Stepping Towards A Super Life!

No matter, how much we crib about our lives and the never ending troubles in Delhi-NCR, the reality, if seen through a finer lens is that this area has been constantly evolving. In medieval India, Delhi was a hub of poetry and dance and now it is of fashion and food. The places and the people constantly evolve and Delhi-NCR is one area where this change is felt more than anywhere else. Our lives may not be as of those living in scenic Europe or of high profile areas of New York but in our own way, at our own pace we have been evolving too, transforming for better through various initiatives taken by the government, the private companies like Vodafone and through joint ventures- public and private partnership, i.e. PPP. People and NGOs have played a major role in this transformation as well.

One such step towards a super life has been taken by Gurugram and Faridabad officials. The Bandhwari solid waste treatment plant that is located along the Gurugram - Faridabad road in the Aravalli Hills area will be developed to generate 10MW of electricity on a daily basis. These days, internet connectivity and an uninterrupted supply of full voltage electricity are two things that have become the backbone of every life especially when everything from paying bills to purchase & marketing, mails, and entertainment is being done online and also when most youngsters are taking to the Internet to launch their own business and for social networking. This plant was earlier defunct for nearly four years and had become a liability, but now with the Memorandum of Understanding already signed and the paperwork completed, it has come alive and kicking. This Rs 330 Cr plant will generate energy from waste and a Chinese firm has been roped in to collect waste from Gurugram and Faridabad. The best thing is that the electricity will be generated from waste and this plant has a capacity of processing 600 Tonnes of waste daily. Disposal of waste is becoming almost an unmanageable problem worldwide. Recently at Ghazipur on Delhi - Ghaziabad road a collapse of the massive waste dump hillock caused an accident killing several people.

This is an eye opener not only on the poor disposal management system but also on the magnitude of the problem. The present step at Bhandwari is an important step towards addressing the problem. Apart from that, the officials will visit China to learn more about the technology to develop the plant more efficiently and a team will be formed to independently review and monitor the progress of the unit regularly.

These are some steps that can help us in living a super life. Another important step is the ban of pet coke and furnace oil in Haryana to clean up the toxic air that has been chocking the state. These two toxic elements are already banned in Delhi since in 1996, but are widely used in NCR by factories manufacturing dyes, cement, paper, ceramics and bricks. The emissions on burning of pet coke and furnace oil contain Oxides of Sulphur and Nitrogen whose tiny particles settle deep inside the lungs and cause many grave diseases. Pollution is a mass killer; it kills hundreds of people in Delhi NCR annually. Most importantly, we owe a cleaner air to our coming generation and cannot suffocate them with our follies that lead to such serious air pollution. Clean air and water are the two fundamental elements of any life; nothing can survive in a gas chamber that unfortunately, Delhi NCR has been turning into.

Hence from more electricity to a cleaner air, the dream of a super life is not that far away; it is attainable for sure now. Vodafone too, has launched a series of super initiatives like supporting startups like Oyo and Zomato that in the long run strengthen the economy, digitally connecting Delhi NCR with 120 free Wi-Fi hotspot zones, especially in key areas like Airport. This Diwali too, Vodafone launched Super Crackers that were filled with eco-friendly seeds and were made available across Vodafone stores. This is Corporate Social responsibility in true sense.

Visit https://www.vodafone.in/home-delhi for more interesting initiatives.

#CelebratingSuper

I agree to ensure (to the best of my abilities and circumstances) that this blog post remains accessible in an un-altered state for a minimum of one year.

Images & ref from here and here

Nasti- nest... :(

Well after a gap of many days, I was feeling like penning down something, again something I have observed. Although, I fully accept the fact that I crib about things a lot esp. those which are absolutely ultra vires that is out of my control. But still this time here’s what I have observed.

This picture should make it crystal clear since I swear by the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words, just have a look below.

What do u see? what is it?? Strangely it is a nest. A bird made its nest in the garden of my aunt and here’s what things it used to make it…all crap, dirty things, papers, bits of old clothes, shreds of polythene bags and plastic straws. And I honestly feel it’s a reflection of what constitutes our environment in larger proportions…we are frankly not bothered about any ‘gandagi’ except of our own household... We consider parks and all the area outside our own homes as a free garbage dumping grounds, but that’s especially sad since even the most educated people can be spotted doing such things L

This dirty nest is an insult to our habits of cleanliness and says a lot about our fast degrading environment.

Have garbage; will throw!!

We Indians seem to be least bothered with the problem of garbage all over; we are just not perturbed by our dirty roads and public places. We are a confident breed and with much confidence we feel relieved by blaming each other for this mess. Dumping garbage outside homes, in public places is not new. Any public place becomes hard to recognize when it is clean and tidy. Most of natural beauties like the towns of Manali and Kullu are now littered by tourists. Even in an unlikely place like the Mount Everest there are heaps of non bio-degradable wastes, robbing it of its pristine beauty.
But the major problem is of dumping garbage as, when and wherever out of one’s own free will. Many cities in India are notorious for their ever growing garbage piles and sanitary landfills, particularly metros. Those who live in apartments and colonies have garbage collectors to pick the domestic waste, and a closed sewage system, but millions of others lack this. They either throw garbage openly in public places. Common practice now is to dispose waste in plastic bags. One day while on my evening stroll, to my surprise I saw a sophisticated man throwing big plastic bags of waste in a public park from his Wagon R car. Similarly, I also saw another educated lady throwing plastic bags in the empty plot in front of her own house! Now can we blame those who are illiterate and don’t have enough to spend on proper waste disposal. More ironic is the fact that often the system is available but people are happy with the mega savings of Rs 20 per month or so. The slums dwellers have a reason but such ‘educated’ people?

Where does this much garbage come from? The ever increasing use of plastic, particularly of use-and-throw items is one reason for this. Polythene bags are choking animals, wreaking havoc on sewers, rivers, natural drains as well as environment as a whole. And what is the solution? Nothing short of banning the plastic bags completely (like in the town of Nahan, HP) will help. But expecting too much from government and municipality would do no good. Every one of us at individual level has to do his bit towards cleanliness and become a catalyst for the change. One can start with his/her own house and neighborhood places. Keep public places clean yourself, inculcate the habit of cleanliness in the kids from the very beginning, and of course, minimize the use of plastic voluntarily: to start with, use cloth or jute bags for shopping. Dump your kitchen waste in some pit below a nearby tree or bush so that it turns into manure. Only a collective effort can help otherwise every city in India will be known for its dumps of garbage soon.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: MYTH AND REALITY

A lot of debate has been heating up on this topic. It has now become a favorite of the corporates and is finding prominent places in the marketing strategies of most reputed business giants ever since these astute planners have discovered this dormant ‘bhramastra’ with a wide usability like
Ø To outsmart other very smart competitors
Ø To gain customers trust
Ø To market the product and/or service
Ø And most importantly, for satisfying the most basic Indian urge: flaunting

This hot flavor of the corporates is none other than the CSR or the Corporate Social Responsibility. Also, it has now found a prominent place as an entire chapter in the B-school textbooks and in some cases an entire textbook itself so that the future czars of the corporates can market the products and/or services more ‘ethically’ and within the boundaries of ethical business practices set by their weaker and less astute, may be less luckier cousins.

CSR basically is a set of (no benchmarks yet available) duties and responsibilities a business entity should fulfill toward the society. It may come in the form of a school or of a self-service group or in any other mode through which it helps the poor and underprivileged to make them achieve a level of self sufficiency and /or helps the environment (ideally!)

There are but, different school of thoughts on CSR. Some view it as a mere selfless disposal of duties towards the society the business entity is flourishing in and some perceive it as a long term brand building and marketing investment with impeccable positive brand equity and gains it provides to the business entity. There are different views of different honchos and different modes of dispersing.

The Lever brothers including the William Hesketh Lever, way back in 1925 (having 282 operating companies, over 5 continents and employing 60,000 people) did something much ahead of their times and contemporary thinking: they made 18,000 employees the profit sharers of the company and also developed a state-of-the-art housing colony for the employees in 1905. This can also be tagged as a CSR by the then prevailing standards of employee care and most importantly, the vision for the same.

But as usual, Indian scenario is slow to adapt positive changes. Recently what the chairman of a famous Indian automobile giant remarked was depressing not because of its content but more because it was coming from a man holding such a revered position and authority. This corporate czar puts CSR to be the “Functions necessary to prevent a firm’s bankruptcy and all the strategies for long term branding building” The more perturbing fact is that most of his contemporaries today seem to think alike.

But that is only one aspect. Ultimately in such a CSR philosophy, most of the benefits and gains get steered towards the company itself and the society receives only a miniscule part of them. When the core ideology of dispersing the CSR is business, pressure from the environment and markets, it (CSR) is reduced merely to just another strategy implemented for company’s own sake only. But on the other hand when CSR is done keeping in view the gains and benefits of the society at the front and it is followed as the core aim then it (CSR) comes out and acquires a full fledged form that in itself encompasses the benefits of the society as well as its positive ripple effects on the brand(s) too. Companies, like individuals, are each a separate entity. Their survival in a society gives out a ripple effect. They effect and are affected by their direct and indirect environments. Though the companies are the epicenter of business activities that move with the core aim of making money and raising the bar of the bottom line continuously year after year, they owe a part to the society too. The environment they derive their resources from as well as the society they get the ever rising bottom line from now demand a sizable amount of company’s time and resources.

Another major Indian automobile giant has done CSR in its right spirit: opening schools, educational institutions and hospitals for the upliftment of the rural areas and helping the poor and the backward to become self sufficient. Though all these activities do not directly contribute to the balance sheet of the company, they do contribute a lot in the long term brand building. Also, the employees feel an innate urge to try and perform their part of CSR and to become an asset for the society and the environment. This is the right spirit of the CSR wherein the social aspect is the core aim, not the firm’s profits. Also, unlike what most companies are doing, the funds for the CSR activities should come from firm’s profit and this cost must not be passed to the customer, for it would simply mean a sort of covert diversification by the company into the “welfare business”. For example if a firm makes a profit of INR 80 crores, the funds should come from this only rather than increasing the price of the product to fund CSR and passing the entire cost to the customer.

Thus a good CSR policy is one that is helping the people and the environment primarily and brand building is just one of the by-products, rather than vice-versa which is now prevalent. Also, CSR operates at 2 levels, an individual level and the societal level and both compliment each other.