Digital Well Being

“The struggle of man against social media is the struggle of concentration against distraction.”

Do you know ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)? I have most of the signs of this disorder that has increased from the last few years. But, I am slowly turning the tides by changing the micro habits and following simple rules.

1. Know about Cal Newport’s prescriptions for creating 90 minute slots\ for solid, uninterrupted work. Practice this by increasing gradually from 60 - 150 Minutes. While working on the desktop, allocate specific start and end time of the task and close all other windows.

2. Uninstall LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Tweeter from the smart phone. Login and Logout each time from the social media application on the desktop. This will lower the craving to stay connected all the time.

3. Do Not Disturb Mode: This starts by disabling WhatsApp/Telegram and text message notifications and sound. In the peak hours of work, there is need to avoid incoming calls too.

4. Stop refreshing Inbox for constantly new emails. Plan your working hours with meetings, lunch, tea break, and phone call in between concentrated work hours.

5. Digital Down Time: There must be for digital downtime every evening. When you are done with work for the day, try to shut down work related task for the day completely. Phone calls, share market, social media and text messaging are all covered in this session. During dinner, movies, reading and jogging, start leaving your phone alone.

6. Wind Down Time: The entertainment has to be fixed post-office and pre-sleep hours. I put my phone on on wind down between 12 - 7 AM. Good sleep improves work productivity.

7. Partial phone/desktop/TV deprivation is good for health. This can be extended from 4-12 hours during day time.

8. Digital detox will leave a void in the life and there is huge need to reinvest back in the family, friendships and relationships

9. I have committed in 2020 for “no new hobbies, no new books.” I had acquired several books in the last few years and read only one fifth of the home grown library.

10. Binging is bit smaller issue but also leads to erosion of the self control. The discipline to say No is the core of the self control.

11. Stop Consuming too much of news, entertainment, and reports. Start a habit of creation: reading, coding, painting, gardening, jogging etc..

Consumer culture drives us to explore in a rabbit hole. Think an example like Youtube surfing. Digital Wellbeing is an essential part of the mental health. I often have to challenge myself for this experiment and I have huge withdrawal symptoms too. This is an attempt to go deeper and cultivate self control. Its like watching grass grow. It will take perseverance and belief in the power of self.

Ankur Capital Dialogues - Navigating Recovery Post COVID-19 for Consumer Food Brands

I have the privilege to attend a webinar on 15th April, Wednesday Navigating Recovery Post COVID-19 for Consumer Food Brands organized by Ankur Capital.

The panel had good expertise in FMCG and the food industry. They shared a more comprehensive range of challenges and issues faced by the consumer food brands amid lock-down. I will summarize the webinar in six points:

1. Managing human resources: The legal aspects of managing human movement was relatively easy for the firms. But, a lot of personal communication was established by the leadership team to establish trust between them and employees. There were a lot of queries on the risk involved as the mainstream media has heightened a sense of panic and anxiety. Communication with the employees and all key stakeholders is the key!

2. Organization culture: While business metrics are important, companies should adopt a people-first approach and ensure that the well-being of their employees and customers is the key. The whole culture has been put to the litmus test and the lock-down has put the values of the companies in the action.

3. Alternate partnerships: Companies have ensured seamless supply through partnering with new partners and tackling logistics issues. Companies have re-prioritized the channel distribution strategies by considering the willingness, infrastructure, and payments of the partners. The situation is different for each partner.

4. Embracing technologies solution: Leadership has been pushing for technology like Microsoft Team and Zoom to the reluctant adopters.

5. Financial Liquidity: Startups have negotiated cash discounts to distributors. The Cash crunch has led to the cutting cost and made them functional for 2-3 months. There will be changes in the product portfolio, and processes to make companies more efficient.

6. Ecosystem Recovery: The recovery curve will be U shaped rather than V-shaped in consumer food brands. The behavioral habit of the consumer such as out-of-home shopping, and dining will change as people venture out less often. There will be trust building by brands through reassurance, hygiene, quality, and the process they follow at the back end. Unknown brands will be either buried or raised from the debris. The online groceries ecosystem will change and rapidly evolve in the next 6 months. A lot of medium food brands will change the rules of engagement in the online space.

Covid is a moment of truth and companies are looking to emerge from this stronger. Brands should focus their efforts on building trust and ensuring that the values that the organization stands for come to the forefront during times like these.

Acumen Bootcamp - 5th Week Reflection

Part 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4& of Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here.

I approached two of our readings, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United States’ Declaration of Independence in the 5th week of Acumen.

1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Democracy itself constitutes a human right, and therefore nation states not respecting democratic principles open themselves up to just conflict internally and externally. The Declaration emphasize on the rights of humans and create a document that forms a vision for utopia. Therefore, leaders with moral imagination has to step up, tune with one’s own moral compass, and make this as core of our future.

2. In post covid situation, life of most people is in turn-moil and pain. But, I am critical of analyzing United States’ Declaration of Independence at this juncture. This is a revolutionary rhetoric that can be easily hacked by the elements who want to destabilize the consensus for a emergency powers and uprising. This call seems more dubious and hard to be translated into real mass improvement of people. And how it is no different from Mao's call for Cultural Revolution in 1960s where the population was urged to rid itself of the : Old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas.

The merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. I will definitely remove this line. And no explanation needed.

Passing Thought:In times of crisis especially disaster, there is nationalism sweeping the communities. There is rise in poll popularity of the leader despite of good or bad handling of the process. And rallying around the leader becomes one of those irrational things. Richard Perle, once an advisor to Libyan Dictator, Gaddafi had said “Dictators must have enemies. They must have internal enemies to justify their secret police and external enemies to justify their military forces.” Being a thinking person in a crisis is a tomfoolery and seen as act of internal enemy. India have a troll force working to keep dissent away!

Acumen Bootcamp - 4th Week Reflection

Part 0, 1,2, and 3 of Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here.

I was introduced to Immunity to Change tool that is adapted from the works of Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. This tool has helped me to observe and interpret within myself (the system) and surfaces internal contradictions and (possibly faulty) operating-assumptions-taken-as-Truths.

There are four ways to analyze: Commitment, Doing / Not Doing Instead, Hidden Competing Assessments and Big Assumptions. For every commitment made, there is another commitment that prevents that change. This is a perfect example of the contradiction is like a driving vehicle with with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake. This is an intriguing exercise- to see a picture of oneself and work on the conflicting actions in our lives. I will end this with a quote by V. S. Naipaul on self improvement: “The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.” ...

Additional Motivation:

Solving for agri procurement and market linkage in times of Covid

I attended a webinar on 4th April, Saturday Solving for agri procurement and market linkage in times of Covid organized by Hemendra Mathur, Gauri Sarin, Abhilash Thirupathy, Om Routray, Ashish Khetan and Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya.

Agenda: The idea is to table the challenges and solutions in the context of upcoming Rabi harvest during and after the lock-down. The focus of discussion will be on post-harvest interventions needed from first mile including farm labor, harvesting, procurement, warehousing and cold chain. The stakeholders likely to join the call are mandi traders, farmer bodies, NBFCs, warehousing, cold chain, logistics companies, agri startups in the market linkage side, industry association etc.

Speakers: Anil Kumar SG - Sammunati Jayant Chattarjee (Star Agri ), Pushpendra Singh (Farmer Leader), Khalid Hussain, ITC, Sachin Sharma ITC, Aleen Mukherjee (NCEDX), Aneesh Kumar (NAFPO) and Rahul Gupta, Avanti Microfinance

Discussion: The focus of the call is on food supply chain with areas like farm labour, mandi auctioning, value chain financing, significant credit line and warehousing.

1. Anil Kumar SG- The two phases of the lockdown to be addressed are before and beyond 14th April. The agriculture sector has best of the chances to bounce out earliest. This means that agriculture will get resource allocation, priority attention and collaboration. Samunnati is paying attention towards liquidity crisis as working capital becomes most important in this scenario for both demand and supply partners. Samunnati is looking for: What do FPO have currently, require in next few days and planning in next 3 months with timeline? Access to loans become most important to all the value chain players.

2.Jayant Chattarjee: Agribaazar is a platform to get buyer and seller to meet similar to like e-nam. Since trade must go on to minimize impact on farmers, there is need of alternative market place.

3. Pushpendra Singh: 70% economy is nearly closed at this time and food security of 130 Crore population is in focus. Labour problem is affecting Rabi harvest and will eventually sowing season of Zaayad and kharif is approaching fast. The supply chain is broken due to which both consumer and farmer are paying high prices. Poultry is affected by the rumors and supply chain disruption of feeds. There is an urgent need of liquidity that can be provided through PM Kisan Yojna by increasing the amount by 4 times. Jan Dhan Yojna accounts holder estimated to be about 38 Crore can be transferred INR 1000 per month. KCC limit can be doubled for existing farmers.

4.Khalid Hussain: The cascading of the information hasn't happened in the lower layers of the bureaucracy. Currently, the mandis are closed and harvesting has been stalled. There is need to open mandi in phase manner and allowing private player to purchase directly from farmers with price control as the farmers are exposed to vagaries of the weather. The warehouse and processing units has to be declared as market yards to disperse farmers at multiple points . The financial support will be required for private players working in the loose grain supply chain and logistics. Concor has done a wonderful job by giving subsidy on empty container. For agri-processing, UP Power Corporation has given waiver for few months to food processing industries. To safe guard fruits and vegetables, the import duty has to be increased on fruits and vegetables concentrates. Government has to intervene on the export sector and port functioning to build trust with exporting partners.

5.Sachin Sharma: Procurement of food grain is very important especially APMC acts should be make liberal for the private players. This will avoid crowd gathering at Mandi. There is need to give confidence to labours so that smooth migration becomes easier for them. Green corridors has to created for the movement of milk tankers, truck and food containers. Railway can help through multi point loading and reducing freight charges. Need to re-look RODTEP scheme. Processing of F&V has to be encouraged due to perishable nature of products and power sops can boost the industry.

6.Aleen Mukherjee- Digital transaction has to be increase on FPO level. The storage part has become an issue as silos/jutes bags aren't available on the farm gate level. NCDEX is working on solutions especially through two ecosystems: NERL and NEML spot market. Electronic warehouse receipt can be issued as generating finance can becomes easy. This will ease cash flow on FPOs. MSP procurement can be done through electronic ware house level that is already working with strict quality norms. The third aspect is about uncertainty around futures bench-marking. Percolation of the government instruction on transportation of essential commodities has become essential. FPO as sourcing points will ease on cash flow issue for farmers.

7. Aneesh Kumar: There is a pending payment for NREGS that will create liquidity in the rural areas. Extending the insurance coverage can ease the situation for the farmers. Creation of support cell in Agriculture Department in each state maybe helpful. Major consumption centers like Delhi will not be fully opened for the business. The new economic challenge is returning migrant in the rural areas. Basic Income transfer to mitigate the risk is an urgent step that can be taken.

8.Rahul Gupta: Avanti Finance is involved in both Balance sheet lending and off balance sheet lending. Financing is critical hence moving on the paperless and cashless digital platform becomes more important. Relevant will be government intervention to PSBs for priority sector lending. This can be passed to the end use either farmer or FPO to fight liquidity squeeze.

Acumen Bootcamp - 3rd Week Reflection

Part 0, 1 and 2 of Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here.

The sessions are really good till now. Individuals are more open to ideas and suggestions and want to demonstrate an interest in getting up to speed. I am sharing task performed by me this week.

1. Superpower: There is an article by Seth Godin: What is your superpower? When do you come alive? I have documented my superpowers below:

a. I always document best practices and professional understanding on a topic through blog. This has facilitated creation of an institutional memory bank and drawing insights while walking on the road less traveled.

b. I enjoy diverse range of literature, blogs, cinema and interacting with different social circles. As this gives me range of knowledge extended far beyond my chosen profession. I assume that investment in specialization in one area alongside a vast body of knowledge can be a powerful driver of original thought.

These superpowers has given me ability to have a good outreach to a diverse group of stakeholders and impacted leaders in designing realistic plans. I usually come alive while volunteering for a cause and building networks of like minded people.

2. Improvement Goals:I have to identify my improvement Goal: “If you could get better at ONE THING — the One Big Thing that would make the greatest difference to your happiness and effectiveness, what would that be?” My responses: a. Be a much better husband than I am. b. To not be committed for a task in hurry and once committed to a task, complete before / on time .

I know this intuitively because I haven't been trying to get better at or change for a while. And, I have heard this from family and colleagues in the feedback/reviews.

3. Reflection on article : How will you measure your life? by Clayton M. Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at at Harvard Business School.

I have thought about the metric by which my life will be judged. I am an enthusiast, not an expert. At the age of thirty four, I had realized that I am doing will be insignificant but that will define me. Curiosity and Enthusiasm are the force that didn't change with time. What is more difficult to tackle in the life ? As for me, I always ponder over dilemma rather than questions. Because, there is always financial insecurity, family dispute, and a chaos lurking around the corner. The immediate needs always have tussle with long term goals.

Acumen Bootcamp - 2nd Week Reflection

Part 0 and 1 of Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here. 

Creating systemic change always comes from moral leadership and self discipline. Good disciplines is a part of moral leadership that establishes structures, time management, tasks planning, and follow up on action items. I am looking for gradual change in thinking pattern, eventually decision-making, then vision and then leadership. This week started with thought experiments and acting on micro habitual changes.

1. Courageous Space: There is a concept of courageous space to be done in pilot stage inside cohort before rolling out in personal and professional space. The courageous pace gives me freedom to choose a specific issue, scrutinize a habit (self discipline and exaggeration in my case), work on the habit in acts of courage, and ideally grow into competencies in the real world. I have set following tasks for myself.

Within Person: Delay in completing tasks despite making commitments is a bad nature of mine. I will be working on this issue during the next 8 weeks.

Within Organization: Be less extrapolate while pitching for business development. This fault has crept in the sales pitch in the last few months due to my desperation for funds. I will be practicing more restraint and share real scenarios during interaction with other fellows

2. I have to read article on the concept of 'opposable minds' and how holding seemingly different or opposing concepts can open up new ideas and innovation. An optional reading was Obama midterm speech 2018 transcript

Vocational Orientation and Counseling in Skill Development

This will be the second post on skill development sector continuation of Youth Mobilization Process in Skill Development. Vocational orientation and counselling is the logical step post identification of youths in the mobilization process. This is the process in which training center match the youths’ initial vocational ideas with their skill sets, capacities, and interests.

The counseling isn't a one-size fits all solution when it comes to skill development, livelihoods and career options. Understanding the the background of young job-seeker is of utmost importance to assist them in their search for meaningful careers. This is because for entry-level vocational courses, the candidates are a mixed group consisting of school dropouts, unemployed youth, and youth from socially and economically underprivileged background. The entry level job will be the first opportunity to test their caliber and earn decent livelihoods.

Counselling helps in creating realistic aspiration and reduce the attrition rates during training and employment by helping candidates make informed choices. The mismatch between interests, aptitude and aspirations of the candidates and nature of job causes a high attrition rate for employers as well as training centers. Hence, behavioral assessment tests and counselling to objectively assess the capabilities of the candidate is important to recommend appropriate career paths.

There is a context in which job search happens and the complex web of factors influences job search and aspiring candidate. The major factors are listed below:

1. Cultural factors: The youth seeking work is not the only one seeking work, i.e., family and friends are looking for a job alongside the youth.

2. Employment issues: Many youths begin their search with defeatist mindset due to the grim unemployment statistics and local scenario.

3. Personal issues: The counseling must help candidate with an honest assessment of competencies present and what the market demands in terms of worker skills.

Types of Counseling: There five major mode of counseling as per ILO -

1. Career information –provides information on occupations; employment opportunities; labor market trends and employment scenarios; educational programs, institutions, and opportunities; career services; and job opportunities, both local and global.

2. Career education – provides career planning and decision-making; labor market information and other information related to careers and work skills.

3. Career counseling – provides one-on-one or small group help on role clarifications, career decision- making, self-assessment and self-definition, aspirations and dreams.

4. Employment counseling – provides help with setting career goals, writing resumes, interviewing skills and the like, all such activities designed to help the person define the characteristics of the career or job he/she is looking for, assess suitability for it, and identify skills gaps that can be addressed by personal development efforts;

5. Job placement – provides actual job search services intended to connect job seekers and job providers.

In more Indian context, counseling is required to navigate constraints such as family hesitation, transport, inability to pay, accommodation etc. The experiences of past trainees and their feedback shared with the larger community.The scope of counseling is quite vast as candidates require holding hand support on communication skills, presentation skills, and financial literacy. Online portal have opened a new channel for youths even in remote areas access to the information. But there is always need of last mile reach to ensure that the right people, in terms of ability, interests and expectations, participate in skill development program.

Acumen Bootcamp - 1st Week Reflection

Part 0 of Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here.

Task: Watch Acumen Manifesto and Behind the Manifesto. And reflect on your work and the audacious vision that you are building toward.

Acumen Manifesto reflects an attempt to explain the goals of Moral leadership, as well as the qualities inherent underlying the change makers. The story of Kenyan women was containing pearls of wisdom. It was an informal education on how inspirations come in the life, society and career.

The bootcamp is a virtual community coming from the areas of of public policy, entrepreneurship, rights based work and technology. There is a deep intellectual capabilities in understanding where things are going wrong, bleeding heart for empathy and courage in building a strategy for change. The diverse mindset present here will help me to understand how to facilitate systems change and create more inclusive social systems through the use of market forces. I am hoping to understand how each leader is providing services/products to their target community.

The perseverance for the livelihood of individual farmers and the millions who collectively rely on smallholder farmers for food security is an essential component of ours work. But they are more than consumers; they are entrepreneurs and risk takers. I am trying to use interventions to achieve a triple bottom-line: increase farm productivity and incomes gradually, help farmers adapt to climate change and mitigate them with risk of market failures. I always work to transform NGO into social enterprise, developing go-to market strategies, and strengthening the partners ecosystem. Hoping to do this with the support of community of change makers. For, where there is life there is hope.

Thoughtful Present -2!

I was gifted a copy of The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig (Contributor), & Warren Buffett (Contributor) from boss today. The Intelligent Investor was first published in 1949, and is a widely acclaimed book on value investing.

The share market is in doldrums and people are exploring for the stocks and sectors that are likely to lead the next bull run. I have neither clue to lap up falling stocks nor money to check unproven models only on hope. Hence, this book is a prudent gift in the next level of personal development. I will be investing next few months in reading of 'The Intelligent Investor' accrued with Safal Niveshak blog, discussing share market with colleagues and  looking for stock tips. I hope this will give me insights on value proposition and investments. Thanks Manab for such a timely gift.

Acumen India Leadership Bootcamp

The number one piece of advice a consultant at World Bank gave to the next generation of development professionals was to invest in skills development and continuously up-skill. Yet, the path of There’s no harm in sharing our failures. The only thing at stake is our egos. But too much embrace to failure suggests a thwarted glory. I pitched my candidacy as a social intrapreneur for 2020 cohort of Acumen India Fellows program. I got rejection in the last stage of flagship program during December 2019. I am learning each day how to be unburdened by historical failure and not becoming ecstatic with a minor success.

Acumen India launched virtual bootcamp in January 2020 going beyond the flagship Program. I got selected today for inaugural Acumen Leadership Bootcamp in India. The Bootcamp will be a 6 – 8 week cohort based learning program, with a combination of individual / paired assignments and group calls. I will be summarizing my cumulative experiences at the end of course from the network of innovative, passionate, and socially minded people.

I am looking towards ideas based on verifiable evidence and weed out bad ideas from thought system. Often ideas that are most significant are bad ideas, but nevertheless exert psychological, sociological, and political power. Other than that I am looking towards networking for a joint micro-venture/study/volunteerism. See, incentive for networking, as you know, is like gravity: all it takes is a little push! Will update the readers with the insights post completion of the course.

Brief about Acumen: Acumen was founded in 2001 by Jacqueline Novogratz with the idea that poverty can tackled by investing philanthropy rather than giving it as a charity. In 2013, Acumen started to synthesize work in both investing and leadership training to offer online courses through Acumen Academy. Those who are more interested can read Acumen Manifesto first to dive deeper.

Youth Mobilization Process in Skill Development

Skill Development program for youth involves a large set of processes among which prominent are: Mobilization of Youths, Counseling and Identification of Youths, Identification of Training Institutes, Management of ongoing training institute, Monitoring and Management of training, Liaisoning with potential employers, Post Placement follow up etc. providing skill training to youth living in rural areas

Mobilization of Youths: Mobilization phase generally focuses on getting people to enroll. The target groups for skilling are candidates in the age group 18 – 35 years from rural poor households. For Training Institutes (PIAs), an inability to mobilize properly results in a failure to meet targets.

Process of Mobilization:

1. Identification of Potential area, Target Audience, Nature of job affinity of the youth and willingness for migration by candidates

2. Identification of Pro Active people ( Sarpanch/ primary school headmaster/ SHG members/ PRI members/ GPLF & CRP associated with NRLM/ Religious opinion leaders of the area)

3. Awareness Campaigns – Road-shows, Banners, Fliers, Video van campaigns, Panchayat meets, Rozgar Mela, Nukkad Nataks

4. Direct Campaigns – Holding regular informal discussions through local team, peers, Rozgar Mitra

Challenges in Mobilization

1. The biggest challenge is low willingness to migrate and low salaries at entry level.The employer does not distinguish whether an employee has picked up skills on the job or he has acquired them through formal training.

2. Youths and their parents are dealing directly with an unknown entity (Training Institutes), without any assurance of good job. As a result, there is a possibility that they don’t completely trust the program.

3. Training Institutes face problem as local staff didn't have strong relations with higher administrative bodies, and local leaders. This can also be attributed to not getting proper response from government side. Credibility of the Training Institutes and personal reaching out to potential trainees is a big factor.

4. The attrition rate in skill development programs happens due to poor quality of counseling that can be attributed to low budget operations of Training Institutes.

5. The Skill gap assessment at district/block level is mostly done on either secondary data backing 7+ years or a quick 'back of the envelope' counting on experience. There is an urgent need of systematic skill gap study with stratified sampling to understand the aspirations of the candidates.

6. Especially in DDU-GKY, there is mandatory coverage of socially disadvantaged groups (SC/ST 50%, Minority 15%, Women 33%) and 3% for Persons with Different Abilities (PwDs). District wise targets should be based on data captured by the Socio Economic Caste Census
(SECC).

Best Proven Examples [Source: Samhita Report]:

1. Tata Strive's unique approach to aspiration-mapping is composed of three steps: interest inventory, career discovery and self discovery.At the first step, a picture-based assessment of student interests is done by showing them 60-65 pictures and gauging their reaction to doing the jobs shown. At the second step, the trainees are shown audio-visual material that helps them better understand the jobs to which they showed an inclination to. Parents are also invited to be a part of this process. At the last stage, trainees are required to introspect on their lives and aspirations. Throughout the day, they also attend sessions on beliefs, emotions, self-confidence, and mindfulness, among others. Thus, at the end of the process,trainees and the trainer are well-placed to begin a fruitful training program

2. Ambuja Cement Foundation: Training courses require participants to relocate for jobs, which is often a barrier at every stage of the program. Against such a background, ACF realized that the role of a parent is extremely important, especially when the participants are girls. ACF conducts counselling for parents at three junctures—at the beginning and end of the training, and before placement. Through these sessions, parents are counselled to shed their inhibitions on sending their children to work outside and are reassured on the safety of their children as ACF sends its trainees in groups to any workplace. This group placement proved effective in improving retention not only with girls but with boys as well. Additionally, the foundation also arranges a visit by parents to the workplace where the trainees would be placed. These practices help improve a trainee’s performance during the program and to retain the trainee in the job placed.

3. UNDP Diksha: A Skill Sakhi, as the name suggests, becomes a friend and a mentor to many of these girls, creating a career road map for them, offering information on various skills, connecting them to relevant courses and also negotiating family dynamics in some cases. Hailing from the same community and having mostly experienced similar circumstances as many of the potential trainees, a Sakhi is able to communicate with the girls in their language with empathy.

4. DB Tech uses a village saturation model. Operating in some of the most under-developed and conflict-prone regions of India, DB Tech essentially focuses all its mobilization efforts in one village, creating acceptance and enrolling all eligible youth in the community, before moving to a different location. The advantage of “saturating” a village through mobilization is that a large section of the village community—parents, spouses, friends of all the trainees— automatically become invested in the program; thereby ensuring trainees regularly attend classes, complete the course and value the employment opportunities they obtain. Mobilizing a large group helps remove inhibitions that parents may have about sending their children to different locations for training or work. Even when placed, most of the trainees are together, helping to reduce the woes of migration.

5. Castrol initially found it difficult to reach out to an adequate number of trainees for “Eklavya” program. It thus reached out to local trade unions and mechanics’ associations to create an element of trust and credibility within the youths.

Thanks to Dhirendra Singh Bagri and Dr Gagan Roy for their inputs.