Interesting fact. If "Google" was born today in India, it would not qualify as a "startup" as per the definition put out by the Govt. of India, hence, would not be eligible for any benefits on offer. Where did I pick this up? From an entrepreneur at the "Impact Investment Forum", an event organised by an international (foreign) bank, interested in doing its bit as a catalyst to promote social entrepreneurship, and in turn "Make India (a) Better" place for the majority of its population that still lives in conditions far worse than much of the third world. The intent of this Bank is serious. This was the second time in 3 years for hosting such an event and educate its clients on this concept of engaging in "philanthropic investing" rather than old school charity.There are many who believe that the Prime Minister's pet project "Make in India" has to transform into "Make in Rural India" if it has the intent of uplifting the overall quality of life of more than 70% of the nation's 1.2 billion population. It is only then that this Country would possibly see the ill effects of over urbanisation recede if not reverse. While this may be a topic of a fantastic debate, I am not going to be hired by the GOI as an advisor anytime soon, so let me tell you about some "Wonderful Minds" that I had the pleasure of hearing at the event, and how they in their own little way intend to make a massive impact on our society.
First up was Abhishek Sen, a young Biomedical Engineer and MBBS. His internship rounds to villages less than 50 miles from Mumbai introduced him to the lack of diagnostic facilities for those who needed it the most. Not the Govt. has not provided testing centres, just that they don't function. And why don't they function? As it happens, most testing labs are equipped with state of the art expensive equipment that is procured from overseas (in foreign exchange) along with the requisite consumables. Now one of two things happens over time; equipment breaks down or supplies are exhausted (or expire). Since the equipment is generally put to use at facilities that do not conform to the "technical" requirements (meaning heat and dust) the guarantee in most cases goes void too. Then there are times when the consumables become unaffordable. Moot point is that there are several reasons why basic diagnostics become an impossibility.
Catching on to it, and wanting to do something about it, Sen & CO set up a start up in their dorm (remember Micheal DELL) to make portable testing machines that suit the needs of the Indian markets in every way, including storage of data on the cloud. His startup "Biossense Technologies" (BT) has shed its startup status with a solid case for calling itself a true unicorn in the making. A case of "Make in India for Much of India", don't you think? While BT has had success in attracting decent capital to bring it to the point where it is now, Sen was making a pitch to the Bank's HNI clients for the next round of growth capital. His biggest worry, not being able to offer the same margins to sales and distribution channels like the big names. His blood sugar testing strips cost Rs 2 whereas his successful foreign competitors sell it for Rs 12 and more. Being a specialized product, the selling is all B2B putting the B2C e-commerce platform out of contention. He did not say it, but I suspect the medical fraternity too, especially Govt. employed doctors may be reluctant to us his equipment and consumables too for reasons obvious to every Indian. I could spell it out, but I may need to check it out with my lawyer if saying it out blatantly constitutes a violation of some kind or the other.
The consumption of oil may be down for now and the CO2 emission rate may be holding steady for the second year in a row, but Carbon pollution has had the world worried, and rightly so. The fate of humanity depends on it. For Aniruddha Sharma, it has become an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. First, clean up the air and second make tons of money doing it. "Carbon Capture", that's what it is called. Unlike other expensive and unprofitable technologies that capture carbon and require it to be stored underground (with the possibility of recycling itself as carbon fuel over several million years), his company "Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd." has patented and tested technology looks at converting captured carbon in useable commodities now. Some as simple as the much-used baking soda. Maybe the Prime Minister could be persuaded by him to expand his second per project of "Swacch Bharat" (Clean India) to "Swacch Duniya" (Clean World). India is a signatory to a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions and this may just be the medicine that the doctor ordered.
Yes carbon extraction is a great idea, but how about doing something that re-oxygenates the planet, controls soil erosion, betters farmland productivity, cleans up water and also provides livelihood to the rural community? Debopam (Dave) Mukherjee, a serial technology to entrepreneur turn agrologist wants to do with cooperative bamboo farming. His Artison Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. has engaged a young team with agro background to educate farmers and village communities of the advantages of growing bamboo as an economic and social benefactor, while Artison following the "AMUL" dairy federation model commits to set up the technological and green infrastructure required, buy the raw and finished products and market them globally. Dr. Kurien has a worthy successor in him. His team announced that it had already engaged more than 50,000farmers in its network and were working towards a target of close to 2 million in the next couple of years.
Agrotech companies, especially those involved in plantation have earned a bad name with investors and the regulators have come down heavy on such entities trying to raise money from investors. I have a few friends in the timber plantation business and despite having close to half a million full grown trees on some 1000 fully titled acres, and yet haven't found investors for US$ 2 to 3 million. Dave said that it was much easier for him to set up a project in Brazil where he was offered land and money from the Brazilian government to set up such a venture. But his love for his home Country brought him back from the US.Maybe Dave should sweet talk the Govt. of MP to offer him a Brazilian type deal.
He is not alone in returning back to the land of "Maa Bharat" (I have a reason for saying it like I did) and giving back to her and the people. A differentially abled young man named Shrikant Bholla (he was a speaker last year too) has fought both physical and economic challenges to not only educate himself at the best of best (MIT USA) but also create a business enterprise that has become a source of income and inspiration to several others like him. His company Aasadeep Products Pvt. Ltd. is a fusion of cottage industry with modern technology to produce disposable tableware from renewable plant material (read leaves) rather than plastics and paper. How has his journey been from the time I met him in 2014? At that time, Aasadeep had a turnover of Rs 60 million a year and it was near double that now. Good achievement, but I don't know if that was sufficient enough for Shrikant, he had targeted a 5 fold increase by now. His products are great and well priced. I would assume he could have achieved more than a 5 fold increase from exports alone. Moreover, he has been funded too.
Funding. Yes, thankfully, incubation funding does find its way to such ventures. Full credit to organizations like Villgro and Aavishkar that have helped in changing the investor mindset. But yet, the minute the tag "social" is attached it begins to get looked at like a charity case contribution. Maybe that's the reason this time around the event dropped the "Social" tag too. It's no charity but an opportunity to build highly local scalable models with a global impact. Only a couple of large corporate houses like Godrej have actually recognized the potential of this sector and doing something to encourage entrepreneurship in this sector.
That brings me to the question, why are these entrepreneurs struggling in India for funds when there is 10,000 crores (US$ 1.5 billion apx.) park for assisting such ventures? For this answer, go back to the start. Exactly like a journey in a Govt. office for anything.
I had to hand it to the Bank's CEO and his team for taking such great pains in putting together such an interesting event. To set the theme right, a troupe that specializes in curating folk music had been called in to entertain guests, and even the menu was unusual, a selection of recipes from tribal and rural India. There was enough food for thought and satisfy the belly out there and hopefully a satisfied person would take the point that social investing is serious business with lower risks and higher returns than that offered by several competing asset classes.
My 15-year-old son probably summed it best when I asked him what he had learned from the event. He said, "it looks like one can extract money from thin air or grow it on trees; make wealth from health or waste even. Most important, I can do something to make this world a better place." Hearing him, I knew just why even Donald Trump had to reconsider his words on India and its beautiful minds.
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Updated: October 3, 2015 22:18 IST
