Spotlight on Social Venture: Swechha

As part of our Delhi visit organised by the British Council, we had the opportunity to visit some social enterprises in the field. Tucked away behind some narrow streets and burnt-out cars sits Swechha, home to ‘India’s first upcycled office’. And what an office it is! Generally I can get quite skeptical of the term ‘upcycling’, as it is to ‘recycling’ what ‘vintage’ is to ‘second hand’, but in this case there are some truly innovative ideas at play, and the end result wouldn’t look out of place in Brooklyn or Berlin. Check out the video of the team building said office below, with mandatory dubstep and some pretty un-Health and Safety welding…

Sweccha are about more than just cool office space though, as they work as a hub from which a whole range of different enterprises spin-off. One of their newest ventures, Lunchbox 17, is a project where women from slum villages prepare beautiful, delicious and healthy handmade lunches to be delivered to your desk by yellow scooter. According to this review, the results are pretty special.

We also had a tour of another Swechha venture, Green the Gap. Green the Gap also focuses on upcycling, using waste gathered from a range of sources (including knowing the area where the luxury hotels dump their bottles of Grey Goose). Like the office, the end products were pretty special, to the extent that I parted with a few too many rupees for some posh candles and a bag made out of tyres. What is most striking is not just the good work on show here, and the commitment to high quality workmanship, but just how ready these products are for the international market. Take the candles, for example, made from Johnnie Walker bottles, I paid approximately (look away parents – you might be seeing these candles again…) £4.50 each for them. This price represents a significant enough mark-up on the cost price of materials to enact real social change amongst the people who made the candles, however I don’t feel I’m exaggerating by saying that these products could fetch at least £20 in John Lewis.

By focusing on upcycling, Green the Gap are not only reducing waste in Delhi, but providing employment opportunities for people in need of work. By adding an eye for design and standards of quality control on a par with high-end products they are also elevating themselves above the level usually associated with upcycling, and commonly found on websites like ethical superstore. I would argue that what we are seeing here is the emergence of ‘premium upcycling’, a term that should probably be followed with “coming to a glossy design mag near you”…

 

Delhi Blog: From Social Enterprise to the Shangri-La

Not many pictures in this post, as I’ve been told by the British Council that I can’t get any from them until after I write this entry. After waking up in a grotty YMCA, we were all whisked by A/C coach 300m down the road to the simply wonderful Shangri-La Eros Hotel. Amongst the chandeliers, marble fountains and Bentleys, I managed to find my first cup of real coffee in India, reducing me  to the level of a drooling addict, thus slightly undermining the decorum of the whole affair.

Inside we were greeted by Rob Lynes, the country director for the British Council in India. Rob made quite a weird speech about why Scotland shouldn’t leave the UK, before disappearing off (presumably to another function), giving credence to the idea that if you know the right people there’s not just such a thing as a free lunch, but a free breakfast and dinner as well. Following this, we were treated to a program of speakers from various branches of social enterprise across India. All of the speakers who followed were united not just by the excellence of their ventures, but their genuine, unbridled passion for what they do. Between them they created an almost electric atmosphere in the room, to the point that it was impossible not to be not just inspired, but quite positively blown away by their sheer enthusiasm. Medhavi Gandhi, in particular, was so sickeningly young and successful that being in her company made me want to rock back and forth in a dark corner somewhere, questioning what I’ve done so wrong with my life. There were some interesting ventures elsewhere, such as the Faizal and Shabana foundation from Kerala (The only state in India with a frequently Socialist government). The foundation works by investing money into state schools in order to improve standards. In contrast to the free schools initiative in the UK, the school retains all of the same curricular and staffing requirements as any other state school, with the foundation providing better infrastructure and free uniforms for all students. The project reenforces a view that I’ve always held, that if state-run institutions such as education and healthcare are improved to a certain standard they eradicate the need for private sector provision in these areas. Whilst this concept is ultimately unfeasible, it is reassuring to see private foundations looking to invest in social institutions without the imperialistic need for statues and plaques everywhere.

After the speakers we were treated to what I can only describe as an excellent lunch. It was during this lunch, however, that I had, if not quite a full-blown epiphany, then at least an uneasy realisation. On my way to the toilet (don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into one of THOSE Delhi stories…) I passed through a similarly excellent lunch being held next door for a meeting of Asian business leaders. They were eating the same excellent food from the same excellent containers, and at the end of the day, approximately 75% of the food would end up in the same not-so-excellent dustbin. As social entrepreneurs, we inhabit the same environments as business professionals, and to a certain extent this is unavoidable, but how can we really be happy with an afternoon of smiling and back-patting, when at the same lunch one of the waiters asked me if I could get him a job in London? Of course this is a simplistic argument, and it would be wrong to suggest that until all of the world’s ills are solved, no-one can ever go to a nice restaurant or sleep in a comfortable bed, but (we are in his backyard after all…) as Gandhi said: “be the change you wish to see in the world”. If a collection of some of the best and brightest students, as well as some of India’s most prominent social entrepreneurs on a radical program designed to create real change in the world is utterly indistinguishable from a business conference in a swanky 5-star hotel, surely we must do better?

Spotlight on Social Venture: Awaaz.de

As part of the Spark India project I’m going to be taking a closer look at some of the ventures we encounter on the program. To begin the series, here is a brief and incredibly limited overview of the project I’m going to be working on whilst I’m out here. If you want to find out more (you should!) check out their brand spanking new website at awaaz.de.

In Hindi, awaaz literally means ‘voice’, and in a country with over 1500 recognised languages, voice can be a pretty powerful tool. Illiteracy, or at least illiteracy in a common language, is widespread, making vocal communication a key part of life. Awaaz.de works by taking the same technology you will have been annoyed by when you ring up your bank or a call centre (“press 1 to be put on hold for 3 hours”) and engineering it into communication tools for SME’s, individuals and communities. For example a shopkeeper could notify all of his regular customers that he has some new stock in, or ask them whether he should invest in a new product. This business focus alone is limited in its social impact, but it pays the bills and allows Awaaz.de to offer its product for free to less affluent user groups, such as its “Farmer’s friend” service. Farmer’s friend works with the rural farming community, providing a platform for them to share advice and market prices, and connect with farming experts, by taking part in a daily call-in and answering a set question. Approximately 70% of Farmer’s friend subscribers listen everyday, and any ‘priority’ messages receive over 90% penetration. Other community projects currently running include an “iTunes for the villages” that plays music from local bands, or a stream of “Indie Hindi Poetry”.

On top of this, Awaaz.de is committed to providing the best possible experience to end users of its products. It will never cost you to ring an Awaaz.de number, as when your call connects, it will hang up and then automatically ring you back with the service you require. When Vodaphone asked Awaaz.de to provide a cold-call marketing service designed to reach 50,000 new customers, they said no, even though the revenue generated could have secured the financial status of the company for the foreseeable future. If you take a trip to the Awaaz.de offices, you will see the walls resplendent with motivational quotes from their first ever customer – the Gandhi Ashram, and hanging in pride of place is a statement of the company’s core values. At the heart of all of this, it is apparent that one notion binds together everything that Awaaz.de does, the notion of community. According to Awaaz.de:

Enterprise that does not include the community as its primary customer cannot deliver much value, whether economic or social.

Awaaz.de

 

Awaaz.de is committed to providing new and exciting ways to utilise its service, and part of my challenge will involve working with youth in Ahmedabad in an attempt to create a community of young app developers. With community at the centre of everything they do, it will be an honour to work for Awaaz.de for the next month.

Toni and ghee

I’ve been in Delhi for the last couple of days, which is why progress has stalled to a halt, although I’ve finally had the chance to compile the footage from “the haircut”. Essentially, what makes an Indian haircut distinctive from, say, a Hoxton haircut, is the accompanying massage. I have heard of the term “Indian Head Massage” before, but for some reason it wasn’t until actually having one that I fully comprehended its magnificence. Lasting for between half an hour and an hour, your masseuse will manipulate your face and head in ways you never thought you’d need. You’ll get a strange robotic buzzer rubbed around your general “above-shoulder” areas, and then, inevitably, at some point when you least expect it, he will shove his finger SO FAR INSIDE YOUR EAR whilst beaming wildly at you that you will truly understand what Iggy Pop was talking about…

There are some other less disturbing elements to the Indian haircut, for example the mandatory half-time tea break, when all of the customers, hairdressers and people waiting have a five minute break for tea. This phenomenon can also be found in other guises, such at the will-I-won’t-I-buy-a-hi-fi half-time water break (Lottie?), and certainly makes a change from the usual “so what do you do then?” idle banter that usually accompanies the bi-annual “short but not too short please” shearing ceremony.

Anyway, I’m going off onto a strange tangent now, and this was meant to just be a quick video blog whilst I work on writing up all the stuff from Delhi, so without further ado, I present (somewhat proudly), the “Authentic Indian Haircut”.

 

Stay tuned for multiple Delhi posts very soon!

Easy Rider

Got bored of walking through Ahmedabad, so I decided to pick up one of these. It cost 1000 rupees, which is the equivalent of roughly £100.

 

I think I’m getting quite good on it.

 

 

(Ok, so this is actually Void from IIM-A’s bike, and I was just on the back holding on for dear life and desperately trying to retain the contents of my bowels…)

IIM in the mood…

A few days into the trip and I now feel properly in India. The exact moment of this epiphany occurred during my first yoga session, whilst in the lotus position performing an action that I can only describe as “Om-ming”. I wouldn’t exactly class myself as a natural at yoga, especially considering that the 70+ year old female instructor (followed by the entire class) literally could not contain the fits of laughter caused by my attempts at elegantly crouching, in spite of my protestations at the limiting factors of the tight seams in my oh-so-sexy linen trousers.

Despite some minor wardrobe malfunctions, I’m really enjoying my time staying at the IIM Ahmedabad campus. Designed by the American modernist architect (and fellow namesake) Louis Kahn, the buildings are striking, with clean lines and simple shapes wrought into smooth concrete bringing a nuanced subtlety than in similar brutalist buildings. Wildlife is commonplace around the campus, with small lizards, strange long-legged backward-kneed birds (not the Latin name) and parrots a familiar sight, and I have got used to the familiar face of a friendly dog who likes to wait outside my door (Pathik, one of our lecturers is not so sure, from what I can tell he seems to think that the dog is called Fuck off…)

The students too are enlightening, with their zeal for study quite frankly terrifying (reports of an average of 2hrs per night of sleep are widespread…) and it is also interesting to see some quite fundamental differences in attitude and culture. During a classroom poll, all of the Southampton students but exactly none of the IIM-A students agreed with the statement that charitable organisations are more trustworthy than businesses. The general perception in India is that businesses are more accountable and less likely to be made up of careerists, which shows that either the non-governmental sector over here is very bad, or that the businesses have yet to succumb to the boom and bust tendencies of western economies. Also the perception of the role of universities is very different. In the UK, we tend to think of universities as providers of education to students, whereas in the IIM-A they say that the university provides learned students to India as a country.

Tomorrow we visit the Awaaz.de offices for the first time, which should help me better get to grips with exactly what the hell I’m supposed to be doing out here. Also I’m planning on getting an Indian haircut and shave, which has thus far been described to me only as “an experience”…

We are sorry to report that the Jet Airways flight 9W121 is delayed by approximately 23 hours

After a journey that can only be described as epic, spanning 48 hours, the same plane two days running, and a rather nice bottle of cognac I’ve finally made it to India. What have we learned from our experience?

1. Under NO circumstances ever fly Jet Airways again. Ever.
2. I know have a fairly accurate mental map of Heathrow terminal 4, and also the small patch of runway where I spent four hours playing snake on a plane (less Samuel L. Jackson, more Samuel Hell Jackson).
3. Speed is better than you remember…