From the desk of Editor-in-Chief
Dear Readers,
We are glad to share that The Bridge is entering the fourth year after coming to life. We have been able to complete three eventful years because of your support and keenness in our activities.
The Bridge, with an aim to act as a catalyst between the non-government organisations (NGOs), corporate firms and the government sector to help bring a social renaissance was conceptualised in December 2017 to make larger impact on society.
The third year has been very challenging and as we enter the fourth year, the challenges remain unabated due to the once-in-a-century phenomenon which has appeared on the earth in the shape of the Novel Coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic.
The Bridge E-Magazine over a period of time has witnessed remarkable growth, both in size and in reputation. Today, we are proud to have a readership base that is around 10,000 throughout length and breadth of the country comprising of ngos, corporates, government officials, researchers and academicians.
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This E-magazine has covered during last two editions as to how remarkably the Government and its agencies, NGOs and Companies have responded to the situation in a variety of ways by adhering to the protocols announced by the global expert agencies such as the WHO as well as by the national agencies. The support they provided ranged from providing food, shelter, medicines, Covid kit, employment, extra wages, ensuring continuance in jobs, so on and so forth. The list is endless. All that were done by different sectors stood testimony to the nation’s resolve to stand up to the humongous challenge and overcome it decidedly.
This anniversary special highlights virtual celebrations of the 3rd anniversary with a launch of India’s first online quiz for the social sector –“Kaun Banega Social Sector Champion 2020”. The other stories are reproduced which are some of the best pieces from our warehouse stock of the year which will take our readers on a journey down the memory lane and look at how humanity has expressed itself in its many nuances. As the new Gregorian calendar year is set to enter our lives, we express optimism that challenging times will take a positive turn and bring a new chapter in our lives promising a better future for all of us.
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The Bridge celebrates 3rd anniversary with country’s first ever virtual quiz on social sector
The historic moment witnessed participation from national and international members of reputed NGOs and blue-chip business houses. A report by Karan Bhardwaj
It was a thrilling moment for social and corporate sector when several of their key players assembled virtually to participate in a one-of-its-kind quiz competition, Kaun Banega Social Sector Champion 2020, an initiative taken by The Bridge to commemorate its 3rd anniversary. The Bridge in the last three years of its existence, has organized many events to bridge the gap between NGOs, Corporates and the Government. However, due to pandemic-related restraints, it was decided to organize a virtual celebration of the special day.
Ms Ira Singhal, an Indian Administrative Officer, who is currently serving as Joint Director, Department of Social Welfare and Department of Women and Child Development, Delhi Government, graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. She was welcomed on the show by Mr Rakesh Jinsi, President, SOS Children’s Villages of India.
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The quiz was based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) covering subjects such as universal education, health and wellbeing, Gender Equality, Sustainable Livelihood and Inclusion & Empowerment.
“It’s encouraging to see courage and enthusiasm of NGOs and Corporates who have decided to come together on one platform and create awareness about social sector awareness. The purpose of the Quiz is to generate more awareness on the SDGs and the role of various stake holders in creating world where there is equity for everyone. It must create a tangible knowledge base for development sector professionals. The quiz program aims to provide opportunities for critical thinking and help participants expand their knowledge of the sector,” said Ms Seema Jairath, Founder of The Bridge , in her opening remarks.
Participation in the quiz provided a chance for NGOs and Corporate to showcase their hidden potentials and knowledge in a fun way. There was national as well as international participation with NGOs such as SOS India, SOS Bangladesh, SOS Cambodia, Viklang Sahara Samiti, Habitat for Humanity, Mission for Anath Development & Welfare Society; corporate houses such as Newgen Software Technologies, Medirich Pharma; PSUs such as Indian Oil Corporation, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC)
A tough competition between players lasted for almost 30 minutes. A total of 20 questions were put up in the quiz. Gauri Khanna from Newgen Software Technologies secured the top spot, winning the trophy and prize money of 25,000 INR. “I’m thrilled to win the quiz. The questions were interesting and I think there was a tough fight,” she said.
Umesh Sahu from SAIL, who was also seen in Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati, won the second position with the prize money of 15,000 INR. “Some questions were easy while others were difficult to crack. Overall it was fun and honour to be a part of the online quiz,” he said. Pankaj Jindal from Hero Motors got the third prize of 10,000 INR.
Calling the quiz ‘informative and enriching’, Ms Singhal congratulated The Bridge ’s team and wished for many years of success. “I am sure everybody learnt a new thing in this competition,” she said.
Tsering Kartsang, co-founder of The Bridge, delivered a vote of thanks, expressing gratitude to all participants, special guests, viewers, sponsors and The Bridge E-magazine’s editorial and technical team. The event concluded with a memorable group photo.
Ever since its inception, The Bridge continues to explore, create and expand existing and potential synergy between NGOs, Coporates and Governments to transform lives and society for a better tomorrow. It acts as a bridge between stakeholders on both sides of social development sector, and strives to transform the development sector strategies across India. To magnify the impact of the social initiatives, The Bridge launched an e-magazine on May 31, 2017. The e-magazine focusses on the initiatives taken by policy makers, challenges of NGOs, impact made by corporates through their CSR initiatives and the journey of unsung heroes.
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The Bridge recently had a virtual interaction with Shri Praveen Kumar, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India, on how the Ministry is planning to contribute to the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat through its skill development initiatives. Advisor to The Bridge, Dr. Manoj K. Dash, had interacted with Shri Kumar. Excerpts from interaction are presented below.
Key Takeaways:
- Formal skilling ecosystem has expanded vastly in last five years
- District Skilling Committees are in place to push bottom up planning
- 5 Crore people trained by Central Ministries
- Placement has gone up to reach 51%
- Skilling sector being ramped up to meet demands of Atmanirbhar Bharat
- 5 Lac entrepreneurs will be created to spur local business
- ITIs will gradually provide industry 4.0 courses developed in collaboration with Microsoft & Google
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PK: In the last five years because of Honorable PM’s initiative, skilling has come to the center place of policy formation. Earlier skilling was done mostly in ITIs and people were not aware that this is also a specific area of learning. Last five years have witnessed vast expansion of the ecosystem in the long term and short term.
In the long term, the number of ITIs has gone up from 12,000 to 15,000 and the seats have increased from 18 lacs to 24 lacs. Short term training system has seen a major evolution. Almost 8000 training providers have come in. 37 Sector Skill Councils have come up which mediate between the training system and the industry. Model short-term training centers in each district are now in place. Earlier the districts were not so much into partnering in skilling efforts. Now the districts have infrastructure for implementing skilling programmes. Last year we have brought in District Skilling Committee which will look at the skilling needs of the district. Some higher-level institutions have also come up like Indian Institute of Skills and State Skilling Universities, etc. All these constitute expansion of ecosystem in one part.
In the second part, the industry connect has gone up both in the short term and long term. In the short term, training is driven by industry through 37 Sector Skill Councils. In the long term, the Director General of Training has 40 Sector Committees where industries keep on evaluating the courses offered by ITIs and indicate what changes should be brought in. The third thing is changes initiated in the area of apprenticeship. The Act and rules have been amended and new programmes launched. The apprenticeship number has gone up from 1 lac per annum to 2.5 lac per annum. Fourth, quality has improved over time because I see only one parameter as to who should judge quality. It is the user, i.e. the industry. Placement is a good indicator of quality and it has gone up from 10% to 51 % which is a big jump.
The other thing which has happened is everyone had started giving random courses such as training courses for plumbers. X and Y offering training courses on plumbers used to have a big gap. In order to standardize, the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) is now in place. This has put common standards across country. Anyone having NSQF qualified course can be reasonably assured that a person having done a course would have certain common competencies all across the country. Anyone trained in Kerala can be hired in UP since we know what are the specific competencies which the trainee has got.
Another new thing is incipient regulatory structure. We have National Center for Vocational Technical Education (NCVT) which is a uniform regulator for the skilling sector. It is in the first year of its existence and forming the guidelines. In next 1 to 2 years its impact will be visible.
In the last five years under the central government ecosystem nearly 5.5 crore people were trained including all central ministries including our ministry. I expect equal number would have been trained by the State Sector. We are far from the 22-crore target but it is a big jump from what used to take place earlier. Twenty–Thirty lacs used to be trained every year in the past. Now we are training almost a crore every year. A lot of lessons have been learnt and lot of issues are still to be addressed.
TBI: The Honorable Prime Minister has given a clarion call for Atmanirbhar Bharat. So, what kind of changes you are foreseeing in the Ministry so that there is synergy between the two – skill development and Atmanirbhar Bharat. Further, Atmanirbhar Bharat by its inherent design means more entrepreneurial ability and more entrepreneurial spirit. How skill development will bring about more entrepreneurial spirit in the economy so that we become Atmanirbhar?
PK: I will answer this question into two parts. One, in Atmanirbhar Bharat we are focusing more on shifting from imports to local production and also producing for the world – vocal for local and local for global. For the first part our endeavour will be to ensure that Atmanirbhar Bharat does not get derailed due lack of skill personnel. We will ensure that skilled persons are available for any venture which is coming as a result of our endeavour so that we become the manufacturing capital and universal supplier for the world. That’s why we tying up with other Ministries to provide the skilled persons they require. Whatever skills the industry wants for facilitating production, be it telecom, highways or railways, will be provided. Second part is about addressing entrepreneurial needs. One should realize that majority of skilled people don’t wish to set up big businesses. They usually wish to set up a small beauty parlor or a small grocery shop. If someone wants to set up plumbing agency to provide services in a particular area, the agency can meet the demand or they can join forces with Urban Clap type of platform for offering services.
To address such aspirations, we are bringing a new scheme through which we will do an orientation for them in the final month of their program and find out who are interested in entrepreneurship. All such persons showing keen interest in entrepreneurship will be exposed to an intense two months’ course which we have named as mini MBA. At the end of it they will develop a proper project report with a mentor attached to them and local funding through the banks will be organized so that they can develop their business around that project report. We expect to create 5 lac entrepreneurs based on this model for spurring local business.
TBI: As you have very rightly said this pandemic has created new opportunities for many sectors and because of that we’re going for new ways of managing our work on-line, through technology. You know in this context Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Robotics, Cyber Security – all these are coming up. How the Ministry is planning to transform curricula to trigger a transition to an ecosystem which fosters new age skills and innovative mindset?
PK: We have already taken steps for moving towards what we call industry 4.0. In 100 ITIs there are eleven IR 4.0 courses being provided now which include things like Internet of Things, Geo Informatics, Drone Pilot, etc. In the short-term, we are providing advanced subjects like cloud computing, data analytics, etc. where a higher level of training is required. A class 10 dropout cannot straightaway do a course in data analytics. It’s for people who are already graduates in Mathematics or other people working on such issues. Basic skilling will remain in demand for many years into the future. It wouldn’t go away so soon and based on the requirements we will keep on expanding to include new curricula. We have tied up with Microsoft, Google, etc. to help us offer courses aligned with new-age technology. This is a dynamic process and based on requirements we will keep on expanding.
TBI: Thank you so much sir for giving us time and the Bridge thanks you for elaborating the strategies of the Ministry for a New India and towards achieving Atmanirbhar Bharat.
[Note: PK = Shri Praveen Kumar; TBI = The Bridge]
To access complete text of the interview please click here.
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Securing Livelihood – The Premise of our Lives
By Dr Manoj Dash
The spread of COVID-19 has disrupted lives and livelihoods worldwide. The nationwide lockdown in India disrupted economic activities as a fall out of which livelihood related activities have been adversely affected. According to estimates, 120 million people in India temporarily lost their jobs across sectors such as construction, retail, food processing and e-commerce, etc.
However, there are many organisations who made sincere efforts to either create livelihood opportunities or prepare people to build enough resilience so that when situation becomes normal again, they be back in the business quickly. Activities of four such organisations are presented below.
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Vrutti
Vrutti’s flagship model ‘3Fold’ works towards the betterment of livelihood of small farmers and focuses on improving their income by 3-fold. This programme has a three-level engagement structure – Farmer, Community and System Level (viz. ecosystem). Started in 2010 with 250 farmers, the model is currently working with 37,500 farmers across 7 clusters in different agro-economic zones in five States, i.e. Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. The farmers access multiple services (farm, financing, market and institutions) to become self-reliant and resilient, while being responsible in their operations. Using the power of technology and partnerships, Vrutti has been constantly scaling up this initiative through ‘Platform for Inclusive Entrepreneurship’.
During first two phases of the lockdown, in its quest to provide people with vegetables at their doorsteps at affordable price, vegetables were procured from 113 farmers across the 3 FPOs. It provided income to the farmers and met vegetable needs of customers confined to their homes under lockdown.
Apart from the above, PPEs such as masks, hand gloves and sanitizers for staff, volunteers, farmers and customers; farming kit to 133 farmers; 500 medical kit to farmers; and grocery packs to about 2500 families were provided. Mask production was also taken up by members of FPOs. Roughly 45,000 households were provided health advisory, awareness, food supplies, medical kits and financial services during the COVID-19 situation.
Turnstone Global
The organisation works on issues such as education, health, women’s empowerment, skill development & livelihood. The organisation considers its livelihood intervention as most visible which is implemented through women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs), each having 15 to 20 women. The organisation currently supports 500 SHGs. Members of these groups are imparted with training to make useful decorative and daily use material for households like doormats, candles, bags, shoes, etc. The raw material for the same are mostly collected by women from around their habitats.
This intervention began in the year 2015 in 24 villages of West Bengal in the districts of Purulia, Darjeeling, North 24 Praganas and Birbhum. Target beneficiaries are women whose husbands mostly work outside home leaving them with adequate time to invest in decent work from home that can bring them additional income. Their customers are local shop keepers, employees of corporates and local people.
The success factors of the project are that the beneficiaries are women and they are disciplined in their work. Employees of the organisation are proactively working in tandem with beneficiaries to make the project successful. Most important challenge is to sell the products by finding the right customers, especially so in the lockdown period. Asking people to buy home décor is highly challenging in the Covid-19 period when people have lost their income source.
During the last three months the SHG activities were shut down since the mandatory social distancing was not possible. Now, the organisation is planning to resume interventions by focusing on catering to corporate gifting items. The organisation is mulling to re align its strategy to find work for the members of women’s SHGs by exploring other avenues like network marketing and services sector by organising for re-skilling them.
Sarthak Education Trust
Sarthak is working for empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) since 2008. It provides Health, Education, Vocational Skill Building, Sustainable Employment and Awareness support to PwDs. The Trust also works for creating an inclusive and equal opportunity ecosystem for PwDs through engagement and sensitization of various stakeholder groups such as Government Bodies, Corporate Groups and Academic Institutes.
Sarthak’s Skill Development programs provide with a wide range of unique skill building experiences for the youth with disabilities, that include leadership, social, communication, computers, and basic life skills. Training is imparted in 3 broad verticals, viz. IT – ITES, Tourism & Hospitality and Organized Retail to youth in the age group of 18 to 35 years.
These programmes are of three month duration and extend basic skill training to PwDs. Practical sessions in dedicated skill labs instil confidence in trainees. Regular assessments and revision sessions are conducted to ensure a rising learning curve for the trainees.
Allied Activities such as exposure visits to Industries, Guest Lectures, Motivational Sessions and Alumni Interactions are conducted to let trainees learn in varied settings. Till date over 16.000 persons have been trained and 18,000 assisted in finding employment opportunities.
During the lockdown, 1,200 people with disability got registered for vocational skill building in trades of IT, Retail and Hospitality. More than 300 PwDs have been provided sustainable job opportunities in leading corporate houses.
Community counselling was offered by community counsellors, specialised trainers (Sign Language Interpreters) and community mobilisers to counsel the PwDs and their families related to prevention strategies.
Smile Foundation
Receiving right skills and becoming employable have become critical for the youth today. The Smile Foundation could visualize the skill gap and brought The Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) to life quite early. STeP was kicked off in August 2007 in Delhi. Beginning with just two pilot projects in Delhi, STeP quickly expanded to 30 centres in the first five months. At the end of the first six months, when inaugural batches started to graduate – placements started. Businesses like Café Coffee Day and Croma were happy to absorb the first batch of students from STeP. Today, this flagship programme is proud to have 32,000 Alumni and 20,000 plus youth working across the retail sector (>150+ organisations like Café Coffee Day, Domino’s Pizza, Westside Stores, ICICI, HDFC, Reliance Retail, Big Bazaar, Spencer, Croma etc).
During the lockdown, “Smile on Wheels”, Smile Foundation’s healthcare mobile unit was deployed on 18th May in high-risk areas of the Dharavi Slum, to screen and refer patients. The team comprising of a doctor, nurse, and pharmacist scanned close to 1,000 patients of which about 200 have been found to be coronavirus positive and referred for further management. Smile Foundation has also reached out to 40,000 families across 14 states such as Maharashtra, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh to provide psychological counselling needs through tele-calling covering both villages and urban slums.
The stories of social organisations presented above provide a rich mix of activities and responses that highlight the variety of activities taken up by organisations of the country in order to make lives better each day and teach people to remain prepared to respond to extreme situations in life. It is indeed refreshing to learn that the society in our country has a vibrantly resilient mechanism that helps people cope with situations that creates multiple challenges while treading the road of life.
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Impact of COVID-19 on India’s industrial sector and the way ahead
By Soma Chakraborty
India, with the world’s third highest virus caseload, is one of the worst hit countries in the coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown in India began in late March and was subsequently extended several times. Even though the country is now in the unlock-2 phase, stringent restrictions halted several economic activities and caused the industrial sector as well as lakhs of people, many of them daily wage earners, to lose their revenue streams.
Economic Decline Of Industries
According to investment bank Goldman Sachs, India has seen a massive 45% economic decline in the three months between April and June. Ratings agency Moody’s also slashed India’s credit ratings to the lowest investment grade level.
India’s industrial production dropped sharply when the country went into lockdown and most factories were not in operation. The sectors included mining, manufacturing and electricity.
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The lockdown also brought the hospitality industry to a standstill. The situation, according to the hospitality industry experts, is further aggravated by requisitioning of hotels for hospitalisation of COVID-19 positive patients by government.
Apex industry body Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has recently written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising concerns regarding the orders by the state governments for requisitioning of hotels for attaching them to hospitals and converting them into extended COVID-19 hospitals for patients.
Hospitality consultancy HVS Anarock estimates occupancy rates for the organised hotels segment for the entire calendar year 2020 to be 34.5 per cent as against 66 per cent in 2019.
According to experts, the USD 247 billion Indian hospitality industry, which contributed 9.2 per cent to the GDP in the last fiscal, will see its revenue decline by Rs 90,000 crore in 2020.
The negative impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs has been intense with many having to pause or entirely shut their business. According to a survey conducted by the Endurance International Group, one third of MSME respondents confirmed that they are temporarily shutting their business until normalcy resumes. This pause in business is more prominent among MSMEs in metros cities and those in the retail and manufacturing verticals. Majority of MSMEs (nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed) believe that it will take up to six months for business to return to normalcy.
The COVID-19 crisis also deeply impacted the Indian start-up ecosystem with close to 12% startups stating shutdowns, according to a survey jointly conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Indian Angel Network (IAN).
India Inc Limping Back To Normalcy
According to Priyanka Kishore, head of India and Southeast Asia economics at Oxford Economics, India’s recovery trajectory is going to be weak as the country is struggling to get past the peak of the pandemic.
However, in June-end the government came up with many numbers and indicators, showing that economic activities in India are picking up in a decent pace. According to a government press release, early green shoots of economic revival have emerged in May and June with real activity indicators like electricity and fuel consumption, inter and intra-state movement of goods, retail financial transactions witnessing a pick up.
Echoing the data, the LG spokesperson shared, “Gradually we saw a surge in sales across various products. At a time, when health and hygiene have taken a centre stage in our daily lives and it is becoming imperative for the government to encourage stay at home, we find a growing market trend towards products which earlier had low penetration. Considering the current times, dishwasher and vacuum cleaner has become an essential appliance in the household. This year we are witnessing a long and harsh summer because of which we can see good sales in refrigerators and air conditioners.”
However, some sectors like power, pharmaceuticals, non-discretionary retail such as groceryand healthcare were spared from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Also certain business segments like banking and financial services industry (BFSI)and hi-tech verticals were more resilient and are reviving faster than others.
“There is no significant impact on the working in the power sector, except for the increase in safety measures — social distancing, sanitisation, use of face masks and minimum manpower congregated at any particular location and meeting held on digital platform,” an NTPC spokesperson said..
The New Normal
Though lockdown rules are being relaxed in India, it could be months before the cubicles are reunited with their occupants. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many industries to shift their work dynamics and adapt to contactless and borderless work, which have become the ‘new normal’.
Depending on the sector and scenario, the industries are leveraging new-age technologies and automation to enable future-of-work. They are working towards faster re skilling of workers and setting up of agile work teams that will operate efficiently in new work environments.
According to Jyothi Mayal, president of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), technology would be a major game-changer in the coming days.
The Indian tourism and hospitality sector is exploring a range of options like from contactless travel to immunity passports and open-dated stay packages to breathe life into a stalled business.
In the power industry, companies like NTPC have already put in place several initiatives that enable paperless working.
“All our employees are provided with laptops, reimbursement for broadband connections, mobiles, etc. and Microsoft Teams to enable them to work from anywhere,” the NTPC spokesperson said.
According to a survey conducted by Zinnov Consulting, approximately 30 per cent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) started a business website or enabled e-commerce functionality since the lockdown started owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 50 per cent of MSMEs surveyed has embraced video conferencing tools and WhatsApp to keep business running during these turbulent times.
Rural-Urban Re-Balance
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the direction of migration in India with many rural-based migrant labours from metros and urban India returning to the rural hinterland.
According to a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, the industry would do well to set up operations in areas where there is a concentration of labour. Mining projects and agro-based clusters could be expedited to take advantage of this phenomenon, as well as limit the risk of an economic impact as rural India isn’t as significantly impacted by the coronavirus.
In fact, many companies are already running sustainable agricultural projects in rural areas, which can also help the migrant labourers.
For example, NTPC’s project ‘Improving Farm Productivity’ has led to a sustained improvement in rural productivity, incomes and quality of life of the low-income rural population. Under the project, trainings are being provided to farmers on modern farm practices like crop-diversification, nutrient management, integrated pest management, tissue culture and drip irrigation.
“Farmers were taught crop diversification which enabled them to move away from subsistence staple food crops to diversified market-oriented crops with better returns,” an NTPC official said.
The Way Forward
These are testing times for the industry sector in India. However, every crisis brings with itself an opportunity – it is about how the India Inc manage the risk and the choices it makes, that will determine its success. The India Inc has got the impetus to innovate, grow and establish and if it gets the act together and plays its cards right, it will play a vital role in making an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India).
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