Friday, October 30, 2009
School Team Updates
Radius School Initiative: The Way Forward
The Radius: School Committee of LIBA stands for innovation, creativity and passion. The committee has realized the need of leaders in our country and not just the race-winning rats for the rat race. Therefore it has brought the likeminded people together for improving the education system in corporation schools.
From its inception to the present day, the school committee has grown, from being a loosely formed group with tender objectives to a team with clearly laid out goals. The committee aims to reach at least 150 students by the end of the year and help them realize the importance of education in their lives.
Our committee has currently spotted a school Sarvodaya School, Chennai where less privileged children study with minimal facilities. We initially thought of teaching students various subjects however we soon realized that it might not be very useful to them. Since the most important thing that these children lack is motivation. If we succeed in motivating them then the children will manage the rest on their own.
Therefore our committee has come up with an objective to motivate them by developing their personalities and inculcating leadership skills in them at a tender age. To achieve this we are developing 5 modules , each module targets a particular quality of an ideal leader.
The first module aims at building self confidence in children so that they start believing in themselves through which we can target the general sense of helplessness that is found in the less-privileged children. The next module aims at building self-respect in children and also teaching them the importance of respecting others. The third module is on Team building so as to help children form teams and work in teams effectively. The fourth module will concentrate on developing children’s skill to view a problem as a set of goals and sub-goals. We believe that this module will help children in gaining clarity in their personal life’s goals which in-turn will motivate them to pursue their education. The last module focuses on sensitizing children to the social problems troubling society in general. It includes issues like HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, sexual harassment and forced child labour. Also there are few general issues like corruption, dowry, pollution etc. This module should help our children in gaining an insight in to the social problems. They should be able to protect themselves and their siblings from these problems.
We further hope that the children take these issues in hands and fight for them when they enter the world as adults. We believe that these modules will help them realize the importance of education and motivate them to continue their education even under hardships. However we feel that these modules are futile unless we can measure the success we achieve at each stage. Therefore we have also planned to come up with a measuring method through which we can evaluate the usefulness of our strategy.
We currently are in the final stage of developing these modules and measuring instrument and we hope to implement it, right from this month by visiting the school regularly. We at the School Committee believe that as a growing nation it is our children who hold the key to the success of our country. If they are nurtured with care today then they will bring accolades for our nation tomorrow. Therefore we at Radius- School Committee are committed to the cause of aspiring these children for a better tomorrow
The Radius: School Committee of LIBA stands for innovation, creativity and passion. The committee has realized the need of leaders in our country and not just the race-winning rats for the rat race. Therefore it has brought the likeminded people together for improving the education system in corporation schools.
From its inception to the present day, the school committee has grown, from being a loosely formed group with tender objectives to a team with clearly laid out goals. The committee aims to reach at least 150 students by the end of the year and help them realize the importance of education in their lives.
Our committee has currently spotted a school Sarvodaya School, Chennai where less privileged children study with minimal facilities. We initially thought of teaching students various subjects however we soon realized that it might not be very useful to them. Since the most important thing that these children lack is motivation. If we succeed in motivating them then the children will manage the rest on their own.
Therefore our committee has come up with an objective to motivate them by developing their personalities and inculcating leadership skills in them at a tender age. To achieve this we are developing 5 modules , each module targets a particular quality of an ideal leader.
The first module aims at building self confidence in children so that they start believing in themselves through which we can target the general sense of helplessness that is found in the less-privileged children. The next module aims at building self-respect in children and also teaching them the importance of respecting others. The third module is on Team building so as to help children form teams and work in teams effectively. The fourth module will concentrate on developing children’s skill to view a problem as a set of goals and sub-goals. We believe that this module will help children in gaining clarity in their personal life’s goals which in-turn will motivate them to pursue their education. The last module focuses on sensitizing children to the social problems troubling society in general. It includes issues like HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, sexual harassment and forced child labour. Also there are few general issues like corruption, dowry, pollution etc. This module should help our children in gaining an insight in to the social problems. They should be able to protect themselves and their siblings from these problems.
We further hope that the children take these issues in hands and fight for them when they enter the world as adults. We believe that these modules will help them realize the importance of education and motivate them to continue their education even under hardships. However we feel that these modules are futile unless we can measure the success we achieve at each stage. Therefore we have also planned to come up with a measuring method through which we can evaluate the usefulness of our strategy.
We currently are in the final stage of developing these modules and measuring instrument and we hope to implement it, right from this month by visiting the school regularly. We at the School Committee believe that as a growing nation it is our children who hold the key to the success of our country. If they are nurtured with care today then they will bring accolades for our nation tomorrow. Therefore we at Radius- School Committee are committed to the cause of aspiring these children for a better tomorrow
On campus Updates
JOG week preparations took over the on campus team from the end of the term exams. But still, the green initiative teams grew in the midst of all the preparations for the Joy of Giving Week. Tree plantation and the Solid waste development found a place for their birth in the JOG week.
For the tree plantation drive, a total of 80 saplings were bought at a total price of Rs 2800, 40 being Rain Forests trees, and 40 being Neem trees (due to the popularity of our small flying friends). Tree plantation was conducted on the 30th Sept and 2nd Oct 2009. A total of 45 saplings were planted- thanks to the effort of many LIBAities. In fact, many students have adopted most of the saplings planted. The rest of the saplings didn’t get their chance at being planted due to many small reasons burgeoning into a large one – lack of clear communication. So there will be a last (hopefully) tree plantation drive on the 20th Oct 2009 to finish this program. Let us join together and give the trees a home. Who knows, maybe the third time will be the lucky charm.
The Tree plantation drive also initiated the “Adopt a Tree “campaign, informally. It is a variant of the proverb “Little drops of Water make a mighty Ocean”. All you have to do, when you sign up, is to water the sapling that you have “adopted” twice a day. Once while coming to class, and the other while going back. Is it so difficult?? No way. On the other hand, think of the plus points... After 5-10 years, you could come back and show proudly “This is the Tree I have planted”, and maybe in that future, the only trees standing will be ones you planted. So, be on the look out for the “Adopt a Tree” campaign.
The solid waste program started on the 28th Sept 2009 with the newspaper collection drive and the clothes donation drive. This drive was continued throughout the week thanks to the enthusiastic response from the LIBAities. The newspaper collection, at the end of the week, yielded Rs 1000, and the clothes donated made a lot of people at the Goonj happy. Let’s keep up the good response. To make most of this enthusiasm, there will be a newspaper drive every month. Please be on the lookout for it and participate whole heartedly, for a newspaper free room (in your case) and a sustainable effort (on our part).
The last team of the green initiative is the energy efficient LIBA drive. The main objective of this drive is to reduce the power consumption of LIBA. We are in our first phase, which involves the analysis of the consumption patterns for the LIBA buildings. This phase will continue till the 14th of October2009.
Disclaimer: Radius is a LIBA initiative. The Radius members are only the facilitators to make the change in society easier. We are here to make your suggestions and ideas into reality. Please join hands with us and help us make the change quicker.
For the tree plantation drive, a total of 80 saplings were bought at a total price of Rs 2800, 40 being Rain Forests trees, and 40 being Neem trees (due to the popularity of our small flying friends). Tree plantation was conducted on the 30th Sept and 2nd Oct 2009. A total of 45 saplings were planted- thanks to the effort of many LIBAities. In fact, many students have adopted most of the saplings planted. The rest of the saplings didn’t get their chance at being planted due to many small reasons burgeoning into a large one – lack of clear communication. So there will be a last (hopefully) tree plantation drive on the 20th Oct 2009 to finish this program. Let us join together and give the trees a home. Who knows, maybe the third time will be the lucky charm.
The Tree plantation drive also initiated the “Adopt a Tree “campaign, informally. It is a variant of the proverb “Little drops of Water make a mighty Ocean”. All you have to do, when you sign up, is to water the sapling that you have “adopted” twice a day. Once while coming to class, and the other while going back. Is it so difficult?? No way. On the other hand, think of the plus points... After 5-10 years, you could come back and show proudly “This is the Tree I have planted”, and maybe in that future, the only trees standing will be ones you planted. So, be on the look out for the “Adopt a Tree” campaign.
The solid waste program started on the 28th Sept 2009 with the newspaper collection drive and the clothes donation drive. This drive was continued throughout the week thanks to the enthusiastic response from the LIBAities. The newspaper collection, at the end of the week, yielded Rs 1000, and the clothes donated made a lot of people at the Goonj happy. Let’s keep up the good response. To make most of this enthusiasm, there will be a newspaper drive every month. Please be on the lookout for it and participate whole heartedly, for a newspaper free room (in your case) and a sustainable effort (on our part).
The last team of the green initiative is the energy efficient LIBA drive. The main objective of this drive is to reduce the power consumption of LIBA. We are in our first phase, which involves the analysis of the consumption patterns for the LIBA buildings. This phase will continue till the 14th of October2009.
Disclaimer: Radius is a LIBA initiative. The Radius members are only the facilitators to make the change in society easier. We are here to make your suggestions and ideas into reality. Please join hands with us and help us make the change quicker.
Social Entrepreneurship Series – No. 2
Wow!! What a wonderful celebrations we had during Joy of Giving (JOG) Week! I was inspired and motivated by the activities of LIBA Radius in taking such initiatives. One of the best things to me is that LIBA Entrepreneurship Cell (E – Cell) was able to be a part of JOG week by organising a Conference on Social Entrepreneurship on the theme we “mean” Business – Emerging Social Entrepreneurs of the 21st Century, for LIBA Radius during JOG week. Hope the conference enlightened the minds of the students with Ashoka fellows, Mr. Sriram Ayer (Nalanda Way) and Mr. Illango Rangaswamy (TVSG) sharing their experience after the theme introduction by Fr. Joe Arun SJ, professor of Social Entrepreneurship at various institutes across the globe including LIBA.
Coming to our series, let us clearly understand who Social Entrepreneurs are. There is no clear definition for the term Social Entrepreneur, though the term was first created and defined as “men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems” by Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, an organization that strives to create a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen sector. Different people interpret the term in different ways. Literally speaking, Entrepreneur means one who sets up a business and Social means something related to society, which put together means as a business set up basically for the betterment of the society. This can raise a question whether social entrepreneurship help in generating profits and how it is different from a normal NGO? To be precise, positive social change is the main motive of social entrepreneurship rather than profits. But the possibility of social entrepreneurship resulting in profits cannot be ruled out.
It is very interesting to learn that the number of social entrepreneurs is on the raise year on year. In a materialistic world that runs towards profits, we have people who have made positive social change as their prime motive in their life. What an amazing job they are doing! What triggered them to do so? Why should they do it? What pleasure do they derive from it? Do all these questions have answers? What LIBA Radius, which has promoting social entrepreneurship as one of the missions, can do worthwhile in promoting social entrepreneurship? Watch out this space for more. Let us explore the world of Social Entrepreneurship to the core!
Keep your feedbacks posting. Let us together make this column a meaningful one. Have fun. Wish you all a meaningful and colourful Deepavali wishes! Let the festival of Lights add more light to our lives.
- Boniface P.
The writer is the secretary of LIBA Entrepreneurship Cell (E – Cell) and can be reached at
+91 9884342050 and boniface_p@liba.edu
Coming to our series, let us clearly understand who Social Entrepreneurs are. There is no clear definition for the term Social Entrepreneur, though the term was first created and defined as “men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems” by Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, an organization that strives to create a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen sector. Different people interpret the term in different ways. Literally speaking, Entrepreneur means one who sets up a business and Social means something related to society, which put together means as a business set up basically for the betterment of the society. This can raise a question whether social entrepreneurship help in generating profits and how it is different from a normal NGO? To be precise, positive social change is the main motive of social entrepreneurship rather than profits. But the possibility of social entrepreneurship resulting in profits cannot be ruled out.
It is very interesting to learn that the number of social entrepreneurs is on the raise year on year. In a materialistic world that runs towards profits, we have people who have made positive social change as their prime motive in their life. What an amazing job they are doing! What triggered them to do so? Why should they do it? What pleasure do they derive from it? Do all these questions have answers? What LIBA Radius, which has promoting social entrepreneurship as one of the missions, can do worthwhile in promoting social entrepreneurship? Watch out this space for more. Let us explore the world of Social Entrepreneurship to the core!
Keep your feedbacks posting. Let us together make this column a meaningful one. Have fun. Wish you all a meaningful and colourful Deepavali wishes! Let the festival of Lights add more light to our lives.
- Boniface P.
The writer is the secretary of LIBA Entrepreneurship Cell (E – Cell) and can be reached at
+91 9884342050 and boniface_p@liba.edu
Radius Think Tank
This has been a remarkable month for LIBA Radius. Even a journey of thousand miles begins with one step. LIBA Radius has taken up several new initiatives during the Joy of Giving Week celebrated in the campus. The event was a grand success not just because of the LIBA Radius members but also because of the passion shown by every LIBAite towards a social cause. I thank LIBA E - Cell and 360 degrees for their support in making this event a grand success. Certainly we have taken the right step towards a social change.
The much awaited “Radius Think Tank” has been launched. They have started working on real life case studies from Self help Groups and have started helping them in building a sustainable business model. Soon they themselves will start writing case studies about real life problems in the society with the help of faculty members and the future managers will come together to find a solution for these social problems.
We have taken several new initiatives in the last few months. Now it is for our team to carry this momentum forward by sincerely working on the initiatives which we have taken up. Together we can..
I wish each and every one a Happy Diwali. Let the festival of lights bring joy and prosperity.
Fredline S, Secretary, LIBA Radius
The much awaited “Radius Think Tank” has been launched. They have started working on real life case studies from Self help Groups and have started helping them in building a sustainable business model. Soon they themselves will start writing case studies about real life problems in the society with the help of faculty members and the future managers will come together to find a solution for these social problems.
We have taken several new initiatives in the last few months. Now it is for our team to carry this momentum forward by sincerely working on the initiatives which we have taken up. Together we can..
I wish each and every one a Happy Diwali. Let the festival of lights bring joy and prosperity.
Fredline S, Secretary, LIBA Radius
Binyaa..
She is young. She is no more than 5 years. The red ribbon in her hair is hanging lose. Her fingers are gripping the heavy water pot tightly. The yellow flowers are swaying in the wind. Her dreamy eyes are gazing the flowers.
A child is coming back from school. Her glance changes direction: the uniform, the water bottle, the school bag, the polished shoes. A voice from behind calls out, ‘Binya, Binyaa ..’ The eyes become restless. The fingers clutch the pot more firmly. The feet move slowly to the nearby colony. The sound of the silver anklet in Binya’s feet fades away.
I sit inside the auto rickshaw. I await the traffic signal to turn green. I look at the yellow flowers, and occasionally at Binya.
I go to the college, LIBA. I look into the faces of my fellow class mates. Our background is different. We speak different languages. We call our God with different names. Yet we pray together. We feel the sorrow together when Binya passes by.
Our campus is large, green, and open. The buildings are tall and strong. We thrive to become taller than the trees and stronger than the buildings in our lives. We thrive towards success. But we define success in our own terms. There are many Binya’s around our campus. The city around us is brown and grey. Binya feels helpless in the city where nobody stops to look at the yellow flowers, to help Binya wear a school uniform and to attend school.
We care. We stop to see and to our surprise, many like us stop to see. We feel happy. We feel we are privileged to be a part of the civilization as we grow with time. We earn degree, respect, money and motivation. We feel we are responsible to bring forward the ones who are lagging behind.
So I get down from auto and hold Binya’s hand to lead her to a brighter day when she will be able to make her existence useful as a human resource, to her colony, to her family and to our civilization.
Here, in LIBA, we stand together as an entity, sensible and practical, responsible and capable. We stand to take the oath that we will magnify the resources by reaching out. When we came to LIBA we were vaguely ambitious, focussed and vigorous. From here the journey has started to enrich ourselves, to make us look beyond what is seen, to be sensible towards our counterparts who can not even attend a school. Today, we have given it a shape in form of ‘Radius’. We believe all of us, attached to LIBA in whichever way, feel proud to represent Radius. We are not a club or a group of people for a cause. It is not ‘U’ or ‘Me’, its ‘WE’. We stand together, all the students, faculty members, staffs to support any initiative of Radius. It is an arm of LIBA and all of us, whoever belongs to LIBA, belong to Radius.
We feel proud to see the huge number of students coming forward for eye donation, blood donation, tree plantation and all the activities happened in LIBA so far. LIBA has given birth to Radius and Radius is inspiring us to give rise to an ambition, more important than being an MBA, but to have the power to commit ourselves. As we work towards the smooth succession of Binya, the child moves from the colony to a school, from the silver anklets to white cades, from a blank glance to an enlightened mind representing a face of tomorrow. We, LIBA Radius, commit to radiate, to empower and to transform.
Debadipta Bhattacharya, Associate Secretary, PR- LIBA Radius
A child is coming back from school. Her glance changes direction: the uniform, the water bottle, the school bag, the polished shoes. A voice from behind calls out, ‘Binya, Binyaa ..’ The eyes become restless. The fingers clutch the pot more firmly. The feet move slowly to the nearby colony. The sound of the silver anklet in Binya’s feet fades away.
I sit inside the auto rickshaw. I await the traffic signal to turn green. I look at the yellow flowers, and occasionally at Binya.
I go to the college, LIBA. I look into the faces of my fellow class mates. Our background is different. We speak different languages. We call our God with different names. Yet we pray together. We feel the sorrow together when Binya passes by.
Our campus is large, green, and open. The buildings are tall and strong. We thrive to become taller than the trees and stronger than the buildings in our lives. We thrive towards success. But we define success in our own terms. There are many Binya’s around our campus. The city around us is brown and grey. Binya feels helpless in the city where nobody stops to look at the yellow flowers, to help Binya wear a school uniform and to attend school.
We care. We stop to see and to our surprise, many like us stop to see. We feel happy. We feel we are privileged to be a part of the civilization as we grow with time. We earn degree, respect, money and motivation. We feel we are responsible to bring forward the ones who are lagging behind.
So I get down from auto and hold Binya’s hand to lead her to a brighter day when she will be able to make her existence useful as a human resource, to her colony, to her family and to our civilization.
Here, in LIBA, we stand together as an entity, sensible and practical, responsible and capable. We stand to take the oath that we will magnify the resources by reaching out. When we came to LIBA we were vaguely ambitious, focussed and vigorous. From here the journey has started to enrich ourselves, to make us look beyond what is seen, to be sensible towards our counterparts who can not even attend a school. Today, we have given it a shape in form of ‘Radius’. We believe all of us, attached to LIBA in whichever way, feel proud to represent Radius. We are not a club or a group of people for a cause. It is not ‘U’ or ‘Me’, its ‘WE’. We stand together, all the students, faculty members, staffs to support any initiative of Radius. It is an arm of LIBA and all of us, whoever belongs to LIBA, belong to Radius.
We feel proud to see the huge number of students coming forward for eye donation, blood donation, tree plantation and all the activities happened in LIBA so far. LIBA has given birth to Radius and Radius is inspiring us to give rise to an ambition, more important than being an MBA, but to have the power to commit ourselves. As we work towards the smooth succession of Binya, the child moves from the colony to a school, from the silver anklets to white cades, from a blank glance to an enlightened mind representing a face of tomorrow. We, LIBA Radius, commit to radiate, to empower and to transform.
Debadipta Bhattacharya, Associate Secretary, PR- LIBA Radius
Microfinance- The Way to Inclusive Growth
“We asked the assembled 40 odd women, ‘Is there anything that you wish was different about the way the loan is provided; any little thing that would have made it easier for you?’ Most of them shook their heads to signal that there was no such thinking. We persisted in silence for an answer. Though they had whispered conversations for a couple of minutes there were no reactions to the question. Then an old lady got up and started, ‘I have something to say.’ We asked, ‘What?’ She said, ‘You see, I run a small bangles and cosmetics shop in the local market. I could not be running this shop but for the loan from the MFI. I started with a smaller loan and over two cycles of repayment, the loan had become Rs 10,000. With this I could start this shop.’ So what was the problem, we wondered? She continued, ‘I repay the loan instalments every week without fail. But I find that after six months, the repayments become more difficult for me. I have to borrow from elsewhere to keep up weekly instalments and around the tenth month I look for an external loan with which I can repay the balance of MFI loan and take a fresh loan.’ We asked her why she suddenly finds it difficult to repay after six months of loan. She looked at us in amusement that how could we be ignorant of such a simple thing. Then she patiently explained, ‘Initially when I stock my shop with Rs 10,000 worth of goods, there is a large range and variety. My sales are higher and cash inflow is higher. But after each sale, I am unable to replenish my stock as I have to meet my family needs and service the loan every week. By the sixth month my shop has half the stock I started with. With half the stock, I cannot maintain my sales volume at a high enough
level. Very often the stock that I am left with is not the first preference of customers and cannot be sold at good profits. My cash flow declines and I am unable to meet all my commitments. This is what constrains my repayment.’ We again asked her, ‘What do you want the MFI to do?’ She explained, ‘Nothing extraordinary. They (MFI) should relend the repayments at the end of each month after every four instalments. This would ensure that I replenish my stock and my cash flow from sales remains high.’”
This is an excerpt from “Microfinance India – State of the sector report 2008”. I hope this throws some light at the state of microfinance in India.
More than half of India is rural and more than 70% of rural India suffers from lack of credit availability. Of the rough 30% who manage to get credit, there is sheer dearth of knowledge on how to utilize it as can be seen in the above excerpt. The state of Indian microfinance requires more of consultancy than financial engineering of credit needs. Just as finance is no longer credit and debit but a bundle of a whole gamut of financial and allied services, microfinance needs to be a bundle of credit and other financial service availability along with entrepreneurship, business development, consultancy, literacy programmes and innovations to usher in inclusive growth in India.
Microfinance in India and not just India but for all economies that has a sizeable population who do not have access to credit is more about empowerment. It is like teaching people to fish and not just providing them fishes to eat. When people do not have access or timely access to credit they end up borrowing from informal lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates. A study of about 28 studies on informal lending in about 14 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America found that about 76% of the lenders charge more than 10% interest on a monthly basis and about 20% of them have rates about 100% per month. Mind you, the rates are monthly and not annualized.
The question that now awaits us is: Are we ready to provide for the needs of rural India? If the potential to grow lies in India, there is still huge untapped potential in rural India. Are we ready to fulfil our rural CSR by helping the rural India in areas like encouraging entrepreneurship among rural population, business development, consultancy, literacy programmes and innovations?
By Smitha Minz, IInd year, PGDM (Full-time)
level. Very often the stock that I am left with is not the first preference of customers and cannot be sold at good profits. My cash flow declines and I am unable to meet all my commitments. This is what constrains my repayment.’ We again asked her, ‘What do you want the MFI to do?’ She explained, ‘Nothing extraordinary. They (MFI) should relend the repayments at the end of each month after every four instalments. This would ensure that I replenish my stock and my cash flow from sales remains high.’”
This is an excerpt from “Microfinance India – State of the sector report 2008”. I hope this throws some light at the state of microfinance in India.
More than half of India is rural and more than 70% of rural India suffers from lack of credit availability. Of the rough 30% who manage to get credit, there is sheer dearth of knowledge on how to utilize it as can be seen in the above excerpt. The state of Indian microfinance requires more of consultancy than financial engineering of credit needs. Just as finance is no longer credit and debit but a bundle of a whole gamut of financial and allied services, microfinance needs to be a bundle of credit and other financial service availability along with entrepreneurship, business development, consultancy, literacy programmes and innovations to usher in inclusive growth in India.
Microfinance in India and not just India but for all economies that has a sizeable population who do not have access to credit is more about empowerment. It is like teaching people to fish and not just providing them fishes to eat. When people do not have access or timely access to credit they end up borrowing from informal lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates. A study of about 28 studies on informal lending in about 14 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America found that about 76% of the lenders charge more than 10% interest on a monthly basis and about 20% of them have rates about 100% per month. Mind you, the rates are monthly and not annualized.
The question that now awaits us is: Are we ready to provide for the needs of rural India? If the potential to grow lies in India, there is still huge untapped potential in rural India. Are we ready to fulfil our rural CSR by helping the rural India in areas like encouraging entrepreneurship among rural population, business development, consultancy, literacy programmes and innovations?
By Smitha Minz, IInd year, PGDM (Full-time)
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