Thursday, February 09, 2006

Genesis of REECODE

Genesis of REECODE:

Stage 1:

When my father died a few years ago, I had the opportunity (?) to stay in our ancestral home/village for 14 days for the rituals.

With no work on hand, no Internet, no nothing, I wandered around and found - helplessness on all faces, youngsters (in the 18-27 age group) wiling their time away at crossroads, a monthly salary of Rs 1,000 (US $ 25) even in the 21st century was considered acceptable, sale of farm land was the major solution to solve financial crisis...

...a state wherein a majority of the population appeared to be just existing, waiting for their journey to end.Read Bhagwad Geeta during those days; tried to relate the message to the population that I saw.

Was disturbed for several days and weeks.

Stage 2:

Several more visits to rural areas in different parts of the country brought out similar scenarios in the following months.Mind didn't stop.

Considered all efforts by government, political parties, business enterprises, NGOs et al.

Solution that seemed to come out of the haze was a enterprise effort, to attract the best talent, to make the rural population of around 650 million live a dignified life, to make a rural economy self-reliant, to make development sustainable, to make people happy.Did number crunching and came up with this hugely maddening business opportunity of Rs 60,000 crore.

This project along with another one was posted on ryze, initiated a debate and I got branded as "the Rs 75,000 crore man".

Stage 3:

Someone pushed me into taking the idea to Zee television's Business Baazigar reality show/contest. After several screening and one interview round, the idea got selected in the last 50.Was kept at a Mumbai hotel for 4 days along with 49 other contestants.

I was the first to be thrown out at this stage. Someone thought they would not want to sponsor another Mahatma Gandhi or sponsor my entry into what is essentially a government's "business".It has been over a year, but the show is yet to go on air.

But, one of the judges gave a good advice - join politics or approach a political party. I did.

Stage 4:

No contacts, no broker, no middleman, no "pehchaan", no influence, but just a powerpoint presentation sent via email and two follow-up telephone calls got me an appointment with BJP's national president Mr. L. K. Advani; and that too on a day when a major political crisis arose after election results were announced in Jharkhand.

He heard me patiently for several minutes out of the 35 minutes that I got to spend with him. He made committing statements like, "We are not in power at the centre. We will implement this project nationally when we come to power at the centre. Right now (then), we have goverments in 5 (8 now) states, where we can implement this project."

To my pleasant surprise, he himself picked up the phone, called another senior BJP functionary, fixed up my appointment with him on the following day.

As desired by the latter, I spent a few days in the urban and rural areas of Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh. Made two documents. Submitted.But, some of my own personal business issues and Mr Advani's problems within the party, took the winds out of the sail.

Stage 5:

Am back on the web.

==========

The REECODE idea:

EARLIER POST:

CAN YOU JOIN ME FOR THIS? Earn Rs 75,000 crore (+) every year and Make India the best place on planet earth. (I have deleted the second idea of Rs 15,000 crore and am limiting this post to the Rs 60,000 crore idea.)

Won't take much of your time here, but I am sharing some ideas here. Keeping these stupid (?) ideas with myself all these years has not taken me or this country anywhere.

1) Balasinor - a model town for the sake of this project - is a small town/big village in Kheda district of Gujarat. There are 50 smaller villages in the same taluka which depend on Balasinor for all commercial, social and religious activities. A good mix of Hindu and Muslim population, and always peaceful, except during the infamous recent Gujarat riots. A local nawab family still enjoys high respect. The town, currently having a population of 50,000 people, has no industry worth its name. Unemployment is very high; local wages for odd jobs are extremely low. Over 100,000 people migrated to cities like Ahmedabad, Baroda and Mumbai over the last 5 decades.

IDEA: Look at Balasinor (and each of the 2000 such small towns/big village in the country) as a small country - the trade balance is hugely negative. It imports practically everything from other cities like Baroda, Ahmedabad, New Delhi etc. Now, as an example, look at the footwear requirement of this population of 50,000 people. 50,000 more from adjoining villages make this a market size of 100,000. Total pairs required per annum: 200,000 (assuming 2 pairs per person per annum). Cost of 200,000 footwear: 200,000 x Rs 60 per pair = 1,20,00,000 = Rs 1.2 crore. If a local footwear manufacturing company produces these numbers, a 50 % market share will give an annual revenue of Rs 60 lakh.

NOW, imagine 100 such local manufacturing, trading and service businesses that can be established in and around Balasinor. Total business in Balasinor: Rs 60 lakh x 100 = Rs 60 crore. NOW, imagine 1000 such towns all over the country. Total business: Rs 60 crore x 1000 = Rs 60,000 crore per annum.

At 20 %, the gross profit margin is Rs 12,000 crore.

Business Model Basics: With 100 new manufacturing, trading and service units, you create employment for an average of 1000 people. This can transform the local economy. For each such new business unit, appoint a local entrepreneur. Offer equity partnership for his own unit. Support him with working capital requirement. Get capital funds of financial institutions against land and equipment. Explore all possible central and state government grants and subsidies. Involve local panchayat, tehsildar, police, banks and other social and religious bodies. The promoters' can work on a revenue split of 20 % straight i.e. Rs 12,000 crore per annum.

1,000 Category D towns can be reached within a span of 17 years.

Make each such hub export-oriented. This will transform India at gross-roots.Anybody game for it?

Good wishes to you all.

Bhupesh

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