A Sincere Congrats to PGI Fellow 2010 Biodiversity Partner MS Swaminathan: Times Social Awards

The India Green Revolution is well documented, and at the rate its going the history books will cite India as the champions of the Evergreen Revolution. And among its score heros will undoubtedly be Dr. MS Swaminathan, fellow UNEP 2010 Biodiveristy partner. He's an incredible warrior and his organization provides daily inspiration and value addition to PGI's plans and project facilitation. 

What separates Dr. Swaminathan from the rest of the pack is his ability to shine in the lab, at world conferences and connect with the people who count, the SME farmer.  If ever there was a road map for cross cutting and integration and GIS and network mobilization, just follow in the good Doctor's shadow.  A hundred more like him and we've won the Evergreen Revolution.

The advantage he may have -other than his experience and situational omnivision- has to do with the relatively short amount of time between Ag Revolutions.  The metaphorical cement had yet to dry. In the U.S. for example, commercial/industrial scale mono-cropping and customs and practices of till and fertilise farming goes back generations and you'd be hard pressed to find an old timer who can remember a time when farming didn't involve eco-productivity destroying practices. In the case of U.S. the cement is hard and thick, and convincing -en mass- a change toward scaled commercial sustainable ag-business that involves companion cropping, stacking, eco-synthesis, is a hard sell. The scale of failure is much bigger and much more disastrous for the US farmer. Government safety nets need to usher in the new era of evergreen farming if U.S. food security is to be assured.

In India, the farmers are in numbers that are hard to comprehend...100's of millions...each with a small holding of a few bigha (acre or two) and have been only recently doing anything other than subsistence farming.  Therefore, when word spreads that a small farm operation is producing double or triple output at half cost inputs, the bandwagon fills faster. With the support of coops and organizations such as BAIF-DRF can get fast traction, wide-spread acceptance and a full band-wagon of other farmer coops wanting in on the wind of change.  In this case, the recent development of farming has not allowed the 'cement' of bad practices to set, and as such the develop-it-right-the-first-time can rapidly usher in change that will secure India's food security (which is in critical condition) and needs pulled back from the brink.

One critique (which is very much a bi-line re the news editor of the article herein below), is the failure to describe the project for what it is: a "permaculture".  The politics of semantics (particularly in the research and institution fields) is a barrier to cross-cutting and necessary networking.  I should hope this was the oversight of the writer and not another example of rebranding an internationally recognized format. If so it is at the expense of the proliferation of a critical global message and a much needed signature example of success.  The risk of failing to use uniform and established terms (in favor or regionally invented terms for the same thing) is that is prevents the spread of information and the likelihood that cross border, cross culture networks can be formed. The global lexicon must be uniform because the challenges are global and common.  This is not for sake of convenience, it is critical that all communicate and use the vast information networks effectively, and without ego, to advance humanity's evergreen development and retreat from the current race to tipping point. If one were to google permaculture news...this fine and necessary news -as well of those involved-would not produce a hit. That's dangerous. As such we tagging this installment in order to effect network awareness.

The other critique is the repeated failure to attach economic meaning to scientific programs. Science for the sake of science is fine if it isn't key to our survival. In order for a finding to gain traction is must prove in the commercial market. Farmers must feed their families and develop out of subsistence. Whether any of us like it or not, or it offends our 'green' virtue or scientific ethic, the hope of economic sustainability is an important a component of any plan. As important as equality and ecology. All three must balance. Period. Full stop.  Media must adopt a 3BL approach and Social Impact awards such as one sponsored by (of all entities) JP Morgan should insist that Social work produce three pillar results...The market is the proving ground and is where we as humans live.  We as humans trust in numbers, and again this is a common and persuasive tool of communication that must be included, lest the news becomes a 'feel good' piece. PGI, as a private business development consultancy has been viewed with a jaundice eye at times from those who question why it is not an NGO or charitable organization. The mental wall that separates the interests of commerce and environment and social welfare must be destroyed in favor of 3BL CSR approaches to the world's problems and solutions. Life with each other and with nature cannot be divided like a newspaper into sections 'Business' 'Life' 'Environment', they are all one and in time it will bedevil editors as to what story goes where. In the interim, journalists should include economics and performance metric information in their stories as an agent of change and public awareness of the evergreen paradigm that is upon us.

C O N T R I B U T I O N TO E N V I R O N M E N T

Preserving nature and helping farmers at one go
Vishwas Kothari & Vijay Pinjarkar
TNN

Akole (Ahmednagar district)/Etapalli (Gadchiroli district): Until a few years ago, farm yields in the tribal areas of Akole tehsil in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district were very low and people found it difficult to make ends meet. Since then, they have had their own little White Revolution, a success story in sustainable rural livelihood that has worked wonders for the environment.

This turnaround was the result of an initiative led by the Pune-based BAIF Development Research Foundation (BAIF-DRF).

Elsewhere, in the Naxalite-dominated Gadchiroli district, villagers say their income almost doubled after they took up sericulture, honey collection, chestnut farming and lac harvesting, all of which BAIF-DRF (formerly Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation) facilitated. The projects were launched in Etapalli, Bhamragarh and Aheri tehsils. At Etapalli, over 22 self-help groups now work in seven villages in a 24km radius.

BAIF-DRF’s approach was to ensure sustainable livelihoods without increasing pressure on natural resources. It initiated a multi-pronged strategy to increase crop yields, water management, livestock development and supplemental income activities like silk and lac production. Instead of chopping trees for fuel, they are now used to produce lac. For

sericulture, plantations have further enhanced green cover.

BAIF-DRF interventions in two Ahmednagar district clusters are part of a programme under the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), promoted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Called the Sustainable Rural Livelihood Security in Backward Districts of Maharashtra, it is being implemented at Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Nandurbar, covering 76 villages, including 12 from Akole tehsil.

“This NAIP component has been getting Rs 22.46 crore from World Bank for a five-year period (2007-2012),” B K Kakade, vice-president of BAIF-DRF, says. A 14-member board drives the body, currently headed by Mafatlal Group’s Arvind Mafatlal. Scientist M S Swaminathan, Rajashree Birla and Sudha Murty are the other notables on the board. Day-to-day affairs are run by a 25-member committee, led by Girish Sohani.

From livestock and crop management to marketing and water resource development, more than 1,000 tribal families from 12 villages of Akole are now doing things they never knew they were capable of.

Deothan and Samsherpur clusters have achieved an average 54% increase in the yield of paddy, wheat and gram over the past three years. Nurseries, sheds for horticulture and protective farming, fodder cultivation and artificial ponds for fish farming have come up across these clusters. “Last year, we got 3,000kg of fish from the fish pond I built with BAIF-DRF assistance. We earned an additional Rs 18,000,” Geeta Darade, a farmer in Deothan, says.

In the last three years, 627 families benefited from improved crop yields in the Ahmednagar clusters. Paddy yield, on an average, increased by 910kg/ha through traditional farming, better seeds and best agriculture practices, Preeti Karmarkar, BAIFDRF social development group head, says.

The most dramatic results came from the cattle-breeding programme. Karmakar says local breeds usually have far less milk yield per lactation. But with BAIF-DRF’s cattlebreeding services, starting with awareness camps to animal health check-ups, consultations for crossbreeding, artificial insemination, calving and preventive healthcare, milk yields hugely improved, she says.

It’s not just about higher milk yields but also ensuring good returns to the villagers. “Each village now has a mini collection centre from where all the milk goes to bulk milk coolers at Hivargaon in Deothan and Kalirumalwadi in Samsherpur. Each of these collects 2,000 litres every day. This goes to a bigger milk cooperatives in the region at Akole,” says social worker Ramchandra Patil.

At Etapalli in Gadchiroli district, 310km from Nagpur, BAIF-DRF focuses on forest and agriculture-based activities. Under NAIP, 950 families from 12 Gadchiroli villages have directly benefited.


BAIF-DRF
In 1989
BAIF shifts focus to sustainable rural livelihood, development and research. Name changed from BAIF to BAIF Development Research Foundation Foundation works
In 12 states, projects originate from its Pune headquarters

Key field of work
Ensuring sustainable livelihoods without increasing pressure on natural resources














Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

INALIENABLE: FOOD, WATER, SHELTER, EQUALITY

It is truly amazing that in a world filled with such incredible technology, that the major crisis for a third of the world's population are the basic requirements for life: food, water and shelter.  Add to this list human equality, and you both identify a crisis and the reason why certain sectors of our human population are denied the other three basic requirements for a sustainable life.  The 'bottom of the pyramid' as it is referred by economists, is populated by the marginalized, the exploited, sets outcast by other sets. Within this population, the plague of gender-bias and dowery systems further interfere with the progress of development. As draconian as it may seem, the reality is that the women of the world are victims of unspeakable atrocities and violations of basic human rights.

From the India perspective, like so many other issues, India wears many faces.  In a country of over a billion, there is a bell curve wherein women populate the role of President and captains of corporate enterprise; relatively populated by a (fortunately) growing set of educated young urban female professionals (albeit many suffering from glass ceilings); the massive center of the curve comprises of women who from casual glance may seem socially equal but are in fact in downtrodden, in constant risk of exploitation and cultural ostracism.  The bottom of the curve is a gallery of horror and despair that tears at the very fabric of human decency.

No one factor can be blamed, and certainly the Government of India has only limited reach to play moral police and activist.  Change can only come from ground swell and rejection of ancient practices such as 'honor killings' and female infanticide.  The book by Mala Sen's  Death By Fire* is a must read for any who wish to be awake to gender bias reality.  http://www.amazon.com/Death-Fire-Female-Infanticide-Modern/dp/0813531020  PGI has staunchly advocated that CSR is the solution as opposed to the lip service of legislation and reliance on the mandates of an already stressed judiciary.   Only through the consumer demand that corporations abide by a standard of equality, will the atrocities of female injustice be curbed and eventually reversed.  Corporation that establish a CSR regime that actively monitors its upstream and downstream equality policies can expect brand equity returns and workforce improvements that come with community relations and social development.  This integrated returns paradigm (corporate and community) if adopted by 10 companies, 100 companies, 1000 and so on would have the desired effect of geometry and lasting revolution and change.

PGI is presently endeavoring on a bold campaign through the design of a commercial scale 3BL pro-woman/CSR forest farming initiative.  We are hopeful the plan of action will be facilitating before the end of this year. In the State where the sometimes scoffed 'treehugger' movement started, the genesis for which can be found in the daring and inspirational story of the Chipko women who unflinchingly encircled the trees in passive protest of their sacred forest to save it from the axe. The Uttarakhand forest-farming plan will be revolutionary and a measurable step forward in the evergreen revolution. The legacy of the Chipko women and the conservation of their precious forests will again regain significance and relevance through an inspired 3BL-CSR plan of action.

The scale from the India perspective the work is daunting. The following example is one we use at our CSR seminars to illustrate the scale of a nation of a billion.  It also demonstrates the challenges that the Government...any Government would have managing and legislating basic human right issues: 

Think about the human resource assets required to undertake the census of India.  Counting 1.2 billion people.  If you hire 1000 people to do the job, and you assume they could complete the census data of 100 people per day, it would require each worker to count a million two hundred thousand people (12 lakh people) and would take over 32 years. In reality, the Government has hired 2.5 million (25 lakh) workers to do the job. (TOI) That's more people than the entire country of Slovenia and nearly that of Jamaica. Even with this army of workers, each worker must gather data on 500 people, 80% of whom reside in the massive unorganized rural sector.


If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -JFK

IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT :  WOMAN DATA

This issue is particularly sensitive to PGI's core team. By and large PGI's research expeditions result in finding deeply disturbing trends and witnessing the cold realities of gender inequality. PGI will pre-publish its COP here on the Green Eye News in advance of its submission to UNGC. All comments are welcome.





* At the time this was written we did not know that our friend Mala had passed away in June. The world and women in particular had lost a champion like no other. Our senior consultant Frank and Mala were phone friends through their common friend Adam in Kodai and had a common connection in having known the same beautiful and strong women described in her book when they lived at Roseneath..although at different times. Her rasp laughter and genius will never be forgotten by any of us. We love and miss you Mala. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/mala-sen-obituary

Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

Was Someone in Assam Listening?

Assam:   It was a bone jarring 15 hour trip from Demow, Sivsagar District, East of the Kaziranga Nat'l Park, to Guwahati along the ‘Golden Highway’ aka ‘King’s Highway (depending on to whom you’re talking). Part well constructed highway;  poorly engineered highway; washed out highway, and plain off-roading, it is the life line that runs laterally through Upper and Lower Assam. Thereafter, one can reach Siliguri, gateway of the NE and mainland India. Mid-way- at a well earned tiffin stop- Peerless Green Initiaitves Director Frank Costanzo sat with his hosts for tea and respite.  It was November 2009, and Frank was being escorted by his hosts to assess feasibility of a commercial scale bamboo based forest-perma-culture. Always famous for saying what other’s only think about saying, Frank gazed out to the road at the omni-present AK-47 brandishing IA soldiers milling about in the afternoon sun.


“If you want to develop this State and not just occupy it, you can begin with those GI’s putting away the military hardware in favor of civil hardware.”

Frank’s hosts were a mix of local leaders and Delhi policy-wonks and they sat motionless at Frank’s frankness.

“I mean, look at them, they’re bored witless. You give those and the rest of your army a shovel to fix Assam’s roads or plant a tree and you’ll find the gun no longer necessary.”

Frank’s hosts turned their eyes to the sentries; the silence broken by one wonk’s reply, “Yes, it is complicated and must change.” The Assamese ethnic-Tai member of the group, said nothing but wore a wry look of pleasure at the notion and the discomfort it had created.

Maybe someone was listening?.... See below:

Charge of the Green Brigade in Assam
Sept 27, 2011
Naresh Mitra
TNN
Bishmuri (Kokrajhar): On a hot Friday afternoon, Colonel Naveen Sharma and a clutch of jawans troop into Owaguri, a nondescript village on the fringes of the Chirang Reserve Forest in Kokrajhar district of western Assam. The villagers, spending a lazy afternoon chatting under the shade of a tree, remain unfazed by the sudden appearance of the uniformed men.

The Owaguri villagers warmly receive the colonel and his men, quickly arrange for comfortable seats and the women offer cool water to the profusely-sweating jawans.

Sharma is here to find out why Owaguri residents aren’t participating in the area’s reforestation. “We’ve been busy tending to the paddy crop in our fields. Once we are done, we’ll join the plantation work,” villager Mangal Narzary explains. Following the assurance, Sharma leaves the hamlet to inspect the progress of sapling plantation at Jharbari block.

He reaches the forest fringes. About 130 Bodo men and women are clearing weeds and digging pits to plant saplings at Jharbari and other severely-deforested reserved forest patches.

He spots many Army men toiling with the villagers, also guarding them from insurgents. In April this year, National Democratic Front of Boroland’s (NDFB) anti-talks faction gunned down eight BSF men at Ultapani, barely 10km from where the plantation work is on.

The plantation effort at Jharbari is part of the 135 Infantry Battalion of Territorial Army’s — also known as 135 Eco Task Force (ETF) — twopronged war in Assam’s Kokrajhar. Apart from rejuvenating the forest, Sharma as commanding officer, ETF, is trying to stop the timber mafia from mowing down the woods.

“We are waging a war against destruction of forests,” Sharma says. The Chirang Reserve Forest, which spills over into Bhutan, has lost nearly 30,000 ha green cover of its 59,526 ha spread, in almost two decades of insurgency in Kokrajhar district.

Sharma’s task force consists of 275 ex-servicemen, Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) forest department personnel and locals.

Since the 135 ETF was raised, 24 sq km of the deforested Chirang reserve has been reforested. About 2 million saplings have been planted since the battalion began field work in 2008.

Livelihood incentives offered by the task force inspired people to undertake afforestation and help rid the reserve of encroachers. Daily wages offered for the job helped drive the villagers.

“Earlier, we had to fell trees and sell the timber for a living. Now we earn our living by planting trees,” Chingring Narzary of Mainapur village says. She is one among many women planting saplings at Jharbari. Each such person earns Rs 120 a day for the job. Last year, the task force ensured daily work and income for villagers.

This year, the Power Grid is funding the plantation drive. “The labourers’ wages are coming from Power Grid,” Lieutenant Colonel S S Dagar, ETF project officer, says.







Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF RED PANDA

China’s Appetite for Bamboo Is Damaging Forests

Published August 12, 2011

Sean Gallagher, for the Pulitzer Center, China

The sound is deafening as metal strikes metal, battering my eardrums. Wood chips whizz past my head and the temperature seems to be rising in this small and dusty workshop. Amid the haze of sawdust, which seems to be enveloping everyone in the room, a team of workers stands over a series of archaic machines.

"Business is getting better and better each year," explains Kuai Liangyou, taking a moment of temporary silence as an opportunity to talk. "We get through nearly 800 bamboo trees a day. That's about 20 tons. The demand is very big. In the peak season, we cannot meet the demand."

Kuai is the manager of a relatively small but highly productive bamboo factory in Changning County, in southern Sichuan. This basic but efficient production line churns out a constant stream of refined bamboo, either being made into furniture or being split into new sets of disposable chopsticks. The factory is one of hundreds in the region that are trying to satisfy the appetite of the Chinese market for this new in-demand resource.

"Sichuan is one of the most densely populated regions in the country," explains Li Yanxia, Sichuan program officer for the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR). "The rapid growth in demand for bamboo resources over the last two decades has caused excessive exploitation of forest resources in the province. This has resulted in serious disturbance and destruction of the biodiversity of ecosystems in natural bamboo forests."

In 1998, China introduced a widespread logging ban in the southwest of China, severely restricting the amount of timber cut in the region. As timber is increasingly felled in other countries to meet China's demand, domestically, attention has swiftly switched to bamboo. It's an incredibly versatile type of wood that can be made into not only chopsticks and furniture, but can also be used in construction and consumed as food. The logging ban has not been applied to bamboo, resulting in a sharp rise in demand for bamboo products.

China produces 57 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks every year, which requires over 1.18 million square meters of forest, according to the Forest Ministry's statistics from 2004 to 2009.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization reports that "the Chinese bamboo industry created a value of $5.5 billion in 2004. The bamboo-based GDP grew by 120 percent from 2000 to 2004, while export earnings reached $600 million, a 20 percent increase." Bamboo removal in China has grown from 260 million tons in 1990 to 1.2 billion tons in 2005. As population rises and economic development continues at a breathtaking pace, heavier pressures are being placed on the forests, continuing this trend of consumption.

"Demand is bigger than supply,” says Li Yugang, the head of Jiulong village, a typical rural hamlet in southern Sichuan which is encircled by bamboo forests. He seems optimistic about the newfound potential of bamboo to bring income to his community. "The first policy was 12 years ago, which said, if you grow bamboo, the government will give you more money. Now, bamboo is 70-80 percent of income in the area. The government has encouraged local people to 'do better', to plant more bamboo in the same area."

This encouragement from the authorities, coupled with the obvious financial gains from planting and harvesting bamboo, has led to widespread over-harvesting and intensive monoculture plantations in many parts of southwest China in recent years. Unbeknownst to many locals, this has resulted in serious negative effects on local ecosystems, worrying environmental and scientific observers.

"During the past 15-20 years, a vast area of natural bamboo forests in many counties in the province has been turned into monoculture forests," says Li of IBAR. "There is an urgent need to demonstrate long-term technical and policy strategies to halt and restore the degraded biodiversity and the natural productivity of the damaged forests. The trends of monoculture forests leads to biodiversity loss and ecosystem service decrease. Local communities believe that monocultures can bring more income. To change this strong belief is the main challenge."

As demand continues to rise, the future seems decidedly uncertain for the bamboo forests of southwest China. This iconic symbol of China, a recurring feature throughout Chinese art, writing and history, is unwittingly involved in a new and impending ecological crisis that is silently gripping this region.

http://pulitzercenter.org/node/9958

Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

A BIG CONGRATS TO MYSS: RAM & PADMINI ARE WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT

A school that children call “theirs”

Padmini and Ram Mani tell SOMA BASU how socially and economically disadvantaged children discover the magic of education in their vibrant school free of cost

Photo: G. Moorthy 

COMPASSIONATE Padmini with her wards and staff members and with husband Ram Mani.

When I walked into the little red brick building called “My School Satya Surabhi (MYSS)”, it looked like a summer camp, set among lush green trees and buzzing with activity. The school was awash with cheer and laughter. Smiling children in bright red uniforms played energetically, practised yoga, sang songs and attended their classes. Vivid art and posters hung along the walls. In the midst of the cacophony of a school, there was a silent discipline and order too.

A shy but confident class VII boy welcomed me to his school and village, and presented me a sapling explaining its special features. “He is an electrician's son,” someone whispered.

Padmini Mani, greying and elegant, emerged with folded hands. Her entrance ushered in a flutter of activities and loving ebullience. The smaller ones hugged her and clung to her and a few dragged her to a cardboard train to sing with them.

When her friend Mark Antrobus fixed up the interview, he had said I would not find a scrap of litter in the school campus. “Neither will you find another school of this kind in the region which has opened its doors only to the children of the toiling and ignored from surrounding villages.”

Unassuming

I knew I was here in Attuvampatti Village, seven km outside Kodailkanal, to interview Padmini and her husband Ram much against their wishes. They wanted only the school to be featured, not them, so that others would be inspired to start similar schools elsewhere.

“We have a wonderful atmosphere here. We take pride in our school and its environment. All children are encouraged to keep the school grounds clean and litter free,” says Padmini, having steered the school through a period of growth in the last decade.

Sitting on two acres of greenery and cooled by the breezes of Palani Hills, MYSS maintains a low profile. There are 102 students enrolled at present, from nursery to Class VIII. The school started 12 years ago in a temporary shed with 20 children of farm workers, petty vendors, daily wagers and migrant labourers. Today, it has come to be the envy of even schools for the well-to-do.

When Ram, a management professional, first came to Kodaikanal in 1993, he fell in love with the verdure. Padmini, then heading the Department of Foreign Languages in The British School at Delhi, came to the town as vice principal of Kodaikanal Christian College. Six years later, the couple's vision for “equality and education, and the right of every child to call a place ‘my school” took shape.

“During a casual conversation, a milkman told us the village needed a school,” says Padmini. “This appeal coupled with the influence of my parents, who taught us service without reward, propelled us into action.”

Starting the school, she admits, was easier than running it.

They put out pamphlets highlighting the school's core values and got 40 applications, but in the first year they could take in only 20 children given the space and availability of teachers. Now, the school's links with the local community stretch beyond Attuvampatti to neighbouring Pallangi and Vilpatti.

The couple asserts their school is “not a commercial venture”. They consider it a secular non-profit educational institution. They charge only one time admission fee of Rs.25, and work to provide quality education, books, class materials, uniforms, noon meals, and extra-curricular activities absolutely free of cost.

A dynamo of energy and ideas, Padmini puts enthusiasm into her students and teachers: “I keep communicating with them and run a continual training programme that ratchets them up.”

Ram is heartened with the many successes of students who integrated into other mainstream schools after class VIII. “When children spend years here playing, learning and relating, they have had a great childhood,” he says. “Examinations become secondary. Our kids are self-assured with a positive outlook.”

Padmini adds that most of the students are doing well either academically or in sports and other fields. “The values we teach them here, they carry through their lives and are equipped to face challenges. Our teachers together ensure that the children gain maximum academic and social benefits from their time at the school, where they develop long-lasting friendships.”

While the students are challenged academically through a range of projects and classwork, sports is also a big part of school life. Chess, yoga and athletics champions have already emerged from the school. The teachers emphasize language and learning through song, dance and drama, and they follow a philosophy of “thematic teaching”, where there is a connectivity between subjects.

This couple, silently trying to change the face of India in one remote corner of the country, are delighted at the decision they made 18 years ago. “We have to build up the institution, individuals do not matter. For us, it is like culmination of life experience here by making an impact,” says Padmini.

But for her and Ram, these children would never have got a chance. Indeed, it has become a different world out here.

Sailent Features

MYSS was declared one of the top 100 schools in India in a national contest called Design for Change last September. The students helped clean and beautify the Vilpatti bus stand and the nearby rural settlement Kota Teru. The school also bagged a special prize in the INTACH Heritage Club competition 2010 and the Bisnoi Trophy for environmental awareness and preservation 2010.

Up to primary level, MYSS is recognized by the Tamil Nadu State Education Department. For middle school, it is under the Open Basic Education Programme of the National Institute of Open Schools, Union Ministry of Human Resources Development.

Raison d'etre of MYSS is value acquisition. Emphasis is on life values like basic hygiene, civic sense, environmental sensitivity, honesty and on becoming a good and responsible citizen.

MYSS is run by the Satya Surabhi Trust. Among the six trustees are Padmini's elder sister Mohini Giri (founder chairperson of National Women's Commission and daughter-in-law of former President V.V. Giri) and Kathak exponent and author Jigyasa Giri.

Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

CSR: The India Perspective: Part I: The Softer Side of Supply Lines

Analyzing India's supply line crisis is needless to say are complex. The most common misconception is that underinvestment in roads, rail and infrastructure are the cause of the problem. This is of course partially true, but the ground reality illuminates that plenty of basic infrastructure exists; it is in fact an issue of strategic metrics preventing development. This is demonstrated in its most extreme form regarding the precarious nature of India's food security and mass need to provide humane amenities to rural communities. It is not so much that India's supply processes are 'archaic' as they are often described, but moreover disjointed, discriminatory and prone to derailment.

Let's take crops as an example. Supply lines from field to market exist. However, the economics of middle traders upset the flow through the well known practice of hoarding. The farmer who uses hard earned rupee to gather his crop into a bull cart, tractor wagon or rented lorry often travels a far distance to the wholesaler 'go-down'. The farmer usually has some speculative second or third hand information on what his goods will fetch on the spot market. Most rely on the wholesale buyer for the current rate. The wholesaler is part of a network of wholesalers that move goods from one hub to another, and each wholesaler in the chain is of course interested in achieving the highest profit for the goods in his go-down. As such, applying elementary supply and demand strategy, he hoards the goods he has until the price rises to a level that satisfies his desired margin. The problem is that each of a dozen wholesalers in the chain are doing the same thing. To worsen the situation, when the farmer arrives at the wholesaler go-down he is met with the sight of the hoarded stock that the wholesaler insists is because there is currently no demand. The farmer is then offered a below market price sum for his goods, which he must take to recoup the costs he has already come out of pocket to bring the goods to the wholesaler. (In some situations, the wholesaler takes the goods from the farmer at the farm and again the farmer is out-of-the-loop of the market price for his goods and will accept a depressed price for the goods as a convenience factor for not having to himself assume the cost of transporting his goods. (The realities are also often complicated by tenant farmer dynamics which charges farmers for not meeting crop quotas, which creates a downward economic cycle leading to inescapable bonded labor. http://bit.ly/etz0ct)

The inflationary issues are created by the wholesalers and futures brokers who hoard the perishable goods until the price rises as high as the market will handle. This 'hold-out' hoarding results in food inflation and the often publicized rotting of food in go-downs. It is not that the goods rot because they cannot reach the marketplace, it is that they are systematically prevented from reaching the market by agri-profiteers.

So what's the solution? As this example demonstrates is that no matter how many roads are paved and rails laid will the supply line issue be resolved. The weakest link in the supply chain, and the link that bears the greatest stress is the farmer. The annual rash of farmer suicides during harvest time is evidence of the fact that farmers, even with a healthy harvest, are victimized by a system that makes farming an unsustainable profession. The problem rests with the lack of farmer empowerment. Recent trials of farmer networks and 'knowledge centers' have put key business data like weather, harvest scheduling and market rates in the hands of farmers through the humble cell phone. (The pioneering for such endeavors goes without doubt to the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5967/808.full   http://www.mssrf.org/  'E farming' is key to empowering and modernizing the business side of farming and assuring the farmer is equipped with the basic data sets needed to be a competitive and successful player and self sufficient professional. (A great example is PGI's good friend Venkat of eFarm, Chennai http://www.efarm.in/ ) This is new but welcome technology that is changing the lives of many farmers. Not so long ago farmers produced goods only for their village and surrounding taluk. However with the massive swell of urban population, (who rely on millions of rural micro farmers for food security) requires that the farmer is brought into the supply chain as an equal participant. Failure to do so is a human rights issue that has already claimed the life of too many a farmer at their own hand. The aftermath are widowed mothers of small children who often are ostracized and become destitute migrant field workers. Their children robbed of opportunity for a sustainable home and education. During one of PGI's internal CSR initiatives, PGI learned first hand of this dilemma when it volunteered professional services to  My School Satya Surabhi free primary school. http://satyasurabhi.com/  This amazing school for nearly a decade has provided free high quality education to the children of single working mothers and underprivledged in the rural backlands of the Palani Hills. It is a replicable model that can resolve the pitiful situation of the over stressed and broken rural education system.

Whether it be farmer empowerment, dismantling of the go-down profiteers structure or development of free schools for the children of migrant workers, the key supply line issue is one of networks. So, why don't these networks already exist? One need only skim the surface to find that plenty of data exists on these problems but little initiative exists on the ground. Any initiatives that do exist are micro pilot scale and lack traction to become a movement. Why? The answer can be found in the lack of connection between the scores of 'clubs' that analyze and apply solutions.

Another example, will help explain. When PGI was developing the Surabhi Bamboo company http://www.surabhibamboo.com/, its intent was to design a best of breed vertically integrated enterprise that included everything from the harvest of bamboo, its propagation and even the adoption of villages where workers and their families reside. The efficiencies continued through the treatment of the bamboo, the processing, the bringing to market and the marketing of the goods where they could receive the highest value addition. What resulted is an elegant model of closed loop network supply lines that demonstrate exactly how efficient India can be if processes are properly planned, implemented and socially fair. However, during the research phase for Surabhi Bamboo, PGI learned something very interesting that became an initial challenge for feasibility. PGI's research and countless meetings with all horizontals along the vertical demonstrated that invisible barriers exist that prevent a natural network to emerge which would allow supply line facility. PGI deemed this the 'club factor'. In short, the scientist club enjoyed their own company, the applied science club enjoyed their own company, the engineer processing club enjoyed their own company. At each of the meetings they shared with PGI their frustration that the bamboo industry is not taking off in India despite massive inventories and incentives. It was true that missions such as the National Bamboo Mission, Labor Department and CIBART had ample facilities for the setting up of a bamboo enterprise. However these could be categorized as in-the-box and out-of-the-box. The 'box' being the process machine line. Outside the box were the elements necessary to create a sustainable business. These include foremost raw material and marketing. Failure to create the connection between the innovative propagation clubs and introduction to private marketing platforms prevented any of the bamboo boxes to achieve the presumed level of output and success.

The best example was at the recent National Seminar on Bamboo technology and propagation last month in Bangalore. The room was full of scientists, a few representatives of bamboo business, the mandatory government guest of honor and interestingly, a contingent of farmers. After one very well rehearsed power point presentation by a senior member of the propagation club, a farmer raised his hand and asked the $50k question...'so, if I plant this variety of bamboo in my field, how much will I get per pole.' The speaker without a straightforward answer, looked to the distinguished club panel, who looked equally puzzled. The eventual response was very nebulous and never involved a rupee amount. The obvious reality of any industry is that unless someone needs the good, its impossible to know what to pay for the good. The trouble is that the processing club seldom connects with the propagation club despite the natural relationship they share, viz. The development of a bamboo industry in India. This is not to discount the clubs' good work and sincerity, it is the plain fact that most scientists are not comfortable with the 'business-side' and most processing centers are so focused on making sure their machines are able to process that there is little business analysis 'outside the box.'

A sound network such as the one designed into the Surabhi Bamboo enterprise would have made answering the farmer's question easy. The integration of science and propagation as an input factor of the processing costs and the market price would have made quoting the farmer a price per pole an easy analysis. A quick calculation of the three year input costs of propagation necessary to bring the bamboo clump and the quality of the bamboo that builds value addition to the market for the consumable results in a fixed number that can be quoted the farmer. With that knowledge the farmer (whose quantum of land is his means of revenue) can determine whether it makes sense to reserve boarder areas to the inter-cropping of bamboo. Issues of soil preservation, carbon credits and micro-climate considerations are other factors that can be included in the price per pole as a value addition that farmers appreciate and in sum, empowered. The farmer knows what he getting at market, the processor has the peace of mind of secure raw material at a fixed cost, and the supply line is established.

This same logic can be applied to any commodity but frankly it requires a broad focused plan analyzed through a business and economic lens through professionals accustom to setting up turnkey businesses. PGI has further found that the mere collection of data into a detailed plan report is often enough to generate private capital investment interest in agri-business, social corporations and supply line solutions. http://www.slideshare.net/ecologicalfox/elf-pgi-report-final1 It is therefore PGI's opinion that India supply line crisis cannot be legislated away, regulated away or paved over with new roads. The solution exists in the entrepreneurial and CSR private sector through efficiency process development that is a natural part of modern business practice.

In the next installment of CSR: The India Perspective: PGI will provide COP regarding the need and benefits of integrating technology with traditional and cultural processes that provide best entry potential for successful enterprises that are mindful of the indigenous CSR embedded in India's traditional culture.  This combination makes India a uniquely equipped platform to become the most sustainable nation on Earth.








First, of course, is the network of those you and your group need to do your day-to-day work. These are people in other units of the company, and outside, on whom and on whose work you depend to do your work. This is your operational network. Those in it don't work for you but your success depends on them. It also includes those who depend on you and your group to do their work. Though you may not need them, their demands on you can have a big impact on how you spend your time and attention.

Your developmental network is the collection of individuals whom you trust and to whom you can turn for a sympathetic ear, advice (depending on their experience), and a place to discuss and explore professional options. One way or another, these are people who help you grow as a manager and leader.

You create both operational and developmental networks naturally. The people in your operational network are those you must work with every day. And most of us naturally turn to knowledgeable friends and acquaintances for personal help with professional dilemmas. You may not have thought about these two collections as networks, but they are. In our experience, most managers spend too little time and care on building and maintaining them. They're mostly forged by immediate need and happenstance, and they often lack key people. But most managers create them, if only in rudimentary form.

The third network you need — your strategic network — is the one many managers don't create at all because it doesn't happen in the everyday course of work and life. A strategic network is about tomorrow. It comprises those who can help you do two critical tasks: first, define what the future will bring and second, prepare for and succeed in that future. There will be some overlap between this network and your operational network, but the differences are likely to be significant, too.  

Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

Defining CSR: The India Perspective: True sustainability versus a goodwill wash.

Defining CSR: The India Perspective:  
True sustainability versus a goodwill wash.

-The need for definition and integrated processes, viz. the Need for Corporate ‘Sacred Groves’

-Frank Costanzo

Director, Peerless Green Initiatives

When one of the fathers of India’s green revolution approached PGI in 2009 requesting assistance to resolve a decade old environmental disaster, we accepted with honor the opportunity to act as the facilitation arm for the stakeholders and NGO’s. A year later, PGI’s diligent pro-action was rewarded by being shown the exit, the primary reason being that PGI was a ‘for profit’ company. The sad reality was that PGI’s plans of action had upset an established ‘disaster economy’ that had cropped in the wake of the original toxic tort. For the members of that industry, mediation of the environmental tragedy would end a steady stream of funding. It was a hard but valuable lesson, but it illuminated the challenges and perceptions faced by private social initiatives (and the realities of a few disingenuous NGO using crisis as a means of revenue.) Can private companies do good while making profit, or are corporates doomed to the perception of acting only for the furtherance of bottom line gains? It all depends on ones understanding of CSR and what it means to be profitable.

These perceptions were recently unintentionally highlighted by the Hindu newspaper in their coverage of a corporate ceremony meant to illustrate the importance of CSR. The corporate had made a sizeable donation to a youth organization. The director of the corporation explained the importance of CSR and that corporations should be philanthropic and not pursue CSR for profit.

I would agree with the director’s assessment as it relates to the donation to charity. I categorically disagree as it relates to CSR. Again, the issue is definitional: What is CSR? What is profit? The director’s misinterpretation of CSR is an example of the increasingly common trend: a misunderstanding of CSR principles; and intentional ‘green washing’ of actions and processes for the appearance of CSR.

CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility. Terrible name. No wonder the confusion. The ‘S’ should be replaced with the word ‘Sustainable’. CSR is the act of looking at a company’s internal and external processes and determining whether it is in fact sustainable. For example, PGI has spent years analyzing this paradigm and came to the decision that the core prinicples of sustaibable business are contained in the maxims of the 10 principles of the UN Millennium Goal Global Compact. (See Footnote) It is an overarching guide for analytics and a roadmap for the companies we design and facilitate. They are:

Human Rights

• Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

• Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour

• Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

• Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

• Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and

• Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

• Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

• Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

• Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-Corruption

• Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

Using the GC lens, a company’s charitable donation may or may not be considered CSR. Charity is just that, charity. CSR and charity need to be distinguished. Whether a company feels morally or ethically obligated to donate revenues to charity is a singular discussion. A company’s ethical and moral decision to adopt CSR is a mandatory multi-channel discussion. Viz, actions that may be charitable but do not address that particular company’s internal and external sustainability are simply not CSR. To categorize the action as such is a pale gesture that does little more than discount true CSR and increase its misperception. Nevertheless, the action may be a generous act of charity.

Let me explain why this is the case. Times of India last week (Feb 12, 2011 p. 4, Chennai Edition, Arun Janardhanan) ran a terrific piece on the restoration of ‘Sacred Groves’ throughout Tamil Nadu. PGI has always maintained that India is the one place in the world where CSR and true conservationism could take hold in a meaningful way. The reason is that India-particularly in the South- is steeped in tradition and culture – a culture with an ingrained relationship between man and nature. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Sacred-groves-regain-pulse/articleshow/7471966.cms

PGI has always maintained that India is the one place in the world where CSR and true conservationism could take hold in a meaningful way.

Based inter alia on Vedic scripture. As part of the Vedic scriptures, society, nature, heaven, earth are all inextricably related. One of the finest examples of this is the concept of Sacred Groves which are made up of plants and trees that each community should nurture and preserve. Each sacred plant was deemed by the Vedics to have qualities necessary for sustainable nature and society. The depth of the relationship went so far as to correlate the sacred plants with the 27 constellations of Hindu astrology.

The recent news of groups going out and restoring sacred groves is indeed inspiring and could be the simple centerpiece of a CSR program of every company that occupies land, however small.

The wisdom of the Vedics made it such that the adoption of sacred groves in each community provided that community with a constant source of nutritious food, preservation of microclimate, a 24 hour pharmacy of medicinal herbs, a watershed, a source of rapidly renewable building materials and conservatory of endemic biodiversity. First millennium sustainable processes at its finest, lost recently to growing population, land mis management and short sighted agricultural expansions. So perfect is the Sacred Grove ethos, that PGI incorporated the concept in its landmark ag-business model (Eco Logical Fox) as it pertains to inter-cropping, carbon capture, biodiversity/micro-climate protection and conservation. The recent news of groups going out and restoring sacred groves is indeed inspiring and could be the simple centerpiece of a CSR program of every company that occupies land, however small. In fact, last year PGI presented its Peerless Award to the Eco-Club of Senior Secondary School, Madras for their self-initiated sacred grove project on an unused patch of barren property behind their main school building.. Sensational.

Coming to the point, CSR is about analysis and planning. Each company determining what impacts it has on the environment and society. The sum of which create outputs only possible through crowd sourcing. In other words, each company takes care of its impact as a part of its business ethic, thereby alleviating the task of legislating solutions by already overly stressed Governments.

The end result? Nature will profit, society will profit and in turn punitive taxation to stem irresponsible corporates will be reduced and the markets will profit. So in a sense, CSR is all about profit. PGI has found that approaching businesses with spreadsheets demonstrating these profits is a far better CSR tool than sensational photos of polluted lakes and distressed animals. Corporations exist for one reason and one reason only – generation of revenue for profit. If you are like the activist-journalist that expressed ‘suspicion’ of PGI and all corporations –even those with noble missions- then you’re living in a world unreal…and in fact unsustainable. The future will be governed by whether commerce can live in harmony with nature and social justice. Integration of commercial endeavor with conservation and social justice is an absolute ethical requirement of the times. The massive paradigm shift necessary to meet the challenge of feeding, sheltering, clothing and providing safe water to tomorrow’s 9 billion human inhabitants will be solved through corporate ethics and innovations and nothing else. Good intentions, Government legislation and piecemeal conservative practices will not change the course of the rapidly approaching tipping point.

Integration of commercial endeavor with conservation and social justice is an absolute ethical requirement of the times.

Profit: Only a profit model of natural and human economy and capital can influence the human mind and initiate change. This requires a different perception of the word ‘profit’ and the end of governments compartmentalizing and coddling social and environmental issues for which they are unable to execute integrated plans. Only through cross-cutting networked approaches, designed into plans of CSR, based on achievable outputs (aka profits) can mankind and economy reverse the trend and become sustainable.

CSR is ultimately about profitability in every sense of the word. It doesn’t matter whether the company makes solar panels or drills for oil. Their objective is identical. Further, CEO’s and CFO’s of corporations want profits they can measure on a P/L at the end of the year. Genuine CSR demonstrates how properly managed internal and external processes can create parallel profit streams to their workers, their families, their environment and their nation. And if that is not enough to convince the ‘board’, CSR case studies show conclusively that those parallel social and eco profits create ‘real’ corporate profit in the form of increased revenues, goodwill brand equity, lower overheads, reduced taxation and a healthier workforce with lower attrition. This forensic and evidence driven approach makes CSR a concept boards can accept, because they understand it in terms they are accustom to dealing.

Genuine CSR demonstrates how properly managed internal and external processes can create a parallel profit streams to their workers, their families, their environment and their nation.

The PGI vision is that Boards will not need to be explained why installing a solar panel (without more) is simply not CSR. They will instead look deeply at their processes, their efficiencies their waste streams and recognize the interdependence of their endeavors and the need for cross-cutting strategies, medium services and integrated approaches toward sustainability. They will voluntarily adopt and allocate resources to employee and community welfare schemes with an eye on outputs that measure social success and ultimately their own bottom lines. They will adopt processes and embrace infrastructure that increase their efficiency and reduce overhead; and as they progress will realize the interconnectivity of their actions on their bottom line running companion with natural capital resource profit . They will dig deeper and extend their influence further as their business grows due to their greater definition of profits. CSR will then become part of the corporate value chain - its ethos- and if each company applies these principles it will become the standard ethic that is scientifically taught with clarity in law schools and business schools and grade schools across the world.

Just like it is easier for one billion people to each plant one tree than a Government to implement legislation and facilitate the planting of a billion trees, so too will corporates create the Sacred Grove of sustainability through adoption of true CSR. So with the definitions imparted in this introduction, PGI invites you to follow our monthly installment, each highlighting one of the 10 Global Compact principles; and part of our virtual symposium re the ground realities of CSR in India, the product of which will be PGI’s COP contribution to UN, TEEB, CBD and GC. A dialogue of the integrated processes necessary to create the ‘profits’ needed to assure economic, social and natural capital resource security.

info@peerlessgreen.net



Footnote: The Global Compact is one of a number of metrics that PGI uses as a guide to designing and implementing CSR and other soci-eco-business models including the Eco Logical Fox agri-business model.  PGI is also aware of some of the criticisms of the GC as it relates to making concrete the scope of each principle and modes of monitoring.  The coming issues of Green Eye will address these and other issues, and prefers the GC's current framework as less rigid and self-monitoring as that respects the natural evolution of business ethics necessary for the GC to be a living constitution and platform.  Allowing corporations to determine ethical standards is a proven method of adoption versus impressing strict dogma.  "Those convinced against their will, are of the same opinion still." (attributed to Ben Franklin as modified by D Carnegie.)




Source : A man convinced against his will; is of the same opinion still. Source Unknown
Quotes
Dictionary of Quotes - quotes



Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

Just like it is easier for one billion people to each plant one tree than a Government to implement legislation to plant a billion trees, so too will corporates create the Sacred Grove of sustainability through the portal of true CSR.