Realization of India’s Full Potential
Thoughts and observations from a train travelling across India
From December 24, 2015 to January 8, 2016, I took part in an experimental train journey across India called Jagriti Yatra (JY). The theme for the journey was to change India through enterprise. JY is the brain child of the Jagriti Sewa Sansthan — an organization that promotes social entrepreneurship within India. We were a group of about 450 people (40% women and 60% men) from across India and a few from outside the country. We all had one thing in common: everyone was fed up of something, they wanted to improve either society, at a local, micro or macro level, or themselves. The chosen medium to realize these changes was entrepreneurship.
Right now India is going through an entrepreneurial renaissance. India has had 69 years to understand how to operate a democratic government, not without it’s problems, but all signs are pointing to progressive change in the right areas. Furthermore, the population is young (less than 50% under 25), highly educated, commands a growing purchasing power, and is full of global ambition. Consequently, the massive domestic market is the perfect place to experiment with new ideas affordably. Beyond all else, the biggest opportunity lies in the fact that high-end computational technology has just begun penetrating the Indian consumer market.
Government is also taking steps to develop this entrepreneurial playground. Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Startup Action Plan that includes new policies to decrease barriers to entry, develop startup ecosystems, and encourage the creation of new industries.
What a time to be alive.
The goal of our journey was to learn about innovative business models and practices happening in developing markets of India. We were also looking for ways to replicate those models in other regions leading to the creation of new startups that are self-reliant and productive pieces of the country’s dramatically changing economy. Most business models we focused on were not driven only by profit, they were social ventures and success was measured by both profit and impact. The program also didn’t focus on traditional markets or urban hubs, instead it focused on a specific, overlooked part of the population: “Middle India”.
Middle India is our so called Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns — from Jammu to Ahmedabad and everything between them- with a population between half a million to six million. Years ago, only a handful of businesses in Middle India could dream big and had the courage to turn their dreams real. Such courage and grit led to the creation of brands like Hero, Videocon, Bajaj, Zydus and Muthoot. Today, businesses in Middle India are more ambitious than ever. They want to grow big, employ more people, and create higher social and economic value for their community. Some of them are also frustrated and often feel helpless. Resources required to scale businesses do not reach Middle India as much and as conveniently as they are available in Metro India. Result: many businesses are forced scale down their ambitions.
- Forbes India
That is what Forbes India describes as “Midde India” and these frustrations that businesses feel leads to loss of economic potential, but these gaps also provide startups with a hotbed of opportunity. I believe these frustrations and inefficiencies are a result of the gaps left by the government while they deal with other pressing issues, and to no fault of their own, because ultimately it’s difficult managing the world’s largest democracy.
Entrepreneurship is a concept I strongly support and know will bring about enormous benefits, as evident from startup communities worldwide. The entire trip was laid out like a startup, with phases of: discovery, validation, development, efficiency, growth, and maturity; for both ideas and people on board. Anyone interested in entrepreneurship should not miss an opportunity like this, especially within the contexts of an emerging market like India.
Over the course of the journey, I was able to observe the inner workings of organizations that were doing it right. Ones that were solving social and economic challenges in their neighbourhoods to others that had teams in the tens of thousands working across the country.
In India, all businesses are forced to innovate non-stop due to limited resources for such a huge population, so as a result, everyone is consistently adapting to changes on the field with some jugaad (Hindi slang for a hack).
A particularly moving example of jugaad was in Tilonia, Rajasthan at Barefoot College. Many local woman in this remote area don’t have access to sanitary pads and as a result, they use old pieces of cloth and plant matter instead, giving rise to numerous health issues and in some cases death. To solve this problem, local entrepreneurs created a simple process for manufacturing sanitary pads with locally sourced materials and retrofitted woodworking equipment. This is in no way a unique or “disruptive” idea. But in the end, this startup was able to fulfill a local market need, provide jobs, reduce costs (4x less compared to commercial equivalent), and most importantly improve lives.
On a personal note, JY challenged me on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. When you constantly travel, debate, work, meet new people, and develop new ideas everyday it can be overwhelming and exhausting, especially while living on a train. As a second-time visitor in the country of my origin and a first-time passenger on an Indian train, it was an eye-opening adjustment. But of course, all these challenges lead to inner and outer growth.
We visited 15 social entrepreneurs (“role models”) around the country to learn and observe their practices and, most importantly we learned how they think and approach problems. In my observation, I found all our role models shared a common thread of thought. Over time I began to question and understand what shapes that underlying mindset and what major obstacles currently stand in the way of reaching India’s full potential.
Fear
Perhaps the most difficult obstacle anyone can overcome is fear. Fear, in many forms, has suppressed society from reaching their full potential. Indian society is communal and if you fail, so does your family. They judge you severely if you fail, and the consequences are difficult to bear for some.
Bunker Roy, founder of Barefoot College, felt the repercussions of judgement when he supposedly “failed” by leaving behind lucrative job opportunities to instead build wells in remote villages. His mother didn’t speak to him for 15 years. Today, Barefoot College trains women from villages across the country to work as solar technicians, among many other professions. The results speak for themselves - women come from around the world to take part in their programs, and the model has been duplicated more than 20 times in various parts of the world. This fearless attitude, rooted in conviction, was shared by every single role model on the journey.
In my perspective, the Indian educational system should teach risk tolerance, effective planning for entrepreneurs, and the importance of validating ideas efficiently. These lessons can prepare future entrepreneurs better and, more importantly, save time and effort for those that aren’t cut out for it. Furthermore, government needs to cultivate ways to increase self-esteem and confidence within all students. The ideal outcome would be that failure is no longer looked down upon, instead it is studied and the insights shared publicly without regrets.
Mismatch of Skills and Career Paths
Connecting people with the right skills to the right market opportunities should be the prime focus for PM Modi in 2016. This is a huge problem and a major loss of potential.
Since birth, children are pressured by family members to fit into their model of an ideal son or daughter. Most are forced into becoming a professional such as a engineer, doctor, or lawyer. The education system even forces them to choose a specialization (like commerce, engineering, or liberal arts) when only 15/16 years old. Switching into a different stream midway is difficult and many aren’t even aware of the huge spectrum of opportunity and thus make the wrong decision — wasting valuable time and money. Cultural requirements also make it even more difficult for a second degree, in the case the first one was not for them.
After decades of pressure from society, India has saturated their professional services market leading to a scarcity of jobs, brain-drain, and ultimately unhappiness for its citizens.
I felt this sentiment over and over again on my journey — many were complaining they didn’t have the opportunity to pursue their own interests and passions due to pressure from their parents or from lack of awareness. Entire generations had weekends and evenings devoted to studying for IIT engineering entrance exams and entertaining even the slight possibility of breaking status quo was violently discouraged. The worst part is that IIT has an acceptance rate of only 2% .
Coming from a North American society, where there is pride in independence, I didn’t quite understand the need to pursue what others were doing and felt it was unproductive in the long-run. When I further inquired into the issue I discovered this problem has roots in fear and remnants of the caste system. Occupation and profession were once engrained into the caste system (for reasons that made sense then) and society abided by it, but now times have changed and India needs to adapt.
The future of the country, and by necessity — the world, will depend on “non-professional” skills like agriculture, sustainable construction, and alternative energy development. What India needs to do now is encourage a diversity of skills and fairly value non-technical skills. And citizens need to remove negative taboos associated with “lower” occupations and embrace the diversity of skills like they do with their diversity of culture.
A very good example of how to match skills and career paths correctly was given by Bunker Roy. He explained the process of choosing the right students for his solar technician classes. He mentioned that the team would look at underlying signs that indicate a natural talent for the job. Since the job involves soldering skills, his group looked for women that were adept at sewing and other fine motor skills. This simple change of mindset to focus on real world job requirements instead of superficial ones contributed to the college’s success.
A positive reinforcement by the government to tackle this obstacle, was the creation of the Skills Development Ministry, a representative from the ministry was also present for the entire duration of JY.
Women are Undervalued and Not Empowered
In India only 29% of women over the age of 15 are working. There is a huge loss of economic potential due to women not being empowered to reach their full potential. From my observations, the constraints and responsibilities put onto women in India force them to pursue work that may not be in their best interest nor does it fulfill them. They toil away their potential and education doing jobs and/or fulfilling household duties they don’t enjoy, for the sake of family.
During our first stop at Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya in Hubli, Karnataka we listened to the organizers speak of cases where the brightest female students had to leave school at grade 10 in order to oblige family customs and tradition, leaving behind the opportunity of higher education. The family thought their daughter did not need any higher education because she was anyways destined to become a housewife.
Since Indian culture is mostly family-oriented and patriarchal, women must put their family’s priorities above their own, and that doesn’t really change much even for Indians living in Canada. I am not insisting that women should leave behind their family to pursue other opportunities, but instead men should recognize this injustice and accommodate.
It’s actually better for everyone, when women become an integral part of the working world they will have the experience and knowledge to contribute to solving problems they couldn’t before (i.e. financial, political, societal issues). This will, in turn, remove pressure from men freeing up their time to pursue other things. Men will have also increased their experience dealing with household problems and both parties will understand one another much better.
However, this will only work if men let go of control and women effectively lead. India is not doing enough to train women to become effective leaders and the opportunities to lead are minimal. Leading effectively is extremely difficult and changing your habits to giving orders instead of taking them is a mission on it’s own. Unfortunately, in the entire journey there wasn’t a single female role model. Yes there were female representatives from organizations, but there was no strong female presence that captivated everyone’s attention like Anshu Gupta, Bunker Roy, or M.S. Swaminathan did. This simply needs to change and everyone needs to contribute to solving the problem of inequality. It starts with changing your mindset and giving others a chance.
Other Observations
Aside from these 3 major obstacles, I noticed many other smaller issues that contribute to the challenges of India, those include:
Money is Misunderstood
People forget that money is just a medium for transaction and a temporary store of wealth. Today, the average Indian citizen is not using the monetary system effectively to increase capital assets and produce sustainable businesses. Instead money is rendered unproductive through black markets, tax-evasion, and plain old greed. Once financial infrastructure is repaired, fair wage realized nationwide, and personal finance knowledge ubiquitous; only then can India shape the future.
Unfortunately, this idea cannot be realized anytime soon because India still suffers from fundamental problems. The country still fails to deliver basic needs to a significant segment of the population. In addition, disposable income is almost non-existent for the masses. Therefore, the majority of the country’s investment resources is still controlled by a select few.
Civic Responsibility
Democracy will only work correctly if all citizens are engaged and determined to solve public matters. Currently that is not the case in India.
The basic tools of democracy such as voting systems, unbiased media, and platforms for engaging with government are broken, but they are being repaired. This will take a lot of time and effort, but the processes are getting better and minds are slowly changing. Once those tools prove to be useful for the average citizen to voice their opinions, then real change will start to happen.
Anshu Gupta, founder of Goonj, said it best — citizens that are not in poverty must pay back their debt to society. It is because of public infrastructure and government support that entire generations were developed and educated, now it’s their duty to give back.
“Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress.”
- M.K. Ghandhi
A heavy amount of inspiration for JY was taken from India’s most famous role model, Mahatma Gandhi. In my opinion, Gandhi is the quintessential Indian entrepreneur. His startup focused on liberating India from British rule. His value proposition was independence and freedom.
Gandhi took many train journeys during the struggle for India’s independence, he specifically travelled in third class to observe and witness the plight of the average Indian. He got close to his “customers” and validated his ideas. As an intellect he always strived to understand the complexities and obstacles of Hindustan (his “market”) and through this process, formed his own beliefs and opinions on what needed to change. He then took it one step further and actually executed his ideas with conviction, resourcefulness, and extreme discipline. In the end he returned a profit for his investors with a successful exit. On the journey we were utilizing essentially the same process to make a series of smaller improvements within the country.
Overall, the experience of Jagriti Yatra confirmed many assumptions I had about myself and it helped me verify the direction I want to take in life. I really believe that entrepreneurship will deliver the sweetest fruit if born from struggle. India has a deep history of struggle and change, now with the Internet and technology, citizens can turn those struggles into prosperity. For India, the next 20 years are going to be remarkable and will produce the best businesses and products that the world has ever seen.
I am incredibly excited to see what the future will bring and I find it comforting to know that the ideas conceived on the train will live well beyond my lifetime.
