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New Delhi, Actors <keyword id="19896580" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ranbir-kapoor" source="keywords">Ranbir Kapoor</keyword> and Alia Bhatt walked away top acting honours at the 69th <keyword id="20182352" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="filmfare" source="keywords">Filmfare</keyword> Awards for their roles in "Animal" and "Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani" while Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "" won the Black Lady for best film and director. The 69th Hyundai Filmfare Awards 2024 with Gujarat Tourism was held in GIFT City, Gujarat. The festival concluded on Sunday with an awards ceremony that was hosted by Karan Johar, Ayushmann Khurrana and Maneish Paul. Bhatt's co-star <keyword id="19978371" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shabana-azmi" source="keywords">Shabana Azmi</keyword> in "Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani" won best supporting actress award but film's lead star Ranveer Singh lost the trophy to <keyword id="19909122" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ranbir" source="keywords">Ranbir</keyword> Kapoor. The Karan Johar-directed film also won the trophy for best dialogues as well as best choreography for "What Jhumka?". <keyword id="19895145" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vicky-kaushal" source="keywords">Vicky Kaushal</keyword>, who was also nominated in the best actor category, won a best supporting actor trophy for Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Dunki". Despite delivering three biggest hits of the year in "Pathaan", "Jawan" and "Dunki", SRK was missing from the winners list despite securing a nomination in the best actor and film categories. "Jawan", however, won Filmfare for best VFX and action. "Animal", one of the most controversial but successful films of the year, not only won Ranbir a best actor trophy but bagged trophies for best music album, background score and best playback singer to Bhupinder Babbal for "Arjan Valley". "12th Fail" star Vikrant Massey won best actor (critics) Filmfare. The film also won in the screenplay and editing categories. Best actress (critics) trophy was shared by Rani Mukerji ('Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway') and Shefali Shah ('Three of Us'). "Three of Us" director Avinash Arun Dhaware won the trophy for the film's cinematography. Manoj Bajpayee-starrer "Joram" won best film (critics) award as well as best story recognition for Amit Rai and Devashish Makhija. Amitabh Bhattacharya's "Tere Vaaste" from "Zara Hatke Zara Bachke" won best lyrics while Shilpa Rao was recognised as the best female playback singer for "Besharam Rang" from "Pathaan". Kaushal's film "Sam Bahadur" won Filmfare for best production design and costume design. Best debut director went to Tarun Dudeja for "Dhak Dhak" and best debut actor male to Aditya Rawal for Hansal Mehta-directed "Faraaz". Alizeh Agnihotri won the trophy for best female debut for "Farrey" at the awards show where filmmaker David Dhawan was honoured with the lifetime achievement award. The gala night also saw the presence of celebrities such as Kareena Kapoor, Aparshakti Khurana, Karishma Tanna, Kartik Aryan. Ranbir, Sara Ali Khan and Kareena also performed at the event.

Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt bag best actor trophies at Filmfare; 12th Fail is the best film

<ul><li>The ED issued a summons for popular Hindi film actor <keyword id="6357861" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ranbir-kapoor" source="Orion">Ranbir Kapoor</keyword> a month back while investigating the <keyword id="15960875" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mahadev-app" source="Orion">Mahadev App</keyword> case.</li><li>The investigation started after a lavish wedding in UAE budgeted at Rs 250 crore drew the ED’s attention.</li><li>BJP and Congress are trading allegations regarding the app’s ban timing.</li></ul> The Mahadev App, a live betting platform, promoted by Ravi Uppal and Sourabh Chandrakar has allegedly earned Rs 5,000 crore through a scam. The Directorate of Enforcement or ED says that the grand Rs 250-crore wedding of Sourabh Chandrakar in the United Arab Emirates prompted an investigation. The alleged scam has drawn in popular Hindi film actor, Ranbir Kapoor who has also been questioned in this investigation. Additionally, the BJP and the Congress are locked in a war of political allegations over this matter as the Chhattisgarh election draws near. Here is what we know so far about this multifaceted case. Why is Mahadev betting app back in news? The Indian central government has imposed blocking orders against 22 illegal betting apps and websites, including platforms like Mahadev Book Online and Reddyannaprestopro after an investigation into the Mahadev App. So, what does the Mahadev app do? The Mahadev Book App, before getting banned, provided a platform for betting on live games such as cricket, football, tennis, poker, etc. in India. It functioned through several websites and allowed betting advertisements. Why was Ranbir Kapoor questioned? While investigating the case, the ED issued a summons for popular Hindi film actor Ranbir Kapoor on October 6. The ED probe into the Mahadev app showed that Ranbir Kapoor was paid by the application promoters for endorsing their gaming platform. Allegedly, the payment made to Ranbir Kapoor could have come from the proceeds of the crime. Thus, the Bollywood star was asked to come before investigating authorities. Politics over Mahadev: The BJP vs Cong war of words Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar did not send any request to block these platforms despite having powers to do so alleges the Chhattisgarh government. However, in a post on social media platform X (earlier known as Twitter), Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "ED has been investigating the 'Mahadev App' case for several months. Still, it is surprising that it took so much time to ban it." He claimed that the demand to ban Mahadev App was also first made by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on August 24. What is the accusation against CM Baghel? The BJP has accused the state chief minister of being in the know about the scam. The BJP's IT Cell chief Amit Malviya has further claimed that the betting app ran under the patronage of "Bhupesh Baghel's police", adding that several police officers also "collaborated" in the scam. What has the ED said about the investigation? The Enforcement Directorate said a person, identified as Asim Das, was sent from the UAE to deliver a large amount of cash for the election expenses of the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh. The ED has also claimed Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was paid Rs 508 crore by the promoters of the Mahadev betting app.

Explained: The hullabaloo over the Mahadev App that dragged Ranbir Kapoor to the ED office

<ul><li>Congress chief spokesperson, <keyword id="214856" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Randeep-Singh-Surjewala">Randeep Singh Surjewala</keyword> said, BJP must talk about an increase in bad loans at <keyword id="45660" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yes-Bank">Yes Bank</keyword> in the last five years. </li><li>The Congress alleged the loans given by Yes Bank rose 100 per cent in just two years.</li></ul>The <keyword id="58687" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharatiya-Janata-Party">Bharatiya Janata Party</keyword> (BJP) government must talk about increase in bad loans at Yes Bank in the last five years after Narendra Modi came to power, and should not try to divert public attention, said Congress chief spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala here on Sunday. Responding to the BJP allegations on Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor's links with the Congress, Surjewala said the government must answer around Rs 2,00,000 crore rise in Yes Bank loan book from Rs 55,633 crore in March 2014 to Rs 2,41,499 crore in March 2019, and not obfuscate the real issue of people's money sinking into a <keyword id="6605010" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="bad-bank">bad bank</keyword>. The relation between the BJP and Kapoor "is well-known", Surjewala said and added, why did the Prime Minister address a Yes Bank-sponsored conference on March 6, despite "the RBI moratorium." The Congress alleged the loans given by Yes Bank rose 100 per cent in just two years after demonetisation from Rs 98,210 crore in March 2016 to Rs 2,03,534 crore in March 2018. Also, the BJP government of Haryana deposited over Rs 1,000 crore in Yes Bank just a month ago, knowing that it was sinking, he said and wondered if Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government in Maharashtra also deposited money in the private bank. "How does an M.F. Hussain painting of Rajiv Gandhi sold 10 years ago by <keyword id="12587" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Priyanka-Gandhi">Priyanka Gandhi</keyword> to Yes Bank owner Rana Kapoor &amp; disclosed in her tax returns connect with unprecedented giving of loans of Rs 2,00,000 crore in 5 years of the Modi government," Surjewala said responding to a tweet by BJP leader <keyword id="342587" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amit-Malviya">Amit Malviya</keyword> on the sale and purchase of Rajiv Gandhi's portrait by Hussain.

Yes Bank Crisis: Congress raises question over Rana Kapoor's links with BJP

<ul><li>The Brides of India 2021 campaign captures the excitement around the grand entry of bride.</li><li>The <keyword id="11835959" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="wedding-anthem">wedding anthem</keyword> video has been directed by Kookie Gulati, director of Bollywood movie The Big Bull.</li></ul><keyword id="984733" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Malabar-Gold-Diamonds">Malabar Gold &amp; Diamonds</keyword> has kicked off the 9th edition of its Brides of India campaign with a special wedding theme song titled #<keyword id="11835960" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="MakeWayForTheBride">MakeWayForTheBride</keyword> which depicts the grand entry of brides, the hallmark of modern-day Indian weddings. The wedding anthem, released in an aesthetically shot 3-minute video that has already garnered two million views on social media platforms within the first fourty eight hours, features celebrity brand ambassadors of Malabar Gold &amp; Diamonds, <keyword id="6354700" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Kapoor">Anil Kapoor</keyword> and Kareena Kapoor along with brides from diverse regions of the country. The Brides of India 2021 wedding anthem has been conceptualised by the creative agency <keyword id="188613" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dentsu-India">Dentsu India</keyword> and developed by some of the highly gifted and supremely talented professionals from the world of celluloid. Directed by Kookie Gulati, who has also directed movies such as the Abhishek Bachchan-starrer The Big Bull, the anthem also boasts of Amit Roy, who was Director of Photography (DoP) for Love Aaj Kal as DoP, Piku-fame Anupam Roy as music composer and Vicky Donor fame writer Juhi Chaturvedi as lyricist. The shorter versions of the wedding anthem will be played on television channels and OTT platforms as an advertisement. The full version of wedding anthem will be aired on select TV channels and streamed on digital platforms. The campaign will exclusively be streamed on digital platforms in the first week and will be aired on television and occupy print media space afterwards. The wedding anthem theme song video shows brides from various states such as Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh &amp; Telangana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Bengal, etc., entering the wedding arena in the grandest possible manner, thus breaking the stereotypes and conventional practices. This way, the new-age bride hopes to inspire other brides-to-be to express their true self at their wedding, too. <keyword id="1657948" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Malabar-Group">Malabar Group</keyword> Chairman MP Ahammed said, "The Brides of India Campaign is our tribute to the new-age brides and their awe-inspiring individuality. Over the last ten years, Brides of India has played a pivotal role in showcasing our versatility in catering to all bridal jewellery needs from all around the country. The theme of Brides of India 2021 encourages all to make way for the bride. Because this is her moment, it’s her big day, and she’s here to own it! She’s here to shine and make sure the world knows it. With the launch of Brides of India 2021 campaign, we celebrate the brides who choose to make the big day all about her. With designs that cater to varied sensibilities of new-age brides across regions, there is something unique for every bride to complement her unique entry." The campaign features 13 brides from various parts of the country in two distinctive looks. These 26 unique looks include the Bejewelled bride featuring polki jewellery, the Statement bride and the Shimmering bride featuring diamond jewellery, the Contemporary reception bride featuring handcrafted jewellery, the Classic Gold bride, the Kerala bride, the Karnataka bride, the Telugu bride, the Tamil bride, the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar bride, the Punjabi bride, the Bengali bride, the Odia bride, the Marathi bride and the Gujarati bride. All these looks are captured in an exquisite range of bridal jewellery shot by ace photographer Avinash Gowarikar. The campaign also features all the major jewellery sub brands of the Malabar Gold &amp; Diamonds including Mine, Era, Precia, Divine, Ethnix and Polki collection. As a part of the campaign, the jeweller will also showcase an especially curated range of bridal jewellery catering to the new-age brides at its showrooms. The curation of jewellery has been done with great care by keeping local community tastes and preferences in mind after an in-depth research., Along with the wedding anthem, the Brides of India 2021 campaign will involve a 360-degree marketing overdrive which includes print ads, hoardings, popular social media feeds like reels, bridal look-books, catalogues, product shots and videos and a dedicated microsite as part of the brand website. The on-ground activation of the campaign includes in-store launch events, specially designed visual merchandising elements such as bridal swings and grand entrance arches. With the launch of Brides of India campaign, Malabar Gold &amp; Diamonds has strengthened its position as a wedding jeweller of repute. Each year the campaign highlights the jeweller’s bridal jewellery offerings and brings to the fore its design leadership in the bridal jewellery category. To strengthen this edition of Brides of India, the brand has also announced a Wedding Advance Purchase scheme wherein gold rate protection is offered to customers by paying as little as 10% advance of the total purchase amount.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds launches a wedding anthem with Anil Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan

Amidst all the celebratory din on the clearing of the GST bill, the <keyword id="6377229" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Child-labour">Child Labour</keyword> (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016 passed both the houses of Parliament without the attention it deserved. The Bill amends the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 which had banned the employment of children, that is those below 14 years of age, in 83 specified occupations/processes. The amendment prohibits engagement of children, which it now defines as 14 years or as specified by the Right to Education (RTE) Act, in all occupations except in family or family-based enterprise (after school hours or during vacations) and in the audio-visual entertainment industry or sports activity. It also created a new category of “adolescent”, which includes those between 14 to 18 years of age, and prohibits their employment in hazardous occupations, or hazardous processes. 
 
There have been widespread criticisms of the exceptions for family or family-based enterprises since it was cleared by the Cabinet in May last year. The government did away with the blanket ban on child labour, proposed when the bill was first introduced in 2012, to strike “a balance between the need for education for a child and reality of the socio-economic condition and social fabric in the country”. 
 First, if the reality of the socio-economic condition is forcing parents to keep their child working, this situation can’t be expected to improve anytime soon if status quo remains and children keep missing out on their education. And since, according to a study, parents are the reason for a child’s employment 62% of the time (Syed et al. 1991), the status quo would persist. There is much to be lost if India can’t capitalise on its demographic dividend being unable to tear itself away from the shackles of an uneducated population. The bill does restrict working hours to after-school timings, but where would the child have the time for any effective learning of things taught at school if he is at work later? Secondly, these exceptions have enough loopholes to nullify the amendment itself. They are not even restricted to the child’s immediate parents but extends to his/her “brother, sister and father’s sister and brother and mother’s sister and brother”. Any employer could claim to be a relative and it would be difficult to prove otherwise. Even the <keyword id="6355940" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Standing-committee">Standing Committee</keyword> recognised this issue and suggested removal of exceptions and prohibition of employment in all occupations. The recommendation was ignored. 
 
The exceptions also make the law weaker than the earlier one when the purpose of amendments are the exact opposite. Earlier, a child weaving carpets was a blatant violation of the law. Now, it must first be determined who he is working for; if it is for his family in after-school hours, he is legally entitled to carry on. The bill has effectively legalised employment of children in home-based units rolling bidis and making aggarbattis. This makes the bill highly regressive in nature and tougher to implement. It is an uncomfortable relaity that it has passed both houses of Parliament with hardly any public scrutiny. 
 
Some other issues with the Bill are its various inherent contradictions. The Juvenile Justice Act puts the age of a child at 16 years while the RTE Act, which this bill has tied itself with, fixes it at 14. There is a need for clarity on the definition of a child. Moreover, the Bill is in contradiction with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as it fails to define the number of hours a child can work. Another issue of contention was that of provisions for the employment of adolescents. The Standing Committee recommended that the meaning of hazardous occupations and processes be widened to include all occupations/processes that may jeopardise health, safety and morals of adolescents, in line with the ILO Convention 138. Again, the recommendation was ignored. 
 A group of organisations and activists have raised their voices against these amendments time and again with no avail. Back in March, Kailash Satyarthi wrote in a letter to <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> that a complete abolition of child labour would attract more global investment as reports of their products being made by children tarnish their image. For instance, Gap was caught in an embarrassing scandal in 2007 after an Observer investigation found its products being manufactured by children in Delhi, despite Gap’s rigorous audit systems. The company claimed that it contracts out work to various vendors in India and it becomes difficult to keep track on each one of them. Therefore, a better child labour law in India which is easy to implement would diminish such problems. In fact, it would act as a double-edged sword cutting down on child labour along with improving investment prospects. Perhaps the country should pay more heed to the child-rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner it takes so much pride in! 
 
About the author: The article is written by <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword>, in collaboration with <keyword id="1914448" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chirag-Yadav">Chirag Yadav</keyword>, researcher with Institute for Competitiveness, India 
 
<a href="http://cdn.shareyouressays.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/child-labour-causes.jpg">Image source</a>

Failing our children

The recent predictions of <keyword id="6366970" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="IMD">IMD</keyword> (<keyword id="55209" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Meteorological-Department">Indian Meteorological Department</keyword>) have had a ‘butterfly effect’ on India’s socio-economic policy landscape. The capital markets have tumbled primarily due to a cautioned 25 basis point reduction in the repo rate by the Reserve <keyword id="6355303" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bank-of-India">Bank of India</keyword> (RBI). The move by RBI considered many factors among which the announcement by the IMD that India is heading for the second consecutive year of deficient rainfall had an influence. The fear of <keyword id="67286" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Food-inflation">food inflation</keyword> lead the Finance Minister to comment on June 4, 2015 that the impact of deficient rains may not have a significant bearing on food grain production. He clarified this was due to the geographical distribution of the coming monsoon. The broader issue remains that <keyword id="235059" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Agriculture">Indian agriculture</keyword> is still dependent heavily on monsoons for agriculture. Three points merit attention with respect to the agriculture sector in India. 
 First, Indian agriculture remains labour intensive (thus providing employment to roughly half the population) and with a lack of appropriate infrastructure strategy. Often the interventions made in rivers/ for irrigation are knee jerk reactions to local developmental needs in contrast to a national strategy required for irrigational development across India. More often than not there are delays in infrastructure development, and it severely undermines the pace of not only agricultural growth but means of sustenance to farmers. It means that the farmers at most times are left to the mercy of rain gods rather than appropriate water harvesting and storage techniques for his/her agricultural produce. It drastically increases the risks of crop failure. Innovative schemes for canals/water harvesting like the solar farm mounted on the top of a canal in Gujarat could bring dual benefits of <keyword id="1710483" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="water-preservation">water preservation</keyword> as well as electricity critical for the agricultural sector. 
 Second, moving down in the agricultural value chain one observes there is a lack of formal market access, formal means of finance and inhibition to technology utilization that has driven farmers to suicides. Farmers are often left to borrow from informal sources like moneylenders who lend at exorbitant rates that often leads to a debt trap for farmers. Inhibition to technology usage (with respect to <keyword id="6386447" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Farming">farming</keyword> methods as well as seeds is prevalent in some parts. One observes it even in the government storage facilities under its <keyword id="107125" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Food-Corporation">Food Corporation</keyword> of India (FCI). An estimated 40% of the India’s agricultural output by value is left to rot due to lack of adequate storage facilities. On the one hand, India suffers from chronic malnutrition (roughly one out of every four children is undernourished) and fares poorly (55th in 2014) on Global Hunger Index. On the other hand it continues to let the foodgrains rot in the government-owned storage facilities. A solution to the problem could be more competition in the food storage sector leading to better outcomes for all the stakeholders. 
 Third, there is an imperative need for reallocation of human resources to higher productivity activities. It means that choice must be given to <keyword id="48857" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Farmer">farmer</keyword>s who want to move to other sectors of the economy for their livelihood. 50% of the population still in a relatively non-productive sector does merit serious scrutiny and action by policymakers. It also means that the government should look at a cluster-oriented approach to agro-industrial development. Corporations make huge profits out of agricultural value added products even when some of them are unhealthy for consumers. The government should foster newer business models (Like Amul, Lijjat Papad), which can provide employment as well as create value for farmer communities across India. It has tried to do it in this budget with the establishment of the MUDRA bank that aims to provide credit to small business units. However, credit is only a part of a much bigger malaise. The problem of farmer suicides and Indian agricultural output can be solved only when there is a multipronged structural approach to solving the issues. It includes reducing farmer's dependence on rain, providing better market access to agricultural produce, bettering infrastructure for storage, a greater choice to farmers for livelihood and value addition to agricultural produce by farmer communities. 
 (<keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword> is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness &amp; Editor of Thinkers. The views expressed are personal. Amit can be reached at <a href="mailto:amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in">amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in</a> and tweets @kautiliya. The article is co-authored with Sankalp Sharma, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India.) 
 
Image: thinkstock

Three points about the Indian Agricultural Sector

What is the role of <keyword id="808508" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Corporations">corporations</keyword> in society? The question has had distinct kinds of responses from varied thinkers. At one end of the spectrum are those, who believe that the role of a corporation is simply to make more profits and thereby maximize shareholder value. 
 
However, this view has taken a serious hit in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It is because, some thinkers have argued that the 'Shareholder Wealth Maximizing' paradigm needs to be replaced with a more robust understanding of the role of corporations in society. It starts with accepting the role of corporations in society as that of being institutions that produce goods and services that people value and this forms the basis of shareholder value maximization. 
 A new sort of paradigm is thus emerging that focuses on reassessing the role of corporations in society. The paradigm is called 'Creating <keyword id="2875288" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="shared-value">Shared Value</keyword> (CSV).' It focuses on bringing together the distinct fields of strategy and society and link the competitive advantage of a firm to its corporate social responsibility. 
 
Often a question arises as to how creating shared value is different of distinct from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR aims at giving back to society while CSV aims at co-creating value for society and business. Similarly, the focus of CSV is not just donating money or doing some activities that are distinct from business practices of the corporation but realigning business activities to create societal and economic value. 
 
The idea is that CSV endeavors to alter the role of corporations in a society. It means understanding that corporations operate within the broader construct of society and that whatever is detrimental to society cannot be the basis of sustainable competitive advantage for the corporation/enterprise. Similarly, whatever is good for the societies is good for corporations. Creation of shared value essentially involves the following three principles: 
 
First, businesses/corporations should essentially try to meet the unmet needs of a society. An example is Internet access to people in India. There is an unmet societal need, i.e., access to information. Businesses had tapped into this need and (basically device manufacturers and internet service providers) have co-created immense value by serving the poor at the same time earning revenues. 
 The second way of creating shared value is by redefining productivity along the <keyword id="1195806" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="value-chain">value chain</keyword> and reducing risks. An example could be that of <keyword id="45528" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="GE">GE</keyword> altering its business products to be more efficient and thereby reducing carbon emissions and environmental footprint. Productivity should be looked at and measured not only in value terms but also in ecological and societal terms. 
 A third way of creating shared value is by enabling local cluster development. It means corporations can <keyword id="47916" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="invest">invest</keyword> in developing skills through training with their suppliers in clusters. An example could be the strong automotive clusters that were enabled in specific parts of India because of firms helping the ancillary units in their vicinity. 
 CSV is also related to another emerging area of social business and social entrepreneurship. It's understanding helps businesses/companies alter their business models and focus on models that create not just profit but do well to serve societies' needs and remove businesses' adverse environmental impact. These often include underserved as well as the bottom of pyramid markets where businesses create value and serve societies needs. An example could be Hindustan <keyword id="45009" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Unilever">Unilever</keyword>'s Sustainable Living Program. Under the program, the company has undertaken initiatives like Project Shakti, whereby rural women, as well as the company, have benefitted immensely. In the program, the rural women are empowered by basic training in running a business. They then go to explain the benefits and do the sales and distribution of the products of the corporation. This way HUL earns revenue as well as provides means of livelihood to approximately 70,000 women entrepreneurs. 
 
The idea has gained significant momentum in the past few years since its inception within the corporations and policymakers. Clearly it is good for the people and societies to interact with corporations to co-create value that is sustainable. The next big evolutionary change for corporations in India will be in realigning their business models to societal needs. It not just appeals to common sense, but is also a remarkably sound business strategy. In light of this an initiative has been launched in India called Shared Value Initiative India (<a href="http://www.sharedvalue.in/">http://www.sharedvalue.in</a>) that aspires to connect the business and community leaders wherein they look at enhancing the economic and social progress of the nation to build a more equitable and sustainable society. 
 
(Dr. <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword> is <keyword id="191828" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="president-and-CEO">President and CEO</keyword> of India Council on Competitiveness, Honorary Chairman of <keyword id="122492" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Institute-for-Competitiveness">Institute for Competitiveness</keyword>, India and Chair, Shared Value Initiative India) He tweets @kautiliya and can be contacted at <a href="mailto:amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in">amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in</a>. The article is co-authored with Sankalp Sharma who is Senior Researcher at Institute for Competitiveness) 
 
(Image Courtesy: thaimarketing.in.th)

Creating Shared Value: The Next Evolutionary Form of capitalism

In an interaction between <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword> and <keyword id="1535858" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Raj-Sisodia">Raj Sisodia</keyword>, one of the thought leaders of the <keyword id="437707" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Conscious-capitalism">Conscious Capitalism</keyword> movement globally, the latter shares his view on this concept. His book Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose is considered a foundational work in explaining the precepts and performance implications of pursuing a conscious approach to business. 
 
Could you share a brief overview of your academic journey thus far, from The rule of Three to 4 A’s of Marketing and now Conscious Capitalism? 
 I did my engineering and MBA in India, my PHD in marketing from <keyword id="127671" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Columbia-University">Columbia University</keyword> and started teaching in 1985. My focus initially was on marketing of services, marketing of information technology and then evolved over time into areas such as marketing productivity and also strategy, which is where the Rule of Three book came in. I always had a broad perspective and was not focused on sub-disciplines within marketing. Looking at business gently; marketing is a function of efficiency and effectiveness. I did a lot of research projects on the image of marketing and the negative feeling that people have about marketing and came to the conclusion that not only we have problems of efficiency and productiveness but also in terms of public trust. This led to a project that was tentatively called “In Search of Marketing Excellence” which looked for companies that spent less money than their peers in marketing and still had higher levels of customer loyalty, trust and satisfaction. Most of the companies are opposite of that. Companies spend a lot of money but don’t have high level of customer loyalty and trust. So that project led us to a number of companies which we had to examine in more detail and we found that what was true of customers was true of employees. In other words the employees also had high level of loyalty and trust towards the suppliers and they had a strong deeply embedded presence within their communities. The other unique thing was that there was a sense of higher purpose that they were in business to do something beyond the ordinary industry. Also these companies had leaders who were more driven by their purpose and less so by power and personal enrichment. This led to the book “Firms of Endearment”. The other book was Rule of Three and the book on globalization, which was called “Tectonic Shift” that was published in 2006. I also developed a new framework for marketing called the 4 A’s of marketing which came out in 2011 which addresses many problems that one faces in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. It is a way of making sure that our marketing efforts are creating value for customers and for companies and ultimately for society. I have been talking business for 20 years without even using the word “purpose” because the purpose is given to us and I realize that every truly great enterprise starts with a purpose and transcends with it and makes it an enduring company. This journey led us to non-profit conscious capitalism link that is finding global resonance, as the ideas are quite universal. The phrase “conscious capitalism” is a natural coming together of two great traditions of capitalism; American–the epitome of global capitalism and Indian, the fountain of consciousness. The combination is very powerful as there is real natural synergy in terms of India and the perspectives from the US. Countries like South Africa and <keyword id="43918" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Korea">Korea</keyword> have responded very positively to this. 
 
How exactly are you looking at this synergy? 
 
There is a growing realization that there is a great wisdom that is embodied in the ancient traditions in general and which the world of modern business has tended to ignore or relegate to the sidelines. This was brought home most compellingly when I published “Firms of Endearment”. I have been studying the Bhagvad Gita for twenty years and most of the wisdom that we think there is today is actually been written about very deeply by some of the ancient sages. I believe in the theory of Karma and almost called this karma capitalism rather than conscious capitalism. There should be focus on community and actions without thinking of the outcome. Like wise the qualities of a conscious leader – and the idea of dharma or duty - are very powerful notions and resonate very well with audiences. During my talks in India, two common themes emerged – one was an advanced form of capitalism means we are still going through the growing pains of capitalism and this would take some time maybe 10-20 years when we are ready for this. We need to learn from mistakes of others rather than learning from our own mistakes. The second was that it was entirely consistent with institutional wisdom. In the future we expect lot of value and wisdom coming out of India, from scholars in India who will enrich our understanding of consciousness idea. Many western CEOs are into meditation and yoga which makes them highly effective leaders. There is a group of about thirty people from different walks of life who have come in as collaborators and set up “conscious collaborators” or “prasanga”. They view each other as travellers rather than competitors and this has a very important role to play. So many Indian academics who are in the US are using some of that wisdom in the work that they are doing with MNCs. 
 
Shared value suggests that corporates should share wealth while building enterprise and creating wealth for people around. How would you compare the two concepts of shared Value and Conscious Capitalism? 
 The shared value is consistent with conscious capitalism, but I don’t think it goes as far. It really refers to a pragmatic approach that says if you want a license to operate in the future you cannot be creating prosperity for shareholders while you are creating consciousness for society. The western analogy is very practical as it says that we should figure out a way to do what is good for the society as that would be good for you. The deeper spiritual dimension is a part of conscious capitalism and in other words it provides a meaning and purpose in our lives. There is a whole new deeper dimension if you look at the difference between profit driven organizations and self-driven organizations. Conscious capitalism is having that real tangible sense of high purpose, which includes society as one of the staples. I think the spiritual dimension is meaning and purpose at an individual level, which is conscious capitalism and conscious businesses operate on the idea of love and care. There is an atmosphere of love and care and absence of fear. People can truly flower and bring out their creativity. When we operate out of fear we are in a survival mode. Take as example, <keyword id="114046" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="General-Electric">General electric</keyword> which has the rule that bottom 10% people get fired every year. The fact is there is tremendous amount of fear within the organization as 30%-40% think they might get fired. Then they start to behave in defensive ways by not helping other people. I think the emotional and the spiritual dimension are two important ways in which conscious capitalism is beyond the idea of shared value. 
 
How would you react to the exploitative behaviour of organizations? 
 
As a generalization, businesses operate with a narrow perspective and a lot of it has to do with the wholesale importing of the old American style of capitalism. We have got this paradoxical situation in a country where we are running into the same kinds of problems that other companies have faced. So we have to raise the consciousness about this to get people to see that this is not about sacrificing performance for the sake of these other things but it’s about aligning all the forces together so that you actually create a lot more value for everybody including westerners. We really have a significant challenge to change those mental models that people have about business. I think a separation of work from rest of life is really probably much more pronounced in India. Where people behave one way in mission of work and money and then in an entire other way in their personal lives. We can blend self-interest with the need to care. I think it’s a big part of the journey in India. We have all the wisdom that we need. 
 
How can the government learn from the principles of conscious capitalism and become a conscious government? 
 I am working with a couple of co-authors on “Building of a conscious Society” that’s about taking the ideas of conscious capitalism from the domain of business and broadening them to other sectors that touch society. So, we need to have a higher consciousness in all the sections of society whether government, private, <keyword id="59810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Civil-society">civil society</keyword>, non-profits or a public sector. Every sector needs to operate with a high level of consciousness for its specific role and purpose. I think the unfortunate legacy in India is the government, which we have inherited from the British. Earlier, the government was there not to serve but to control, especially the administrative, the Indian <keyword id="96416" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="civil-service">civil Service</keyword> which finally got changed to IAS but the emphasis remained on controlling and not serving. People who work in the government service really need to have that higher sense of purpose. I think one of the challenges that India faces is the socialist way of thinking. There is a certain set of activities that the government must do like providing infrastructure, ensuring lawfulness, security etc. and also fulfilling the needs of the society as a whole. That’s where you find efficiency and effectiveness. I think in our system, the government does a lot of things and there is tremendous scope in efficiency and effectiveness. Along with this also comes tremendous corruption. All businesses can get corrupted in a country where government has too much of a role. It becomes a gatekeeper. 
 
You said that civil society is the third pillar for the whole system. How do you expect civil society to react? 
 
My advice to members of civil society who want to start non-profits is to start something which could generate some profits. If you can create a for-profit entity that can accomplish the same needs that you are trying to meet, then-in-then the business is sustainable and scalable in the long term. However there would still remain things that cannot churn out profit, therefore, they have to be done by real people who have a passion to serve. That’s where non-profits would continue to have a role. I think the key thing for non-profits is they have a sense of purpose but many of them don’t really operate in an efficient way. I think non-profits need to learn from the world of business. I also think there is a lot of potential for cross sector collaboration, through markets that require the coming together of for-profit businesses and non-profits. There is a lot of potential for creative collaboration across sectors. 
 
What are some of the critical changes you would recommend for the education sector? 
 
I do think that we also need to change our education sector. From an early age, one has to incorporate wisdom; the ideas that make for a meaningful life; technical skills. I do think we also need to teach the skills that constitute “systems thinking”. It is shocking to see that such few people have an understanding of systems. Many institutes do not offer courses on systems and yet every problem that we deal with in the world is systems problem. When we don’t have the systems perspectives and start to think of it as a cause and effect problem then we ultimately end up with the opposite results. When we understand the whole system that applies to business, health care etc., we know every sector has tremendous need for systems thinking. That’s something that we need to do. Of course our business schools have an important role to play. I think India has a high number of consciousness b-schools like the “School of Inspired leadership” in Gurgaon. We need to change the education system to incorporate training in these skills and there is still a long way to go. 
 
(This interview was first carried in Thinkers, a quarterly thought leadership magazine that features the brightest thinkers in the areas of economics and governance, philosophy and literature, science and technology, and management. To learn more about the magazine, please visit: <a href="http://www.thinkers.in">www.thinkers.in</a>)

Thinkers/Thinkers 50: Raj Sisodia says Indian businesses operate with a narrow perspective of wholesale importing the old American style of Capitalism

In an interaction between <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword>, <keyword id="6364480" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chairman">Chairman</keyword> of the Indian Institute of Competitiveness and Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt <keyword id="2851446" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chair-of-Marketing">Chair of Marketing</keyword> in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, the latter talks about his idea of India, weaving in his expertise in behavioral economics and management. 
 
Congratulations for being on the T50 list! Could you share the broad ideas behind your academic work over the years? 
My academic journey was accidental. I went to America to do my MBA in production management. There I was exposed to the theory of hierarchy of needs. M academic career primarily began in studying psychology of consumers and also physiological aspects, which is called behavioral economics. I began with this concept 50 years ago and it has evolved with time. The most definitive theory called the “Harvard shift theory of consumer behaviour” became the foundation in the marketing discipline. It actually became a paradigm shift because rather than taking a market perspective; the customer’s perspective was taken. In economics, the consumer must make choices and maximize the utility for the price they pay. This theory also says that consumers become loyal to a brand and this becomes a habit rather than a result of cognitive thinking. So this model is very much based on several factors of psychology that are integrated into a common frame 
work. 
 
What propelled you to move from consumer behaviour to economics? 
In 1968, I was a visiting professor at IIM Kolkata and taught international marketing in addition to consumer psychology. While teaching international marketing I was exposed to managerial issues as compared to consumer issues. So, the principles of economics in marketing began to shift towards managerial marketing. Immediately after that followed managerial economics. In my thesis work, beside behavioral, I also expanded into multimedia statistics and created a whole wave. In a mutual economy, we began to understand that in large organizations customer reaches were more important than customer acquisition. So I started looking at the whole notion of relationship marketing. My theory was again parallel to the theory of hierarchy but more on behavioral perspective. As transition economies were becoming a dominant domain, relationship became more critical. 
 
What was the idea when you moved into working on Chindia? 
My giving into Chindia rising was almost at the nation level and also more policy oriented as compared to behavioral. The book “Commanding Heights” which talks about future of emerging markets inspired me and then I went into the Chindia rising state. Even today I believe that resource advantage is a very cheap theory, instead we have to look at resource advantage that the nation can create. 
 
What was the biggest challenge that you faced? 
My main challenge was to motivate the academic community to shift their thinking as academics tend to be lot more orthodox – they are the orthodoxy of thoughts. The tectonic shift about how a discipline would shift its paradigm is not a linear model, not even an exponential model, but a curvilinear model wherein new ideas are born and there are bunch of people who challenge the thoughts. If we challenge the new classical economics towards behavioral economics, the editors of the journals don’t accept the thinking as the reviewers are all trained with the previous thinking. So this is one of the major challenges that I found as to how to push the traditional journal to accept this framework. Right now emerging markets is one, which I am propagating heavily and very well accepted by known universities. Overall, I would say, the challenges have not been as many as the opportunities that I have got. I became an administrator in 1971 -72. Because of lack of leadership I learnt quite a lot of administrative aspects. In the academic study I became like a director - more like a department head. 
 
There are two things that are hugely affecting academics. One as you say is orthodoxy of thought and the other is how to manage the faculty or resources. How do you react to this in the Indian context? I would make comments at three levels. At the macro level I was an advisor to the ministry of education, to bring about <keyword id="6375224" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="higher-education">higher education</keyword> reforms from a policy perspective. We all agree that there is a need for a perfect system but there was the AICTE. Apparently there was a policy document that went to <keyword id="36804" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Sam-Pitroda">Sam Pitroda</keyword>, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission and the <keyword id="6365387" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="PMO">PMO</keyword>. So, from this you can see that you cannot change the orthodoxy. The private universities, the deemed universities and all educational institutes register with AICTE. The second loophole was that the AICTE, in the legislative process, anchored everything to the management process. So for instance, a one-year program was there instead of a two year program and there was nobody in charge of regulation. The third issue is Section 25 company wherein the dividends are not distributed and this is a huge loophole in AICTE legislation. At the university level I find there are four approaches. The first approach is to start something fresh new and try to break the traditional legacy of an IIM or IIT. It’s hard to change the faculty and which is also mentioned in my book “The Self Destructive Habits of Good Companies”. This book came out on a one to one meeting with the CEO when he asked the question – “why good companies fail?” It took me 10 years of research to come out with this book. The most common is denial of new realities, arrogance, and compliance. In many ways traditional, well-respected universities will probably become self-destructive. The dramatic transformation is already taking place. The faculty is becoming competitive, as they don’t need an institution anymore. They do independent work and come out with enormous research whether in science, technology, medical and now in management. 
 
How would you look at India on the aspect of denial, arrogance and complacency? And how would you really define the India growth story? 
If we have to map India into those seven bad habits, it is endowed with four of them. The first and biggest one is internal thought wars. In other words, one ministry against the other ministry. We are not aligned amongst ourselves towards a common goal or a common approach. Internal thought wars always happen within larger institutions. Second one is denial of new realities. I think India as a nation is in a denial stage. I also believe that India after the quick success of 1991 transformation became very arrogant. They thought they were bigger than life and the media unfortunately amplified this idea. India went through an accidental success and was not able to rationalize its success. Most success happens accidentally. People are at the right place at the right time, but you can’t say to the world I am just a lucky guy – nobody would bet their money on you then. He has to rationalize – why he succeeded – he has to have an explanation why he succeeded. I think India went through that. The last one is complacency. There is no sense of urgency in India at all. I think all that I can map is competitive myopia. We are always comparing ourselves to China all the time without being aware of other competitors which may even be coming from advanced countries. The last one is competence dependence. I found that whatever one is very good at, when that becomes irrelevant we are already trapped into that, and our competency itself becomes our liability. So that’s the one bad habit I am watching about India. Whatever we are competent in now is keeping us behind to go where we need to go. 
 
Where do you see India becoming complacent? 
The complacency is happening because of the sudden success of the educated class. There is a new generational shift and the young educated class do not work as hard as their fathers did and do not work on weekends as they have to maintain work-life balance. The instinct for survival for livelihood is moving away, except in the poor class. Today a young person is not bothered even if he leaves his job in four days. Though his father might have worked in a company with a very clear sense of obligation since he would be the only breadwinner of the family. So that’s a part of complacency coming in. Complacency also comes in terms of energy. If I feel good - like with success, I would splurge and be focused about what I want to do. So there are components of complacency. 
 
As an academic, people do not want to hear criticism in this country. How would you overcome that? It is very painful to see that we as a nation are very judgmental as people. We can make a comment on somebody with a political correctness. But if somebody else makes a comment on us we get very angry and agitated. How would you look at India going through the whole idea of social inclusion and the idea of societal value? I think that this is a worldwide movement wherein the senior most management is convinced that if we don’t have a healthy society we cannot have a healthy corporation. I think the shared value article that <keyword id="216576" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Michael-Porter">Michael Porter</keyword> wrote has become the way of thinking now. I am very grateful because you do need leaders like Michael Porter who have the credibility and access to government leaders. I think you need people like <keyword id="15149" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ram-charan">Ram Charan</keyword> to validate, legitimate and propagate ideas. My book in 2007 called the “Sense of Endearment” with <keyword id="1535858" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Raj-Sisodia">Raj Sisodia</keyword> has now transformed into a second book called “Conscious Capitalism”. This whole movement of conscious capitalism very much matches Porter’s idea of the shared value. 
 
So you do agree that societal value would have to be created by companies across the board? 
Absolutely. The reason is the government is the enterprise and does not allow the private sector to nationalize. So government enterprise provide economic livelihood through employment in rail roads, the telephone companies and telegraph which are all government enterprises. Second thing was social investment, which means wherever I get my income from I need to subsidize the poor. Third measure was economic development in other words how do I lift people from poverty through government policy/resources/budget and the fourth measure is defence – i.e how do I protect my nation. Most governments are finding that they cannot do all four anymore because of the bandwidth / resources etc. Defence is non-negotiable so we begin to exit other endeavours. So, NGO’s were created to do the social service. The charitable activities done by the government like subsidizing education etc were given to the foundations. The industry people know how to leverage it and they are passing on their wealth to society and doing a social contribution. Government does not know how to leverage it. Lot of foundations has given billion of dollars to education and health. The third thing is to privatize everything. There are two roles that the government would have in near future - defence and domestic security. Government needs to be a policy maker rather than a political model. The current policy is one of compliance, one of watchdog. This changes the notion of policy in the govt thinking, as most of them are trained in the traditional economic thinking. To nurture capitalism in the positive way the governance mechanism should be inclined towards the citizens; otherwise revolts would be there. Though people want to participate in government, the politicians have not allowed them to participate, instead they have allowed them to represent them. After representation, the citizen feels that he is not participating. So Government should encourage citizen participation and this would make the government look very different 50 years from now. 
 
How will principles of capitalism change? 
The principles of capitalism will change and it will happen either through external compliance; reservation; or internal self-enlightenment as capitalism becomes self enlightened eventually. Self-enlightenment is a better theory of capitalism rather than self-interest. The self-enlightenment is that the huge disparity of wages/salaries in organizations is in our hands to control. From the lowest paid category - from the managerial class to the help line supervisor to the highest paid person CEO or Chairman the whole range should no more than 20 times. Similarly, in the factory, the person who works in the factory from the plant manager level the range should not be more than 10 times. We will learn to establish our own jurisdiction to say that if we increase the range of salaries / compensations it would be creating immediate revolt within the organizations. The people will sense lack of equity. The rich are getting richer within the company and the poor are getting poorer. So that’s one-way capitalism won’t respond when one company does it quite often. I believe that this kind of imitative behaviour created by outside consultants on how you should compensate is one way in which capitalism would become self enlightened. Also the shareholder would hold the corporation responsible to do good for the community/ suppliers who are involved in value creation. It’s a shared value kind of concept. We encourage corporations not to give out as charity but whenever we create any value, x% only goes to the shareholder of 100% and y% will be redistributed value. It is basically the same as value redistribution; what governments do with taxes and the monetary policy system. But here it is done by corporations through its own distribution mechanisms. 
 
What is your idea of India and how do you think we can achieve it? 
I can tell you one punch line, “The rest of the world needs India in many ways more than India even thinks.” rest of the world thinks that India is a very strategic nation. Not from the traditional view or the colonial view of resource rich continent in agriculture, animals, human, natural resources. I don’t think they are looking at India from a resource exploitation/ access point of view. India is a market and as a market it is so important in the global architecture of competitors that they have to focus on it whether they like it or not. 
 
(Jagdish N. Sheth is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. Thinkers, a quarterly thought leadership magazine features the brightest thinkers in the areas of economics and governance, philosophy and literature, science and technology, and management. To learn more about the magazine, please visit: <a href="http://www.thinkers.in">www.thinkers.in</a> Learn journalism at Indias largest media house - The Times of India Group. Visit <a href="http://www.tcms.in">www.tcms.in</a> for details. Last date April 30, 2015.)

Thinkers/Thinkers 50: Jagdish Seth says India is endowed with four very bad economy crippling habits

<keyword id="150034" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Vijay-Govindarajan">Vijay Govindarajan</keyword>, voted one of the greatest 'Thinkers' of the world by Thinkers 50 and the Earl C. Daum 1924 <keyword id="1816524" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Professor-of-International-Business">Professor of International Business</keyword> at the <keyword id="298560" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Tuck-School-of-Business">Tuck School of Business</keyword> at <keyword id="224383" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Dartmouth-College">Dartmouth College</keyword>, talks about about the problems plaguing <keyword id="6375224" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="higher-education">higher education</keyword> in India and the US and also the benefits of 'reverse innovation', a term he formulated through his bestselling book with the same title, in this freewheeling chat with Dr <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword>, <keyword id="6364480" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chairman">Chairman</keyword> of the <keyword id="2798602" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-Council-of-Competitiveness">Indian Council of Competitiveness</keyword>. 
 
Could you give a brief insight of your academic journey and your notion of reverse innovation? 
 
Having grown up in India, I know that innovation is the solution for many of the country’s problems. India has too many problems and we have too few resources and the only way to solve these problems is innovation. I committed myself to really studying innovation and I have always been interested in its impact on the real world, but by doing really regular research. When I came to America my study was really targeted at American companies and how they innovate. In the last 10 years or so I got interested in the notion of reverse innovation which is about innovating in a poor country like India and so that brought me full circle with regards to my ambition. 
 
When you said you have come full circle moving from India; working with American companies; and now looking at India, what is the biggest learning that you drew from this country? 
 
I think there are three learnings that I got from India. Firstly, the notion of frugal thinking that comes very naturally to us. Because the resources are limited and we want to be very efficient in how we spend our resources and not waste them. Secondly, we Indians emphasize a lot on memorizing data which is not so in the US. It is dying even faster because of the advent of computers, calculators and iPhones. US focuses on critical thinking, whereas in India we do not focus on critical thinking. As I was brought up in India and was exposed to memorizing data, then when I came to US and got the critical thinking part, it was a deadly combination as I had the data plus critical thinking orientation. critical thinking without data is useless and data without critical thinking is also useless. So, the second important notion from India is data. The third thing is diversity. India is such a diverse country and if anyone has operated inside India, then he is well prepared to face the outside world. 
 
There is a misnomer amongst people who relate frugal innovation to Jugaad. How would you react to this? 
 
To me jugaad is absolutely the wrong way to go. Jugaad is different from frugal thinking. Frugality can co-exist with the latest technology. Jugaad is “The way people use it, improvise it, make it work and get the things done”. I think jugaad implies even inferior quality. That’s not what we need. What we need is latest technology in innovation, which is at the cutting edge. For example, <keyword id="749500" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narayana-Hrudayalaya-Hospital">Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital</keyword> is an excellent hospital as they have the latest equipment in cardiac surgery as you would find in the US. Yet we are able to do cardiac surgeries for $2000 whereas in US it costs $150,000. Frugality is bringing that cost down to $2000 by using absolutely the greatest, latest and the most appropriate technology. What we really need is to marry technological powers in the US with frugality. 
 
You wrote a very interesting piece in <keyword id="53675" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="harvard">Harvard</keyword> Business Review wherein you talked about a $300 home. How can 
reverse innovation help us do that? 
 
When I wrote the article about $300 home it was not about lowering cost but was about offering more value at a lower cost. I was challenging people to think about how more health, education, jobs can be offered in a $300 house. Take for instance health – health is not just delivered in hospitals, health is also delivered in a way you construct a house. In today’s world there are three infectious diseases, which are killing millions of poor people all over the world - TB, cholera and malaria. TB is air borne disease and if we imagine a hut, which has no sunlight, no ventilation, and ten people sleeping then if one of them has TB the other nine would also be infected with it. So, why can’t we derive a $300 house with proper sunlight, ventilation and thereby decrease the incidents of TB. In a similar way cholera is water borne disease and we should look at designing a $300 house, which has portable drinking water. The last one is malaria, which is caused by mosquitos, so the house should be designed in such a way so that we can put up mosquito nets and decrease the incidents of malaria. The point is to think about the housing problem by using breakthrough thinking. we did a project in Dartmouth wherein the participants were called from all across the globe and were given the task of building a $300 house, which is earthquake/ hurricane resistant. By using local materials, the local people could actually construct the house thereby creating jobs for themselves. This is really about how do we include the poor people in the innovation that we create. 
 
What we are saying is at what level we are able to give in hands to quality of life. Yes, that’s really the point. Ultra low cost housing is not a new topic as people talked about it for decades but they talk about it as though it is a problem of charity. We somehow divided the world of 7 billion people into two compartments. 1 billion who are consumers who have the purchasing power and the rest 6 billion, the non-consumers, the so-called poor, who we have left to be taken care of by charity. The problem of converting the 6 billion non-consumers to consumers is not a question of charity but it is a challenge for innovation because the reason they are non-consumers is they can’t consume the products the 1 billion consumers are consuming. In Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) the same platform is used for doing surgeries for the people who are paying and also for the poor patients who either pay nothing or pay subsidized rates. The concept of a $300 home or a $2000 cardiac surgery is not charity. Corporations should clamour for this model for its reach maximization and not for profit maximization. NH is also about reach maximization. The problems of education/ health/ transportation can be solved by making it available to the consumers and the non - consumers. So, having a $300 home is a problem for the corporations to solve and corporations would come in this space if they find significant opportunity in this field and are able to make money. Looking at 6 billion populations of non - consumers with an average of 6 people per household we would have an opportunity of $300 billion. Similar is the case with Apple where it is not able to sell its iPhone to 6 billion non- consumers, as they cannot afford it. If apple makes a $10 nano iPhone they would be looking at a $60 billion opportunity. So, on a digital platform in the $300 household one can deliver more education to the poor through eLearning, more health through tele medicine, more banking through mobile banking etc. All the above requires thinking and creativity and leads to doing more with less. 
 
How is your thinking emerging in the area of education as this is the foremost problem the world is facing? 
 
Let us think as to why education is so expensive in US. At Dartmouth the annual charges are $60,000 for tuition, boarding and lodging amounts to $200,000 – $250,000 for a 4-year course. Basically only the very rich can afford that kind of education or very poor because they get scholarship. The middle class people get squeezed because they make enough money so they are not entitled to scholarship, but they can’t afford $250,000 so they have to take a loan and hence pay for the rest of their lives. 
There are three reasons why education is expensive in the US. Firstly, good institutions follow the vertical integration strategy which means knowledge creation is done by the faculty who do research and the same faculty disseminates that knowledge to teach and the same faculty does the assessment to grade the students for which the institute issues the certification. So once you pass these courses you get the certificate. The cost rises with vertical integration. Secondly, at Dartmouth everything is done on campus. Therefore, the infrastructure costs rises as lab, dormitory, classes, faculty offices, cafeteria have to be built. Thirdly, colleges have an admission policy called principle of inclusion and principle of exclusion. In Dartmouth we take a lot pride in saying how many people we reject. About 95% of the people who apply are rejected. So, we have built an education industry in this country on these people who are snubbed. India has millions and millions of people who need education and we cannot follow the American model of education as that model is based on exclusion and not on inclusion. Higher education is very expensive in India so we have to disaggregate the value chain. We should not focus on the basic research in India instead let the American universities do the research. In this way we would be able to eliminate the expense on research. Secondly, we need to create a global university in India, which will have online courses in every subject. Delivering courses online is not only low cost but also high quality. In higher education there are two types of courses – transactional and transformational courses. Transactional courses are better delivered through online platform and transformational courses are face-to-face interaction because it’s about application/ problem solving. So, we could have the best teachers in India create the best course in every area in the transactional courses. The universities would only conduct the transformational experiences and then we would create a third global university, which would do the assessment. So the second university would take the assessment and third university would do the certification. In certification we need certified courses, which provide right kind of knowledge and capabilities to do the right kind of job. 
 
Do you think we can surmount the problem of critical thinking that India is lacking? 
 The transformational courses are the ones from where the critical thinking comes from. And that’s why we have to have the broken model university system as well and hence the transactional courses and transformational courses. The corporations also need to step in and <keyword id="47916" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="invest">invest</keyword> in human resources. My thinking is we have to fundamentally rethink the way we are attacking the education problem in India. This is a great innovation opportunity to create a new model of education. 
 
When it comes down to it, what is pushing India back and what really needs to be changed in this country to take it forward? 
 
When I look at India I look beyond the filth and poverty and at a huge human potential. The human potential in India is enormous and awesome. Then I look at our accomplishments which are very disappointing. Of late I have become even more frustrated with the lack of progress in India. So I look at what we have achieved and what we could achieve. The human potential is incredible, but we have fallen short. The problem is really the leadership gap. There is a real leadership deficit in India. If India has to realize its full potential we need to create systems and process and structures which will harness the talent. We really need someone to lead this talent. Youngsters need to step up and take the leadership forward. 
 
Everybody understands the way political leadership has failed the country. Are you saying that even corporate leaders have failed? 
 
My hope is corporate leadership. Since independence we have had problems in political leadership. There have been scandals, corruption charges and lack of economic progress even on the corporate side. We have had some success stories, especially in the 90’s when the IT companies came on board. We thought we were building a new India, but it looks like we are back to the same muck. Corruption and inefficiencies are cropping up, growth is slowing. We should have more experiments in the education industry like we have NH in health industry. Health alone could be a huge industry in India. Presently, they are touching only about 1% of India; 99% of India does not have proper health care. The health industry is one where we can employ a lot of people because it is a services industry. We can solve our employment problem and this is what I mean by, where is the corporate leadership? Similarly in infrastructure and transportation the gap is so big. Corporate leaders need to step up and make their employees a part of the wealth creation process. We certainly don’t seem to have that momentum to move forward. 
 
(This article was contributed to Thinkers, a quarterly thought leadership magazine that features the brightest thinkers in the areas of economics and governance, philosophy and literature, science and technology, and management. To learn more about the magazine, please visit: <a href="http://www.thinkers.in/">www.thinkers.in</a>)

Thinkers/Thinkers50: Creator of the term 'Reverse Innovation' says India's has great human potential, but there is a 'leadership deficit'

In the second part of his interview to the <keyword id="6364480" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chairman">Chairman</keyword> of <keyword id="188563" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-Council">Indian Council</keyword> of Competitiveness, <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword>, global thinker and Founder and <keyword id="2540" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="President">President</keyword> of Enterprise for a Sustainable World, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping businesses make the transition to sustainability, <keyword id="49090" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Stuart-Hart">Stuart Hart</keyword> talks about how Indian <keyword id="134585" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Micro-Finance">micro finance</keyword> institutions can work towards cleaning their negative image. 
 
 
How do you think the negative air around micro <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword> can get resolved? Are other financial mechanisms going to evolve for helping new entrepreneurs? Micro-financiers who are promotional in character have now overreached and have created some negative air about them and in some cases have become extractive by charging useless rates. So, you get a push back on micro finance rates as there would always be players who would abuse the opportunity. But that does not undermine the importance of micro finance overall. It’s enormously important in building the craft businesses of the world. Micro finance is not a vehicle for building the promotional businesses of the future. That requires a different type of financing. India does not have the traditional venture capitalist structure as in the US. The traditional structure of VC in US does not do a good job of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> the kind of BOP sustainable enterprises that we are after. 
 These kinds of enterprises require time on the ground, capacity building, partnering and trust building in order to develop a viable value proposition. The traditional VC model out of California or <keyword id="6368596" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="boston">Boston</keyword> does not factor in the pioneer gap time. That VC model has a much shorter time clock and many of them have been involved in several ventures. The traditional VC does not have the patience to wait for 3-4 years for creation of a trust based value proposition in business model. 
 
So, what we are seeing is the beginning of impact investing and I would say India is the epicenter of impact investing. The impact investing space is now like the Wild West in that it’s the whole spectrum, people who would ideologically think that in order to get the investment we need in social businesses we have to eliminate the capitalistic incentive. We have this whole new innovative financing space where you have financers playing with different models and it is not clear which one of them work the best. In order to promote tomorrow’s sustainable BOP promotional enterprises there has to be market returns that are not going to trap the investment capital you need to create the scale necessary to build the impact. There is not enough philanthropy capital in the world, there is some, to do social businesses, but there isn’t enough to get to the level of investment that we are going to need for the impact or the transformation that we want. 
 
I think we have to figure out how we can have the market returns and at the same time lift the poor, generate opportunities, build capacity, generate livelihoods, make market returns, and leap frog to the future technologically. That’s when I will call the BOP enterprise, green leap. That’s where the big opportunity lies in the next decade. It is relatively easy to start small local enterprises with 0-return on capital. The thing that takes the most creativity is how do you simultaneously converge disruptive leap frog technologies and inclusive business models that lift the poor and generate market returns at the same time. 
 
How do you react to people who are in the business of exploiting the poor? It would be a clinically correct statement to say that if your job is to provide aid and there is less and less need for aid then fewer people are going to work in that space so that there may be perverse incentives built into that system. If you flip it over and look at it from an <keyword id="6359301" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Entrepreneur">entrepreneur</keyword>’s lens then the reverse is true. From a business point of view it’s in the business person’s interest to make more and more people less poor because then you can migrate people up the <keyword id="1195806" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="value-chain">value chain</keyword> further. Not only you can expand business opportunity but they also become prospective customers for a broader range of products and some would be considered up-market over time. The only way that happens is to alleviate their income levels. 
 
How does capitalism look at its future? There are people who would look at the institutions of capitalism. If we look in to the future 50 years hence, the population growth would have been stabilized and we would be living in a world of stable/ declining population. We would be living within nature’s budget meaning we cannot take the natural capital more than nature generates. And we can’t put more waste back into the system than nature can absorb. There are certain systems/ conditions that suggest that the current model to understand growth cannot continue. Hence I see the capitalistic motivation, which is to achieve competitive advantage, to search for growth and profit opportunities, actually can be trend to an advantage, which can help us move up toward that more sustainable world looking out 30-40-50 years. We can use the current capitalistic motivation to get to tomorrow’s technology and business models. We have immediate need to transform to more environmental sustainable technology that’s innovation <keyword id="107737" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Entrepreneurship">entrepreneurship</keyword> opportunity. Over the next 2-3-4 decades, if we look at it through right set of glasses the current incentives of capitalist system would lead to a more sustainable world because there is an entrepreneurial opportunity to leap frog to environmentally sustainable technology and to grow by serving the other because that’s really the only place where growth remains. We can continue to grow and sell high end products to rich people and that becomes a more increasing competitive space. In order to be successful purely at the top of the pyramid is really tough but when it comes to the base of the income pyramid that’s still relatively unoccupied space. If it does not happen through entrepreneurship then it would happen through the club of government eventually which is bad for the world if it is just government swinging the club. So, I actually see the entrepreneurial process over the next 20 years as one of the important <keyword id="382268" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="leverage">leverage</keyword> points to getting the world to say 2040-2050 where we have stabilized human population, where we are living within the natural capital budget. 
 
How would governments have to transform themselves to enable the kind of idea that you are saying? 
The travel lines that I see suggest to me that the current character of political organizations is not sustainable either. We have now had 300 plus nation states as a part of the dominant political organizations and I think the whole concept of nation states may be out, just like the concept of 19th century industrial capitalism. We would probably have to adapt and change in the coming years. I think the mind of political organization would also have to shift. If you look at what is going on in the world, most of the innovative public policy happening in the government is happening at the local level, i.e. cities/ mayors who are the real political innovators. Innovative thinking is also happening at the global level where problems are trans-boundary that they don’t respect national boundaries. So, we are going to need innovative solutions that require global collaboration. At the other end of the spectrum it is being more embedded in the communities and that is local government who are the mayors that making it happen at the local level on the ground. In some sense nation states are stuck in <keyword id="1009187" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="the-middle">the middle</keyword> they really don’t do a good job of either one of those things. 
 
What do you think would be the best example of your work that has created a transformation on ground? The entire thing looks like a puzzle where we do not know the pieces of the puzzle. This evidence can be seen in both corporations and entrepreneurial ventures. If I look at <keyword id="44863" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="HUL">HUL</keyword> – the Shakti program has the elements of the puzzle pieces but not the whole puzzle. For example a Chinese company “Ching La Stoller” is a very interesting company sprung out of <keyword id="2767432" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chenla-University">Chenla University</keyword>. They have innovated glass vacuum tube solar hot technology. Most of the solar hot water market today uses flat panel solar, the cost is coming down but still typically beyond the reach of most people. It has created this technology for Jet for making hot water using glass vacuum tubes. So, it’s very inexpensive and sustainable from a materials point of view. It’s basically glass vacuum tubes stuck into a water tank and they heat the water. It’s extremely good at collecting the sun’s energy and heat. There is a notion that green products are for the rich people which is a huge mistake. So they tried to market in the high end markets of <keyword id="6368000" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Shanghai">Shanghai</keyword> and <keyword id="1333" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Beijing">Beijing</keyword>. The product completely failed as those people already had hot water. So, they went out to the towns and the rural areas, outside of the big cities, in central and western China and they discovered enormous demand where people had only periodic access to hot water. They had to adopt the technology and product and create a different business model which included the local people. So, they had to transform the design of the artifact itself and then create inclusive financing mechanism of business model that employed local people and sales and service. It took some time but they eventually figured out that this is really the growth engine. Over the last decade this glass vacuum tube solar water hot system has become a billion dollar industry. It has grown from the bottom up and is growing 60% a year just in China. So, the technology started first in the underserved space, leap frog and then inherently went global. The inclusive business model provides livelihoods; functionality local people did not have before, and is highly profitable all at the same time. I see this company as offering many of the puzzle pieces for the future of sustainable entrepreneurship and is a leverage point for getting us out of the trap that we are in.

Thinkers/Thinkers 50: Microfinance institutions should stop charging useless rates to become attractive says Stuart Hart

At <keyword id="824043" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword> India, we kick-start our association with the 'Thinkers 50' <keyword id="23897" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="forum">forum</keyword> with the interview of <keyword id="49090" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Stuart-Hart">Stuart Hart</keyword>, Founder and <keyword id="2540" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="President">President</keyword> of Enterprise for a Sustainable World, and one of the foremost thinkers in the world. In his interview to the <keyword id="6364480" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chairman">Chairman</keyword> of the <keyword id="188563" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-Council">Indian Council</keyword> of Competitiveness, <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword>, Mr Hart shares his views on poverty and how <keyword id="107737" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Entrepreneurship">entrepreneurship</keyword> and mirofinance can play key roles in its alleviation. In addition to the academic positions at <keyword id="2767405" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="University-of-Vermont-Business-School">University of Vermont Business School</keyword> and <keyword id="31781" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Cornell-University">Cornell University</keyword>'s Johnson <keyword id="191757" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="School-of-Management">School of Management</keyword>, Mr Hart is also founder of the Base of the Pyramid Global Network and <keyword id="170488" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="co-founder">co-founder</keyword> of the <keyword id="2767406" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Emergent-Institute-in-Bangalore">Emergent Institute in Bangalore</keyword>. 
 
What is your view on poverty and how can it be tackled? 
Poverty is a big idea like sustainability or strategy. The default position that most people hear is income poverty, which is related to lack of money and there is no doubt that money is a significant part of poverty. Poverty is a multidimensional term– income and quality of life is a function of many things and most of them are to do with opportunities and capabilities. So, this is why entrepreneurial process is an important source of poverty alleviation. At the end of day it’s really about building capabilities, and creating opportunities. The root cause of poverty is capability deprivation and lack of opportunity. From there money follows; simply giving money does not solve the problem. Only education, capacity building, and creation of opportunity will address it in the long run. 
 
Why do you think ‘poverty is a multidimensional term’. Can one say it is about making available health, sanitation, and opportunities? Certainly it’s all of the above. Compare the following scenarios. “Community A” where the average per capita income is $8 a day but the agricultural soil is washed away, water quality is terrible, food is expensive, families have torn apart due to migration and the incomes have gone up as people have migrated and taken big jobs; but the quality of community life, quality of <keyword id="6356826" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="environment">environment</keyword> has degraded significantly.“Community B” where incomes may be lower, i.e., $2 per capita, but there is still a dynamic community life, families are still connected together, it’s still possible to farm and grow food and the environment is not degraded to a significant extent. To describe which community is poor is debatable. 
 
How can India kick-start the process of building capabilities and creating entrepreneurs? The ideal market base solution would be when the government plays a significant role in creating the conditions that enable this, but often it does not happen as effectively. So, I think of entrepreneurship and market based solutions as the best next option and it does not actually require too many pre-conditions. The crucial ones being the base line level of education, understanding, and capability. The idea of BOP business is two-ways. Often it is thought of as selling cheap stuff to poor people but that is not so. To be effective BOP business one can certainly serve the communities, which are under served and devise business models that enable better service, engage with the local population and provide learning, capability and skill development. At the same time the extreme side would be– where we work with corporate entrepreneurs and also with local entrepreneurs. The traditional notion about <keyword id="113684" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="microfinance">microfinance</keyword> or even social entrepreneurship is <keyword id="134585" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Micro-Finance">micro finance</keyword> is about providing credit to local people to do more of what they already know how to do. This can generate increased livelihood. To shift the game in a significant way requires 2 things – one is something 
coming in from the outside or the significant leveraging of certain local skills and capabilities or both. People in the local community would have to learn how to deal with work and play with those coming in from the outside. That doesn’t mean that you are fundamentally looking to shift the underlying culture of the local community but it does mean building the capacity of some key people in the local community. 
 
"We worked with a company called“Head Held High”. It is a group of entrepreneurs who have devised a low cost education platform in villages. They can take the 18 year old that is functionally illiterate, who can’t read or speak English and has no computer skills to the point of reading and speaking English and being functional in terms of email, MS office, and learning the culture of business and being punctual. They become job ready in a span of 14 months. We have been working with them because the people that go through that program simply want a regular job and to get a decent wage, which helps them support their family. But all those people who go through this program (say 5%) are not satisfied when they come out of the other side." 
 There is big difference between necessity based entrepreneurship and big entrepreneurship. Necessity based entrepreneurs want to start their own company, and they would do anything in their power to make their business successful. We want to work with such people though it requires some additional skill and capability on top of what they have had at “ <keyword id="6411847" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="head">head</keyword> held high”. But it requires additional level of scaffolding to get to the point that they are able to deal with people whom we think as entrepreneurs. We would want to connect with people in companies, connect with other entrepreneurs, connect with key people in the eco system including financers, technology providers who can work them with the local entrepreneurs and can build the business from ground up. 
 So, it’s a combination of introducing technology, financing, and variety of other things from the outside well at the same time growing bottom up skills and capabilities of the people in the community itself. And I am convinced that most of the BOP enterprises that have been purely outside in we have inner entrepreneurs from outside or corporations coming from low cost operations haven’t really been very successful. At the same time purely microfinanced <keyword id="6359222" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="small-business">small business</keyword> at the local level isn’t going to be a game changer in the long run. It will incrementally increase local income but it is not going to shift the game. The only way we are going to shift the game towards a more sustainable and prosperous world is to connect the 2 pieces together. That 2 pieces being the technologies of the future and those long that come from outside (although some would be <keyword id="6500558" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indigenous">indigenous</keyword> technologies like the honey bee <keyword id="50752" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Networks">networks</keyword>) and app up local indigenous technologies, business skill and financing coming from the outside. At the same growing the capacity and capability of the locally embedded people to become part of the entrepreneurial team. It’s only in that way we can actually create value proposition and a business model that is really embedded, growing the internal skill in the community itself while you serve it at the same time. 
 
You said poor and entrepreneurs is a mythology. How do we get out of this cycle of self defeating thinking that we actually have? 
Saying the poor are entrepreneurs sounds as though we have significant equality, that inspite of a poverty problem the poor are not trapped as there is a way out of it, as poor are natural entrepreneurs. I don’t think people in communities are capable of updating themselves on their own. With microfinance there is an incremental improvement in their living conditions. But they are not going to differentiate themselves and would not be able to get to the next level. So, there is the need for transformational development and not just incremental increase in incomes. Certainly we can learn from ancient indigenous technologies and local farming practices and embed the practices in the business that we are talking about. But at the same time it is going to take technology coming in from the outside as well. We have to blend the 2 things together – indigenous knowledge and practices and technology and financing coming in from outside. The business skills are generally going to come from the outside. We could learn from the local business people and vendors but to be really successful as entrepreneurs there is going to be a healthy dose of new perspective coming from the outside. 
 
The true entrepreneurial process is about creating new ventures that are eventually going to employ 000’s of people and have the aspiration of creating something big. Necessary entrepreneurship is about how to make a better life for my immediate family. But that is not going to be transformative and sustainable in the long run. It would be smaller numbers of entrepreneurs and ventures that can create transformational enterprises that leapfrog us to the future technologically and also create employment for the future. Ventures that became large – 21st century entrepreneurial corporations as opposed to just millions and millions of small mom and pop ventures. The improvement of the mom and pops is important but it can’t be the whole story. 
 
How many types of business organizations exist? 
Business organizations empirically are of 3 types. 
Craft businesses:They are the vast majority businesses in the world – mom and pop ventures that are interested in providing for immediate needs usually of family. They represent 90% of businesses in the world. 
Administrative businesses: They are craft business that become extraordinarily successful. So, rather than staying at 2-5-10 people they grow to be 100-150-200 people and require formal systems of business.They generally stay local or regional and that is the extent of what they do. 
Promotional enterprises: These are the tiny minorities of all the businesses in the world but they are founded by people who have an aspiration of becoming very large, successful, to scale geographically and to dramatically change the world. These are very small percentage of enterprise compared to craft or administrative. 
 I am convinced it is important to grow craft businesses and micro <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword> can help do that and to give business assistance to administrative businesses so they can employ 10’s and 100’s of people but it would be the promotional enterprises that really shift the game in the world. When I think of BOP business I am most interested in figuring out how do we form, help, generate, the promotion of enterprises of the future that are based upon inherent clean and sustainable technology and that can lift capacity and build up an employee who has been underserved.

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