insights into the work the organization does, and the difference it really makes. Networking with a more influential development consultants and donors always help in developing professional network of the consultant.

Visibility: Everyone wants to work with a star performer. The drive of HR Manager must be for making a consultant into star performer. Fundamentally, opportunities and visibility creates a positive loop – visibility increase faster if one work on more opportunities; and one is picked for more opportunities if one has a higher visibility. The recognition of the peers is often greatest motivation factor in the ecosystem of organization.

There is a British saying I always loved, “penny wise, pound foolish.” Organization spent more money in hiring new recruits rather than retaining in house talent. Retaining your good development consultant is such a valuable activity to focus on; it means spending less on employee turnover, reducing the chances of knowledge loss, and that keeps the morale of the team high. What is often overlooked when considering the retention strategies, is the habit of encouraging and listening to feedback from the exiting development consultants. They focus on retaining star consultant while they actually need a cadre of good consultants rather than solo star.

Organizations always crib the fact that candidates lack the soft-skills to work in a development consultancy. But the not-for-profit sector isn't generally known for offering the structured training programs or even assigning a mentor that some big corporates provide. There will no perfectly finished development consultant to hire. There will be critical gaps in soft skills among candidates most of times, especially at the middle management and junior staff level. What must be non negotiable is good understanding of the sector with relevant technical skills.

Development Consultants - Hiring

A Development Consultant’s primary role is to own and give technical advisory to the client projects and to facilitate research, in-depth analysis, and insightful problem-solving. It is common for clients/consultancy firms to find social consultants through personal links and alumni networks, and while this may be effective, it is weak in terms of competition, transparency, and accountability. The best way is to reach a range of potential consultants is to use free digital networks like Face-book Groups or LinkedIn or pay to advertise on job portals like NGOBOX. This improves the impartiality, build the credibility of the recruitment process, and creates chances of diversity in the organization.

The sure way to build pipeline of talent is to build good relationships with one or two recruitment partners who can provide access to quality talent and help benchmark against the industry. The recruitment process must also include advertising the post through personal networks, asking colleagues for recommendations, or encouraging particular consultants to apply. Referral is the proof that the culture and profile of the organization has positively impacted life of employees. Getting referred candidates is an important part of the process and although this does not make it a more open procedure it provides an element of cross-checking. It is important to know if someone is recommending a consultant or just passing information to their contact details.

One must look for a generalist while hiring a development consultant for the middle and lower ladder of the management. The expertise is to build slowly in the young recruit over the years. Some skills are needed in all consultancy work and may be as important as specific areas of knowledge or experience. For example, the ability to understand a situation quickly, to get on well with people and, perhaps above all, to be able to write quickly and clearly. In most cases of consultancy, knack for networking, budgeting and writing skills are crucial for a junior consultant. A Development Consultant needs to demonstrate capability:

1. Technical skills which are specific to the sectors
2. Business Communication and Interpersonal skills, which apply to all situations
3. Consulting skills, which apply to the requirements of each consulting phase
4. Relevant Work Experience (Consulting) or even Project Implementation
5. Lead Generation for Business Development and Networking
6. Extra: Local Activism, Volunteer Activities, Data Analysis & Quantitative Skills

The screening of the candidates can be done on the parameters given above in the resume. Screening resumes usually involve filtering based on the role’s minimum and preferred qualifications. The biggest challenge of screening resumes by far is volume. The recruitment process must be designed in four stages.

1. Communication Skills through Telephonic Interview
2. Quantitative Skills through Small scale B-Plan/ Budgeting
3. Analytical and Technical Skills: Analysis through a case study
4. The Last round should be Interview: Career vision, leadership, and team building

Even an organization will always put credence in analyzing track records and relevant experience, reviewing written reports, and talking to referees. But it is in the interview where chemistry is established and essential intangibles like passion, adaptability, and fit are determined. The trick is to hire mix of star and undervalued people and then give them proper leadership, guidance, environment and tools. Star will give you stellar performance for a short period of time (1-2 Years) while an undervalued person will deliver tremendous loyalty and above average performance when given proper mentor-ship and supportive structures. Hiring an undervalued consultant is not about promoting incompetence but the same as buying good stocks at a low worth.


Whenever you question the investment in hiring, always remember a great vision without great people is irrelevant. Good development consultants are expensive. As they say, If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Tax Benefit to Farmer Producer Companies

Providing interest-free loans and tax holidays is a subsidy. In fact, the corporates thrive on such subsidies. Corporations use most of the loopholes and tax dodges to avoid their taxes that may be technically ‘legal’ in the sense as the tax law allows them. But those subsidies got into the tax code because corporations lobbied to put them there. Saying something is ‘legal’ doesn't mean that it’s ethical.

The difference being, these subsidies are called ‘incentives for growth’. But, strangely, it is always subsidies for the poor/farmers that come under the scanner. Even big individual agriculturists are not taxable in this country, whereas when they collectivize themselves, they were being taxed. Institutions promoting FPOs and Union agriculture ministry were seeking income-tax exemption for FPOs for a long time.

Union Budget has proposed that FPCs, registered under the Companies Act, having an annual turnover up to INR 100 crore need not pay tax on profits derived from farm-related activities. There was the deduction of income under section 80P of the Income-tax Act of producer companies registered under Par IX-A of the companies Act. This is a welcome step but many hindrances still remain. For those interested, a detailed note on the need for tax benefit to FPO by Dr. Irina Garg, Director General of NIAM was shared with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the Ministry of Finance.

To the Registrar of Companies, the FPO is just another form of a company. Therefore, the cost and burden of reporting are disproportionately huge, as the rules are the same as what would apply to a corporate. Any reporting shortfalls or violations attract huge fines from RoCs. Institutions that championed the cause of FPOs have been vocal about the need for a lighter regulatory & reporting regime for FPOs. Thus far, this issue has not received attention. Unless that is done, the risks that farmer directors face are serious.