Where in the world is Rajdeep Sardesai?

Of late. people I know speak with a lot of hatred and venom when they talk about the celebrity news anchors (I am not sure journalist is the right word). I do not watch much of TV news but of whatever I do, I feel the TV news channels are waiting for the next "big news". They do not realise that as we speak, every minute an important piece of news is happening across the country.

I find their coverage of important issues leave much to be desired. By important issues I do not mean only events that happen in Delhi and Mumbai or the other big cities of India. India as a country is not yet fully shining - where is the picture of that non-shiny part? Why does there have to be a Bollywood angle to a breaking news?

We give minute to minute updates on what is happening in Karunanidhi's house/office during the negotiations for seats - who is going in, who is going out? Believe me as these things happen, the unstoppable wheels of my country are turning and with every turn they are churning out stories worth knowing - stories that need to be aired.

Why are all these channels depending on sensatinalism and hiding behind the garb of "Public wants it". Well, quite possible. Who is going to change the public's taste?

Not Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt or Sagarika Ghose. Which TV channel covered the atrocities in Chattisgarh reported in Tehelka ? In my next post I will try and analyze a point of view that many people have put forward "Media is another industry out there to make a profit. Why single them out for dereliction of duty - if there is a duty at all"?

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Are we talking in air?

Jisko hindi mein bolte hain "Hawa mein baatein karna". I am strong advocate of the view that every social "kind-of" work one does should directly or indirectly make an impact on society. One cannot be talking in air about bringing about a change in society.

I am part of a team that is organizing a workshop on "Empowering the Underprivileged through Innovations". It is to be held on 24th May 2009 but this post is about something else. My friend's comment on the value of a workshop like this set my mind thinking. I did give him an impassioned and spontaneous response - maybe the response sufficed for the moment but I think I need to think about this. Are my actitivities, or to make it more generic and relevant, are our activities making a difference on the ground?

Are we just patting ourselves on the back and discussing sweet nothings in guise of conducting workshops and seminars and talks. Well, could be. Am not sure. And the fact that I am not sure is not a good thing. We should be doing our due diligence before plunging into any activity which "we think" we are doing for the society. Here are some questions I intend to ask myself and my partners next time I am involved in any activity.

i. Who are the beneficiaries? If the activity intends to benefit a particular section of society how do I intend to measure the extent of impact.

ii. How are you going to use the earnings, if any?

iii. Whom are you partnering with? Do your partners share the same view as you?

iv. How does your activity intend to maintain its impact after its tenure?

v. Are you entering a space because there is no other organization serving the need? If no, then are you doing it because your approach is different? Did you try to partner with any organization before going ahead?

I think these questions are important and really important to ensure you are on the correct path. You say?

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devil lies in the details

Last Saturday I attended a class on "Social Accounting & Audit". One of the aspects the lecturer mentioned was that there are many ways to quantify the social benefits spread by an organization. For example, one NGO she worked for was working with artisans. While preparing the social account for it, the social auditor saw that on an average each artisan was earning Rs 100-200 more (I am guessing monthly) due to the NGOs intervention.

Now, while preparing the social account they calculated an amount equal to Rs X where

X = A (number of artisans) * B (number of years for which social account is being stated) * C (amount of increase in arisans' income)

This resulted in a figure that was huge giving an impression that the NGO had a profound effect on the community it was working with. Whereas this may the case, there is another statistic we should consider - The relative increase in the artisans' income. How much more is the artisan earning as compared to his income without the NGOs intervention. And see how it makes a difference.

If an artisan's monthly income is Rs. 500 then a Rs 100 increase in his income would amount to a 20 percent relative increase. However, if an artisan's monthly income is Rs 5000 then a Rs 100 increase in income would translate into a 2 percent increase. A helluva difference.

So while the NGO may have earned a lot in social accounting, it may have not necessarily made the kind of change in the lives of its stakeholders as it may seem at first glance.

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An example of how a CSR project should not be!!!

For quite sometime I have been talking to people and writing, emphasising that innovation will have to be a vital contributing factor when you want to improve the lives of millions of people. And there are efforts and projects which do prove this point.

You have to innovate in technology, in processes, in ways to reach your target group, in ways of communicating with your target group...but sadly for every social effort which involves innovation of some kind or the other you come across tens of projects and initiatives which either smack of plain opportunism or of stale ideas.

The Shiksha initiave by P&G in partnership with CRY is one such initiative. Put in one sentence "Buy P&G products and you can contribute to a child's education".

I feel buying decisions should be influenced by the quality of the product - even in cases where the product itself is the USP e.g. organic products i.e. You cannot tell a person that since you are buying eco-friendly clothes they would be a bit rough on your skin (unless that is an unaddressable product characteristic). From a business point of view too, not many would be willing to buy a product not matching his/her expectations just because it has a social aspect to it.

Coming back to this initiative. It is simple silent (lack of transparency - should I say!) on how much exactly am I contributing (real money terms) when I am buying a product. What exactly is the model of financing and contribution in this project? How much is the company paying for every Vicks Vaporub that I buy?

Where is the innovation? A company so huge and with an enviable market reach and penetration came up with this plan to contribute to the society. A plan with a condition "You help us grow and only then will we be able to give back to the society". What happened to the MBAs and other experts you have hired?

Aishwarya Mishra, then you tell us, since you are harping on innovation time and again.

Aishwarya Mishra: I do not claim that every proposal that I make will be successful or is entirely unique but at the same time I feel it will leverage the company's strengths and reach to a higher potential.

• Socially relevant messages on(the wrapper)/in(the form of a booklet) your products. One may equate it to lip service but I would rank it alongwith the message on a cigarete packet idea - rather one rung above it. With the kind of sales you are having, your product reaches a huge number of households - what better way to communicate messages like cleanliness, hygiene, education than a booklet inside a waching powder packet.

• Loyalty points which can be redeemed as contribution to a group of organizations or an umbrella organization like GiveIndia. Two points of importance here

a. Loyalty points are subtly (but surely) different from the contribution made by purchasing a single unit of a single product. In case of the former you are dependent on the quality of your product for the scheme and product to succeed. It is a much more engaging project and also has a much longer timeline.

b. Freedom to choose the organization to which you want to contribute.

I am sure there are many more ways in which a company can act responsibly and not just "act" responsible. Such things however happen because of the reluctance of many organizations to recognize social responsibility as an integral part of their company structure and objectives/goals. In many places, HR personnel are logically made the CSR peronnel too - whatever gave them the idea.

Bottomline, innovation and freshness of thought is the key to ensure that your company's social goals are inbuilt into the company's overall objectives and not merely superficially aligned.

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RTI - Am I understanding it correctly ?

I follow the India Uncut blog by Amit Varma. Frankly speaking I read it for its witty humour. A recent post however started my mind to think in another direction. I have thought about it earlier too.

Right to Information Act is a tool I can use to requisite information from a government department. Using this information I can question the government and its departments over its activities. And so it happens many times. At the same time I see another way that RTI works - I file a request for information under RTI and what happens is that one of the apparatchiks from the concerned department gets back and tries to solve the problem.

I am sure many of us have read about this auxiliary (or is it one of the primary) function of RTI. The downside that I see with this approach is that erring officials are not brought to book. So RTI in this case becomes a tool for justice for an individual and not for the society. If I file a request for information asking why the road in front of my house has not been repaired, promptly the municipal authorities will run a road roller in front of my house - and so on for any other street for which an RTI request was filed. With municipalities and their limited resources, its a no-brainer to guess where all the road repair budget will go.

At this point of time, I am reminded of an article I read in India Together. It talked about this explosion in the number of RTI applications and how the number could increase more rapidly once it is possible to file one online.

My point - Is it better to ensure that RTI is used to bring systemic changes rather than used as a tool to coerce people into doing partial work.

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