Innovation Archives - Page 2 of 7

Ethical Employees

In September 2019 an anonymous group that signed itself “ethical employees” wrote to the board of Infosys. “Parekh and Roy have been resorting to unethical practices for many quarters,” it said of the chief executive, Salil Parekh, and the chief financial officer, Nilanjan Roy. “We are asked not to share large deal information with auditors,” the letter said. “CFO is compliant and he prevents us from showing in board presentations large deal issues.”

In January 2020 the board’s audit committee reported that it had found “no evidence of any financial impropriety or executive misconduct.”

The Indus Entrepreneurs

TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, was founded in Silicon Valley in December 1992. Its charter members are successful entrepreneurs “willing to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs.” In 1998 one of its cofounders, Kanwal Rekhi, told Business Standard: “TiE was born essentially out of a need for networking to form a common pool of resources.”

Rekhi then led the effort to bring TiE to India. “Kanwal was a one-man army,” the Ahmedabad chapter writes.

Neighborhood Groups

Kudumbashree, a Kerala initiative “aimed at complete poverty eradication,” was launched in 1998. It is built on neighborhood groups, ayalkoottam, of 10 to 20 women from the same area. They meet every week and pool their savings. Membership is open to all adult women, one per family.

The groups run small enterprises, such as baby food units, catering, tailoring and poultry. In 2018 The News Minute counted “nearly 41.5 lakh members.”

Trainer Farmers

In Andhra Pradesh, zero budget natural farming spread through “trainer farmers, each of whom tries to reach out to and convert 100 farmers,” Governance Now reported in December 2018. One of them, Y. Lakshmi, grew paddy on three acres and harvested 15 bags more than her neighbors, the magazine wrote. Six groups of farmers then learned from her.

Railway Jobs

Three recruitment notices of the Railway Recruitment Boards together offered about 1.4 lakh posts. Of these, 1,03,769 were posts at Level 1. “Against these employment notifications, more than 2.4 crore candidates have applied,” the Ministry of Railways said in October 2020. That works out to about 170 candidates for each post.

Fakir of the Line

Lakeer ka fakeer. The fakir of the line. The Rekhta dictionary glosses it as “set in old ways.”

Purani lakeer ka fakeer. The fakir of the old line. Rekhta defines it as “a follower of old customs.”

Lakeer par chalna. To walk on the line. Rekhta gives its meaning as walking in the old way.

The Preferred Job

A youth survey by the Lokniti program of CSDS and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung was carried out in 2016. “An overwhelming majority of India’s youth, about 65%, said they would prefer a government job, if given the choice,” The Quint reported. Starting a business came second, at 19 percent. A job in the private sector drew 7 percent.

Pharmacy of the World

In July 2022 India’s health minister said that the country “accounts for 20% of the worldwide supply of generic medicines.” He called India the “Pharmacy of the World.”

Before 2005, India’s Patents Act allowed only process patents for medicines, not patents on the medicine itself.

Away from Rote Learning

India’s National Education Policy of 2020 sets out to move the school curriculum and teaching “away from the culture of rote learning as is largely present today.” On board exams, it speaks of preparation “rather than months of coaching and memorization.”

Fear of Failure

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor measures a fear of failure rate among adults. In India the rate “decreased from 44 per cent in 2015-16 to 37.5 per cent in 2016-17,” Business Standard reported from the India report.