Day 2 revolves around sustainability

“Even though market capitalism has won over other economic forms,it has many weaknesses and flaws. One is its inability to address the poorer sections of society and the increasing disparity between the rich and poor,between industry and agriculture and the rural and urban. The Earth’s environment has been abused. And on the macro-economic front,individual companies have done well but not the global economy,” said Professor Vasanth P Gandhi of the Centre for Agriculture Management at IIM-A,while introducing the speakers at one of the three sessions.

Speakers made presentations about various initiatives that addressed issues of education and child welfare,about the need for making information more easily available to the rural populace,about promotion of ideas of common citizens and the necessity of changing business logic to attain environmental sustainability.

Sushil Ramola,CEO of social enterprise B-ABLE that trains unskilled labour,said: “People on the margins have aspirations. Most of India’s workforce today is unskilled. We have a skill gap of 500 million people and we have to make use of their aspirations. To make this country a developed country,this must be done. We have no other choice.”

Chanchalapathi Dasa,the vice chairman of Akshaya Patra Foundation,which works with the Centre and various state governments to provide mid-day meals in government schools across the country,spoke about the need to bring more students to schools and reduce the dropout rates.

“For poor people,education is the only way out of poverty. While the quality of education needs to be improved,we must start by bringing in more children to our schools and make them stay,” Dasa said.

Another presentation was made by IIT Bombay professor Kriti Ramamritham,who was instrumental in starting the online service for farmers called ‘aAQUA’ (Almost All Questions Answered).

The initiative,largely managed by IIT-Bombay with government support,has set up Internet kiosks in roughly half of India’s districts,where farmers can ask questions about agriculture. The queries are forwarded to a forum of experts that answers them and gives suggestions on how to solve problems.

IIM-A professor Anil Gupta spoke about the need to change the existing supply chains,from the traditional vertically structured ones to horizontal supply chains where communities can directly trade with other communities.

“Markets are ruthless. If supply chain managers tell us there should be only one kind of potato or tomato or brinjal or anything else,is that the kind of world you want your children to live in? We need to link innovation,enterprise and investments.”