Opportunity
India is the single largest poorest place on earth. It offers every kind of challenge, its challenge density also gives us an opportunity density. I would love an opportunity to use my domain expertise.
I have networks in remote villages, tiny towns in village clusters, towns, cities, know people at every level and can talk to every person at every level. I know the language, understand the calcified structures of Government, Politicians, Bureaucracy, Education, and the socio-economic structures. I understand the economic policies and the social programs. Most importantly, I understand the aspirations of people and young adults. The calcified structures have a stranglehold. I can orchestrate solutions with a variety of stakeholders, primarily focused on literacy and education.
Education
Ken Robinson's ideas and Sugata Mitra's School in the Cloud resonate with people who observe how a child learns. However, the current calcified structures are best served by maintaining a status quo on education. I would like to synthesize solutions to usher in a new age of education, while gently and tactfully addressing the aspirations of parents and their conservative understanding of education. Revolutionary ideas in education will not gain traction by naivete, we have to factor in the current expectations, aspirations and understanding of people.
Schools kill creativity and destroy the natural learning process. Advances in robotics will take away millions of jobs in many sectors. Schools do not prepare kids for a post-factory floor economy. We need a very advanced workforce to function in a rapidly changing economy.
-- In the next two to three years, I will find 1,000+ people to start School in the Cloud.
-- I believe it is entirely possible to provide completely free literacy and education till undergradutate level.
I will build institutions
See: GHOST_URL/institutions/
I will work towards better utilization of social programs
For brevity, I will talk about one social program. There are lots of these both by central and state governments for a wide range of rural needs.
-- MGNRENA is a one and half billion dollar social program, rural poor are paid a wage for 100 days every year and are required to work on infrastructure projects that need unskilled labor.
-- MGNRENA also provides Rs. 10,000 for a person to build their own toilet. This can be fully leveraged to build sanitary villages.
I will engage entrepreneurs with new business models and untapped workforce with an underlying principle: doing well while doing good.
Non resident entrepreneurs: India has a large non-resident Indian community, both in US and throughout the world. A significant number of them are entrepreneurial. Due to the immigration processes, they can't start firms in US until they get permanent residency, this takes 10 - 15 years. Given a new business model which follows "doing well while doing good", they would love to do business in India, they have capital and credit, the networks, the drive and resources to meet developmental goals while also making a bit of money in the process. NRIs fund charities, but that is a poor use of their abilities and aspirations.
Retired workforce: India also has hundreds of thousands of retired folks, who have worked their entire life in bureaucratic structures and know how to get things done in the environment. They had rich and fulfilling lives, their kids comfortably settled and quite a few would love to do help disadvantaged communities. This is a highly efficient workforce which is not utilized at all.
I will work towards scaling solutions that have worked.
We have proven models that worked and I'd like to investigate the possibility of scaling them.
-- Water harvesting: Rajendra Singh, Waterman of India, built water conservation structures to collect rainwater for the dry seasons, has brought water back to over 1,000 villages and revived five rivers.
-- Village development: Anna Hazare transformed a village, Ralegan Siddhi. This provides a model for rural development.
-- Urban Slums: Jockin Arputham provides solutions for housing, sanitation that are driven by the community.
-- Environment: Jadav Payeng built a forest reserve, an area of 1360 acres.
Healthcare:
-- Arvind eye hospital is a hybrid health-care model, providing free surgeries and offering lenses for about $2. This model has demonstrated scale, has seen 32 million patients so far.
-- Narayana Hrudayala offers comprehensive health insurance at 20 cents/month and understands economies of scale.
-- Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayala is also addressing skyrocketing healthcare costs of the developed world. Google for: Devi Shetty Ship
Sanitation: Naveen Arora has an ad based toilet which recoups costs in 3 years. This is a good candidate to investigate for scaling.
References:
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/global-observer/in-india-a-high-tech-toilet-that-generates-revenue/