Today I want to thank a very special bunch of people. They are some of Indias most hard-working, sincere, dedicated entrepreneurs. They are women and men who create jobs, generate wealth and revitalize the world we live in. These are some of the entrepreneurs whose work Recasting India: How Entrepreneurship is Revolutionizing the Worlds Largest Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan/ Pan Macmillan India) celebrates, and as it arrives in India (first link up on Amazon.in ~ amazon.in/Recasting-India-Hindol-Sengupta/dp/1137279613/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421989872&sr=1-1&keywords=recasting+india) it is time to thank these wonderful women and men. In no particular order, Gazalla Amin ~ a really unique entrepreneur in Kashmir who is reimagining the troubled valley as one of the worlds greatest hubs of aromatic and therapeutic essences and bases Nadeem Jafri ~ Exemplary work in building a chain of retail stores in Gujarat, including a very successful one in Juhapura Gauri Singh ~ If you want to know how domestic labour can be transformed from that terrible word servants to honourable service, you only have to look at her The Maids Company Saloni Malhotra ~ The founder of the one the early rural BPOs in India, DesiCrew, which has trained many in remote villages in BPO work Popatrao Pawar ~ The man behind the surreal success of Hiwre Bazaar, the model village in Vidharbha Arunachalam Muruganantham ~ The man who the worlds cheapest but good quality sanitary napkins Chandra Bhan Prasad ~ Whose research pointed me towards worlds I never knew and explained to me the power of economics to change societal prejudice Kalpana Saroj ~ The girl who tried to kill herself twice plagued by poverty and exploitation but then went on to become the most prominent of Dalit entrepreneurs in India, showing how economics beats caste There are many others but I shall end this post with just one more - the work of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. Most of the writing and rhetoric about Kashmir tends to be unidirectional. But among all the troubles, here is a bank that is one of the most successful in India and has one of the lowest NPAs (Non Performing Assets) which means most of the people who borrow from the bank actually pay back. A low NPA base is a big achievement for banks. In J&K Banks case this shows how deeply integrated the bank is to the society in Kashmir. The book has detailed incidents of how employees of the bank risked their lives to deliver urgent loans to customers during the worst years of the insurgency. It has been a privilege to write these stories.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 05:53:08 +0000