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Arindam Bhattacharya: From Crisis to Leadership
Only those who can convert today’s crises - like massive urbanisation and global warming - into opportunity will be tomorrow’s leaders. Reading my morning newspaper over the weekend, I was struck by one of the stories describing how crises have frequently been the trigger for some of the most outstanding developments in medical sciences — they made researchers look for out-of-the-box solutions for problems that, till then, appeared unsolvable. As a management consultant, I...
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NGO Nurtures Vision Entrepreneurs Through ’Business-in-a-Bag’ Concept
For Rama Devi, a seamstress in Mahabubnagar, the Rs 1,000 a month that she earns through sale of her handiwork was insufficient to support her husband and two children. Her husband, who worked in agriculture, endured long gaps of unemployment. Today as ‘vision entrepreneurs’, they together earn about Rs 5,000 a month. They recently made their first major investment – a motorcycle – which they use to reach more villages to host eyecare campaigns. Rama Devi is one ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Middle Class Accounts for Bulk of Urban Spending
The bottom of the pyramid is the buzzword that has captured the hearts and minds of academics and marketeers alike. Though large in numbers, the consumer spend by this segment is quite low. What we find is that it is the middle bulge of expenditure by the middle class that accounts for the bulk of India’s urban consumer expenditure. About 61% of total urban income comes from households that can be classified as middle class—earning be-tween Rs75,000 and Rs5 lakh a year.
- Region
- South Asia
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Striking a Balance Between Profit and Philanthropy
Bangalore: In December 2005, when Anant Kumar set up a hospital offering maternity and childcare services in Hyderabad targeting low-income customers by pricing services at about a quarter of what other hospitals charged, it was an instant success. Set up as a pilot 25-bed facility by a trust run by India’s largest condom maker, Hindustan Latex Ltd, the facility addressed a need that is felt all over India: affordable mother and child healthcare. But when Kumar decided to expand t...
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- South Asia
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Design is Not Only for the Elite
When Pradyumna Vyas took over the charge from Akhil Succena as director of National Institute of Design (NID), he had already set a roadmap for taking the design institute to a global platform. Armed with a masters in design from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Vyas has an experience of 25 years in the field of design and has been the principal designer at NID before taking over as its head. In an exclusive interview with Vinay Umarji and Chitra Unnithan, Vyas shares his futu...
- Region
- South Asia
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Lessons from a frugal innovator
ENTER the main cardiac operating-room at Bangalore’s Wockhardt hospital on a typical morning, and you will find a patient on the operating table with a screen hanging between his head and chest. On a recent visit the table was occupied by a middle-aged Indian man whose serene look suggested that he was ready for the operation to come. Asked how he was, he smiled and answered in Kannada that he felt fine. Only when you stand on a stool to look over the screen do you realise that his ches...
- Region
- South Asia
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Third-World Stove Soot Is Target in Climate Fight
KOHLUA, India — “It’s hard to believe that this is what’s melting the glaciers,” said Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, as he weaved through a warren of mud brick huts, each containing a mud cookstove pouring soot into the atmosphere. As women in ragged saris of a thousand hues bake bread and stew lentils in the early evening over fires fueled by twigs and dung, children cough from the dense smoke that fi...
- Region
- South Asia
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D.Light Design a “Most Promising Social Entrepreneur”
Goldman and Tozun first met in 2005 while MBA students at Stanford University’s Institute of Design, where they worked together on projects during a semester-long class called Designing for Extreme Affordability. Goldman had spent four years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, where he experienced the problems of living without electricity and relying on dangerous kerosene lamps. As a result of that experience, the two decided to focus on an affordable, scalable light solution.
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