Here’s a description of our project: Dream Village uses a combination of picture books and an interactive web portal to educate children about important social, economic, and environmental issues. Best of all, the children choose how to use the proceeds. So with Dream Village, kids learn, interact, and then affect real-life positive change. And here’s where you can vote: http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/3408-DREAM-VILLAGE-Kids-Books-with-

If you like our idea and would like to help us out, we could really use all the votes we can get.

Thanks!

Q) What are we doing here?
A) Well everyone is here with their own personal agenda. All of us are here to do different things. We think there is some common ground on which we stand which is why we sharing this platform. The common ground we share is that all of us want to meaningfully give back something to society. If this sounds vague it is because we are not very clear ourselves in more concrete terms what it is exactly we want to do. So you can look at this as a place to brainstorm and bounce your ideas of others (provided they still check out this place and respond).

Q) Where do we fit into all this?
A) Well that is for you to decide. As you rightly pointed out there are many things that are wrong with the world (or India, if that is what you are more concerned about). Which also means there are many opportunities for you to do things if you want to. Where exactly you fit in is for you to decide. Maybe you think that the most important thing to fix is the state of health in India. Someone else may think that all this development is useless if people still have to walk barefoot and so that person may start manufacturing low-cost footwear. There is no absolute ‘right’ answer. Everybody is right in their own way. What really matters is are you doing something about all these problems you mentioned?

Nachi

I’ve been meaning to put my thoughts down here for a while now. With my internship over and spare time on a Friday night (Rata’s mom is in town, so none of the good stuff for us,) I finally ran out of excuses not to. This being my first post, I’ll try to steer clear of the airlifting of fictitious nazis and other, unrelated, controversy.

I’m not going to relate my personal motives in all of this – that would make for some very corny discussions. Instead, I wonder what exactly we’re trying to do here. I might have missed earlier posts and stuff, not to mention the discussions you have had in guwahati, so you’ll have to pardon my ignorance – better yet, point me in the right direction.

Are we trying to set up a sort of self-sustaining business here, or are our aims more philanthropic? If the former, what shape will this business take? If the latter, where is the cash coming from? More pertinent perhaps are the issues we are looking to address. The best way to improve the lot of the hapless is by making them more prosperous. This would imply the generation of economic activity. Which would need, for example, education (not just schools for children but professional education for adults), infrastructure (water, electricity, storage, transportation, etc), access to markets, credit, insurance. Things of that nature.

And where do we fit into all of this? We have to derive a business model, and for that we need some brainstorming. Take the generation of electricity – I’m sure farmers would be willing to pay for reasonably priced electricity, but the question is where do we get the power from? We can’t generate it, that would be too expensive. Or maybe it wouldn’t – I remember hearing about some ingenious hydroelectric solution from Mohan. Or was it the BBC? Anyhow. Could we build transmission lines and buy power from the state? Perhaps if we had some seed capital, but without knowing what things are actually like in rural India, all of this is just speculation.

The storage of food grains is another prickly issue – I’m sure we’ve been told to no end about how the govt’s Public Distribution System is fraught with inefficiencies and wastefulness. As engineers, you must all have stood up at the sound of that word, inefficient. Is there something to be done there, perhaps? Relieve the govt of this burden, and be reimbursed for our troubles? I’m not sure people like the idea of a nation’s food security being in the hands of private owners, less wasteful though it may be. How would this do good? By providing jobs, for one, but more importantly, giving farmers access to a secondary market, one which is able to operate because it passes some of the cost to wholesale buyers, who in turn benefit from better quality grains.

Transport services also come to mind – you guys from civil engineering are well equipped to trump the logistics of the most efficient players out there, I’m sure. Linear programming and related optimization methods should come in handy.

Then there is the provision of capital to those who have traditionally been shunned by banking institutions and their like. Much has already been done in the microcredit space (Kiva, Grameen Bank), so I won’t dwell on it much. The important thing here is the power of collective ownership (of capital as well as risk) and cooperatives. This model makes many things feasible, which otherwise wouldn’t have been – the provision of insurance to farmers, for example, and land ownership, medical expenditure and what not.

I just realized today was the 15th of August. And all I did was shop for a couple of ’sportcoats.’ How existential of me. The point of this post, if there was one beyond its cathartic value to me, is that we have to start coming up with ideas, naive and ill-formed as the ones above though they may be to begin with. There is also the matter of becoming more aware of the realities of the playing fields we choose. And finally, putting everything in place, making the right acquaintances and oiling the right wheels, because India is what India is. I’m sure we can make that work to our advantage.

I was reading today about companies that actually facilitate entrepreneurs in starting up and growing – Ashoka.org and Endeavor come to mind. We should put together some ideas and try selling them to these people, who are already in the know. Please respond to this in any way you deem fit. Only, no talk of Jogann Bagh, I implore you.

arun, thanks. illuminating.

request to whoever is posting: tag your post with your name and any other keywords you see fit, feel free to add/edit categories etc.

And I am already subscribing to the blog’s feed since the time it was created. Maybe others should do the same.

- Nachiket

……All I am saying is don’t have the delusion that you can offer a hungry man one meal and then say that you have made the world a better place.

NOTE: the usage of “I” in the following text is not always a reference to myself. I found it an easier to get through the discussion (less gifted madrasi boy ).
*After offering due spanking to sarcastic Nachiket*

Agreed, and I am laying out myself to be able to revolutionize the fish industry if it is possible at all. The first option is a delusion and easy to be involved in, and there are many others doing the second. I can indulge in thinking of a revolution that makes true impact, only if I am not struggling for the basics on the side. I don’t know about others, but I strongly believe in being selfish if it does greater good. Selflessly diving into things like social work, or medical research on TB has lead to a large number of well wishers, but only a small percentage of successes. It need not even be about social work. Doing something just for money and growth needs the same kind of strategy.

@Nachi
You are right in saying that the effort needs to be full time. But only when you actually get started on it and want results. Foundations are to be laid ahead of time. In today’s market even angel investors supporting social entrepreneurs demand security for their money (forget venture capitalists!), they want good social return on investment and they want you to be legit when you make claims. Sparing your case where you have taken time to get into that area right from the start, the rest of us, I think, have unrelated experiences till now. An unrelated advanced degree or an unrelated job experience does not make someone legit when it the stakes are high and the promises you want to make are lofty (which is the case with most startups today). You need to have a POA, you need to have tested these things with pilot programs and have all that ground work in place before you can safely say, “I am heading out to start up”. We guys are in our current jobs because recruiters know we have done courses to make us worthy of handling their projects. Guys who get IT jobs need to demonstrate that they have some idea about what they want to do in the job (I am not talking about truck companies). It is required, that a new idea, whether it is a money making idea or just for a social cause, needs to have a similar legit check.

Now, if some dieing old guy I helped cross the street offers me his abundant wealth, we can talk about diving into it full-time .

Last year, I had an idea for a venture and also had the contacts. Tried for 6 months to get somewhere before I graduated. I even had a Pilot program of sorts implemented In Guwahati. I kept realizing only one thing as I wanted to move on in that direction.

A) The best of ideas are of no use unless you give people reason to support you. My one man army fantasies were squashed. And the only reason that the people with the money/moolah buy, is a sound backing of the plan. Did you try a miniature implementation of your plan? what if it fails when you magnify the idea?, what alternatives are you considering? what is going to keep you sustainable? what will you do if I back off with the support (will you curse me or will you just give up?) ?.

B) What I would need is strong motivation and the much needed security (that many adventurous people deny to need or desire). Backup plans and seeking securities is seen as a good thing when someone supports you. That way they know that you are not going to be an abandoned puppy if and when they have to back off. No one likes the added responsibility!

I had everything in place but for the security for “CASH”. (Stupid student loan and VISA Status @#%$@#). To get there again with some backup plans is what such a calling will help me with. If we figure all this out and we have the right combination of things, may be we will have some people saving fishermen and others making big bucks. Again, I speak for myself, mostly. Interests may vary and is justified.

I don’t understand why some of us assumed, that any useful thing that comes out of letting such ideas soak in our heads, is going to be a ‘delusional and part-time’ charity show. Not for some of us at least! I am serious Nachi boy. Though I do not currently have the balls you did when you dived in, I do have some plan and a yearning .