Ambitious Startpreneur

Why Governments are insensitive to Social Entrepreneurship?

Startpreneurs are Ambitious !

There is not much worth to being enterprising if you don’t have the ambition to make progress. Your alpha personality makes you want to do more in every aspect of life. “All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.” – Mark Twain saying may sound to have been said in jest yet it is useful.

I support NGOs, Section 8 (Old Sec 25) companies, Trusts in their formation strategy onward as Pro-Bono Advisor.  As I retired in early 2012, Walking in the morning and evening became a daily routine.  Later, post my cardiac issues and diabetes – it became part of the medical management prescribed.

I now walk between 10-12 Km and keep fit.  While walking I use several trial Health related Apps to keep testing as an amateur beta tester on my mobile phones.  While music and FM Radio Apps are my constant companions – I am fortunate I still watch a lot and it helps me observe things.

I met in Gujarat my friends who are doing pioneering work in Social entrepreneurship using CSR funds which remain un-utilized by the corporates for Skills development and helping Startpreneurs – Really Micro ones – those who can start business with a Seed capital given as a grant of Rs. 25-40000.  That is very small indeed.

On my way of this walk, I visit a Ganpati Temple with a 60Ft tall statue. It is close to a bus-stand and a new Sky-way has come up near the Walkers/ Joggers garden nearby.  I have observed recently under the Swachh Bharat program the Municipal corporation has also made a PublicPay toilet on a BOLT ( Build- Own – Lease- Transfer) basis and a family maintains it and keeps it clean and hygienic.  This suburb is Bangalore’s largest upcoming suburb and at last count there are about Half a Million people live here most of whom get water by tankers as civic amenities are still non-existent.

I was happy to see this initiative of the Pay Toilet which to me is a nice gesture to make a family entrepreneur and self sufficient while keeping the area clean.  In Bangalore city the Gardens are well maintained but the Gardeners are not well taken care of. They still live in Tent like huts made of gunny sacks and a whole family of 6-10 people lives in the garden – they still cook on wood.  The poor gardener also begs and seeks money from morning walkers which is sad.

I see another beggar near the temple and his geographic area seems to be demarcated to Temple,  couple of hotels, bus stand and the unauthorized bike parking space.  Bangalore is a different type of city. The Politicians here do not care if the pedestrians have footpath or not and bike riders consider it to park on footpaths available as their birthright.

I was thinking of a BOLT, Social entrepreneurship and beggary together.  As a Edward De Bono Lateral thinking follower, I got thinking.  I felt why not convert some of the open land under the skywalk, near the garden and also outside of the footpath as Paid Parking space with a Manned Parking Meter and allow this beggar and gardener cum beggar to allow it to run  on BOLT  basis.

What will it entail:

1. Permission from Municipal corporation to convert the empty land and build a compound, fencing around it.
2. Have No Parking boards put up at the designated places in consultation with the Traffic Police.
3. Get a Parking meter and fix the parking rates for the hour, 4 hours, 6 hours, Overnight parking etc as I have seen people parking for longer durations here.
4. Issue Bar cards to monthly payment users and equip the two people manning it with Card swipe machines and train them into the usage and help them with a bank account where the bank person comes and collects the cash and charge slips from them and issues a passbook update.
5. I think this can help regulate the traffic in this area, help two families to have sustainable income and over a period of time the Municipal corporation can recover its initial investment in fencing, boards, parking meter, printing paper, electricity, no parking boards, swipe machines and training.

I just wish and hope that I am some day able to either get hold of the Corporator to do this or get an influential NGO to influence him, Corporation and also provide them the seed capital to run this and get the right permissions..

I sincerely feel that beggary in the town can be regulated and by right parking habits the traffic menace can also be controlled.  We see many Third Gender people crowing or knocking the car windows on the Traffic signals demanding money and people mistreating them and getting into fights.  This menace can also be curbed if a sympathetic view is taken towards and the business help provided.

• Anti-glib: Knowing what you’re talking about – http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/416970782/0/sethsblog~Antiglib-Knowing-what-youre-talking-about.html

Glibness is a disease that’s particularly virulent in Silicon Valley, politics, entertainment and the executive suite. Someone has an insight (or gets lucky) and then amasses power. Surrounded by more than they’re willing to understand, they substitute the glib statement, the smirk, the cutting remark. They turn everything into a status-fueled professional wrestling match.

It’s usually done out of fear, and, ironically, the fear-induced glib approach merely makes things worse, creating even more fear.

The alternative is to know what you’re talking about.

To have done the reading. [I’ve seen this problem in boardrooms, examination rooms and classrooms across the planet].

To be able to hold conflicting ideas in your head as you consider options.

To know and respect the people who have earned a place at the table of ideas.

To have energetic engagements with people who are more experienced, wiser and more connected than you are.

To admit that you were wrong, because you didn’t know what you know now, and then to chart a new path.

To ignore sunk costs when making new decisions.

The fans of professional wrestling (in all its forms) are entertained by the glib, because it releases them from the obligation to understand metaphor, to look more deeply, to engage with a logical argument.

Everyone else would rather work with people who know what they’re talking about, who respect those they work with and most of all, who seek useful outcomes, not just the comfort of a short-term win.

Singapore University economics professor David Lee Kuo Chuen on cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, and blockchain and what they can mean for fintech in India

Source: Blockchain could play a key role in financial inclusion in India: David Lee Kuo Chuen – Livemint

New Study Reveals the World’s Fastest Growing Religion, and It’s Not Christianity or IslamNational Geographic recently carried out a global survey and it has revealed something most people would have never thought. The fastest growing religion is having no religion at all!Their results showed that atheism was the fastest growing religion. The study refers to atheists as people who do not follow or identify with any religion and according to National Geographic atheism is not the second largest religious affiliation in North America and most of Europe. Around 22.8 percent of the population here in the US likely identifies as an atheist.Atheists here in the US now represent a larger portion than Protestants, Buddhists, and several other faiths. In this study, they also found that France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand were big on secularism which is the belief that people should be free from religious teachings. It is thought these countries would have a higher population of atheists than any religious affiliation. It seems that the UK and Australia are on losing their Christian majorities and the only place with religion actually growing rapidly is Sub-Sahara Africa.According to this study when it comes to individual religious beliefs Islam may even surpass Christianity by the year 2050 as the world’s most popular religion. The millennial generation seems to be leading the demand towards atheism. There seems to also be a direct link between religion and poverty levels. The poorer a country is the higher a number of religious people will be funds there. That being said they also found that the higher level of education a person had the less likely they were to hold devout religious beliefs.For more on this please check out the video below. It covers another study on this subject and goes over some good points. What do you think about all of this?

Source: New Study Reveals the World’s Fastest Growing Religion, and It’s Not Christianity or Islam – Awareness Act

The new law will revolutionise consumer rights in India by investing consumers and agencies with a lot more power than they currently have.

8 points from new consumer protection bill that ensure buyers are not taken for a ride

Source: Consumer Protection Bill: 8 points from new consumer protection bill that ensure buyers are not taken for a ride

Most companies completely blow it.

Source: 8 stupid workplace rules that make everyone miserable | Ladders