Category Archives: Business & Economy

Pages from History : A Visionary from Nanjangud Kunigal Ramaswamy Mohan Kumar

Business & Economy, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Leaders

by Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore

Nanjangud is famous for two reasons: The first and the most important one is the temple of Najundeshwara who gulped poison to save humanity. Hundreds of visitors throng this temple to worship and hence it is one of the most prosperous temples in Karnataka. The second reason is that it is the place of the famous B.V. Pandith whose salt and sweet toothpowder, Soubhagya Shunti and Kasturi pills were famous all over Karnataka. In addition, we may add gulkan, a preparation of rose petals soaked in sugar syrup. In fact, B.V. Pandith grew roses in vast lands in Nanjangud for this purpose.

Such a family has produced illustrious persons who are now serving in different professions in Karnataka. One such person whom I had the good fortune to meet was K.R. Mohan Kumar (Kunigal Ramaswamy Mohan Kumar), the present Chairman of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA). I had an occasion to talk to him and found his views interesting and I am writing them here for the benefit of the readers.

Mohan Kumar is the son of Kunigal Ramaswamy and Jayalakshamma, a pious couple. It is by accident that he joined politics. In fact, none of his forefathers had even thought of it as a profession. However, from his early days he had an inclination to join politics as he was influenced by Indira Gandhi.

Hejjige Linganna, who was an MLA, recognised his merit and made him Party General Secretary. After two years, he came under the influence of V. Sreenivasa Prasad, who is now a Minister. Mohan Kumar took up the responsibility as the chief of his election campaign. Though he was admired by the members of the party for his useful leadership in Youth Congress, he was not given the ticket to contest the elections. Perhaps to compensate this injustice, he was made the Chairman of Dryland Development Board and in that capacity he did an admirable job. Everybody, who mattered, appreciated his hard work but did not give him a position on the pretext that he was too young. But nobody could prevent him from becoming the KPCC member and Executive member. They wanted to make him Director of Canara Bank and Mohan Kumar politely declined it.

Again a proposal for making him an MLC came up but it was felt that it was meant for a Scheduled Caste candidate and it becomes difficult if an upper caste person is given this coveted post. He met Narasimha Rao, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and all of them sang the same tune that ‘You are too young, please wait till you get your chance.’ Mohan Kumar, being a native of Nanjangud, wanted to contest from that place only but he was told that Nanjangud is a Constituency where a Brahmin cannot win.

Now he has got an opportunity of serving the society by becoming the Chairman of MUDA. It was originally called City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) and was started in 1904 by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar. It became MUDA in 1988. Mohan Kumar felt that this is a good opportunity to serve the poorer section of the society by providing them a site to build a house of their own.

After he became MUDA Chairman, he planned the activities for his tenure. On realising that people with huge amounts of money purchased lands in bulk from villagers at a paltry price, developed sites and sold them at exorbitant rates, he thought ‘Why not the Government do it’ and immediately swung into action. He developed Ballahalli Layout of 485 acres with 6,150 sites and as per the Court directions, began distributing them to 1,30,000 applicants. He also introduced Group Housing Scheme where people should live there for ten years and should have seniority.

Out of turn allotment would be done only in exceptional deserving cases as approved by the Committee.

The case of CA sites is another vexed problem. They get the allotment made by influence but have no resources to construct buildings and after years of neglect they become a burden. These sites are allotted for schools, colleges, temples, mosques, etc. Mohan Kumar has promised to wait for years and if it is not used for the purpose for which it was allotted, it will be taken back. This caution has made many organisations to pool resources and take up construction.

Khata is a big problem and people have to walk to the offices hundred times without any tangible results. Literally people used to curse the MUDA. The middlemen used to take advantage of this situation and extracted large amount of money from people. Realising this MUDA introduced e-Khata. Even 300 Khatas were not being finalised then; now it has jumped to about 3,000 a month and people are happy and this has practically ended the bribery. The computer system has made the allotment of Khata, sites etc., highly transparent. Officers cannot keep anything pending when all the rules and regulations are followed in allotment. This has made the officers alert. He requests people to meet him directly and bring to his notice any delay or irregularity which he promises to rectify.

It is gratifying to note that MUDA is not just an allotting body but an organisation to care for the development of the city, which Mohan Kumar is determined to do.

It is not possible to describe all his achievements in this article. As an elderly person I hope Mohan Kumar will see new heights in his career and do more service to Mysuru in particular and Karnataka in general.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Saturday – December 05th, 2015

How Karnataka’s horticulture department is turning the farmer into an entrepreneur

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature

Bengaluru  :

With farmers’ suicides in Karnataka touching 800, the highest ever in the state, the government is quickly pushing through an initiative to promote cash-rich horticulture farming by linking up the poor and marginal farmer directly to private companies that deal with agri-produce.

Using a programme devised by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance ( UPA) in its second term for integrated agriculture development through private-public-partnerships (PPP-IAD), the state’s horticulture department is dovetailing state, central and corporate initiatives to turn the farmer into a horti-business entrepreneur.

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Karnataka, with lakhs of small and marginal farmers, has the third largest area under horticulture crop in the country. It is the seventh in production. The state is the highest exporter of cashew, roses, gherkins, rose onion, spices and condiments, earning a whopping Rs 8,453 crore annually.

Tomatoes grown in Kolar travel all the way to Kolkata for sale, while lemons from Bijapur are sold in Bihar. Income generation from the sector is Rs 36,000 crore. Still, Chawla sees a vast, untapped market for horticulture crop and value-added products from the state. “Why can’t the extraspicy Byadgi chilli become as famous as Mexican chilli?” he asked.

 The area that the state wants to fix is the 20 to 25% post-harvest losses in the sector. The idea is to find value additions to the horticulture produce that will use up the highly perishable items without causing any loss to the farmers.

They want to do this by facilitating private intervention, rather than set minimum support prices for all products. Chawla pointed out that the government-sponsored HOPCOMS (Horticultural Producers Cooperative Marketing and Processing Society Ltd), which purchases vegetables and fruits from the farmers and sells them to consumers through stalls, covers hardly 3% of the 12,000 tonnes consumed in Bengaluru city.

Government Intervention

The horticulture department has studied several models including the PPP-IAD implemented by Maharashtra, which began functioning in 2012. Karnataka is also looking to scale up through government intervention two private, successful models in horticulture.

The sale of vegetables from groups of farmers through linked-up groups of vendors under the Samriddhi brand by IIM-A alumnus Koushalendra Kumar in Patna is one model the state wants to replicate. The other is that of the Siddhivinayak group in Maharashtra, where everything from seeds to modern, efficient technology to turning of the grown potato crop into chips and their sale is handled by the company, through agreements with farmers.

Here’s how the Karnataka model, inspired by those from the other states, works: about 20 farmers first get together and form an interest group. About 50 such groups join together and register a farmer producer organisation (FPO) under the Companies Act, complete with a board of directors with two representatives from each interest group.

 The FPO is adopted by either the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research or the University of Horticulture Sciences, Bagalkote, which provides technical support. The government pitches in by paying for a technically qualified chief executive to run the FPO as management support for a period of three years. Besides this, the government gives the FPO members all the subsidies provided in the sector and Rs 90 lakh towards permanent infrastructure such as cold storages, on the condition that the FPO puts in Rs 10 lakh.

 The state is expecting a range of companies, including the Big Four consulting firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, to come forward to bid for tenders to provide manpower to support this project on the marketing, BPO and IT side. The government is likely to give each FPO seed money of Rs 25 lakh, while the centrallyfunded Small Farmers Agriculture-Business Consortium (SFAC) will give an equity linked grant of Rs 10 lakh that the state will facilitate. Besides this, NABARD is committed to give each FPO Rs 5 lakh.

Horticulture officials and farmers discussing how to store and market vegetables through the FPO
Horticulture officials and farmers discussing how to store and market vegetables through the FPO

The FPO draws up a detailed project report with help from the horticulture department and focuses on a specific area. For example, Yogananda of the alreadyregistered FPO in Chikkamagaluru district, told ET Magazine that their FPO will focus on vegetables including tomato, potato, cabbage, beans and green chillies. And they are planning a cold storage to store them and sell them to FPOs in districts that don’t grow vegetables, or to other private outlets. “Farmers are not getting good prices, so these FPOs that we have formed among ourselves are a very good idea to ensure that we don’t suffer.

The FPO will get fertilisers and pesticides at cost and sell them to all of us shareholders, who have paid Rs 1,100 to join it, at cost. We will also get all benefits and no taxes. There will be no intermediaries and we will sell directly to the consumers or the company that links up with us,” Yogananda explained. The state is aiming to register 92 FPOs this financial year and get them off the ground.

 The horticulture department insists that the FPO model will work better than the cooperatives that have been racked with politics and power play. Yogananda pointed out that he was a BJP supporter, but Congress and JD(S) farmers were also present in his FPO. Rudresh, a director of another registered FPO in Davanagere district, said: “Politics may come in at some point, but currently, we are all just farmers who are working together for the welfare of all. We can plan who will put what crop and work out benefits for everyone.

 As an initiative, this FPO idea is very good and can work at the ground level.” The government is further incentivising FPOs by giving them trader licences in the agriculture produce market committee (APMC) markets that sell agriculture products in each district. The FPO can itself sell to consumers directly at these markets without going through any agents, as they are a group of farmers and not individuals. The FPOs also get priority storage space in all APMCs.

IT Support

All FPOs will be linked up through a database that can be accessed by any company which wants to work with them. The horticulture department will identify five local resource persons who will geo-map the land owned or leased or used by each FPO member. There will be constant updates in all the project area and at any point in time, the state of the land, the fertilisers that have been used, the state of the crop and how it is progressing towards harvest, can be accessed at fingertips.

“A package of practices, which is a set of prescribed practices like the seeds, pest and disease details, pesticides and fertilisers and so on, recommended by University of Horticulture Sciences, Bagalkote will be given to the farmers. These will be monitored at every step through an app, developed for the purpose,” Kshama Patil, deputy director of horticulture (project monitoring unit), told ET Magazine.

 Chawla has written to several companies that linked up with the contract farmers in Maharashtra and other states, besides all food processing majors and super-markets including Hindustan Unilever and Metro Cash and Carry, inviting them to attend a workshop on the project and begin the linkage process. “The companies can directly link up with the FPOs and control the whole process of growing their raw material, like providing the seeds, the fertilisers, the know-how and finally purchase the product.

 However, unlike contract farming, if the farmers want to sell the produce to someone else who will give them a better rate, they are free to do so. They are not bound to the company. So the company will have to pay them market rates,” Chawla explained. Prabhakar Rao, trustee of the Sri Sri Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Trust, said he has expressed interest in attending the workshop. “I believe the PPP-IHD model has great potential as demonstrated by the Sri Sri Farmers Market we have going in Madhya Pradesh. It is fully run by The Art of Living as a direct linkage between farmers and consumers.

With government support, we believe that there is tremendous potential to take it further,” he told ET Magazine in an emailed response. Hemant Gaur, managing director of Siddhivinayak Agri Processing, pointed to the success of his model in Maharashtra, where everything from seeds to the final marketing of potatoes was done by his company, benefitting everyone along the line. “I don’t believe that the middleman or the dealer has managed to make a lot of money between the consumer and the producer  as, if that was the case, the middleman should now be very rich. That has not happened. But what we are looking at is control of the quality of the product that we deliver to the consumer and, for that, this system is very effective,” he said.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / www.etsmallbiz.com / ET Home> Small Biz> Entrepreneurship / by Sowmya Aji, ET Bureau / November 29th, 2015

Deepak Ravindran: A dropout who is now his college’s biggest hirer

Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technology, World Opinion

If high-adrenaline action is the surest sign of transmitting a message, Deepak Ravindran is sending out one loud and clear. His Bengaluru-based startup Lookup, which has Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Infosys’s Kris Gopalakrishnan as investors, is in the final stages of closing its latest round of funding. And the CEO and founder of the hyperlocal messaging app, that allows businesses to connect with local consumers, reveals the announcement can be expected within a week.

Inspiration for Lookup struck Ravindran while visiting his hometown of Kasargod, Kerala. “I saw my mom chatting with her grocer over WhatsApp and placing her order. That was an eye opener about the way people use chat,” Ravindran says, in a telephonic interview from Bengaluru.

With WhatsApp, he noticed one needs to save the number for ease of communication. Once that is done, you can see each other’s frequently changed display pictures, which may create privacy issues. He addressed those with Lookup, ensuring consumers do not have to worry about chatting with storekeepers they’ve never met before.

 The messaging industry has been this 30-year-old serial entrepreneur’s core strength, with this being his third venture in the space. Keeping an eye on the shifting tech landscape, he has morphed the form to suit changing needs. His 2007-launch student startup Innoz for example, was an SMS-based search engine. “It was a time when mobile phones were becoming popular. But internet was still not so common. We saw the potential for an offline search engine,” says Ravindran.

But by 2014, with data lording over voice, Ravindran realised the rules had changed again. To meet the challenge, he decided to merge the two big trends of messaging (chats) and apps. Lookup was born out of this union.

Meet Lookup's Deepak Ravindran, a CEOentrepreneur who chose funding over finishing college and got his competition (no less than Twitter co-founder Biz Stone) to invest in his venture.
Meet Lookup’s Deepak Ravindran, a CEOentrepreneur who chose funding over finishing college and got his competition (no less than Twitter co-founder Biz Stone) to invest in his venture.

Fashioned after Steve Jobs

Ravindran’s story at 18 wasn’t typical of the average Indian science student. He took his medical and engineering entrance exams, securing ranks in both. He liked computer science, so he picked engineering.

He had discovered the internet just a few years before at 15. Logging on via a dial-up connection, he was fascinated by the worldwide web. He says, “I started looking for inspiring stories and read about Steve Jobs and a few others. I read how he started a company at a very young age and that idea stuck.”

By the time he entered Lal Bahadur Shastri Col lege of Engineering in Kasargod in 2005, Ravindran had decided that he would use it as a fertile ground to found his own company. He did so in 2007, with three classmates. When his startup was picked by IIM-A’s iAccelerator program that promised funding of Rs 3-5 lakh, things came to a head. The founders had to shift base to Ahmedabad, which meant a choice between college and the accelerator.

The quartet made their choice. They dropped out of college. “Dropping out is a fad now. But it was extremely risky back then. The only reason we did it was because we were getting funded for the first time,” says Ravindran, disclosing that they did worry about getting good placements if things didn’t work out.

 For a month, the families of Ravindran and his friends believed they had quit college to pursue an MBA at IIM. “It sounded all fancy,” he said. It eventually worked out, as from dropouts, they went to being the largest recruiter at their erstwhile engineering college, taking on over 100 students within a couple of years — first at Innoz and later at Lookup.

From competitors to partners

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was Ravindran’s competition at one point. After Innoz plateaued in 2013 and the team failed to sell it off, Ravindran decided to move to US for an MIT incubator program. He founded a Q&A platform Quest, that competed with Quora and Stone’s Jelly.

Stone was interested in acquiring Quest for a possible expansion into the Asian market. But Ravindran managed to raise just $50,000 over a year, falling way short of the $500,000 target. That’s when he decided to wind Quest down and return to India

Incidentally, Stone’s Jelly failed too. In an interview with Mashable, he even admitted that today, a small group of dedicated users is the only thing keeping the app alive. But a previous failure didn’t hamper Ravindran’s prospects according to Stone, who came on board Lookup after a San Francisco meeting in April.

 Undoubtedly, things are looking up for Ravindran at Lookup.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / ET Home> Magazines> Panache / by Masoom Gupte, ET Bureau / September 03rd, 2015

Karnataka hot contender for top slot in pepper production

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature

Increase in pepper prices from Rs. 200 a kg to Rs. 700 a kg serves as incentive for farmers to take up its cultivation.

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2014-15 estimates point to State overtaking Kerala

Spices Board of India Chairman A. Jayathilak said that estimates for 2014-15 suggest that Karnataka has overtaken Kerala as the largest producer of pepper in the country.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the International Pepper Community’s 43rd session and meetings here on Monday.

Dr. Jayathilak said a large number of coffee and arecanut farmers from Karnataka had taken to pepper production as an “adjunct crop”.

The increase in pepper prices from Rs. 200 a kg three years ago to around Rs. 700 a kg had served as an incentive for farmers to cultivate the spice that enjoys huge demand in the international market.

According to estimates, the State last year produced around 5,000 tonnes over Kerala, which used to occupy the numero uno position by accounting for 40 per cent of the country’s pepper production.

Pepper production in the country had dipped to 37,000 tonnes in 2013-14 owing to unfavourable weather conditions. However, the situation was looking up with estimates suggesting a production of 70,000 tonnes in 2014-15.

Earlier, while delivering the presidential address at the session, Dr. Jayathilak appreciated the contribution of farmers from Karnataka in the turnaround. The spices board chose Mysuru as the venue for the annual meet to honour pepper growers in the State, he said.

He cautioned that importing countries were coming up with stringent quality standards that were “practically difficult” to achieve, particularly in case of pesticide residues.

Rajani Ranjan Rashmi, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, New Delhi, in his keynote address, said the wellness industry and health tourism had provided enormous potential for the growth of the spice industry. He urged the industry to further explore the medicinal and nutritional value of pepper.

Pratap Simha, MP, claimed that Kodagu accounted for half the pepper produced in Karnataka.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Laiqh A. Khan / Mysuru – November 24th, 2015

Children’s Day : 4 from City receive State Honour

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All
Aprameya Karthik, Abhigya Anand, Rea Elizabeth & Dhanush
Aprameya Karthik, Abhigya Anand, Rea Elizabeth & Dhanush

Mysuru :

Four children from city were among 25 children from across the State, who were felicitated for their achievements in the respective fields on the occasion of Children’s Day celebrations at Jawahar Bal Bhavan in Bengaluru on Saturday. City’s young artists Aprameya Karthik, N. Danush, Abhigya Anand and Rea Elizabeth Acchaiah were felicitated by Women and Child Welfare Minister Umashree during the event.

S.R. Aprameya Karthik, a student of Maharshi Public School in city, has drawn more than 3,000 different sketches of Lord Ganesha and also holds a national record for the same. He is the son of S. Ramanathan and M.V. Anitha, residents of J.P. Nagar here.

N. Dhanush, an 8th student of Manasarowar Pushkarini Vidyashrama, is an upcoming singer. Danush has participated in many competitions and won prizes. He is the son of A.N. Nanje Gowda and T.S. Sudha, both teachers as Shiskarni Central School in Hebbal and Government Higher Primary School, Manchegowdana Koppal, respectively.

Abhigya Anand, a 6th std. student at the Government Higher Primary School in Bastipura in Srirangapatna Taluk, developed interest in Bhagavad Gita and has learnt all the chapters of the Holy Book.

He also conducts free Bhagavad Gita classes at Sri Krishna Temple in Gokulam everyday during which he teaches the chanting of slokas and also gives lectures on ill-effects of consuming junk food. Abhigya is also pursuing PG Diploma in Aryuvedic Microbiology. He is the son of Anand Ramasubramanian and Annu Anand, residents of Hebbal.

The other child prodigy from Mysuru to receive the award was Rea Elizabeth Acchaiah, a 9th std. student of St. Joseph Central School in Vijayanagar. She was awarded for her achievements in Roller-Skating. Rea is the daughter of Acchaiah and Priya, residents of Vijayanagar.

Among the awardees were 10-year-old M. Siddesh and 11-year-old Siya Vamanasa Khoday, who risked their lives to save people. They were felicitated with the ‘State Bravery Award’ on the occasion.

Governor Vajubhai R. Vala honoured M. Siddesh, a resident of Avaragere in Davanagere with the prestigious award for risking his life to save passengers traveling in the Harihara-Chitradurga Passenger Train on Mar. 15, 2015. Siddesh, who noticed craks on the railway track near Avaragere, quickly removed his red shirt and started waving at the train, thus averting a major mishap.

Siya Vamanasa Khoday from Dharwad, who also received the Bravery Award, had saved her younger brother Kumara Yallappa when he had come in contact with the live-wire while playing at the terrace of his house in Dharwad.

The State Government also honoured four organisations and four individuals working for the welfare of children namely Ranga Kahale (Bengaluru), Belagavi Roller Skating Akademi (Belagavi), Samruddhi Charitable Trust (Bidar) and Sneha Sadana (Mangaluru), K. Prabha Narayanagowda (Chikkaballapur), Parampalli Narasimha Aital (Udupi), Ismail Moulasab Ukkali (Vijayapura) and Mehaboob Killedar (Koppal).

While the organisations received a cash prize of Rs. One lakh each, individuals were given Rs. 25,000 each.

The other children who received award are: Pranil Satare (Shivamogga), Deeksha Moolya (Udupi), N.B. Pragathi (Bengaluru), B. Likhith (Bengaluru), M. Panchami (Moodabidri), D.S. Bhoomika (Ballari), Sahana (Ballari), M.V. Alok Parla (Davanagere), Surakshit Gowda (Kolar), G. Gagana (Udupi), S.S. Gautham (Madikeri), Mohammed Suhail (Mandya), R.P. Rahul (Bagalkot), M. Mohammed (Raichur), Ganashri (Doddaballapur), J. Nihal (Tumakuru), Meghana (Chitradurga), Amruth Nagesh (Dharwad), K.G. Ananya (Hassan), M. Dhruthi (Dakshina Kannada), Yashaswi Ajit Kumar (Gadag) and Anthakarna (Shivamogga).

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Monday – November 16th, 2015

2-Day National Workshop on Sericulture from tomorrow

Business & Economy

Union Textile Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar to inaugurate

Central Silk Board Member Secretary Dr. H. Nagesh Prabhu is seen addressing the press meet in city this morning
Central Silk Board Member Secretary Dr. H. Nagesh Prabhu is seen addressing the press meet in city this morning

Mysuru :

The two-day National Workshop on ‘Innovative Technologies and Best Practices in Sericulture,’ organised by Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, will be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar at Central Silk Board premises on Manandawadi Road, said Central Silk Board Member Secretary Dr. H. Nagesh Prabhu. Addressing presspersons at Pathrakartara Bhavan here this morning, he said that the Minister would also lay foundation stone for Silk Mega Cluster in Mysuru.

Dr. Nagesh added that Dr. Sanjay Kumar Panda would deliver a keynote address on ‘Emerging Challenges of Sericulture in India’ and a booklet ‘Awardees of Excellence in Sericulture-2015,’ New Mulberrry Varieties and Silkworm Breeds will be released by the Union Minister on the occasion.

The Central Silk Board will also present awards for Excellence in Sericulture to the selected silkworm farmers. Baburao Chinchansur, Minister for Textiles, Ports and Inland Transport, Government of Karnataka, Animal Husbandry and Sericulture Minister A. Manju and MP Pratap Simha will be the guests of honour.

Organisers have also invited experts from across the country to deliberate on various topics related to sericulture.

Central Silk Board Joint Secretary K.K. Shetty, Director Shivaprasad were present during the press meet.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Monday – November 16th, 2015

Cash from scrap: three IIT graduates show the way

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

EncasheaBF16nov2015

You can now book an appointment with a raddiwala on an Android app, after which professionals turn up at your apartment and collect scrap and pay you a handsome amount too. Three Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduates, who quit their cushy corporate jobs and turned raddiwalas, have made this possible. The three – Priyank Jain (IIT Kharagpur), Harshal Chowdary (IIT Madras), and Rahul Jaiswal (IIT Kanpur), who worked in various technology firms, are now excited at the good response to their startup, encashea.com.

They started it in August by collecting scrap from residents of apartment complexes.

Presently, the firm is providing service to only apartment complexes in the south-eastern part of the city.

Mr. Jain said that it all started with the residents of high-rise apartment complexes finding it difficult to dispose off scrap. “We identified that residents of apartments had very restricted access to raddiwalas due to their secluded nature. It was a gap in the market which we decided to fill,” he said.

The firm has trained around 10 pick-up boys to professionally collect scrap from households. They operate the app, evaluate the worth of scrap and generate a digital invoice. The firm segregates and sells the waste to secondary recyclers.

Mr. Jain said that unlike most of the disruptive technology aggregators coming up, they were a logistics firm with operations on the ground.

He said a resident sold them over 100 kg of newspaper he had stacked up in his house for want of better avenues to dispose it. “Such avenues will encourage segregation of dry waste and wet waste in the house every day. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the e-waste that you sell a raddiwalah will be disposed off responsibly. We ensure that,” he said.

Ragpickers were the pioneers

The first to start such doorstep waste management in the city were ragpickers themselves, trained by Hasiru Dala.

Total Waste Management started a year-and-a-half ago. Today, it services 77 apartments in J.P. Nagar and Whitefield areas. You can book an appointment on the Total Waste Management app, and ragpickers arrive to educate and manage your waste — a 360 degree service, including wet waste.

The ragpickers visit these apartments twice a week and help the residents in composting as well, apart from collecting all dry waste and scrap.

Nalini Sekhar of Hasiru Dala, said that the very fact that ragpickers go to these apartments with uniforms and use an app to calculate the value of the waste has given them immense confidence. She also said that only Total Waste Management collects all waste from the residents and not cherry pick. “Regular raddiwalas also take only high-value waste like metal and paper, leaving behind low-value waste which attains a critical mass. In our model, high-value waste subsidises low-value waste,” she said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj / Bengaluru – November 16th, 2015

She gets global recognition twice in two years.

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, World Opinion

Bengaluru :

All of 23, Swati Bondia, a fresh MBA graduate from a city business school, received an international recognition from Junior Chamber International as one among 10 outstanding young persons of the world at a function in Kanazawa, Japan on Saturday. She ecomes is the first Indian woman to receive the award during 100 years since JCI established.

This is the second global honour for her. In July last year, she was the only Indian businesswoman to have made it to the BoP, which is being organized by the University of Colombia in association with United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Management Education Secretariat.

The founder and chief decorating officer of Bangalore-based social venture Om Shanti Traders has been selected for the Base of the Pyramid market-entry challenge at Colombia.

Om Shanti Traders is a social, sustainable venture supporting at least 1,000 individuals from the poor and underprivileged sections to improve their lifestyle and, thus, reduce the economic gap between the various layers of the society. Swati identifies individuals on the streets, trains them in arts and crafts, employs them and helps them to create a livelihood for themselves by selling their creations to corporate and individual households. The profit is shared with the employee families and a portion will go to the employee welfare corpus. Swati and her team ensure the children of the employee family compulsorily go to school.

Hailing from Jharsuguda in Odisha and a daughter of an industrialist, Swati is today a big name in social enterprise.

“It is like reverse mentoring. I was her professor and mentor in her venture in empowering poor and rural women, but she leads me now in my ideas. I am the founder director of www.enrichexpo. But is her drive behind this venture as its CEO and one of the directors,” her professor at the business school where she pursued her MBA, GS Sreekiran told TOI.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bengaluru / by M K Madhusoodan, TNN / November 11th, 2015

Kiran Shaw gets honorary fellowship

Business & Economy, Education, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

Bengaluru :

The Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), a central government-funded interdisciplinary research institute founded by noted scientist CNR Rao, on Monday announced that it has conferred an honorary fellowship to Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Stating that the centre has a tradition of honouring distinguished people with fellowships, an official note said it had earlier awarded the same to scientists C Subramaniam, Raja Ramanna and others like former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy.

Kiran said she will fund a bioscience laboratory focused on proteins at JNCASR.

“I have promised to fund a biosciences lab that will house an ultra microscope and also sponsor two post-doctoral fellowships at the institute. A lot of research is happening at the institute from which the industry can benefit,” Kiran told TOI.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bengaluru / TNN / November 10th, 2015

4-day conference brings global experts in Bengaluru to share health innovations

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bengaluru  :

Hematocon 2015, the 56th four day conference organized by the Karnataka Chapter of Indian Society of Haematology and Blood Transfusion began on November 5 in Bengaluru.

It brought together global professionals from fields of Haematology, Haemato-oncology, laboratory medicine and blood banking to share their innovations, research and latest findings on to an inter-disciplinary platform.

The conference will witness the latest developments in the fields of Haematology, Haemato-oncology, blood disorders, blood cancer and bone marrow transfusion. The teaching faculties, experts and distinguished speakers from leading institution will share their insights and experiences during the conference.

“We are pleased to welcome eminent medical professionals at this forum to share inter-disciplinary knowledge and the latest developments in the fields of Haematology and Haemato-oncology. The conference will help further educate and enable healthcare professionals to adopt best practices that will in turn enhance the quality of healthcare,” said Dr Sharat Damodar, Head of Heomatology & Bone Marrow Transplant, Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center, Narayana Health City and Organizing Secretary of Karnataka Chapter of Indian Society of Hematology & Transfusion Medicine.

Dr Cecil Ross, Professor and Head of Hematology at St. John’s Medical College & Chairman of Karnataka Chapter of Indian Society of Hematology & Transfusion Medicine said, “Multiple scientific workshops will focus on sharing innovations in field target therapies (immune therapy that is more effective with less side effects managing blood related infections), bone marrow transplants, blood cancer and other blood related disorders. More than 1000 delegates and 25-30 faculties nationally and internationally will offer a series of diverse continuing education as part of the event”.

Researchers, faculty and academicians are expected to create an avenue towards robust exchange of information on technological advances and new scientific achievements for issues like platelet disorders, acute Leukemia (paediatric and adult), lymphomas cancer (cancer of the lymph system), RBC & WBC issues, blood transplants and other relevant topics.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bengaluru / by Sreemoyee Chatterjee, TNN / November 05th, 2015