Hi,
As a part of my work, I come across several types of
business models of enterprises. Companies
deploy unique models to differentiate their business from their peers, and above all, to ensure
sustained growth & earnings. As part of risk mitigation, I find companies diversifying into several related (at times, unrelated areas too) areas as well. Companies consciously venture into such new segments, nurturing and taking care of them so well, till they blossom as breadwinners.
Now, why is this
gyan about well-known corporate practices? I have a strong reason to state these obvious facts.
I think there are serious lessons we can draw upon from these facts, as citizens of India. India's status, as each of us know, is slowly becoming synonymous to its cities' status. The irony is, a whopping share of India's
population resides in villages.
We are what our thoughts are!On one side, we have The Great
Indian Media spending its valuable time on serious issues (!?) like cricket-field
slapgates, murders & freak accidents in our cities, comfort levels in our airports, stock market sentiments and to shed "much-needed" light on
Bollywood gossips.
The other side is quite grim. This side represents the dark side of this nation's landless
agricultural laborers, marginal farmers, rural artisans and less-previleged.
The basic essence of education is to be good to oneself, one's family, one's neighborhood and to one's society - in the same order. Thanks to booming jobs in Indian urban pockets, almost every educated youngster in India's ever-expanding cities is hooked to one loan or another, within the first 2 years of his / her
employment. This means that, education has been put to use to help the Self and the extended Self (Read: Family). Fair enough! But, it is just the first rung of the hierarchy. The fruits of education are visible in the
capacity to pay
EMIs for loans obtained. Young India's mind is
filled with thoughts of securing the plum jobs; plum enough to pay
EMIs and to get into bigger loans. It is time we take a break. After all, aren't we what our thoughts primarily are?
The new Economic ModelIt's time we took some lessons from our corporate brethren. It's time to focus on
diversifications! For a change, it is a diversification of our skill-sets and earnings. Almost all of us (in cities) invariably have the following capabilities:
1. English speaking and writing
2. Comfort with Science and Maths
3. Internet skills
4. Ability to provide small loans; Micro-financing wherewithal (our small
monies can lead to dramatic results - See what
Grameen Bank has done!)
Little do we realize that we can be of help to our rural brothers and sisters.
Helping our rural brethren diversifyCities need to serve as platforms for absorbing our rural
brethren's skills. No may realize the ability to
Cheer-lead (for instance, in the
IPL matches) through our rural, recreatory arts. There are other skills that rural societies can offer to cities. Some are listed below:
1.
Gardening (City dwellers can outsource their gardening to rural friends)
2. Household items (Pots, Baskets, brooms, mats, bamboo-screens, etc)
3. Cooking lessons from villages (Can there be any other cuisines better than our rural cuisine? Oil-free and healthy)
4. Water management
What
India needs is a city-based awakening of the skills rural India can offer and vice-versa! It's time we rethought the lives we lead! Are we going to be seen at some malls or multiplexes during our weekends? Or, as educated Indians, are we going
un-turn a stone, even if it's a single stone, to make less-fortunate India shine?
Time we woke up to the realities around us!
Luv,
Vijay
