Chirag very “lovingly” threw a piece of chalk at Jaggi asking him in a few choosy words to get back to work. We still hadn’t decided on the theme… just a few words bordering around here and there which at most made Suniti cringe and nevertheless had the desired effect on Jaggi !!

Vikas and Arjun, oblivious to the world, discussing on the next job lined up (read stock markets!!) frantically typed off to glory on their keyboards. Whenever they did that it reminded me of the nerds in all the lame films, talking their own language and giggling at which we would only squint and turn our heads to the side.

Nimitt Committee was giving us another speech with the same old lines- “… Jaggi, the crux of the matter is …” oh, they are explaining something to Jaggi, stifling a yawn I switch my mind to my IP messenger alert. Hallelujah!! Pratzy, you are manna from heaven- but wait a minute…. what is this thing???? Or should I say who is this thing?? Santa Claus IP has arrived I proclaimed. Why do we have to work at 10.30 in the night, the rains are making the campus look so beautiful… Hey Chirag how about we all take a walk around the campus for half an hour to get a few fresh ideas??

“No!!” all of them scream in unison. Grumbling I look back at the Picture which the devil woman Pratzy had sent, why did u have to send it now?? When’s the curfew? Another 30 minutes… 29 minutes? The Santa Claus’s grin which looked Cute and naughty is looking like the Sith Lord…. Who gave me Star Wars to watch a few days back?? Absentmindedly I started to work on the picture, oh Photoshop what would the world be without you??  If I could only take out the smiley, did Ramya ask me to remove the smile or the smiley? Do people still call it smiley or is emoticon is the new word?? Who the hell must have come up with such a funny name??!

“Ek chai laao”…. I heard someone say The Sarkar Raj Aishwarya way, breaking my thoughts, and I flash my trademark smile hoping to get maybe a little more than the usual cutting.

Done- now can we go for the walk, I plead to my team? They can’t control their deep laughter which echoes through the already numbed head of mine, we have been working for 4 hours straight. Oh what did I do now? Did I remove the smile or the smiley?? Oh yes Pratzy said Smiley… Giggling and guffawing for 20 minutes – we were sent to our rooms promising another day of hell, torture and a few smiles hopefully. Chirag decides to stay back and prepare another agenda for us- I had seen him secretly scribbling a few lines about unleashing the power within, I hope he wasn’t talking about working all night thru our laptops…

But then we have adopted Nimitt as our baby… it’s a child speedily growing up under 59 concerned, loving and determined parents… who can’t wait to show case their only child’s best to the world…

The GRIN to be posted soon.. kep watching!!

cheerio…

 Laks!!

“Whaaaaaaaaat?? But this the Ol’ Logo!!”

A zillion sleepless nights, and a million designs.. 26 shortlists and 3 finalists..! Ah.. well.. that was so much so only for logo design and then I get to hear that we were using last year’s logo !!

Let me resort to managerial learnings and application in live situations now..(sounded big.. good that was what it was meant to sound).. This particular stint with logos made me realise the importance of “integration”( ERP lingo) of information within and across teams. The website team wasn’t  informed that the new logo had been created and uploaded the new version of the old one   (oopsie “corporate identity”).

That was when I witnessed.. ahem..fireworks ( thanks to laks) and learnt(gulp.. the hard way!) how simple a paint application can also be helpful to do manage last minute creative work.

Next came banners for the different events. An extensive image search.. translation of the Hindi.. er… sanskrit.. Well.. whatever names to easier-to-refer-to-without-twisting-your-tougue-names set it off! A fair instance would be say Samadhan which means a solution. Well ten we would search for images which would depict a solution finding process appropriately and then eventually found the lock and key image.. and then the Anusandhan  and then gurukul and so on!!

Then came the task of getting the designs approved.. internally ( heck everyone has a different opinion!) and officially(… and I thought peers were only finicky!) .. Laks and I worked our way through it by sending it to each other for an approval initially… and then we would incorporate the changes after consulting each and every member of the core team…

We still got 3 weeks…and then so much more to go…but it just gets busier and better day by day… and now when u have a look at the Nimitt website  you would know what went behind the scenes..!!

 Cheers,

Jugs!! (Creative Team)

Germans had a Gute Nacht with a 3-2 win over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal. I don’t know why I supported Portugal. Probably because when I found Klose’s goal to be quite off-side and the third one to be a complete wicked maneuver of the German skipper (Ballack) by pushing the stopper ahead of him. Chalta hain! afterall Germans are known for tough team game. The match was exciting thought.

This morning it was even more interesting. A record 11.05% inflation and the aggressive stance of ruling party in the Federal Government to tame left-allies (in N-deal) kept the adrenaline at high level.

But anyway, nothing’s gonna happen, we are Indians. We wait and watch! Sigh!

Coming to the point, this kind of situations do not occur in corporate world very often. And Pratzy does understand it very well. She along with her team has to keep knocking the guys for getting on-board. How much was the number of clicks yesterday? Would you like to open a corner for the faculty? Can there be an FAQ for participants? Ah! That’s how the blogger has to stay on bay..

Just one year ago, yours truly with Ganga had to meet some of our sponsors. Hitherto bunking classes and visiting outdoor offices looked like an attractive break from the usual life, right! In reality when you know you have to cross waterlogged streets, muddy lanes and hanging from more than packed local trains to reach an office afresh, the preparation you need is intense. But it was fun, as it always is, when you play for a team!

Talking about my team last year, despite having classes and workloads they did a splendid job. This team (Ganesh, Pratzy, Jaggi, Aparna, Ruchira, Harsha to name a few) had people from all corners of the batch with collective opinions, probably the reason why it succeeded to meet all the timelines. Well, this certificate goes to the other teams as well who we had to depend on for various logistical reasons.

It was a good experience for me as well, and without the questionnaire of these young Turks, it wasn’t going to any directions. What spot games should be played? How many questions? For what durations? Who is going to do what on the D-day?? Music to ears!! 

Some leanings:

1. Never meet too often without an agenda. Otherwise you keep on discussing the venue and date of the next meeting
2. Prioritize or Perish. However, don’t prioritize contentious issues when there are important pending jobs and you have little bandwidth intended for
3. Keep yourself busy with the job of making others busy. Influence by example
4. Keep everyone informed about what your (un-inflated) roster is and say ‘no’ when it is required
5. Finally, play like the Germany of yesterday. It’s you who have to win.

That’s all folks!! Hope to hear from you guys as well through snaps, videos and even recorded voice. After all, these moments are not gonna come back to your life again. So, have a blast!

Viva Nimitt! Viva PGDSM 4!

~Anamitra

We’re back…

and the fever is catching on!!
Watch out for

The Alumni Experience.. What was it like last year?? ( by a pgdsm-mit 03 alumnus)

The santa claus GRIN!!!… By laks (Creative Team)

26 and still on?? … Jaggi ( Creative Team)

And who is Little Jack!!

Till Then ciao Guys!!

26^th Nov ’07, 4.00 pm, Bistro

I grabbed a cup of chai and sat down next to Ramya. She gave me one of her customary eyebrow flicks and I knew I had to rattle off the list of assigments for the day. 2 submissions, 4 emails to be sent, one case for pre-read and an impending group assignment! “Whaaaat? But then didn’t we submit the strategy case last week?”, she exclaimed. I whined in one of the most miserable tones ever “That was milestone one dear.. and we have 5 more to go!”.

13^th Jan ’08, 11.30 am Bistro

Ramya and her questioning eye-brow flick mandating the “To-Do“ list for the day. “Well dear its Milestone 7 of the 3^rd stage of the second project of E-Commerce!”

18^th Feb ’08, 8.00 am, Brushing our teeth, Girls Hostel

No points for guessing….. “ The zillionth exam and I donno whateth count presentation and Milestones ain’t numbered any more.. they ran outta them!”

21^st Feb ’08, 6.00 am, hostel stairway

Pledge to turn our lives around! …. After all didn’t we all land up in a B-school for becoming entrepreneurs?

26^th Feb ’08, 8.00, pm , Library

A wonderful news article discovered forecasting the growth of Asian markets in Niche segments! Pledge renewed .. now we had to become Jeff Bezos…!

29^th Feb ’08, 9.00 pm, Library

3 drafts of B-plan gone into the recycle bin.. so did 8 cups of coffee!

31^st Feb ’08, 10.00 p.m, Hostel

Watched a video of the guest lecture by the CEO of Spectrum( conducted way back in February ) … Well we ended up with dazed eyes and conked heads.. also sleep walk!

2^nd March ’08, 11.45 am, Bistro

One more late breakfast, heated debate, zillionth loop-hole found session!

9^th March ’08, 12.00 noon, Bistro again!

Reality check.. rather admitted reality…. Boy!! This was going to be tough.. We had ideas and the spirit but then if we spent ALL our time just trying to be heard or imagining where, whom , how to approach then when do we work on the business plan?? Who would want to seek our solutions? Who would even listen to us?

And then was born Little Jack!!

Watch this space for more of Little Jack and his adventures….!!

Cheers,

Prathibha

The case brought to fore the acute problem faced by most of the cities in India and particularly Mumbai. Teams were asked to provide a framework/strategy to:
• Increase public awareness on waste disposal.
• Increase public participation in community based initiatives on public sanitation.

Operational and financial models for the proposed strategies, with focus on self sustenance were the key judging parameters.
The event generated huge response with teams all over India submitting their entries and after a rather rigorous short listing process four teams were chosen to battle it out at the finals – IIFT Delhi, SIBM Pune and two teams from SPJIMR, Mumbai.

The eminent panel of judges included:
Mr. Ananad Jagtap: Officer on special duty looking after SSP (Slum sanitation program) and SAP (Slums adaptation scheme) of BMC since 1997.
Mr. K.P. Parekh: Former in-charge chief engineer of Solid waste management city in BMC. Mr. Parekh has an enriching experience of 30 years in areas of public health engineering and metropolitan utility services.
Mr. Mukund Pathak: Working for BMC, Mr. Pathak with his pioneering role of redesigning of Ghatkopar tunnel hydraulics for higher efficiency, saved Rs 4 crore, 81 lakh rupees.
Prof. Mattoo, Nirja Chairperson – DOCC: Prof Mattoo has worked for over 20 years with various NGOs. She has also served as Executive Director for the ‘Community Aid & Sponsorship Program (CASP)’ for 4 years. She has worked immensely on women issues and also represented women in several national and international forums.
Mr. Prakash Cahukar: Has worked with IBM, CMC, Datametics, IDM and presently with i-Metris.

With such a distinguished panel, the finalists were eager to give a good presentation. Team ‘Udbhav’ represented by Deepak Bhaskaran and Arvind V Iyer from PGDM , SPJIMR kick-started the event and proposed a ‘Mandala’ Framework – Community Based Entrepreneurial Approach. It comprised of an S.A.F.E model (Sustainable, Affordable and Ecological sanitation) which dealt with restoring soil fertility, conserve freshwater and protect marine environments. They also emphasised on a waste-collection and disposable system with direct-from-home approach.

Team ‘Aayam’ represented by Shiveta Bhan , S.Priya and Preeti Vaidya from SIBM , Pune proposed a model called ‘Operation Clean Mumbai’ which would have a pilot run involving 10 wards and reaches out to the RWA (Residents Welfare Association), self-help Groups, opinion leaders, NGOs or clubs like the Rotary or the Lion’s Club. For tackling the sanitation problem a programme called ‘Jaagriti –Swachya Mumbai ki aur ek Kadam’ suggested the use of mobile toilets, contract to a third party and also suggested free medical check ups as an incentive.

Team ‘Karma’ represented by Amit Kumar Morya, Ashish Jain and Kartik G from IIFT Delhi proposed a very viable business model. The model focussed on bringing about a synergy among the various stakeholders like the BMC, the NGOs, the corporate and the students with NGOs being the key link among them. With an excellent financial and risk analysis they impressed the judges with their ideas and handled the question answer session with aplomb.

Team ‘Jagruti’ represented by Kinjal Shah, Manisha Garg and Ramya HB of SPJIMR PGDSM MIT batch proposed a ‘Sapth Bhangi Saamadhan’ , a seven model approach for creating awareness and public participation. A short video clip highlighting the indifferent attitude of the general public was depicted to emphasise the crux of the problem.

The event only became enriching because of the interaction of all teams and audience with the judges after each presentation. They lent their views and helped analyse the problem from a different perspective. Team ‘Karma’ were adjudged winners with the teams from SIBM Pune ‘Aayam’ and SPJIMR ‘Udbhav’ tied for second place.

In his concluding speech to the audience, Mr Parekh spoke about the legal aspects of environmental issues and the environment management laws. He briefed the audience about the Greater Mumbai Cleanliness and Sanitation bylaws and PPP (Public Private Participation).

Cheers,
Manisha
PRCOM

Sarvodaya – The Social case study contest
First Prize – Karma, IIFT Delhi – Amit Kumar Morya, Ashish Jain & Kartik G
Second Prize (Shared between) – Aayam, SIBM Pune & Udhbav, SPJIMR
Shiveta Bhan, S.Priya & Preeti Vaidya from SIBM Pune
Deepak Bhaskaran & Arvind V Iyer from SPJIMR Mumbai
Event Partners – BMC and Imetris

Tatva I – Paper Presentation
First Prize – Swayam, MICA – Poulomi Pal
Second Prize – RSquare, VGSOM – Ratnakar V & Rahul Yadav
Third Prize – Next 100, SPJIMR – Mourya & Chandra Sinha
Event Partners – Atos Origin

Tatva II – Paper Presentation
First Prize – K Dio IIM K – Chandru Vamsi & Sanjog Jolli
First Prize – Bluez IIM K – Amit Harchandani & Sawarna Prabhu
Event Partners – TCS

Anveshan I – Business case study
First Prize – Head Bangers, ISB – Vijay Nagarajan & Viswanath Chavali
Second Prize – Sp-ites, SPJIMR – Subramanya .S.N. & Tushar Laghate
Event Partners – Tech Mahindra

Anveshan II – Business case study
First Prize – Head Bangers, ISB – Vijay Nagarajan & Viswanath Chavali
Second Prize – Arrow, VGSOM – Ratnakar & Balasubramaninan
Event Partners – Tech Mahindra

On the spot games

Logo Quiz and Anagrams:
First Prize – SPJIMR – Aishi Dipta Lahiri
Second Prize – SPJIMR – Prakash Pandey

Sudoku:
First Prize – SPJIMR – Arunav Roy
Second Prize – SPJIMR – Kartik C

Tagline quiz:
First Prize – SPJIMR – Rasika Singhal
Second Prize (was shared between) – SPJIMR – Soumya Chatterjee & Arun CR

Bizword puzzle:
First Prize – SPJIMR – Ayush Kumar
Second Prize – SPJIMR – Arjun S

Event Partners for “On the spot games” – State Bank of India

SCG Case study:
First Prize – SPJIMR – Anand Chourikar, Valiapan and Mohit Shah
Second Prize – SPJIMR – Kaustubh Varde, Aliazgar Abbasi, Aditya Srivastava & Nischal Shah
Event Partners – State Bank of India and SCG

Vedanta – Quiz
First Prize – Born Losers – M. Suresh Kumar (TCS, Mumbai), Aniruddha Dutta (TCS, Mumbai) & Gururaj Rao (OGILVY & MATHER)
Second Prize – SPJIMR – Vijay Pillai (SPJIMR), Dhananjay Shettigar (free lancer), Prasanna Ganesh R (Standard Charted Bank)
Event Partners – Tata McGraw-Hill

Nakshatra – The Nimitt Star Team Contest

Star Winners – Prastuti, IIM Indore – Dhruv Bhushan & Anubhav Jain

Cheers,
Vikas & Manisha
PRCOM

The esteemed panel of judges consisted of Mr. Amit Buchar, Business Development Manager, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Mr Vikas Chaudry, Managing Director, Aurovision and Mr. Ajit Singh Dua, Senior Investment Manager, Aavishkaar and Prof. Renuka Kamat, SPJIMR. The Strategic partners for the event were TIE. The event started with great enthusiasm with participant teams from NITIE, IIM Indore, FMS, Great Lakes Chennai, IMT Ghaaziabad and IIM Lucknow.

The whole event revolved around how a business solution could prove to be beneficial to those that lie at the bottom of the pyramid and at the same time being profitable. There was a range of ideas in every business plan from trying to tackle basic issues of power, infrastructure and connectivity to more concrete issues of employment generation and services and social awareness to the common people. The end result was a plethora of ideas from brilliant minds all over the country.

The winners were the team “Prastuti” from Indian Institute of Management, Indore with what I would say was a unique and brilliant idea. This team also went on to win the Nimitt star team contest Nakshatra which is a clash of the winners of all the events in Nimitt over 2 days. They took home cash prizes worth fifty three thousand for both the events and also an opportunity to work with the Incubation cell at SPJIMR as a launch pad for their entrepreneurship aspirations.

Winners at Akruti: Prastuti, IIM Indore

The second prize winners were the team “Brand Varun” from IMT Ghaziabad, They took home a cash prize worth seventeen thousand.

Cheers,
Vikas
PRCOM

The event started with Gaurav showing a small video clipping highlighting the different areas of BOP. It contained an introduction of the Bottom of Pyramid (BOP). It also showed the change happening at the BOP. Countries which contribute a major chunk to these areas e.g. India and China are booming in terms of market capitalization and their economy is increasing at rates of 9% and 10.2% respectively. This set the right tone for the event.

The first team to present was “RSQUARE” from IIT Kharagpur. They explained how BOP is spread in Asia, Africa, Latin America, East Europe, and Caribbean. The purchasing power of BOP people is $5 trillion. It was explained that BOP does not only constitutes people from rural areas but also those who are living in cities but are below the poverty line.

The major areas where feasible and sustainable business solutions are possible are identified as – Food, Energy, Housing, Transport and Health. A initiative taken by SBI bank was also discussed. In this model rural people can transact from their village. One of the person from their village is trained and hired to carry out this task.

Also, it was discussed that how businesses in BOP will help in increasing the employment, income and subsequently purchasing power of people at bottom of pyramid. This will ultimately will lead to change in buying pattern of the customer.

They were grilled by judges on how cultural difference between a town and a village is going to affect the start up businesses at BOP. They were also asked that would they be ready to work at BOP if they given a chance?

The team “TEAMWORK” from IIM, Kozikot discussed why BOP projects like Gyandoot, E-chaupal, etc. are getting only limited success. They proposed a framework for businesses who want to enter BOP segment. They also gave stress on processes like training, financing, communication and power.

The FMS team concentrated more on marketing and communication part of businesses at the BOP. They gave the concept of using non-conventinal media in the BOP sector to spread awareness. They also discussed abot the concept of “Retailer Push”. A retailer builds personal relation with buyers which ultimately helps company who can provide him with good margin.

Poulmi Pal of team SWAYAM from MICA gave four possible scenarios where people in BOP can be benefited. She talked about setting low cost health care dispensaries. The other three fields she mentioned were -2) Recycling companies forming collection centres which will employ Rag-pickers. 3) Chindi and Garment Stichers who will sell their product directly to the traders and the Garment companies. 4) Setting Water purification units. She explained each concept beautifully. One important point she put was that for a successful business model Government, NGO and the Corporate will have to work in integration.

She was asked that whether corporate would be liking to work in a rural area? Also if they do some project there, is it for their Brand building or genuine business purpose? She replied that it’s a 50-50 case but anyhow its beneficial for the people at the BOP and also for the firm.

Suniti from SPJIMR discussed a healthcare model where the medical services in the rural areas will be outsourced. The use of technologies like “Wi-Max” will make it possible for good doctors to operate a patient even if he is not physically present.

Finally the team “Next100” from SPJIMR presented a beautiful concept of ‘Mobile based transaction system for rural finance”. They showed how a person having a simple mobile can operate his bank account while sitting from the home. They presented an astonishing fact that only 5% people in the rural areas are loan defaulters while in the cities the no. is much higher.

The judges were encouraging the participants and at the same time were very meticulous in asking the questions. They finally decided to give two second prizes as they were unable to distinguish between the performances of the two teams. The prize winners for this event were as follows:

1st Prize : Poulmi Pal of team SWAYAM from MICA.
2nd Prize: Team Rsquare from IIT Kharagpur
Mr. Abhay Maurya and Mr. Chandra Shekhar of team NexT100 from SPJIMR

Cheers!!!

Abhishek

The best ideas stem out of discussion and Tark-Vitark – the corporate panel discussion at Nimitt ‘07 hosted by PGDSM-MIT, was nothing less.  The topic was based on the Nimitt theme of unleashing beyond and the beneath- Innovation for the Bottom of the Pyramid. How can companies innovate and generate ideas which help this part of the population as well as provide new markets for’the companies?

 Mr. Rajiv Vaishnav, Regional Director, NASSCOM (Moderator) started off the discussion by giving a brief round-up of the quality segment in IT industry and how it  faced lack of recognition and significance in the Indian psyche and finally in collaboration with NASSCOM created a niche market for itself. He thus suggested four major concerns for any player in the global market to be cost, quality, production and security. He quoted the example of samachar.com which copied news from all discrete websites and conglomerated them into one 35 sheet newspaper which could be read in print and thus capitalised on a huge customer base of people who wanted regional news of their hometown in another country. Thus, if we identify a need, a pain in the society and address it perfectly, innovative solutions are at your door-step.
He structured the event into two phases wherein the 1st phase would be a brief exchange of thoughts on what is innovation and definition of the bottom of the pyramid. In the second stage, the various issues concerned with BOP would be analysed. He posed the question, how innovation would make life easier for the common man and what would be the role of technology in such an endeavour.

Mr. Rajiv Vaid, Head (Management Assurance Services), Citigroup Global Services Limited was the second one to speak. He gave his perspective on innovation. He cited the example of homo sapiens who were the predominant species to survive for so many years owing to their innovation of various things. Fire for instance was an innovation. Agriculture is another one. Any small change or improvement in a process could be called an innovation. One fore-sighted company’s initiative to concentrate on core competency and get other things done by someone who is best in the field invented out-sourcing: another innovation.

Mr. Vikas Shah, President (Access Business Unit), Tata Teleservices, next expressed his view on the importance of the bottom of the pyramid model and what it can deliver not just to the Indian markets but also to the global village. He suggested that we should be conducive to ideas from other countries too and maintain a holistic, self-sustaining and comprehensive relationship. He emphasized the fact that what is relevant to one scenario may not necessarily be so to another one. Before considering any initiative or product launch, firstly the correct set of users has to be identified. Hence, before considering innovation for the masses we should analyse the situation from all perspectives and concentrate on finding an instrumental enabler to make the innovation possible. He concentrated mainly on the How of the What that was being addressed.

Mr. Sachin Sahay, GM Channels, ITC – IBD, introduced his ideas by quoting an example from Jim Collin’s book Built To Last, which describes two different kinds of managers. One who always stares at the sun ( keep his ideologies high ) and speaks of big things. Such a leader has great vsion and handle things independently. The other model is the clock model wherein everyone is dependent on everyone else. Many experienced mangers render their wisdom and enable the firm to focus on key-areas for long-term growth. Mr. Sahay advocated the second kind of firms who survive in the long run. He thus, spoke about the concept of ideation. Ideas are what generate business and nine out of the ten brilliant ideas are ruled out every year. There should be spirit to allow errors and hence encourage the learning process. This finally translates to a bigger plan which merges with the other bigger businesses. He referred to the example of mobile phones and how they have become cost-effective in rural areas. He also spoke about the launching of small shampoo sachets which bring an unaffordable product to the lower segment in an affordable package.
Mr. Prakash Advani, Linux Practice Head, Novell India and founder of  freeos.com and inlinux.org, quoted the example of a 19 year old guy who actually created the Mozilla Firefox Internet browser. Then he referred to the Linux model which is an open source software and has developed a lot based on external programmers more than the developers. He then mentioned the cases of Apache which has 78% of web practice and wikipedia- an online encyclopedia which again is an open source. After discussing these wonderful and novel inventions, he went ahead and spoke about the importance of technology in the relevant scenario.

As the panel stepped forth to discuss implementation issues, speaker 2 questioned the ability of the firms to actually live up to the immense change in market target segment.
 The question was taken up by speaker 4 who explained why companies do not have the motivation to innovate continuously after a saturation point or at high times of growth. ”You don’t perform when the going is good. You perform when the competitor is better!” He believes that firms invest in further research only when there is an external threat and profits or survival comes into picture. In that case innovation would remain a paper concept unless there are enough incentives even at the initial level. He quoted Titan Sonata as an example. After loosing out business in that product, Titan launched gold jewellery which has created a niche brand for itself.

Mr. Rajiv Vaishnav added on to it by quoting very relevant examples. One of them was the local dhabawala in the outskirts who uses washing machines for making lassi. Now that was some innovation!
He also spoke about improving the purchasing power of the people at the lower segment and how much companies can contribute to that. Next question was whether or not technology was a pre-requisite in the process.

Mr. Rajiv Vaid quoted the example of Grameen Bank and micro financial concepts. A house-wife milking cows would effectively borrow Rs.500 a day and come back with Rs.520 in the evening which translates to low interest rates, fast moving cash and employment for people. It’s a win-win situation on both sides. Technology does not necessarily play a very important role in this case. He suggested that to pump water one needs to go to ground level. A very apt statement with respect to the concept of the bottom of the pyramid!

Mr. Vikas Shah suggested that the villages themselves form a large chunk of consumer base. The market has to be leveraged. This is not possible without involving them in the implementation policy right from the grass-root level. A local farmer is a local sanchalak. Hence floating out the model to them would ensure better throughput.

Mr. Sachin Sahay described the tipping point in the price variation which leads to a S-shaped curve when plotted against time and demand.  Hence when the impact is heavy on people, demand creates new necessities and changes lives. Thus innovative ideas would be very effective in rural areas.

Mr. Prakash Advani exposed to further nuances in the Information technology sector which would bring some more innovation into the rural sector. One such development quoted was the inclusion of colloquial languages I mobiles phone key-pads which made it more user-friendly.

After all the eminent panellists had given good insight into and an understanding of the topic it was time for the question and answer session. Many questions were floated which generated a healthy discussion. Few of the major ones revolved around the problems faced in innovation due to regulation, difference between specific innovations for the masses vis-à-vis expansion of market of an already existing product tailor made for the lower segment, the feasibility of technology entering the grass-root levels and difference between innovation and price tariff de-centralization.

Many of the few ideas which were discussed were the delay in implementing newer technologies because of the delay in securing licences and the conservative attitude of governments to adapt changes; advantage of expansion of an already existing product to different market segments in comparison with the option of starting from the scratch; instances of rural women working in completely functional and operational BPO in a small remote village in tamil nadu.

The discussion concluded with a common conclusion. An in depth analysis of innovation at the bottom of pyramid had been done and many suggestions had come across. It was concluded that innovation can take place at the grass-root level and that there is tremendous scope for it. Academic systems are centres for innovations. It starts from the students and then percolates to every stratum of the society. That is when the real bottom of the pyramid is reached, accessed and empowered. The wonderful evening ended with a befitting quip from our moderator, Mr. Rajiv Vaishnav who said- Tark Vitark is making you SATARK ……

Pratibha

PRcom