Foreign direct investment in India is set to swell in coming years as investors stomach a lack of transparency, poor infrastructure and policy paralysis in their search for growth, professional services firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) said in a report.
Overseas investment in Asia's third-largest economy rose for the first time in three years in 2011, the report noted, as global investors put their faith in rising salaries, an expanding middle-class and a large and cheap labour force.
"The fundamentals that make India attractive to investors remain intact," Farokh T. Balsara, head of markets at Ernst & Young India, wrote in the report released on Sunday.
"However, our respondents continue to cite inadequate infrastructure and a lack of governance and transparency as major obstacles to investment."
Foreign direct investment (NYSE:FDI - NewsFDInull) in India rose 13 percent to $50.81 billion in the first 11 months of 2011 frhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifom a year earlier, while the total number of projects rose 25 percent to 864, the report said, citing data from the Financial Times' FDI Intelligence service.
For graphic on E&Y's India attractiveness survey see:
http://link.reuters.com/ruk36s
For graphic on India's GDP and industrial output see:
http://link.reuters.com/wys35s
Business confidence in India has declined over the past year, as economic growth slowed from an annual rate of 8.5 percent in 2010/11 to about 7 percent, and corruption and policy paralysis discouraged investment in big projects.
Just over half of chief executives in India are still "very confident" of revenue growth in the next 12 months, down from 88 percent a year ago, according to a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The majority of companies surveyed by E&Y were confident in the long-term prospects for investment in India, given sluggish growth in the United States and debt problems in Europe.
Almost 70 percent of 382 international companies surveyed said they plan to increase or maintain their operations in India, said the report, which was prepared for the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.
Just 19 percent said they had no plans to enter the country or were preparing to withdraw.
Robust domestic demand, cost competitiveness and a cheap, ever-growing labour force were cited India's key benefits.
"Although the ongoing global uncertainty...(has) prompted some discomfort among global investors to make long-term commitments, India's inherent advantages and its proven resilience to counter macroeconomic challenges far outweigh these concerns," Balsara said.
Automakers led the way in investing in India last year, boosting spending by 46 percent, E&Y said.
Technology and life sciences companies were other big spenders, while spending by foreign companies on infrastructure and retail projects declined.
Ford Motor Co, which said this month it would spend $142 million on its Indian operations, and the Renault-Nissan alliance are among companies that are stepping up investment in India.
Other companies, particularly retailers, are not so sure.
Sweden's IKEA, the world's biggest furniture retailer, said this week that would be difficult to set up shop in India because of complex government sourcing rules announced this month.
Plans by companies such as Wal-Mart were set backhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif in December when the government, under pressure from political allies, abandoned a long-mooted policy to open up the supermarket sector to direct investment by foreign companies.
Source: Yahoo finance
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
social swarming: transparency matters!
Transparent Chennai, a group of enthusiastic youth in Chennai aggregates, creates and disseminates data and research about important civic issues facing Chennai, including those issues facing the poor. Their work aims to empower residents by providing them useful, easy-to-understand information that can better highlight citizen needs, shed light on government performance, and improve their lives in the city, one issue at a time. Our goal is to enable residents, especially the poor, to have a greater voice in planning and city governance.
They actually creates maps and data to understand issues facing city residents. Transparent Chennai believes that a lack of data has sometimes allowed for government to evade its responsibilities to provide basic entitlements to all city residents, and to exercise force with impunity over informal settlements and workers.They work closely with individuals and citizens’ groups to create data that can help them counter inaccurate or incomplete government data, and make better claims on the government for their rights and entitlements.
Some of their data is available in the form of interactive maps, which can be layered on top of one another to contextualize information. Mapping can provide useful information to citizens, identify gaps in government data, create insights into policymaking, help create more accountability for elected representatives and bureaucracies, and help residents to “think spatially” at a time of rapid urbanization.
TC team members also conduct in-depth research into select issues of importance in the city. We have conducted research into urban governance, electoral accountability, participatory planning processes, pedestrian issues, slums, sanitation, and solid waste management, details about all of which can be found on the site.
Transparent Chennai started the Ward Accountability Experiment, where they are using citizen efforts to create data about issues in urban services at the ward level, data that could potentially be used to hold elected representatives accountable for making improvements.
At the MP and MLA level, individual legislators are rarely associated with particular bills, and voting happens almost exclusively along party lines. As a result, when most organizations collect information about the performance of elected representatives, they look at other pieces of available information: their attendance in the legislative council or assembly, the number and kinds of questions they asked while they were there, and their spending from their local development funds. Ward councilors are slightly different: in Chennai, they propose resolutions usually related to issues affecting their constituency that are then approved by the Council and implemented. “However, we realized that simply collecting information about resolutions, questions, and attendance, did not tell us the entire story about a ward councilor’s performance. We were also interested in outcomes – how did the ward actually fare under their leadership with respect to urban services?” the team told.
This is a hard question to answer because of the paucity and inconsistency of data available to connect a legislator’s performance with outcomes at the constituency level- especially those of the city and the ward (High Powered Expert Committee 2011, 45). Official statistics on most aspects of city life, such as access to sanitation, extent and quality of sidewalks, slums, and public health are incomplete, and almost never disaggregated to the ward level. Even when data is present, it is often skewed as it fails to record (or even acknowledge) the deficiency in urban services to many of the city’s residents because they are seen to exist in the realm of the ‘informal’; like residents in a slum.
This is why Transparent Chennai started the Ward Accountability Experiment, where they are using citizen efforts to create data about issues in urban services at the ward level, data that could potentially be used to hold elected representatives accountable for making improvements. they began their efforts in a single ward. Each Saturday, nearly a hundred volunteers from civil society groups and colleges throughout the city walked around the streets of ward 176 (formerly ward 152 and parts of 151) in the southern part of the city, to capture data about three kinds of outcomes: public sanitation, garbage collection, walkability. they used paper maps and pencils to mark locations of piles of garbage and measured their size, and marked the locations of dustbins and whether they were usable. We found public bathrooms, and recorded their conditions. TC also evaluated the road’s walkability, marking locations of broken sidewalks and problems with crossing the street. they also took photographs and videos, and filled out quick surveys to supplement the information in the map. During the survey, also tested a mobile-app built for them by a local company to see whether GPS readings from it were accurate enough for wider use as a tool for documenting civic issues.
The volunteer team worked with Transparent Chennai to digitize the data, converting it from paper to spreadsheets and digital maps that could be analyzed.
The experiment yielded strong data that underscored some of their suspicions about local conditions. 40 of 111 (36%) dustbins on 87 roads that CT covered were unusable, and piles of garbage were most prevalent in the poorest parts of the ward. Only 2 of 11 public toilets met basic standards for usability (they had water, lights, and did not have any blockages). And only three out of the twenty roads that they surveyed scored well on walkability, while the rest required improvements!
At the end of the process, they have held a public meeting where we invited all the candidates for ward councilor, as well as residents from the ward. TC shared the data and analysis with attendees, and invited councilor candidates to share with us their plans for the ward. Candidates came from four political parties, the BJP, AIADMK, Congress and the DMK (although the last candidate came far too late to contribute to the meeting). All of them promised to take action based on the information, but both residents and press covering the event expressed skepticism about their ability and willingness to follow through on their promises.
For the mapping, we used low-tech paper maps, so anyone can use these tools, not just those who have access to smart phones and are familiar with the Internet. We believe that this is a crucial element to making these tools inclusive. Using our experiences from the Experiment, we will be refining the methodologies, and making them available in the form of Toolkits in both English and Tamil on our website. Our hope is that we will be able to assist volunteers from many other wards carry out similar exercises locally.
The Transparent Chennai team was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the volunteers, who came week after week to map local conditions and to digitize data.
“But what we are most excited about is the promise behind the experiment – that citizens can actually come together and create the data they need for greater accountability of elected representatives” the team states.
Reference: http://www.accountabilityindia.in/accountabilityblog/2340-mapping-local-accountability
http://www.transparentchennai.com/
High Powered Expert committee 2011, Report on Indian Infrastructure and Services, High Powered expert Committee.
Roy, A 2009, ‘Why India cannot plan its cities: informality, insurgence and the idiom of urbanization’,Planning Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 76-87.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Youth social swarming : Cyclothon for Clean Yamuna by Swechha
Swechha, a youth-run, youth-focused NGO operating from Delhi, India, engaged in the issues of environment and social development was started life as the ‘We for Yamuna’ campaign in 2000, launched by a student volunteer activist group. They have three cross-cutting focus areas which run throughout our varied programmes: environment and education, youth and civil society and active citizenship. On the 22nd of January 2012, the Yamuna Cyclothon, a Swechha initiative, gathered over 1,000 citizens, who cycled along the length of the river Yamuna to pledge their support to Delhi’s ailing river and reinforce their commitment to be environmentally conscious citizens.
The first thing that the Cyclothon does well is to put the “issue” front and center. The event is meant to highlight the sad state of the Yamuna River, which they describe as Delhi’s lifeline. By having cyclists literally travel along it, the event will draw immediate focus to the pollution plaguing the river and may also encourage more people to volunteer for the cause.
Instead of merely having the Cyclothon, the event’s organizers have been careful to build a series of events around the Cyclothon to attract and sustain interest. These range from flash mobs and smart mobs to presentations at schools and universities across the city – raising the profile and scope of the event. None of these “sub-events” would have been too difficult to organize, yet they lend tremendous credence by converting the image of the Cyclothon from an isolated event to a movement. You see, people merely attend events; but they want to become a part of a movement.
People turned up to do their bit for the river cycle marathon, probably the largest seen in Delhi in the recent past, wound its way across heavy traffic through Civil Lines and the Wazirabad Road before hitting the old Railway bridge. Cyclists took a U-turn from there and cycled back through the Ridge. "The cyclothon serves two purposes. First of all it is our endeavour to take people to the river and have them connect to this natural heritage. A substantial part of our 22km cycling stretch will be along the river, starting from Wazirabad to the Loha Pul. The second purpose of this project of course is to promote cycling among people, especially in a city like Delhi," added Jha. However, those who turned up definitely did not need any further motivation to cycle. Girish Gandhi, a businessman turned up with his son from Ashok Nagar because he "loves cycling " and wanted to do his bit for the Yamuna. "The government has done a lot for the river but unfortunately there are no results to prove that. If cycling draws attention to the plight of the river, I am more than happy cycling for it," he said. Arnav Agarwal, a 10-year-old who turned up accompanied by his equally enthusiastic father, said he loved cycling and was glad to be able to raise awareness about the river. "I love cycling and am hoping this morning will be a lot of fun," he beamed. Swechha reported that 350 people had officially registered for the rally but 100 volunteers, including foreign nationals who are working with the NGO and about 150 cycling club members joined in the cyclothon. Of the registered participants, 150 rode on bikes especially organized by Hero Cycles, co-organisers of the event.
References:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Braving-the-chill-for-a-cause-pedalling-to-save-lifeline/articleshow/11597305.cms
http://nvonews.com/2012/01/18/cycling-drive-for-clean-yamuna/
http://onionlive.com/2012/01/18/cyclothon-for-clean-yamuna/
Social Changemaker : sanitary napkins for grassroot women in India
In our country where population is touching 100 crores, the value of sanitary napkins used by women exceeds 1000 crores annually and it is increasing year after year. In India manufacturing of these sanitary napkins is in the hands of very few companies, mostly controlled by multi-nationals. The set of machines used are very expensive, the price of each set running in to crores. Most of the raw materials used are also imported. Even for middle class women, napkins sold in the market are becoming expensive.
Few Indian women can afford sanitary towels. But one social entrepreneur aims to change that, and provide an income too.
Few Indian women can afford sanitary towels. But one social entrepreneur aims to change that, and provide an income too.
Sanitary napkins manufacturing unit
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The road to creating the world's first low-cost machine for making sanitary towels begins with a man who wore a sanitary towel himself. In 1998, Arunachalam Muruganantham was a workshop helper who lived below the poverty line in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. His research into sanitary towels began when he caught his wife, Shanti, trying to slip away with some filthy rags. When questioned, she said the choice was between buying towels for herself or buying milk for the family.
Her situation isn't unique: 88% of women in India resort to using ashes, newspapers, dried leaves and even husk sand during their periods, according to a report by market research group AC Nielsen called Sanitatary Protection: Every Woman's Health Right. As a result of these unhygienic practices, more than 70% of the women suffer from reproductive tract infections, increasing the risk of contracting associated cancers.
Faced with a challenge, Muruganantham decided to create a low-cost towel for his wife. His entrepreneurial spirit emerged quite early when his father, a handloom weaver, died and Muruganantham had to drop out of high school at 14. His mother earned a tiny amount as a farm worker. To supplement these wages, he began looking for low-cost business opportunities that addressed a need.
Cooking and delivering breakfast to factory workers pressed for time was his first successful venture, but he had to abandon it when he received threats from a competitor who copied his idea. At 15, he joined a workshop where he worked on gates and windows.
Bored by the repetitive designs, he adapted decorative Rangoli patterns to the metalwork and became so popular for his craftsmanship that he started his own workshop. For a child who grew up selling fireworks, sugarcane, lamps and statues of Ganesha, crafting a sanitary towel didn't seem like a big deal.
He started out by purchasing the best quality cotton he could find and made a few samples. Unaware of menstrual cycles, he presented them to his wife and demanded immediate test results. But his wife and sisters refused to discuss his creations with him.
"I was so consumed with research that I'd be up at the crack of dawn, to visit my sisters and ask them about it," he says. When his sisters saw him coming, they'd shout loudly to his wife next door to say that if he was going to ask them about towels, he'd better go back home. Undaunted, he approached female medical students and, when they refused to enter into discussion, gave them feedback forms. Convinced that he was using sanitary towels as an excuse to get close to other women, his wife left him a year and half after he started his research.
With no women willing to discuss Muruganantham's handmade sanitary towels in any depth, he decided to test them himself. Collecting goat's blood from a butcher shop and treating it chemically to prevent coagulation, he wore a bladder-and-tube contraption and women's underwear for a week. His homemade uterus would release a small dose of blood whenever pressed.
Unsatisfactory results prompted him to try another approach. He distributed the towels free and asked women to return the used ones. "It wasn't easy," says Muruganantham. "They thought I would use it for black magic." For his mother, stumbling upon a storeroom full of used sanitary towels was the final straw. She left too.
Muruganantham's breakthrough came at the end of two years of testing different materials. He figured out that towels were made of pine wood cellulose derived from the bark of the tree. He pretended to be a millionaire interested in setting up a manufacturing unit and approached American manufacturers via email with the help of local teachers. The manufacturers sent him board-like sheets that he puzzled over for 10 days until he tore them in half to reveal compressed fibres.
Reclaiming the fibres into usable cellulose, Muruganantham discovered, required a machine costing more than £300,000. "I decided to make a simple version of this machine, to re-engineer it," he says. It took him more than four years of trial and error to fabricate one in his workshop. Two years later, in 2006, his machine won the award for the best innovation for the betterment of society from the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai. And he was finally able to persuade his family to come back.
Looking at Muruganantham, it isn't immediately apparent that you are meeting a man who endured public ridicule for years, or received a presidential award for innovation. Softly spoken and unassuming, this 46-year-old inventor leaves you howling with laughter as he narrates his tales. The ability to mock himself is one of his chief charms. "Women fled at the sight of me; people used to call me mental and wondered if I had weird diseases," he recalls. "I was even suspected of being possessed by a bad spirit. No one used to come near me during full moons because of that. I had to meet what friends I had in secret."
Passionate about social change, he presents his deeply held convictions without inhibition, which makes him a novelty in the conservative society that surrounds him. He drives his own car, doesn't have a secretary and lives a quiet life – all of which confuses people who are used to seeing more obvious signs of wealth or fame.
Currently more than 600 machines made by his start-up company, Jayaashree Industries, are installed across 23 states in India. In spite of numerous offers, Muruganantham refuses to sell his innovation to the corporate world. "I didn't take the money route because I saw my parents struggle for survival," he explains. "I knew that this machine could provide a sustainable livelihood for many rural women."
His company sells the £1,600 machines directly to rural women with the help of bank loans, as well as through NGOs and women's self-help groups. An operator can learn the entire towel-making process in three hours and then employ three others to help with processing and distribution.
A basic machine produces 1,000 sanitary towels a day; the pneumatic version churns out 3,000. Women pack around six to eight towels in a packet and sell them for as little as 13 rupees (16p). On average, each woman earns the equivalent of £30 to £65 a month; in comparison, farm workers earn between 35p and 85p a day.
The towel-making machine transforms cellulose into sterilised towels in a four-part process. In the first stage, it chops up wood using a powerful motor. Then the operator compresses the pulp manually into a towel shape by controlling a core-forming unit with a foot pedal. They wrap each towel with a non-woven fabric and seal them with another pedal unit. Finally, they sterilise the towels by exposing them to ultraviolet light, trimming the end product and affixing strips before packing.
The entire system operates on a woman-to-woman basis. Women making the towels spread awareness of the product locally, eventually helping others make the shift to this more hygienic method of control.
"I am trying to create a second white revolution," says Muruganantham. Setting up 100,000 units, he says, will generate employment for one million women. "No one is bothered about uneducated and illiterate people. Through this model, they can live with dignity."
It is hard to create a revolution when the entire topic is largely taboo. "Women cannot ask family members to buy it for them, because they have shyness as a problem," says Nilendu Chatterjee, manager of the corporate social responsibility division of Jindal Steel & Power in Orissa. The company has installed four pneumatic machines that employ 32 women through its Shodashi (sweet 16) programme. Currently selling towels to women in 189 villages with the aid of nurses and midwives, it hopes to expand that number to 350 villages in the next two years.
However difficult it might be, Muruganantham isn't deterred. Seven months after visiting a tribal village in Uttarakhand, he received a call from a mother who told him that her little girl was going to school. It was the first time a woman had made enough money to give her daughter an education in the history of that community. This, Muruganantham says, was "his greatest compliment"
reference: http://newinventions.in/
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