India Feels Proud

I wrote this (I dont know what to call it, its very close to my heart) last year when India won its first ever Olympic gold. But the feelings still remain. Read on :

There was a lot of hype around the Beijing Olympics, and still is as I write this piece with a strange feeling. A feeling I am not able to put in words.

On 8^th August 2008 at 5:38 PM (IST) arrived one of the most awaited moment in the history. It was the opening ceremony of Olympics 2008. I tried my level best to reach home as early as possible to be able to see the spectacle live on TV. As it is with traffic in Delhi I managed to reach home by 7:00 PM. But still the show was of such awesome grandeur that I didn't get a chance to think of what I had missed. The huge Globe, the mechanically perfect synchronization, the flying white dove ….. one after the other the marvels continued.

Then the third phase of the ceremony began. The participating countries started to enter the beautiful Bird's Nest – National Stadium. One could easily notice the happiness on the face of each participant entering the field. Each one had an aspiration, a dream to make a mark in the Olympics. To win a medal at the Olympics. To make the country proud. To give the future generations something to look upto and work towards achieving or bettering the feat.

The Indian team entered the stadium with the same verve. But suddenly something struck me. It struck me hard. I realized that one the fastest growing economies of the world, a country that many believe will be a future world power, had a contingent that was smaller that many countries whose names may not be known by many. Worse, in the contingent there were very few if any strong medal contenders.

It made me think. Why is it that India does not seem to be growing beyond cricket (not that they are doing very well in cricket either)? Why are we not able to compete at a true international competition? Are there any systems in place? Do we care?

I did some research and found out that despite not qualifying for any big team (hockey, foot ball – 11 member team each) sports this was one of the largest contingent that India has ever had. Moreover, the number of sports that this contingent covered were far more that any previous Indian contingent at Olympics. So, I consoled my mind that may be there are organizations who are looking into it and slowly but surely India is making progress.

Today, as I write this piece, it not a consolation that fills my mind. It's a feeling of elation, a feeling I may not have experienced even when I cleared some of the toughest competitions in the country. India has won its first ever individual sports Gold in Olympics and first after 1980. Today the country has a role model. The country has someone to look upto. The country has a reason to believe that it is possible. The country knows that it's a work of a genius and there are systems in place to help the genius reach the right place.

I believe its just a start and 10 Olympics down the line India would enter an Olympic stadium with one of the largest contingents with strong medal contenders, and then an Indian like me will not have to console his mind with mere hope.

CHEERS !!!

Startups: Aligning organization goals with their social responsibility

The core goal of any enterprise is to generate profits. And many firms try to give a part of their profits for social activities which are branded as CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility Activity. The larger question is can the business goals and social goals of an organization be combined for the benefit of both the enterprise and the society.

Haresh Amre who led GE's Elfun Volunteers program in India (2002 – 2004) thinks that it can be done. For a company in its inception stages it is easy and more beneficial to build a strong alignment of organization goals with social welfare activities, because this is the time when the basic DNA of the organization is built. He says "My personal preference is time and effort for any social activity. As a start-up, if team is able to stay together beyond the purpose of business, it will establish solid foundation for future."

Sarabdeep Singh, CoFounder of Fachak looks at the bigger picture and says "its society at large which has to develop a moral structure where people pride in giving back to it. Startup is just one part of the ecosystem which should be there in a vibrant social structure where people give it back to the system not only in the form of statutory ways like taxes but also in non-statutory ways."

Today many startups have made such activities an integral part of their business activities. Khojguru.com is running a pledge campaign ( khojguru.com/pledge ) for the National Defence Fund. They contribute Re.1 to National Defense Fund (fund for the welfare of security personnel and their dependents) for a business critical process i.e. a users registered on their website. The founder says, "This activity does not only give us satisfaction but makes us even stronger in terms of our resolve towards peace and security for our stake holders and the country".

Chahiye.info donates 20% of their brokerage fees i.e. revenues to prayaas ( chahiye.info/prayas ). These funds would be used by Prayas to provide health, education and recreation to homeless & exploited children. Over the next few months, they aim to extend their support to 1,000 children.

Carmen B. Lewis, president at Xmantiss Industries (Stone Mountain, Georgia) throws in a word of caution. She believes that a company must be careful in choosing the cause and organization it supports as choosing a wrong organization could cost clientele in some instances.

It seems that it is possible to align an organisation's business goals with their social objectives, outlining a very transparent process having benefits for both the enterprise and the society. Greater the number of firms which do such activities, more dramatic will be the impact on our social landscape.

An initiative in the right direction

www.khojguru.com a comprehensive retail information platform for all popular places in a city has initiated a movement to donate Rs. 1 Lakh to the National Defense Fund, a fund for the welfare of the security personnel and their dependents on 26th January 2009.

They seek help from all the bloggers and individuals to reach more people (khojguru.com/pledge)

Hope to bring together as many concerned individuals as possible.