My Belief - “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ― Rumi
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Change the World !
My Belief - “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ― Rumi
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Little is not little, enough is not enough.
I have decided to loan 25$ each month from my salary to the people in need of credit. This will be done through KIVA. KIVA is a platform of lending that has a 99.03% repayment rate for 340,986,325 transactions in ended loans. This loan repayment rate is much higher than any bank. I will decide later with repayments that how much part of my money will be further used either as loan or development aid. This is my Profile at KIVA so that one can always check the authenticity of the claim.
A story of how a small loan from you can change the life of a family
How Kiva Works (http://www.kiva.org/about/how)
1- Make a loan : You make a loan on KIVA. All KIVA loans are made possible by our Field Partners, who vet, administer, and disburse each loan.
2- Get updates : Throughout the life of the loan, you will see progress updates from Kiva through your email, and if you come back to the site.
3- Get paid back : As the borrower repays the loan, the money becomes available in your account. This is called your Kiva Credit.
4- Repeat : You can now use it to fund another loan, donate it to Kiva, or withdraw it to spend on something else.
Why did I choose KIVA?
Development aid has been flowing for decades, but the results have been absolute dismal. Instead, recipients have merely become dependent. There is a long chain of "middlemen" i.e. the consultants and the companies involved in this "trade" between donor and beneficiaries. Hence, I find microfinance as a better instrument to alleviate poor than a poorly designed development aid. People should decide how to help those in need. It needs a very big database of demand and supply of credit with the purpose of loan clearly mentioned. KIVA is doing just that thing. Hence, we will far less likely to complain that their money is being wasted or misused if we chose where it went.
I believe that our society cannot sustain , unless we contribute back in someway or the other. I strongly feel if even one person does his bit towards social good, there will be positive change. I am not giving anyone lot of theories, clever strategies or concepts. I am asking for direct cash transfers to the needy as a loan. In helping others - Little is not little, enough is not enough.
A story of how a small loan from you can change the life of a family
How Kiva Works (http://www.kiva.org/about/how)
1- Make a loan : You make a loan on KIVA. All KIVA loans are made possible by our Field Partners, who vet, administer, and disburse each loan.
2- Get updates : Throughout the life of the loan, you will see progress updates from Kiva through your email, and if you come back to the site.
3- Get paid back : As the borrower repays the loan, the money becomes available in your account. This is called your Kiva Credit.
4- Repeat : You can now use it to fund another loan, donate it to Kiva, or withdraw it to spend on something else.
Why did I choose KIVA?
Development aid has been flowing for decades, but the results have been absolute dismal. Instead, recipients have merely become dependent. There is a long chain of "middlemen" i.e. the consultants and the companies involved in this "trade" between donor and beneficiaries. Hence, I find microfinance as a better instrument to alleviate poor than a poorly designed development aid. People should decide how to help those in need. It needs a very big database of demand and supply of credit with the purpose of loan clearly mentioned. KIVA is doing just that thing. Hence, we will far less likely to complain that their money is being wasted or misused if we chose where it went.
I believe that our society cannot sustain , unless we contribute back in someway or the other. I strongly feel if even one person does his bit towards social good, there will be positive change. I am not giving anyone lot of theories, clever strategies or concepts. I am asking for direct cash transfers to the needy as a loan. In helping others - Little is not little, enough is not enough.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Restructuring of SGSY as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)
Launched on 1st April 1999, Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was an integrated scheme for providing opportunities of self employment to the rural poor. Like any other government schemes, this was also prone to corruption and failure. Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY) has been renamed as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) with added provision. I was reading notification of RBI on National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) issued way back in June 2013.
Uneven spread of SHGs, defunct SHGs and high attrition rate of members were the main issues faced in functioning of SHG in SGSY. This has been tackled through Universalisation of SHGs. Setting up of federations of SHGs is the salient feature of NRLM that can ensure monitoring and validation at community level.
Identification of Swarozgari was major source of corruption for Bank, Block and District level officers. A lot of money was taken as bribe for clearance before proper credit reached the beneficiary. Even non existing beneficiaries were created for embezzlement of grants. No Capital Subsidy will be sanctioned to any SHG from the date of implementation of NRLM. SHG Federations at GP level will be given grant under Community Investment Support fund, which will be used by the Federations to advance loans to SHGs. There is provision of interest subvention to Women SHGs, enabling them to avail loans up to Rs. 3 lakh at an interest rate of 7 per cent per year.
Lack of dedicated implementation structure are identified as responsible factors by the draft for the poor performance of SGSY. There will be an autonomous, adequately staffed, professionally managed and empowered agency both at the national and state level to implement the mission under the Societies Registration Act. Creation of Dedicated Machinery will reduce burden on existing government machinery, hence reduces the chance of corruption!
There are some changes to National Rural Livelihoods Mission (Aajeevika) recently approved by Cabinet. Under the existing framework of implementation of N.R.L.M, only rural households included in the official BPL list could be targeted under N.R.L.M. This list was prepared in 2002, has not been updated and has many defects. The target groups under N.R.L.M will be determined by a well defined, transparent and equitable process of Participatory Identification of Poor (PIP), at the level of the community. This is welcome approach but can surely increase number of members of Extreme Poor and Vulnerable Group (EPVG) during PIP process. I always believe that identification of the poor is a political gimmick not a statistical exercise at ground level.
National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP)
Government of India has availed a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) for implementing the, National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP), under NRLM. The NRLP would be implemented in 13 high poverty states accounting for about 90 percent of the rural poor in the country. Intensive livelihood investments would be made by the NRLP in 107 districts and 422 blocks of 13 states (Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu). Distribution of project funds among the states would be based on the relative share of rural BPL population in the total states. NRLP will broadly support the following components:
(i) Institution and human capacity development at the national, state, district and sub-district level such that support institutional structures are created,
(ii) State livelihood support towards establishment of institutional platforms of the rural poor for improved access to financial, livelihood and public services,
(iii) Innovation and partnership to identify and partner innovative ideas which address the livelihood needs of the rural poor and help pilot or scale them,
(iv) Project management and monitoring and learning systems.
Uneven spread of SHGs, defunct SHGs and high attrition rate of members were the main issues faced in functioning of SHG in SGSY. This has been tackled through Universalisation of SHGs. Setting up of federations of SHGs is the salient feature of NRLM that can ensure monitoring and validation at community level.
Identification of Swarozgari was major source of corruption for Bank, Block and District level officers. A lot of money was taken as bribe for clearance before proper credit reached the beneficiary. Even non existing beneficiaries were created for embezzlement of grants. No Capital Subsidy will be sanctioned to any SHG from the date of implementation of NRLM. SHG Federations at GP level will be given grant under Community Investment Support fund, which will be used by the Federations to advance loans to SHGs. There is provision of interest subvention to Women SHGs, enabling them to avail loans up to Rs. 3 lakh at an interest rate of 7 per cent per year.
Lack of dedicated implementation structure are identified as responsible factors by the draft for the poor performance of SGSY. There will be an autonomous, adequately staffed, professionally managed and empowered agency both at the national and state level to implement the mission under the Societies Registration Act. Creation of Dedicated Machinery will reduce burden on existing government machinery, hence reduces the chance of corruption!
There are some changes to National Rural Livelihoods Mission (Aajeevika) recently approved by Cabinet. Under the existing framework of implementation of N.R.L.M, only rural households included in the official BPL list could be targeted under N.R.L.M. This list was prepared in 2002, has not been updated and has many defects. The target groups under N.R.L.M will be determined by a well defined, transparent and equitable process of Participatory Identification of Poor (PIP), at the level of the community. This is welcome approach but can surely increase number of members of Extreme Poor and Vulnerable Group (EPVG) during PIP process. I always believe that identification of the poor is a political gimmick not a statistical exercise at ground level.
National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP)
Government of India has availed a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) for implementing the, National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP), under NRLM. The NRLP would be implemented in 13 high poverty states accounting for about 90 percent of the rural poor in the country. Intensive livelihood investments would be made by the NRLP in 107 districts and 422 blocks of 13 states (Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu). Distribution of project funds among the states would be based on the relative share of rural BPL population in the total states. NRLP will broadly support the following components:
(i) Institution and human capacity development at the national, state, district and sub-district level such that support institutional structures are created,
(ii) State livelihood support towards establishment of institutional platforms of the rural poor for improved access to financial, livelihood and public services,
(iii) Innovation and partnership to identify and partner innovative ideas which address the livelihood needs of the rural poor and help pilot or scale them,
(iv) Project management and monitoring and learning systems.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Consumer, Producer and Market
Household final consumption expenditure constitute India's 59.5 percent of GDP in 2008-2012 as per world bank data. Household final consumption expenditure (formerly private consumption) is the market value of all goods and services, including durable products (such as cars, washing machines, and home computers), purchased by households. Consumption shows utilization of wealth but the question runs deeper than figures. Is wealth creation enough ? Is wealth reaching the poor household even with the above 5% GDP growth rate?
Lop sided nature of Indian capitalism promotes few entrepreneurs, mostly as an employees and almost all as a consumers. This is well reflected in our quest to create jobs rather than suitable ecosystem for a new venture. I am seeking attention towards our socio-economic environment where masses are looked as consumers rather than producers. By focusing only on profit making, even BOP reduces the concept of wealth to just money, and the rest – i.e., the community and the environment - are reduced as the resources for exploitation.
Most of the poor people in India are engaged in agriculture and allied activities. The markets are distorted with oligopolies of the traders and producers are not getting proper prices for their produce. Most of the markets are strongly biased in favors of traditional trading communities. One more hidden fact : Caste reduces the transaction cost in India. That is a proper conclusion coming from the research study. [Caste discrimination and transaction costs in the labor market: Evidence from rural North India]. So, pleading with the privileged traders to share their luck may be an utterly fruitless exercise. There is need of deep market reform in India. This idea has been floating from a long time. When we fail to reform markets through regulation (that turned into license raj !), we thought of creating jobs to pull worker from the field to cities. Now on realizing that cities will not absorb the agricultural workforce, schemes such as MGNREGS are created to stop migration. So we are back to square one and problem with the market remains same.
I give weight-age to an inclusive more than an efficient market. Left Parties will always see every individual looking for reform in state policies as a suspect who has succumbed to the lure of the market. And everyone knows how socialism has failed ! Market will always go for person with better information and resources. Neo-liberals cry for efficiency without even giving chance of equal opportunity to everyone. That is the problem of our neo-liberal friends who seems propagator of free market without even surveying ground for this step. Instead of finding out why the idea of regulated market has not worked, we are scrapping the idea itself gradually. In the futile chase of efficiency, we are loosing our sights. Our markets are neither inclusive nor efficient.
There are some views that don't change with the time. Once, I have written an article heading Consumer Culture 5 years ago. But in these five years, I did learn few things about markets and social justice. Still, I am undecided on final answer. Yes, I subscribe to the words of Laurence J. Peter who argued --- “Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.”
Lop sided nature of Indian capitalism promotes few entrepreneurs, mostly as an employees and almost all as a consumers. This is well reflected in our quest to create jobs rather than suitable ecosystem for a new venture. I am seeking attention towards our socio-economic environment where masses are looked as consumers rather than producers. By focusing only on profit making, even BOP reduces the concept of wealth to just money, and the rest – i.e., the community and the environment - are reduced as the resources for exploitation.
Most of the poor people in India are engaged in agriculture and allied activities. The markets are distorted with oligopolies of the traders and producers are not getting proper prices for their produce. Most of the markets are strongly biased in favors of traditional trading communities. One more hidden fact : Caste reduces the transaction cost in India. That is a proper conclusion coming from the research study. [Caste discrimination and transaction costs in the labor market: Evidence from rural North India]. So, pleading with the privileged traders to share their luck may be an utterly fruitless exercise. There is need of deep market reform in India. This idea has been floating from a long time. When we fail to reform markets through regulation (that turned into license raj !), we thought of creating jobs to pull worker from the field to cities. Now on realizing that cities will not absorb the agricultural workforce, schemes such as MGNREGS are created to stop migration. So we are back to square one and problem with the market remains same.
I give weight-age to an inclusive more than an efficient market. Left Parties will always see every individual looking for reform in state policies as a suspect who has succumbed to the lure of the market. And everyone knows how socialism has failed ! Market will always go for person with better information and resources. Neo-liberals cry for efficiency without even giving chance of equal opportunity to everyone. That is the problem of our neo-liberal friends who seems propagator of free market without even surveying ground for this step. Instead of finding out why the idea of regulated market has not worked, we are scrapping the idea itself gradually. In the futile chase of efficiency, we are loosing our sights. Our markets are neither inclusive nor efficient.
There are some views that don't change with the time. Once, I have written an article heading Consumer Culture 5 years ago. But in these five years, I did learn few things about markets and social justice. Still, I am undecided on final answer. Yes, I subscribe to the words of Laurence J. Peter who argued --- “Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.”
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Reviewing 1st National Symposium on Rural Management
“Small changes can produce big results – but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.” – Peter Senge
XIMB hosted 1st National Symposium on Rural Management on November 9th-10th 2012 [Photo Album]. The event brought together institutions, academics, professionals, key client groups and other stakeholders to deliberate on the issues, pool experiences and develop strategies and designs for expansion, institutionalization and better domain engagement. Papers / presentations were invited on five aspects of the Rural Management field listed here -
1. Rural Management in the Next Decade – Tasks, Organizations and Professional Needs
2. Rural Management – Defining the Field
3. Programs in Rural Management – Intent, Design, Content and Issues
4. Praxis in Rural Management
5. Strengthening Rural Management
NSoRM Welcome Flash Video
I attended few of the lectures/presentation and it was worth attending them. Eminent personalities like Dr. Mihir Shah, K V Raju, M S Sriram, Shailendra Kumar & Dinesh Awasthi participated in the symposium. On the funny side, whole symposium gave a false impression of IRMA alumni union ! Issues like Health, ICT, Policy, Rural Marketing, Rural Development, Human Resource Management, Natural resource management etc were discussed in great details by thematic experts.
I observed that three developing trends must be watched by rural manager - Rapid urbanization, Greater income stratification and Consumer Market Growth. There is increasing level of urbanization from 27.81 % in 2001 Census to 31.16 % in 2011 Census. Rural business has emerged as a big employer for rural managers, but there has been a shift towards looking at rural people as consumers. Consumption in rural India growing faster than urban areas. National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data shows that during 2004-05 to 2009-10 rural construction jobs rose by 88 percent, while the number of people employed in agriculture fell from 249 million to 229 million.
Most of the student have motive to join - to study ‘management’ rather than ‘rural management’. That is the fact of the whole education. Rural Manager have neither many peers/seniors to correct him/her, nor one to look up to for guidance. His/her actions can make or break many livelihood of many if not lives. While students working at NGO think - Low Pay Scales & Can't fundraise; Yaar paisa bhi nahi, learning bhi nahi. It becomes easy to frustrate working in a non-professional environment where only requirements – report writing, proposal writing & ayah-duty for funding agency visits. Hence, the sector is plagued by high attrition and lack of long term commitment from professionals. But the first decade of career as rural manager has assured employment at low pay scale while second decade will bring recognition and reputation.
Its not sectoral job any more. Managerial roles merge irrespective of sectors and there is need to learn a lot by learning courses on Public Systems Management and Program evaluation, Project planning and implementation, Project Funding, Advocacy, Consulting, Communication, Marketing, Monitoring & Evaluation. One more factor that I found in their talks was lack of knowledge management. There are rural managers (men of action) who are a storehouse of information which they often don’t know how to share with academic and student community. Their valued experiences are lost without documentation and appear only in the conversation with their peers.
There are so many colleges offering courses related to rural management like - IRMA; XIMB ; KSRM ; IIFM,Bhopal; IIRM,Jaipur; XISS,Ranchi; NIRD,Hyderabad; TISS,Mumbai; Amity school of rural management ; Agribusiness Management (IIM-A, IIM-L, VAMNICOM, MANAGE). One of the major contribution of these institutes have been bringing about professionalism in the development sector.
All of the people attending were more or less agree on one thing - Rural Management can't be a molded in design of established framework of business management. There can be no unique approach programme design has to be tailor made suiting to the group needs and flexible. While the sector has been growing, Institute have dilemmas of their own - Institution location, Faculty, Placements, Self Financing, Aspiration of Graduates! Alumni are the best ambassadors of what college is all about. That will be my sole criteria on judging quality of institutes.
The Blind Men and Elephant story holds so true in this field. There are no overall experts here. Everybody is a generalist integrator looking for complete picture and specialization comes much later! The whole symposium left many question that were lingering in the minds of working professionals and academic community. Does RM mean RD? What lies beyond Donor Agencies, livelihoods and MF ? Society values “Rural Managers” (??) or Rural Management degree?? And eternal question - "What is a rural manager ?" was discussed again and again for new interpretations.
XIMB hosted 1st National Symposium on Rural Management on November 9th-10th 2012 [Photo Album]. The event brought together institutions, academics, professionals, key client groups and other stakeholders to deliberate on the issues, pool experiences and develop strategies and designs for expansion, institutionalization and better domain engagement. Papers / presentations were invited on five aspects of the Rural Management field listed here -
1. Rural Management in the Next Decade – Tasks, Organizations and Professional Needs
2. Rural Management – Defining the Field
3. Programs in Rural Management – Intent, Design, Content and Issues
4. Praxis in Rural Management
5. Strengthening Rural Management
NSoRM Welcome Flash Video
I attended few of the lectures/presentation and it was worth attending them. Eminent personalities like Dr. Mihir Shah, K V Raju, M S Sriram, Shailendra Kumar & Dinesh Awasthi participated in the symposium. On the funny side, whole symposium gave a false impression of IRMA alumni union ! Issues like Health, ICT, Policy, Rural Marketing, Rural Development, Human Resource Management, Natural resource management etc were discussed in great details by thematic experts.
I observed that three developing trends must be watched by rural manager - Rapid urbanization, Greater income stratification and Consumer Market Growth. There is increasing level of urbanization from 27.81 % in 2001 Census to 31.16 % in 2011 Census. Rural business has emerged as a big employer for rural managers, but there has been a shift towards looking at rural people as consumers. Consumption in rural India growing faster than urban areas. National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data shows that during 2004-05 to 2009-10 rural construction jobs rose by 88 percent, while the number of people employed in agriculture fell from 249 million to 229 million.
Most of the student have motive to join - to study ‘management’ rather than ‘rural management’. That is the fact of the whole education. Rural Manager have neither many peers/seniors to correct him/her, nor one to look up to for guidance. His/her actions can make or break many livelihood of many if not lives. While students working at NGO think - Low Pay Scales & Can't fundraise; Yaar paisa bhi nahi, learning bhi nahi. It becomes easy to frustrate working in a non-professional environment where only requirements – report writing, proposal writing & ayah-duty for funding agency visits. Hence, the sector is plagued by high attrition and lack of long term commitment from professionals. But the first decade of career as rural manager has assured employment at low pay scale while second decade will bring recognition and reputation.
Its not sectoral job any more. Managerial roles merge irrespective of sectors and there is need to learn a lot by learning courses on Public Systems Management and Program evaluation, Project planning and implementation, Project Funding, Advocacy, Consulting, Communication, Marketing, Monitoring & Evaluation. One more factor that I found in their talks was lack of knowledge management. There are rural managers (men of action) who are a storehouse of information which they often don’t know how to share with academic and student community. Their valued experiences are lost without documentation and appear only in the conversation with their peers.
There are so many colleges offering courses related to rural management like - IRMA; XIMB ; KSRM ; IIFM,Bhopal; IIRM,Jaipur; XISS,Ranchi; NIRD,Hyderabad; TISS,Mumbai; Amity school of rural management ; Agribusiness Management (IIM-A, IIM-L, VAMNICOM, MANAGE). One of the major contribution of these institutes have been bringing about professionalism in the development sector.
All of the people attending were more or less agree on one thing - Rural Management can't be a molded in design of established framework of business management. There can be no unique approach programme design has to be tailor made suiting to the group needs and flexible. While the sector has been growing, Institute have dilemmas of their own - Institution location, Faculty, Placements, Self Financing, Aspiration of Graduates! Alumni are the best ambassadors of what college is all about. That will be my sole criteria on judging quality of institutes.
The Blind Men and Elephant story holds so true in this field. There are no overall experts here. Everybody is a generalist integrator looking for complete picture and specialization comes much later! The whole symposium left many question that were lingering in the minds of working professionals and academic community. Does RM mean RD? What lies beyond Donor Agencies, livelihoods and MF ? Society values “Rural Managers” (??) or Rural Management degree?? And eternal question - "What is a rural manager ?" was discussed again and again for new interpretations.
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