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Entries For:
2008
2008-08-07
The recent terrorist attacks in Bangalore, ironically, made me like this city more than ever.
A couple of weeks ago, Bangalore was the target of a terrorist attack. A series of blasts rocked the city in the afternoon that day, killing one person and injuring several others. I was in my office that day, which is located within 500 meter radius from two of the blast sites, but I didn’t hear any blast sounds – they were of low intensity. The blasts that struck Ahmedabad a day after that were much stronger, killing more than 50 people and injuring hundreds.
On the day when the blasts struck Bangalore, there was panic and fear across the city. Several schools, offices, shopping malls and movie theatres closed down. However, by evening, when I drove back home from work, the traffic on the streets was almost normal. Business establishments were busy functioning normally the very next day – with the very usual traffic jams seen all over. For the first time ever, I wasn’t miffed by these traffic jams. Oddly enough, I felt happy that there were traffic jams in Bangalore that day. They signalled the spirit of a city that I call home for more than four years, to stand up against an act of terror. And I now admire this city more than ever.
Sure, the Bangalore attacks weren’t as devastating as 9/11 or the ones in Ahmedabad or the ones that struck Jaipur a couple of months ago. So, it’s probably true that Bangalore went back to being normal earlier than the other cities. However, in almost every city in the world struck by terrorist attacks, be it Mumbai, Ahmedabad or New York, normalcy has been restored sooner than expected. This does not mean that those who survived don’t care for those who died. Prayer sessions and candle light vigils that took place in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and the rest of India after the recent attacks show that there is concern for the victims. Restoring normalcy, for me, is standing up against terrorism. This, for me, speaks for the human spirit, which I hope will make this a terrorism-free world one day.
2008-07-15
A recent Bollywood movie brings problems such as political motives, ignorance and corruption in India to the fore. Many social entrepreneurs working at the BoP in emerging economies often encounter these problems.
I am a great fan of movies in general, be it Bollywood, Hollywood, European cinema or anything else and I used to do movie reviews a couple of years ago. I recently watched a Bollywood movie by name ‘Sarkar Raj’, which has superstars Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in lead roles. The movie is the second part of a series which is loosely inspired by ‘The Godfather’ and it’s about a popular and influential public figure, Sarkar, and his son Shankar, who play modern-day Robin Hoods, using money and muscle power to ensure development and social justice in their area. When a multinational power corporation’s CEO (played by Aishwarya) comes up with a proposal to install a large power plant in the area, Shankar, keeping the region’s economic development in mind, takes up the task of ensuring the commissioning of the plant upon himself. However, corruption and local politics aimed at bringing down Shankar’s popularity take over and the project goes haywire. Shankar’s opponents convince villagers that the project is just a money-making business for the power company and Shankar’s family. Villagers riot against the project and things turn murkier when Shankar and his wife are killed.
Sure, the movie dramatizes the scenario but it’s not uncommon for socially-minded leaders and social entrepreneurs to face such problems in India or in any other country. A largely ignorant rural folk can be easily misled and there are several people who believe that political motives are the reason behind India’s expansive illiteracy.
SKS Microfinance’s CEO, Vikram Akula, wrote about an incident, in his recent article for Harvard Business Review, wherein SKS faced violent opposition in a particular area, triggered by extortionists and misguided communities. I have also heard of several similar experiences by various Microfinance Institutions in different parts of the world. If such opposition can be faced by many genuinely social non-profit initiatives, one can guess how difficult it can be for social enterprises with profit motives.
To be honest, I have been unable to figure out if there are any quick solutions to such problems. One has to be patient and tenacious, perhaps. Exiting a particularly troublesome area might be good for both the BoP and the enterprise in the short term, as SKS did. As Vikram rightly points out, not giving in to corruption and extortion can create a lasting impression in the minds of people at the BoP. In addition to creating strong, need-driven products or services at the BoP, social enterprises should stand up against corruption and extortion – something that mainstream corporations have often not done. This might mean jeopardizing the business in the short term, but such an approach driven by values can bring greater benefits in the long run. I do realize that this is easier said (blogged, rather) than done and such opinions from someone like me, who has not really faced such a scenario, should be open for debate. Do feel free to fill up the comments for this post.
2008-06-16
Last month, Al Hammond, who was World Resources Institute's VP for Special Projects and Innovation at that time (he has decided to move on to Ashoka since then) wrote a series of posts on NextBillion.net which put forth a new developmental model. This model emphasizes the development of sector-wise strategies to transform BoP businesses which can trigger the market to bring large-scale social and economic impact. I was invited to write a commentary on this model, which I did. My commentary was posted on NextBillion.net along with comments from five other BoP experts (not sure if I should call myself an expert at this point - but they did call me that). I am re-posting my commentary here for Social Edge readers who might have missed it on NextBillion.
Al Hammond's Transformative Sector Strategies and the six comments can be found here. This blog post is a re-run of my comment on Al's model, which was originally posted on www.nextbillion.net.
When I first read the BoP article by C.K. Prahalad and Stuart Hart three years ago, it triggered several thoughts in my mind and I remember having endless discussions with my friends on the ideas put forth in the article. Reading through Allen Hammond's posts this week on ‘Transformative Sector Strategies', I have experienced a sense of déjà vu, with a lot of thoughts being triggered in my mind all over again. If the work carried out by people like C.K. Prahalad, Stuart Hart and others was responsible for triggering widespread interest in the BoP, WRI's model, outlined in Al's posts, has the potential to take it to the next level.
If the previous level saw the birth of Social Venture Funds, Social Entrepreneurs and Corporations targeting the BoP, this new model can create financially successful enterprises and corporations making a real world impact on the triple bottom line. The model's focus on developing sector-specific scaling strategies can make BoP businesses more evolved and, in a way, more mainstream.
The rural connectivity example from Vietnam, cited in Al's second post, is a very interesting experiment and the results are very encouraging. A similar pilot project is being tried out in India by Ericsson - the Gramjyoti rural broadband project. It is India's first 3G wireless network (based on Wireless CDMA/HSPA technology) and it is being pilot-tested in 18 villages and 15 small towns near Chennai in Southern India. The results of this pilot are not yet available, but the Gramjyoti business model is quite interesting since Ericsson has tied up with domain experts (Apollo Hospitals, Edurite Technologies and Turner Entertainment) to offer healthcare, e-learning and entertainment services to BoP customers through the Gramjyoti network.
The rural healthcare examples, cited by Al in his third post, also throw up some very interesting results and the combination suggested - franchise pharmacy and remote diagnostics - has a definite potential to bring quality healthcare to the BoP. Bangalore-based Vaatsalya Healthcare has already implemented the distributed system model and works closely with Neurosynaptic (which manufactures "ReMeDi" range of low-cost remote medical diagnostic equipment) to offer healthcare services to its BoP customers.
The challenge now is to put this model into practice worldwide. Perhaps, the most important aspect of scaling up and replicating such sectoral strategies is adaptability. The BoP in each country, probably in each region in a country like India, has its own needs. For example, how to offer affordable internet access to a rural community, where mobile phone penetration is already high? The Wi-Fi service implemented in Vietnam can be a good solution here, if it is packaged as an attractive alternative to mobile phones, by offering Skype-style internet-based calling facility and value-added infotainment services.
Another important aspect that needs to be understood is the interplay between the different sectors. As in the Gramjyoti example, connectivity can be the backbone for other sectors such as healthcare and education. In such a scenario, scaling strategies for these sectors can be evolved in parallel. However, in a BoP community which has no power supply, the energy sector scaling strategy should evolve before connectivity. The energy sector, especially the renewable energy sector, has a lot of potential in itself at the BoP and harnessing the benefits of carbon-trading industry, which is also a market-based solution to a global problem, to subsidize BoP energy offerings, can be a good scaling strategy for this sector.
Transformative sector strategies offer an exciting prospect of rapidly scaling up BoP businesses and I am eager to see these strategies trigger the market to meet the needs of the BoP, not just in connectivity and healthcare, but also in energy, education and agriculture.
2008-06-12
A trip to Mumbai helped me visualize the massive size of India’s informal sector and I now imagine Mumbai's street vendors as critical links in BoP businesses.
I was in Mumbai a couple of times last month – once on a personal weekend trip and once on a single-day work visit (from Bangalore’s brand new airport, which is quite far from the city and getting there from where I live - South Bangalore – can be quite stressful). The weekend trip was super fun – I attended a close friend’s wedding in Andheri, spent some leisurely time walking on the streets of Mumbai along with a few friends, paid visits to Haji Ali – a charming dargah on a small island off Mumbai - and Mahalakshmi temple, travelled in Mumbai’s famed local trains, had some wonderful street food (vada pav, bhel puri, pav bhaji, pani poori etc…..YUM!) at Chowpatty and had a nice dinner at Leopold’s in Colaba – a vintage café/pub made famous by Gregory David Roberts’ bestselling novel “Shantaram”. I had been to Mumbai several times before, but this was perhaps the first time that I got a chance to see - as my friend Ammu would say - the real ‘Aamchi Mumbai’.
Walking on the streets of Mumbai, I just couldn’t help but notice the huge amount of business transactions that Mumbai’s street vendors conduct everyday. From ‘Chaat’ (Snacks) to ‘Limbu Paani’ (lime juice), from snazzy electronic gadgets to gaudy perfumes, from ‘Neke’ shoes to ‘Van Hussain’ shirts, one can find almost everything for sale on Mumbai’s streets. Of course, I have seen this kind of ‘street business’ in Bangalore and other Indian cities too, but nothing can compare to the sheer volume of business that Mumbai’s streets conduct everyday. These vendors are ‘street-smart’ and know how to make their money. Apparently, there are a few such street vendors who own cars and large apartments in Mumbai!
The informal sector is never included while evaluating economic parameters of India - such as GDP growth - perhaps because not many of these street vendors pay taxes, though they end up bribing the cops to obtain their ‘licence to sell’ on the streets. What I found especially interesting was the customer base of these street vendors. Though their customers include people from all sections of the society – from the very rich to the urban poor – a vast majority are from the lower middle class and poorer sections. I personally feel that there is a lot to be learnt from these vendors - the businessmen in Mumbai’s informal sector. Agreed that many of them sell counterfeit and smuggled goods but they do understand the base of the pyramid market much better than any multinational company’s sales and marketing departments; they know what sells and what doesn’t among the poor. More importantly, they understand the needs of the poor. Entrepreneurs or corporations targeting the BoP markets will do well to tap into the knowledge base of Mumbai’s (and India’s) informal sector. The knowledge that these guys have, can be valuable in conducting market research, developing products and carrying out marketing campaigns at the BoP. It would be even better if they are engaged as critical links in the value chain, such as franchisees. This could be a win-win situation for both sides and to the country as a whole since such an arrangement would help in formalizing the informal sector.
2008-04-28
A visit to my hometown triggered me to explore the answer to the following questions: What do people at the base of the pyramid really want? Is it empathy or sympathy? What should a social entreprise aim to create?
About three weeks ago, I was in my hometown to spend a weekend with my family, as it was a long weekend to celebrate the Hindu New Year (called Ugadi in this part of India). There was also another reason for my visit – my nephew turned one that weekend. I always look forward to such regular, short visits to my hometown, not only for the time that I get to spend with my family but also for the gentle pace of life there. Davangere, a district headquarters located at the heart of the Southern Indian state of Karnataka, is a city of nearly 450,000 people. It serves as a commercial hub for the collection of smaller towns and villages around it. It used to be a textile hub once, but cheaper Chinese clothes put the local textile industry out of business. However, the city moved on to become a trading centre for agricultural products and more recently, an educational hub. The first thing that you would notice about the city is that it is always abuzz with a lot of activity – commercial or otherwise. A walk around the older and newer parts of the city makes one realize that its people are smart and savvy, if not as cosmopolitan or westernized as their counterparts in Bangalore.
I had read the Berkeley Bottom line’s posts about Skoll World Forum 2008 on their Social Edge blog and I was particularly intrigued by Mike and Omar’s posts on the session titled ‘Empathy and Ethics: Drivers of our Shifting Culture’. The posts triggered a lot of questions in my mind about what do people at the base of the pyramid really want. Is it empathy or sympathy? Of course, there are several answers to such questions in various books, but I decided to use my time during my hometown visit to find out if I can get the answers from people who comprise the ‘base of the pyramid’.
First up was the maid in my home. She hails from a nearby village and though she loved going to school as a child, she was forced to drop out by the time she was 12 and sent to work by her family. She, now in her 30s, has learnt quite a bit of English and is really good at everyday math. ‘I don’t need anybody’s sympathy’, she says, with an element of self-pride, ‘I only ask for enough opportunities so that I have a fair chance to lead a comfortable life’. She says she will happily move back to her village if there are enough opportunities there for her to make a decent living.
I then spoke to a man who works as a waiter in a small local eatery (which serves delicious ‘Benne Dose’ – Butter Dosa, a local speciality). He hails from a village in North Karnataka. He had the exact same things to say as my housemaid. I then spoke to a construction worker and a teenager who works as a helper in one of the numerous agricultural trading shops. Their opinions were the same.
I know that this exercise is not a systematic survey and it is hard to draw conclusions from it. However, the one thing that struck me was the fact that many people at the base of the pyramid want us to create only opportunities to them. They don’t ask for our sympathy. Western travellers and Indians raised mostly in urban centres carry a different image of the base of the pyramid – that of a group which expects sympathy. It’s probably not their fault. They only get to meet beggars in Indian cities and end up thinking that the entire base of the pyramid wants sympathy. However, empathy and a drive to create opportunities for them are the need of the hour. And this is what a social enterprise should am for. It is also probably true that a market-based approach to social entrepreneurship can bring in large-scale changes at the base of the pyramid and I shall explore that in a separate post.
I now appreciate C K Prahalad’s book on BOP – with all its perceived flaws - more than ever. I admire Muhammad Yunus and several others in the Microfinance sector. I now support social entrepreneurs even more strongly.
2008-03-24
What I will miss by not attending this year’s Forum
It’s that time of the year again, when hundreds of social entrepreneurs, development professionals, corporate executives, consultants, policy makers, researchers and students come together at Oxford University’s Said Business School, to discuss some of the world’s most critical social problems and try to find solutions to them through Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll World Forum 2008 takes place this week and I am disappointed that, for several reasons, I won’t be there. However, I will be keenly following the event, through ‘edgy’ blog posts and updates from our pseudo-undercover journalist, Global X ;-).
This year, the Forum will focus on the theme of ‘Social Entrepreneurship: culture, context and social change’ and aims to examine the role of cultural and contextual issues in the social change process. Sounds exciting, isn’t it? The impressive line-up of discussions and accomplished individuals – check out the Forum’s agenda – is as exciting as the theme itself. Here are a few sessions that I would have personally loved to attend at the Forum this year:
1. The opening plenary session, which will be addressed by Jeff Skoll, Stephan Chambers, Nobel laureate Jody Williams and a few other distinguished individuals.
2. The session named ‘Empathy and Ethics: Drivers of our Shifting Culture’, which includes Ashoka CEO Bill Drayton as one of the speakers.
3. The session named ‘The Internet, Mobile Technology and Cross-cultural Communication’, which has speakers such as our very own ‘edgy’ Victor and Kiva’s Premal Shah.
4. The Evergreen session on ‘Hybrid and For-profit models’ would have been especially interesting to me, since I believe that these models are the way forward for social enterprises.
5. The Evergreen sessions on ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What’s the Impact of this All’ and ‘Effective Models for Partnership’ seem to be interesting too. The second session has SustainAbility’s John Elkington (I am eagerly awaiting his book, ‘The Power of Unreasonable People’, to be released in India) as one of the speakers.
It would have been interesting to attend one of the ‘Consulting Clinics’ too. And of course, the Closing Plenary session, which will be addressed by Al Gore and Acumen Fund’s Jacqueline Novogratz, is not to be missed.
It would have been exciting to personally meet several people whom I know only through e-mail interactions. But then, given the optimist that I am, I am sure I will be able to make it to the Forum next year. All of you attending the Forum this year do write to me about your experiences!
2008-03-10
A unique fellowship program which connects budding engineers with for-profit social enterprises
A few weeks ago, Nitin Rao, a friend and a fellow Bangalorean, contacted me to inform about the launch of ‘Engineers for Social Impact’ (E4SI), a unique fellowship program which intends to connect talented Engineering students from some of the best Engineering schools in India with for-profit social enterprises. I should have posted about E4SI a couple of weeks earlier since the application deadline for this program was 2nd March 2008. Nevertheless, E4SI is an exciting program and I am sure many of you would be interested in reading about it.
Every year, more than 400,000 Engineers graduate from about 3500 Engineering schools in India. However, many of them tend to take up jobs in traditional sectors such as IT and Manufacturing and very few of them are aware of the exciting opportunities that are emerging in the social enterprise sector. E4SI, launched by a group of enthusiastic youngsters led by Nitin, is aimed at addressing the problem of talent crunch among for-profit social enterprises in India. The program is also aimed at providing hands-on social enterprise work experience for current engineering students and it creates awareness of emerging opportunities in the development sector.
E4SI is a highly selective program which accepted applications only from students of a selected group of top Engineering schools (five IITs – Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Kharagpur, three NITs – Surathkal, Warangal and Trichy, BITS Pilani and NSIT Delhi) this year. Five fellows will be selected out of the applicants and they will be placed in partner for-profit social enterprises – Vaatsalya Healthcare, SELCO, Ujjivan, Intellecap and iDiscoveri – for internships. The program boasts of a group of accomplished advisers and the selection process will be conducted by a panel of experts with degrees from London School of Economics, MIT, Yale and Michigan.
Nitin, who himself interned with a for-profit education start-up last summer, is yet to graduate from his Engineering program at NIT Surathkal but has already accomplished a lot in the social enterprise sector (check out his amazing profile). I wish him and his team the very best for this initiative.
2008-03-03
Exploring the colours of rural India
I know that I haven’t been fair to the blogger in me over the past couple of months. Work hasn’t been kind to me of late and several other activities, though exciting, have kept me busy. I will soon write about these activities in this space. Keep watching!
Anyway, I was at the Fireflies Festival of Sacred Music here in Bangalore last weekend, along with my friends. The dusk-till-dawn festival, into its fifth year now, showcased a wide range of musical talent from India and abroad. Performances at this year’s festival included a folk dance called Puje Kunitha (Worship Dance), Bengali fakiri songs, Indian fusion music from bands such as Esperanto and Swarathma, popular Qawali numbers, Jazz and many more. The festival, which showcased Indian and Western art to an urban crowd (a few Western music lovers were also present), reminded me of a blog topic that I had thought about sometime ago – Rural Tourism.
Tourism in India has been growing at a steady pace over the past few years and every year, thousands of foreign tourists throng India’s tourist destinations to experience ‘Exotic India’. The elegantly done ‘Incredible India’ campaign by the Indian Government’s Tourism Ministry has been successful in attracting more tourists to India. However, Western tourists to India typically visit popular destinations such as Agra (Taj Mahal), Khajuraho, Mysore, Goa, Udaipur etc and the big cities. All these destinations have become quite expensive these days and many of them are not very well maintained. A better way to experience the culture and heritage of India is to visit its rural heartland. The Tourism Ministry realized this and hence, launched the ‘Explore Rural India’ campaign a couple of years ago, in association with UNDP India. The initiative showcases a few selected villages in different states of India, which offer a wholesome village experience, complete with home-stays and cultural shows. In addition to providing a new dimension to Indian tourism, this initiative intends to bring about inclusive tourism and bring economic benefits to rural India.
Of course, rural tourism initiatives will have to try hard to convince a hygiene-conscious Western (and urban Indian) tourist to visit rural India. And there is also the danger of environmental degradation of rural India from tourism. However, ‘ecotourism’ is increasingly becoming popular and several attractive rural tourism packages are being offered nowadays (I have heard about a low-cost rural tourism initiative near Bangalore, which I intend to try out soon). I hope to see many more such initiatives becoming popular in the near future.
2008-02-03
A ‘vehicle’ of change in the lives of rural artisans
Bosch Vaahan is an initiative of the Power Tools division of Bosch (not many people know that Bosch is not only about Automotive Technology). Launched in April 2006, the ‘Vaahan’ (which translates into a ‘vehicle’ in Hindi) is a mini-bus which carries sophisticated Power Tools to rural areas. A wide range of woodworking, construction and metalworking tools catering to the needs of rural carpenters, metalworking artisans, plumbers etc are carried by the ‘vaahan’, which visits different villages. Product demonstrations and information sessions are conducted by the ‘vaahan’ officials in rural areas. Rural artisans can try out these tools for their work. The tools are available for purchase to rural artisans at subsidized prices. Bosch has tied up with several banks, including Canara Bank and Andhra Bank, to offer attractive loan schemes for the rural folk to buy these tools.
The ‘vaahan’ traveled extensively in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh states of Southern India in its first phase and became quite popular. This popularity encouraged Bosch to launch a similar vaahan in North India last year. Plans are afoot to launch more vaahans to cater to the Western, Eastern and Central parts of India.
The Vaahan is a wonderful initiative since it creates win-win situations for all the stakeholders involved – Bosch has found a new market for its products; rural artisans get access to the latest tools to enhance their skills and products; banks can disburse more loans in rural areas. This is a novel way of market creation at the base of the pyramid and blends well with the Bosch tag line: ‘Invented for Life’!
Technorati Profile
2008-01-14
Organized retail in rural India
‘Retail’ is the new tale to tell in India nowadays. Organized retail has been the business buzzword in India for the past 3-4 years and every big Indian industrial house has made a foray into retail. Mumbai-based Future Group was among the first to make a successful foray into retail, with its chain of lifestyle (Pantaloons) and supermarket (Big Bazaar) shopping malls. There have been a spate of new chains coming up recently, most notably the Reliance Group’s Fresh and Jewellery outlets, the Tata Group’s Star India Bazaar and the Aditya Birla Group’s ‘More’ hypermarkets. Everyone seems to be in a tearing hurry to cash in on this retail boom before global majors like Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour make their entries into India. There are several other smaller and niche chains too. However, as with all high growth industries in the past, the retail industry has ignored rural and semi-urban India so far. Or, so I thought until I found out about 3A Bazaar.
3A Bazaar is India’s first mobile retail company which was launched in early 2007. The company is owned by the Paramount Trading Corp Pvt Ltd, an exporter of metal handicrafts and primarily operates in the Jyotiba Phule Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. The company is the brainchild of Mr. Asad Shamsi, who was inspired by a few similar retail chains in Europe. ‘3A’ represents the first letters of the names of the three Shamsi brothers, all of whose names begin with ‘A’. Before starting 3A Bazaar, Mr. Shamsi conducted extensive research in rural India and found out that India’s rural population does have disposable income, but not regularly. However, value for money, good quality and a product’s criticality were some of the factors that were to be considered. There are about 5 vans which carry goods worth 2-2.5 lakhs of rupees everyday from Mr. Shamsi’s storehouse to about 700 villages in JP Nagar district. However, most of the villages are visited weekly or fortnightly or monthly. This fits with the irregularity of incomes of villagers and the mobility eliminates the drawbacks of a static rural retail shop. The daily average sales are in the range of 8-10 thousand rupees and Mr. Shamsi is looking at increasing the size of his fleet. It will be very interesting to follow the progress of 3A Bazaar.
Meanwhile, Tata Nano, Tata Motors’ ambitious Rs. 1 lakh car ($2500), was launched at the Delhi Auto Expo last week, amid much fanfare. Even though doubts remain about safety and environmental impact of the ‘people’s car’, coming out with a full-fledged car at this price is an achievement nevertheless.
2008-01-02
Develops affordable medical diagnostic equipment and solutions
First of all, I apologize for my ‘no-show’ on Social Edge over the last couple of weeks. These two weeks have been hectic and fun at the same time. They were hectic since I travelled a lot, scooted around to meet people and managed some work too. And these two weeks were fun since I met a lot of friends (some of them visiting from abroad), attended a wedding in my hometown and spent a rollicking new year’s eve with friends in Goa. w00t!
This week, I am posting about a Bangalore-based technology company called NeuroSynaptic Communications, which develops affordable medical diagnostic equipment and solutions. NeuroSynaptic was started by Sameer Sawarkar and Rajeev Kumar, both alumni of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the company works closely with the TeNet (Telecommunication and Computer Network) Group at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras to develop low-cost telemedicine solutions. The company currently offers a range of medical diagnostic kits and solutions, known as ReMeDi (Remote Medical Diagnostics). The kit and the related software cost as little as Rs. 10,000 (~ $250) and this can be used to measure some physiological parameters like body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate and electrocardiogram (ECG). A patient’s measured parameters can then be communicated to the doctor sitting in a remote location, either through a videoconferencing application running on the computer (which is a part of the ReMeDi solution) or by uploading them to web-based databases. The low-cost and multi-tasking aspects of the ReMeDi kit make it very attractive to rural healthcare providers and the kit is already being used extensively. NeuroSynaptic’s success and innovation were recognized by the World Economic Forum recently, when it featured the company among the 39 Technology Pioneers from all over the world. NeuroSynaptic is the only Indian company to be featured in this elite list. It is also the only Asian company outside Israel to be featured in this list.
Here’s wishing all of you a very happy new year!
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