Issue: Indian Farmer Suicides

A fellow intern in India posted this graph on their blog, so I thought it would be relevant to share here. Pretty shocking.

From SaveFarmers

TED Tuesday - plus 60+ hours of train ride this week!

PLEASE give me suggestions for online articles or TED Talks to download that I can pass the time with. In a few hours I'll be departing for a 33 hour cross country train ride to Mumbai for a conference. I'll have plenty of time over the 60+ hours of train travel this week to read some interesting articles and watch movies. 

My bookshelf in India - big fan of Penguin books!

Heres a TED by Salmar Khan, founder of the Khan Academy. His idea is to use video to reinvent education. Now that computers are just as affordable as textbooks, and the internet is becoming more available in developing countries, this could be revolutionary for improving education in places that previously could not afford the infrastructure of large schools, skilled teachers, and multiple textbooks. 

I'll be attending the Sankalp Forum, a conference that brings together companies, speakers, and investors in the social business field. ONergy has been nominated for an award in the Clean Energy category, one of the high impact sectors they focus on, along with: Agriculture, Food & Rural Business, Education, Health, Water & Sanitation, Technology for Development.

I'm really looking forward to the conference and interested to hear talks from some of the leaders in their respective fields.The social enterprise space is still developing, with new business models required and everyone collaborating together to learn from each other what works and experiencing the hard way what doesn't. Scale is the buzz word, with many ventures having been in operations for 3-5 years and still working on proving their model can achieve profitability and scale. Many large investors and VCs are still skeptical, obviously wanting to see proven results before they fund, creating a Catch-22 since companies often are unable to run large-scale pilot projects without additional funding.

I don't think I can call myself a blogger and not comment on the results of the Canadian Federal election. India is 9.5 hours ahead of Ontario, so I just found out the results this morning: Conservative majority, ouch, definitely did not expect that. I have no problem voicing my political opinion, and disappointed is a bit of an understatement. Though I believe he has done a decent job steering Canada through these "tough economic times", his stance on many social and environmental issues enrages me. I am distrustful and worried what he'll do with his new-found power. As I posted a few weeks ago, our international reputation has been blemished by some of our recent stances and lack of support for climate change mitigation policies, and I doubt this will help. 

Cheer me up and post something I should read, watch, listen to on the train! I'm almost done 'Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinback and will be scouring the used book stalls in Mumbai for my another good read. 

Update: Ruined temples, monkeys and a conference

A few weeks ago I flew to Bangalore in the south of India for a 5 day conference hosted for the Artemisia Social Business interns currently in India. Amazing time, met the other interns from Argentina, Russia, Portugal and Canada, and got put up in a hotel (with AC!), while also managing to get sick from the restaurant food. 

Heading to the airport- off to Bangalore!

It was an incredible learning experience- sharing ideas, hearing about the social businesses in India using innovative technology, and discussing the potential for social business to drive social change in a profitable way both in India and around the world. I came away from it with so many ideas spinning in my head and inspired by all the developments going on in India!

Rooftop meeting at the shared office of Babajob and mDhil. Got to meet the founders, ask Q's and discuss the social space in India

Hammocks and couches - such stressful meetings

L to R: Caroline, Diego, Mutembei, Vinay, Katia, Celina, Ricardo -
Tomorrow's social entrepreneurs!

After the conference a fellow Canadian intern and I boarded an overnight bus with bunk beds (surprisingly comfy) and hit the bumpy road to Hampi. Hampi is a village surrounded by temple ruins from when it was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire between 1336 - 1565 (thank you wikipedia). The landscape is mindblowing, made up of massive piles of stones (think Bedrock from the Flinstones), which were used to make the temples and statues of Hindu deities. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Booted around on for a few days

It was incredibly hot, but delicious fresh fruit drinks were readily available and awesomely cheap. 

lots of these

Saw this guy getting a bath - loved it!

Climbed up the Monkey Temple for a jawdropping panoramic view

Bedrock?

Great trip.

Crazy cricket celebrations, sickness, more village visits!

Lots been going on recently:
Went out for a drive to witness the absolutely wild celebration in the streets of Kolkata after India's World Cup win against Sri Lanka. Fireworks that sounded like explosions, jam packed streets, cabs with over 10 people hanging off, motorcars, cars flying around honking, flags waving, hanging out of the sunroof, cheering (didn't bring a camera), but was absolutely amazing to be in the country for.

A few weeks ago we went to one of our centers in a super remote area (took a 2 hour train, 45min rickshaw ride with 10 of us jammed into one, a 20 minute autopan ride, short boat ride across a river, then another 15 minute rickshaw). We stayed at the center which is a local hospital, and trained a group of women from the villages local self-help group how to become microentrepreneurs for ONergy, where they make commissions for selling our products.

We then visited local villages to conduct surveys with customers to get feedback on their experiences with their product so far, while I was in charge of getting photos of people using their product. It was awesome because everyone loved posing for the camera then getting to see the photo, so we were mobbed by groups of kids and got lots of fun shots.

Getting sick in a very rural area- I've narrowed the source to: eating way too much (they served me heaps of food and I felt it was insulting to leave any on my plate), walking around in the sun all day, or drinking untreated well water (I think it was a combination of all three), ended with me puking out the side of a rickshaw on the way to the train station. Not very fun. It took me 6 weeks but I finally managed to get sick here, about time!

Luckily I had a quick recovery which I attribute to coconut water (guy chops off the top of a coconut and hands you a straw to drink the water from inside- magical cure, its a kind of salty water). The next morning I went for a bike ride with the local cycling club to the Japanese embassy to donate as a group. There was a film car following us, we then got interviewed (possible made the news?) and also made the front page of the 'Calcutta Times' the next morning!

Last weekend I had both the first meat AND alcohol I've had in the 6 weeks I've been here, woh! It wasn't for any particular reason, the family I'm living with is vegetarian and I actually haven't missed meat at all because the food here is so tasty with yummy spices.

I'm currently in Bangalore for a conference with fellow Artemisia interns working for social business in India. We're hear to brainstorm, share ideas, and discuss the social business space. It's the end of day 2, lots of great ideas being thrown around so many thoughts running through my head!

I'll likely be posting quite a bit on the topic of social business in the next few months, as its the industry I've jumped into here, very exiting and so many innovative ideas and companies happening. It's been inspiring hearing about all the ventures fellow interns are working for here in India and the amazing technologies and business models they've developed. Social business- people and profits! woo, cool stuff.

Arrival in India

I've been in Kolkata for two exciting days now after arriving with no major hiccups (thankfully). In the few weeks leading up to my departure I talked with many fellow travelers who passed on heaps of helpful information on what to expect. So luckily I found the cab ride in chaotic, free-for-all, horn blaring, mere centimeters away from other cars/rickshaws/bikes/trucks/people/cows traffic from the airport to be more on the entertaining side than terrifying.

Victoria Memorial - built during the British Raj

I went to see the Victoria Memorial with some Aussies, and we found the Indian vs. Foreigner prices to be pretty amusing. We had heard that locals get quite a discount to enter sites such as museums, so we could only laugh at the 10 Rupees (20 cents) they pay, while we shelled over a whopping 150 Rs ($3.20). Definitely  not complaining, as when you compare the earning power it's only fair, we just loved how open and honest it is. I'm currently reading Shantaram (love it), and at one point he makes a related comment:

'There is a difference between the dishonest bribe and the honest bribe, the dishonest bribe is the same in every country, but the honest bribe is India's alone'  

So far I've successfully made it through 3 days without the dreaded 'Delhi belly', and my body seems to be adjusting fine. I had planned to take it easy the first few weeks and cook my own plain food before jumping into local cuisine, but upon being offered some delicious looking food that idea went immediately out the window

Walking around the city has been sensory overload, so the main thing I'm trying to do is observe and go with the flow, as it is too easy to just instinctively criticise everything.

I'll have the weekend to settle then start work on Monday, so pretty excited about that.

India Bound

By tomorrow evening I'll be on a plane headed for Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), India.  The culmination of planning and interviews, which started with a meeting almost seven months ago in the AIESEC office at Guelph, is finally complete and the real journey is about to begin.

My internship will be with ONergy http://onergy.in, a renewable energy venture who's aim is to bring sustainable energy solutions to rural India. They are a fairly new startup, which I'm very excited about as it will allow me the opportunity in many areas of the company, from writing business plans and funding proposals, to on the ground work in local communities.

This is exactly the type of internship I was looking, as my major at Guelph was Marketing Management and green business and social responsibility are my main career interests. Getting to combine these two fields is ideal as I will gain valuable experience and skills that will hopefully enable me to steer my career in that direction upon my return home.

I've got my vaccinations, travel insurance, bags (almost) packed and as always, am psyched up for the journey.  I'll post an update once I've arrived and the dust has settled.

-Caroline