...SPECIAL REPORT The Shakti Revolution How the world’s largest home-to-home operation is changing lives and stimulating economic activity in rural India BY GAVIN NEATH AND VIJAY SHARMA R O J A M M A I S A S I N G L E M OT H E R with two daughters living in Kurumurthy, a small rural village 150 kilometres south west of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. Until five years ago she scraped an existence by working in her mother’s field, earning barely enough to live on herself, let alone bring up two children. Then her life changed beyond recognition. Today she earns around 650 rupees (US$16) a month, is widely recognized and respected in her community, and has become a role model for other women wanting to raise themselves out of poverty. What changed was a visit to her village by a representative from Hindustan Unilever and her decision to become a Project Shakti entrepreneur. Hindustan Unilever, the Indian arm of global consumer goods company Unilever, is one of India’s leading businesses, with an annual turnover of US$2.3 billion and a history in India stretching back a hundred years. It markets such well-known international brands as Lipton, Lifebuoy, Surf, Vim and Pond’s, as well as local brands, such as Kissan, Annapurna, Lakme and Wheel. Unilever has always held the firm belief that the private sector can contribute to social development by creating win-win solutions to social challenges through innovative strategies that meet both business and social objectives. It was this...
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...ILLUMINA ’11 PRESENTS “SWADES” We, the people MavericksAbhishake Dixit Animesh Ankit Dubey Ashish Gauba Paresh Adnani Saurav Labana Sudeep Shouche 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Game Objectives.....................................................................................................................................3 Relevance of the Theme.........................................................................................................................4 The Plot…………........................................................................................................................................5 The Characters.............................................................................................................................. 6 The Game Structure .............................................................................................................................. 7 Scene I…………..........................................................................................................................................7 Scene II………….......................................................................................................................................7 Scene III…………....................................................................................................................................... 7 Information To Be Gathered............................................................................................................
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...solutions that Small Business Owners are seeking and the marketing efforts through our nation wide network of entrepreneurs that are seeking to move to a work/live environment that is provided by Officehomes™. Officehomes™ helps communities to build the “Social Capital” infrastructure needed to attract knowledge workers, and then helps the tenants take advantage of the cost efficiencies provide through the aggregation of PEOPLE, PRODUCTS, INFORMATION, SERVICE & SPACE. There are literally 100’s of companies and organizations that offer the parts that are needed to build a successful community. Officehomes™ brings all these parts together under one roof so that a critical mass of thought leaders can get the ball moving in your city, town, village or neighborhood. Thank you for your consideration, Craig Pravda, President LifestYle Brokers Inc. LifestYle Brokers Inc. designs and markets IDEAS that “Build Community and Strengthen Identity”. VANCOUVER, B.C. / NEW YORK, N.Y. W: (662) 634-0007 / C: (917) 913-0009 Feature Article: What Attracts Knowledge Workers To A Community? The challenge facing every community and region today is how to adapt to the new global economy that depends on knowledge, creativity, and innovation. “It is becoming increasingly clear that the key to a thriving innovation-based...
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...Geographic Segmentation Given the fact that people living in urban areas demand more of high-tech product as compared to people in suburban area, geographically our product is more desirable in urban area than suburban area. In addition, the income level and population are both higher in urban area. Demographic Segmentation We could use multivariate demographic segmentation, which is to combine the age and education variables to segment their market for our product. Our target market could be the young people between 18 to 34 years old and with an education level of at least a tertiary studies. The reason to select this target market is that they are a very important part of today’s society and make up a huge percentage of population. In addition, current trends also shown that people who hold higher education qualifications will normally be employed in higher-skilled job. They earn higher income yet with lesser work time. Therefore they have more time for leisure and exercise at a higher price. As a result, this segment of market would be more profitable overall. Psychographic Segmentation People’s attitude towards buying our product is affect by their lifestyle. People who enjoy using our product are creative and fashion-follower. They like to try new things and described themselves as technologically sophisticated. On top of that, these people are high-end and tech-savvy, who is often a business user. They have grown up with computers, email, and instant...
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...Analysis on the Business Opportunities Article: A village in a million The article, “A village in a million” written by “The economist” on December 16th 2010, shows a great insight into the Indian culture, highlighting with it the job opportunities that are beginning to arise as the country modernizes and with it how long-held and deeply embedded traditions are on the verge of becoming extinct. Shahabpur is a small village located in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. For centuries defined by its ancient ways and unique and diverse culture it is slowly being modernized. Shahabpur is located very close to the tracks and therefore not far from cities such as Mumbai. As the world progresses at a rapid rate coincidentally so does India. The farming in Shahabpur doesn’t bring in enough income, realising this many fathers send their children to work in factories in bigger cities, such as Mumbai furthermore many fathers are giving up their agricultural ways and moving towards factory work too, bringing in as much as 200rupees a day, twice what they can bring in back home. The business opportunities that arise from this vast movement to industrial work, is the opening of many more stores in Shahabpur bazaar and the increased exchange in money. As money comes in, Shahabpur is growing; three local schools have been set up, with more children being able to attend because of increased financial stability in the family. Parents are now realising the importance of education...
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...Many years ago three soldiers, hungry and weary of battle, came upon a small village. The villagers, suffering a meager harvest and the many years of war, quickly hid what little they had to eat and met the three at the village square, wringing their hands and bemoaning the lack of anything to eat. The soldiers spoke quietly among themselves and the first soldier then turned to the village elders. "Your tired fields have left you nothing to share, so we will share what little we have: the secret of how to make soup from stones." Naturally the villagers were intrigued and soon a fire was put to the town's greatest kettle as the soldiers dropped in three smooth stones. "Now this will be a fine soup", said the second soldier; "but a pinch of salt and some parsley would make it wonderful!" Up jumped a villager, crying "What luck! I've just remembered where some's been left!" And off she ran, returning with an apronful of parsley and a turnip. As the kettle boiled on, the memory of the village improved: soon barley, carrots, beef and cream had found their way into the great pot, and a cask of wine was rolled into the square as all sat down to feast. They ate and danced and sang well into the night, refreshed by the feast and their new-found friends. In the morning the three soldiers awoke to find the entire village standing before them. At their feet lay a satchel of the village's best breads and cheese. "You have given us the greatest of gifts: the secret of how to make...
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... ) *+ #, - CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF VILLAGES CRITERIA FOR SL.NO SELECTION OF VILLAGE B A WEIGHTAGE FORMULA (MAXIMUM=5 POINTS) 1 2 3 4 5 C D E F G 1 BPL HH Intensity 10-20% 20-40% 40-60% 60-80% 80-100% 2 Remoteness (Distance from Dt. HQ) <20KM 20-40KM 40-60KM 60-80KM >80KM 3 Proximity to the RF (indicative of forest 800 mts-1 Km dependency) 600-800 mts 400-600 mts 200-400 mts 200 mts 4 Extent of natural resource base 10-20% degraded 20-40% degraded 40-60% degraded 60-80% degraded Maximum degraded with no tree cover 5 Proximity to DEF establishment for better assistance 3 Km 2-3KM 1-2KM 500mts-1KM 200-500 mts . )/• • • 0 * "+ 1 + Improve forest productivity to strengthen the natural resource base for communities. 1 • • • • ! # 2 3 + # Capacity building of Department of Environment and Forest (DEF) for improved service delivery. Preparation of IEC material Budgetary allocation: Rs 13. 45 crores ! ! & '( '4 5 2 7 6 + & 26 + & 6 8 6 + ! + + 0 * 8 0 " ; ! 9# % : 6 & 8! & 26 ; + ! & 0 ! $ ! + " + # ! + 8! < # # 9 8 ) * 3 " & 26 # SEQUENCING AND SCHEDULING OF THE PLANNING PROCESS FOR NARMIL SL. NO ACTIVITY Selection of the Districts B SUB-PROJECT PLANNING Kamrup Nagaon DFO, field staff, participated in the selection of the villages which is based on the criteria (section ???) and established willingness of the community SCHEDULE 15 villages PROJECT LEVEL PLANNING 1 Target Nodal...
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...had no problem raising money and these pumps were installed in various villages. Although it seemed like a great idea to many, it turns out these devices were underutilized in these villages. In fact, it almost became a chore to operate, as kids did not want to play with them. This was a prime example of development ideas that grow to failure due to lack of understanding with the developing area. In the late 90’s, MIT Economics professor Michael Kramer worked in Kenya to distribute textbooks. However, through a controlled study experiment, he found that this had little to no effect on overall academic performance on students there. Kramer hypothesized that academic struggles were not caused by problems within the classroom, but outside of it. He came up with a project to eradicate stomach worms within children. The project was successful – absence rates fell by 25%, kids got taller, and friends/families got healthier. When testing these children later, they had more education and higher salaries. This was also much more cost efficient than the textbook distribution project. There was a 60-1 ratio between bump in lifetime wages to cost of treatment for kids on the deworming project. Kramer founded the NGO, Deworm the World. The eradication of stomach worms in children took place around the world in developing countries. However, questions arose as to whether something that worked within a small village will also scale within nations and continents. A controlled study showed...
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...Jamaal James International Marketing Case 2-2: Fair and Lovely Just as tanning plays a huge role in most of the Western countries; in India Skin lightening treatments are becoming increasingly popular. The Indian people perceive fairer complexion females to be more dominant and respected. Therefore skin-lightening treatments became a huge industry which was dominated by Fair & Lovely from Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL). They were responsible for 90 percent of the market shares until CavinKare Ltd launched Fairever, which grew and gained 15 percent shares in the market. Wanting to regain their dominance in the market HLL decided to put out their new campaign ads which to the All India Women’s Democratic Association (AIWDA) basically conveyed the message that “if she is not fair in color, she won’t get married or wont get promoted.” This of course created a huge problem in India, which forced HLL to switch their campaign strategies and pay more respect to the women of India and their culture. 1. I think it is very clear to say that HLL was ethical in most of its campaign to sell its’ product. The country and culture has had a huge demand for skin lightening treatments for a long time; HLL has done nothing wrong but tried to give the people what they truly desire. Many women think that their skin tone will define them as a woman in society, therefore they are willing to seek any means to acquire what they believe is the perfect skin tone. HLL saw a great opportunity, took...
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...Name: Oladeji Oluwatomisin Student number: 999929323 Course code: GGR 207 Instructor: Dr. Jason Cooke September 29th 2014 Topic: What is a City? There are various ways to define a city either it be from a historical, contemporary, administrative or economic viewpoint. For the purpose of this analysis, a city is defined as a large permanent settlement, which is usually dense and highly populated relative to rural villages and towns, and they are made up of heterogeneous people. As recently as a hundred years ago, only 2 in 10 people lived in cities, but now we have 54% of the world population living in cities or urban areas. The history of cities date back to the time hunter-gatherers roamed the earth. After a few years, this led to semi permanent settlements, and with the invention of irrigation, this led to specialization of other areas and the development of cities as settlements became permanent. As more jobs and opportunities became available in cities, people from the villages moved to the cities, and this accounts for the dense characteristic of most cities. The first cities are thought to have started around 3500BC in lower Mesopotamia after the Neolithic revolution or the agricultural revolution, as agriculture is believed to be a pre requisite for city development. Urbanism can be described as the way cities grow or develop. There are various characteristics of a city; some include population size and density, social stratification, economic production...
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...income-generating opportunities. • Villages with a population of about 2000-3000 are selected. • Personnel from HUL approach self-help group (SHG). • Selection of the Shakti Amma. • HUL vouches for Shakti Ammas with banks from credit. • One Shakti entrepreneur is appointed for one village & villages that are about 2 kilometers apart from her village. • The Shakti dealer places initial orders worth Rs.15000(principal customer of HUL) • The Shakti dealer organizes a “Shakti Day” in the village(display of products & free gifts) • The recruitment of a Shakti Entrepreneur or Shakti Amma (SA) begins with the executives of HUL identifying from the uncovered village. • The representative of the company meets the panchayat and the village head and identify the woman who they believe will be suitable as a SA. • After training she is asked to put up Rs 20,000 as investment which is used to buy products for selling. The products are then sold door-to-door or through petty shops at home. Positive Aspects: • The Shakti entrepreneur program creates livelihood opportunities for underprivileged rural women. • The Shakti Vani program works to improve the quality of life in rural India, by spreading awareness of best practices in health and hygiene. • They are also studying the consumption habits of the rural people. • The factories that HUL continued establishing in less-developed regions of the country have been engaged in developing rural market in adjacent villages. • These factory-centered...
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...Introduction My community and I have benefited from urban greenspaces in various ways. Interfacing with nature via greenspaces is significant to me personally for several reasons. I chose to write about urban greenspaces because parks and forests were a very important aspect of my childhood, I have observed how the disparity of greenspaces between communities affects them, and because my exposure to greenspaces has provided me with a valuable relationship with the natural world. Body Growing up in a rural area, the majority of my childhood activities were dependent on the parks and forests that were accessible to me. I played soccer in the nearby fields, learned about animals in the closest ponds and creeks, and socialized with other kids at playgrounds and parks. As I grew older my choice of activities changed but the venue remained the same. Playing soccer quickly became playing baseball while exploring nature at nearby creeks evolved into day hiking trips at national parks and forests. The parks and greenspaces around me acted as stages for my curiosity, recreation, and socializing and were invaluable experiences growing up. All children and adults should experience the benefits that greenspaces provide regardless of whether they live in an urban or rural environment. I was naive to the important role that greenspaces played in my life and development until I relocated to a more urban environment that lacked accessible greenspaces...
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...A rural community is an area outside of the city and towns; they often have farmlands, plains, deserts, and prairies; there are a few buildings, businesses, and people living in rural communities (Tickamyer & Duncan, 1990). In 2000, the United States census showed that 59 million people lived in rural communities (Scales,2014, p.). I had a chance to interview three individuals who are from a rural area in Alabama; Tykeylia Crenshaw, Erica staley, and Curtis Irby they all faced difficulties with employment, education, and transportation in their rural community. In rural communities “Unemployment among rural African Americans is twice as high as for others groups in rural areas. African Americans often live in distinct communities with high poverty, a lack of opportunity and limited economic benefits (rural communities) Erica Staley, twenty-one years of age lives in Andalusia, Alabama where there is an population size of 9,081 which 25.9 % of that population is consist of African Americans; 38.1% of African Americans living in Andalusia are living below the poverty level. There is no business in rural communities that these individuals can work in that is not family owned business. Erica, an African American female who family social class is considers working class, her father is a constructing worker who have his own business in town where mostly they income come from. Erica, states, “if my father didn’t own his own business we would not be able to make end meet in the community...
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...A community involves species that interact and live together within the same space and time. The communities present in each given area is a reflection of the physical environment in which they survive. For example, at Kamiak Butte, the climate conditions play a major role in what species are present on each slope. Each slope contains a variety of diverse species living and interacting with one another which will be explored in the remainder of this paper. Ponderosa Pine-Mallow Ninebark-Elk Sedge Community In the first slope named Ponderosa Pine-Mallow Ninebark-Elk Sedge, one of the most dominant intraspecific interactions is competition for resources. At slope one there is significant coverage of vegetation as seen by the PAR and Overstory values (table). Due to this coverage the species present must compete for sunlight. This competition at slope one leads to very patchy distribution of species, for example, there may be a clustered group of elk sedge in one area, where in another is a cluster of mallow ninebark. This style of distribution allows the species to receive the sunlight necessary for photosynthesis and provides all species with a varying amount of the resource. This pattern of distribution allows for better amounts of species diversity and therefore a more resilient community. Using a plot area calculation, which accounts for the number of species within a certain circular range, there were two species of tree present. Ponderosa Pine dominated the area having...
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...I am writing the publisher because I want to try and convince our community that heroes are all around the world and show their powers in different ways. Ohhh… and I’m not talking about NO ordinary superheroes that have all these magical powers; I’m talking about the heroes that simple just uses pure wisdom to influence the ones around them. This story will show the world that there are heroes out there in all different shapes and sizes. And, as far as the story goes, here are the ideas behind my story, so here we go: Way up high in the majestical forests, in the mountain of Emei, in China lives the Somaki people, who had the most inspirational/wise man that ever set foot on the lands called Mr. Morrison. For the people call their village the Spiritual Oracle because of Mr. Morrison; who takes on the form of a monk because of his vibrant white beard and bald head, the fact that he wears glasses and is as short (5’2 to be exact), his face looks as though it is wrinkled in certain areas giving him the effect of audacity allowing him to have the appearance of wisdom. He looks as though he is homeless, but don’t let this fool the reader because even though the cloths are tore up and dirty, he believes these clothes are what gave him the wisdom/ inspirational powers, so he has never changed them; and, even though the clothes are tattered the orange and yellow within the fabric stick out like a sore thumb. He also uses a wood cane that is made from ancient...
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