Monday, November 02, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
GMR Hyderabad is a big airport ..
Almost as big as Bangalore Int'l airport..
Return to Bangalore.. Waiting for the 3.20 Jet to Bangalore..
ge..
Friday, October 30, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
"Where's my Nobel Prize", an article by Chetan Bhagat ..TOI.
Do we really care for talent in this country ..?
Are our talents getting burnt out at a very early age? Are we good only at reproducing and copying and not creating something new ? Are we muting our creativity ?
Else who can explain the brilliant brains in the country getting qualified through the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), the toughest entrance exam in the world, for admission to the prestigious IITs, wilting from the academic scenario after their thirties ?
Are the ancient caste system, regulations and bureaucracy muffling the talent which sprouts here and there quite randomly..?
Read on, good article.. by the young IIT Bombay trained, famous writer ..
ge..
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Maldives holds cabinet meeting underwater to protest against global warming that will submerge Maldives..
Authorities in the Maldives are taking their fight against global warming to new depths by holding an underwater cabinet meeting on October 17 to raise awareness about climate change. The country is one of the lowest-lying nations in the world and may soon disappear under rising sea levels
Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed signs the decree of the underwater cabinet meeting off Girifushi Island.
Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed surfaces from the underwater cabinet meeting off Girifushi Island.
george (courtesy Associated Press..)
Thursday, October 01, 2009
About ITC's echoupal ..
ITC's Agri Business Division, one of India's largest exporters of agricultural commodities, has conceived e-Choupal as a more efficient supply chain aimed at delivering value to its customers around the world on a sustainable basis.
The e-Choupal model has been specifically designed to tackle the challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture, characterised by fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of numerous intermediaries, among others.
'e-Choupal' also unshackles the potential of Indian farmer who has been trapped in a vicious cycle of low risk taking ability - low investment - low productivity - weak market orientation - low value addition - low margin - low risk taking ability. This made him and Indian agribusiness sector globally uncompetitive, despite rich & abundant natural resources.
Such a market-led business model can enhance the competitiveness of Indian agriculture and trigger a virtuous cycle of higher productivity, higher incomes, enlarged capacity for farmer risk management, larger investments and higher quality and productivity.
Further, a growth in rural incomes will also unleash the latent demand for industrial goods so necessary for the continued growth of the Indian economy. This will create another virtuous cycle propelling the economy into a higher growth trajectory.
The Model in Action:
Appreciating the imperative of intermediaries in the Indian context, 'e-Choupal' leverages Information Technology to virtually cluster all the value chain participants, delivering the same benefits as vertical integration does in mature agricultural economies like the USA.
'e-Choupal' makes use of the physical transmission capabilities of current intermediaries – aggregation, logistics, counter-party risk and bridge financing –while disintermediating them from the chain of information flow and market signals.
With a judicious blend of click & mortar capabilities, village internet kiosks managed by farmers – called sanchalaks – themselves, enable the agricultural community access ready information in their local language on the weather & market prices, disseminate knowledge on scientific farm practices & risk management, facilitate the sale of farm inputs (now with embedded knowledge) and purchase farm produce from the farmers' doorsteps (decision making is now information-based).
Real-time information and customised knowledge provided by 'e-Choupal' enhance the ability of farmers to take decisions and align their farm output with market demand and secure quality & productivity. The aggregation of the demand for farm inputs from individual farmers gives them access to high quality inputs from established and reputed manufacturers at fair prices. As a direct marketing channel, virtually linked to the 'mandi' system for price discovery, 'e-Choupal' eliminates wasteful intermediation and multiple handling. Thereby it significantly reduces transaction costs.
'e-Choupal' ensures world-class quality in delivering all these goods & services through several product / service specific partnerships with the leaders in the respective fields, in addition to ITC's own expertise.
While the farmers benefit through enhanced farm productivity and higher farm gate prices, ITC benefits from the lower net cost of procurement (despite offering better prices to the farmer) having eliminated costs in the supply chain that do not add value.
The Status of Execution:
Launched in June 2000, 'e-Choupal', has already become the largest initiative among all Internet-based interventions in rural India. 'e-Choupal' services today reach out to over 4 million farmers growing a range of crops - soyabean, coffee, wheat, rice, pulses, shrimp - in over 40,000 villages through 6500 kiosks across ten states (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerela and Tamil Nadu).
The problems encountered while setting up and managing these 'e-Choupals' are primarily of infrastructural inadequacies, including power supply, telecom connectivity and bandwidth, apart from the challenge of imparting skills to the first time internet users in remote and inaccessible areas of rural India.
--
George Easaw Ph.D.
Xavier Inst of Management and En'ship,
Bangalore, India. 560100
09742046184 / 080 32467964
The e-Choupal model has been specifically designed to tackle the challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture, characterised by fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of numerous intermediaries, among others.
'e-Choupal' also unshackles the potential of Indian farmer who has been trapped in a vicious cycle of low risk taking ability - low investment - low productivity - weak market orientation - low value addition - low margin - low risk taking ability. This made him and Indian agribusiness sector globally uncompetitive, despite rich & abundant natural resources.
Such a market-led business model can enhance the competitiveness of Indian agriculture and trigger a virtuous cycle of higher productivity, higher incomes, enlarged capacity for farmer risk management, larger investments and higher quality and productivity.
Further, a growth in rural incomes will also unleash the latent demand for industrial goods so necessary for the continued growth of the Indian economy. This will create another virtuous cycle propelling the economy into a higher growth trajectory.
The Model in Action:
Appreciating the imperative of intermediaries in the Indian context, 'e-Choupal' leverages Information Technology to virtually cluster all the value chain participants, delivering the same benefits as vertical integration does in mature agricultural economies like the USA.
'e-Choupal' makes use of the physical transmission capabilities of current intermediaries – aggregation, logistics, counter-party risk and bridge financing –while disintermediating them from the chain of information flow and market signals.
With a judicious blend of click & mortar capabilities, village internet kiosks managed by farmers – called sanchalaks – themselves, enable the agricultural community access ready information in their local language on the weather & market prices, disseminate knowledge on scientific farm practices & risk management, facilitate the sale of farm inputs (now with embedded knowledge) and purchase farm produce from the farmers' doorsteps (decision making is now information-based).
Real-time information and customised knowledge provided by 'e-Choupal' enhance the ability of farmers to take decisions and align their farm output with market demand and secure quality & productivity. The aggregation of the demand for farm inputs from individual farmers gives them access to high quality inputs from established and reputed manufacturers at fair prices. As a direct marketing channel, virtually linked to the 'mandi' system for price discovery, 'e-Choupal' eliminates wasteful intermediation and multiple handling. Thereby it significantly reduces transaction costs.
'e-Choupal' ensures world-class quality in delivering all these goods & services through several product / service specific partnerships with the leaders in the respective fields, in addition to ITC's own expertise.
While the farmers benefit through enhanced farm productivity and higher farm gate prices, ITC benefits from the lower net cost of procurement (despite offering better prices to the farmer) having eliminated costs in the supply chain that do not add value.
The Status of Execution:
Launched in June 2000, 'e-Choupal', has already become the largest initiative among all Internet-based interventions in rural India. 'e-Choupal' services today reach out to over 4 million farmers growing a range of crops - soyabean, coffee, wheat, rice, pulses, shrimp - in over 40,000 villages through 6500 kiosks across ten states (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerela and Tamil Nadu).
The problems encountered while setting up and managing these 'e-Choupals' are primarily of infrastructural inadequacies, including power supply, telecom connectivity and bandwidth, apart from the challenge of imparting skills to the first time internet users in remote and inaccessible areas of rural India.
--
George Easaw Ph.D.
Xavier Inst of Management and En'ship,
Bangalore, India. 560100
09742046184 / 080 32467964
Global top 500
CNN's global top 500 list ..
--
George Easaw
Royal Dutch Shel, $453 b , Walmart is third with $ 405 b.
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George Easaw
E-choupal, helping the India farmer realise fair remuneration for his produce .. ITC venture ..
E-choupal, helping the India farmer realise fair remuneration for his produce .. ITC venture ..
http://www.itcportal.com/rural-development/echoupal.htm
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Dabbawala class for Entrepreneurship Dev Prog students ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf15PDkcOlk
The two videos from youtube and the presentation on Dabbawala which I am planning to present to the EDP class today ..
A good case has been prepared in the TB on Supply Chain by Simchi Levi et al, TMH.
--
George Easaw Ph.D.
--
George Easaw Ph.D.
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