Author: Reesha

1. Identify two SPECIFIC funding sources for the design phase of your project and two SPECIFIC funding sources for the dissemination (implementation/distribution/commercialization) phase of your project. For each funding source, explain why this is a good fit for your project, and what SPECIFIC aspect of your project might the funding source support.

• For our design phase, we do not have much spending that needs funding prior to our actual dissemination. The main sources of funding we might need for creating the documentary clips logistical costs are minimal. But finding a sponsor from research organizations in India is a possibility to pursue, through partnerships we already are beginning to formulate.
• For our dissemination phase, we will need funding to a) get our documentary clips and rubric/report published on a legitimate platform to reach our targeted audience and b) in the future, organize our findings over time to create a validated source published for a wider range of companies. A potential funding source can be nonprofit organizations located in India that work as consulting to other nonprofits and organizations to better manage their own initiatives. The way this could work is if our project would work as an extension of these organizations, as a consulting organization in this specific field of study. As such, the details of this structure are vague right now.
  • Another avenue for dissemination funding can be through research institutions and think tanks that undertake similar research to ours, but fail to address the specific research question and problem our project undertakes. We have found that the current literature addresses how NGOs view what companies are spending on for CSR as inefficient, but there are limited to no sources on the decision making processes for the companies themselves. Therefore, our project will take this unique approach which will be of interest to research institutions and think tanks to possibly fund for our dissemination.
  • Another possibility for funding our dissemination is to charge a sort of fee to access our specific rubric and recommendations for companies. However, this seems as a stretched possibility at best, as our project would have to gain significant credibility in a short amount of time in order to legitimize it as valuable enough for companies to pay for access.

2. Identify five specific partnerships that you need to forge to advance your project forward with the ultimate goal of positively impacting atleast one million people. Describe exactly how that partnership might help you achieve scale and why that entity might be willing to work with you.

1. Partnership with research institutions in India already involved with CSR study: As we got in touch with Ashoka University this semester, they shared key insights on the research they have conducted on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs database in terms of the value and volume of CSR expenditure, the geographical and thematic distribution of CSR and the percentage of corporates that complied with the mandatory 2% CSR expenditure. By gathering data-sights from this research, we are able to analyze with various different parameters the current trends in CSR research and base our own questions off of existing questions.

• Ashoka University got us in touch with organizations like Samhita and Sattva that have produced knowledge products on this topic in the past and continue to do so (They have shared access to their research materials here and here.) We plan to continue to reach out to organizations that have conducted research in this area to have a broader understanding of the shifting CSR field. Research institutions have a willingness, in the pursuit of knowledge dissemination, to work collaboratively with researchers like us. In a partnership with such organizations, we can offer our case-study approach as a insightful and unique way in making the impact for transitioning from analyzing CSR to making it better.

2. Similar to the last approach, getting in contacts with think tanks and forging partnerships with them will help us achieve scale by connecting us with their existing organizations and individuals that are in the CSR research field as well. A potential to reach out to is Corporate Responsibility Watch, a think-tank working in the CSR space has produced numerous knowledge products on CSR trends in India and has conducted some interesting qualitative research on the topic.

3. Long term partnerships with companies on the ground in India will be especially vital in order to make our project scale in the future. These companies will have resources that we will need in order to make our study valuable and usable for companies in the future. By allowing us to take a deep dive into individual CSR programs in these countries, companies will open themselves up to good publicity for showing how their CSR programs have been successful in making an impact. This will encourage many more companies to similarly partake in case-study research in collaboration with us, and allow us to expand our selection of company-organization partnerships.

4. Another partnership to pursue will be those with government entities that already deal with analyzing the effects of the Companies Act. We know the government has some dealings already with recording the current effects of the Act and involvement of companies with their spending, but taking a deeper dive into the formulations behind the law can help address whether the law is fulfilling its intended goals and reaching the measured levels of success that the government of India intended for it to do.

5. We can lastly forge vital partnerships with dissemination points for our research. This incorporates all of our previous partnerships as well as additional connections with blogs, websites and publications that we will reach out to that have an interest and stake in sharing our research with their current readership audience.

One Acre Fund Business Model

Key Partners

• Funding partners: Notable, the Global Innovation Fund, a nonprofit investor that supports scalable, innovative solutions for some of the developing world’s biggest problems, has awarded One Acre Fund with a $15 million grant to carry out this work over the next four years. (Source: A New Partnership)
• Government in select countries: in cases like Rwanda, there are specific  timings and limitations on farmers for activating farming and seeding throughout the year. Therefore, One Acre Fund works in line with regulations in place to determine best distribution and planting methods.
• Seed and fertilizer distributors: Both in Africa and abroad, One Acre Fund works to acquire the right seeds and fertilizers needed for specific regions and for various purposes at the best possible cost.

Key Activities

• Serve African farmers by offering high-quality seeds and fertilizer on credit, with a flexible repayment system that allows them to repay their loans
• Deliver inputs to locations close to farmers
• Train farmers on modern agricultural techniques
• Offer crop storage solutions and teach farmers about market fluctuations

Key Resources

• In-depth country analysis and research for market-based distribution: By synthesizing the specific needs of farmers in each country at every situation, One Acre Fund specifies the crops, distribution and training needed to those farmers in outreach regions.
• Seed and fertilizer inputs
• Physical capital and transport logistics (trucks, freight costs, etc)
• Agricultural techniques and employees in-field to teach these methods hands on

Value Propositions

• Give hard-working farmers the very much needed access to resources
  • Smallholder farmers need to improve their agriculture productivity to address world hunger. In order to improve productivity, they need access to improved seed and fertilizer.
• Independence and sustainable, long-term economic activity that can provide for savings and future planning for families
  • As farmers increase their productivity and incomes, their purchasing power increases. They choose to invest in productive assets, such as livestock or small greenhouses for growing vegetables, and are able to send their children to secondary school (Source: A Distribution Revolution)
• Double their income per acre of land on average

Consumer Relations

• Farmers make economic investment into One Acre Fund, so the Fund ensures that it pays off financially through measuring farm profit, and allows to compare across various program offerings
  • As a primary measure of impact, farm profit on per acre estimates help gauge the relative effectiveness of the program on each acre of land. Per farmer estimates allow to understand the impact of the program from the experience of the individual farmer, by looking at farmer’s entire costs and revenue devoted to One Acre Fund crops versus costs and revenue of a comparison farmer.
  • This overall analysis ensures prices are right for farmers and overall comprehensive cost accounting accuracy, which furthers the Fund’s mission for putting the Farmer First. (Source: Farm Profit)

Distribution Channels

Source: New Country Expansion

• Smallholder farmers often do not access to traveling distant locations to receive resources they need, so OneAcre Fund emphasizes bringing the services to the farmer.

1. Explore variables for new countries and communities: prior to activating services, One Acre Fund researches the specific needs of a new country and customer demands. One Acre Fund first must find areas that produce crops that they know they can work with, staple crops with a big market. They then look for data showing fertilizer and improved seed usage.
2. Market Research in the Field: After initial scouting research, they determine what subset of a country’s population are viable potential clients for One Acre Fund’s program. Typically, they consider countries that have 1 to 2 million serviceable households. In the second phase of any expansion work, they conduct crop trials with actual farmers to determine market demand and our ability to operate in that country at scale.
3. Farm inputs on credit: Financing for seed and fertilizer provided to farmers based on prior research of what the area needs are based on population density and crop types.
   1. Most fertilizer is produced in North America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, or Asia.  It needs to be shipped to Mombasa in big ocean freighters which can carry 20,000 – 30,000 metric tons. Once it is cleared at the port, it is transported inland by large trucks carrying 25-28 metric tons each. The trucks make their way to One Acre Fund warehouses located all over western Kenya, where the fertilizer is stored. When it’s time to deliver to farmers, it gets loaded into smaller trucks carrying 7-8 metric tons at a time. When One Acre Fund purchases fertilizer, it buys in batches of several thousand metric tons. (Source: Seeds and Fertilizer Procurement)
   2. Most of the seed is produced in Africa. One Acre Fund works with over 10 seed companies to procure maize, sorghum, millet, bean, and collards seeds. Some companies produce their seeds right in Kenya, while others import from countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. (Source: Seeds and Fertilizer Procurement)
4. Delivery: Every year, One Acre Fund hires fleets of trucks to deliver tens of thousands of metric tons of seed and fertilizer to hundreds of villages
   1. Drop distribution method in Kenya: trucks deliver all inputs to a central warehouse. Staff conduct inventory checks and quality assurance testing. Finally, all inputs loaded onto trucks and distributed to predetermined village sites, where clients come on a single day at a time scheduled in advance to pick up their orders.
   2. Rolling distribution method in Rwanda: inputs are stored in multiple rented warehouses and storage sites, then distributed to farmers on a group-by-group basis over the course of six weeks, with logistics staffers topping up deliveries as needed over the course of the six-week distribution period. However, this method was found to be inefficient although it did allow to grow clients in Rwanda. (Source: Distribution Methods)
5. Training: Offer in our loan package each season, they always include two key elements: a practical, hands-on component, and picture-based handouts to illustrate technical instructions. Comprehensible even to farmers that cannot read or write. (Source: Challenge of Poor Literacy)
6. Harvest Sales

Consumer Segments

• Small holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, with goal of reaching all of the 1 million farm families in the next ten years.
  • Average client is a female farmer in her early to mid 40s with few years of primary school education. (Source: 2010 Spring Performance Report)

Cost Structure

• The transportation costs to travel to that town and bring back fertilizer are often prohibitive. Farmers must also weigh the uncertainty of whether local shops in that town will have any seed and fertilizer in stock, let alone high-quality seed and fertilizer.
• When One Acre Fund purchases fertilizer, it buys in batches of several thousand metric tons and negotiates the best prices, to both African companies and outsourcing to companies in other countries.

• In 2016, ~80% of our program costs covered by farmer revenue, leaving a subsidy of $26/farmer filled by donors.

  Source: Comprehensive Impact Report

  1. Direct field (program) costs: These are the direct costs required to deliver our core program in the current year. They do include what some might consider indirect costs (e.g., HR, finance, technology), but only to the extent they are fully related to extending our core program to clients.
  2. Direct field costs + indirect organizational costs: This cost construct uses a line-item allocation methodology to include organization-level indirect costs that are allocated to our core program as well as other business units (e.g., executive and corporate finance departments).
  3. Direct field costs + indirect organizational costs + prior innovation costs: This most conservative cost construct also includes an allocation of prior innovation spending, recognizing that prior R&D investments have contributed to the core program’s current impact.Revenue Streams

• One Acre Fund has a revenue-generating operating model: About 75 percent of field expenses are financed through farmer loan repayments, with donor dollars covering the rest.

• One Acre Fund charges customers the full cost of goods (inputs and add-on products) that they distribute, plus a relatively small amount in fees and interest

  • As of 2010, the Fund had 2,185 unique donors. (Source: 2010 Spring Performance Report)

List five take-aways from Guy Kawasaki’s talk and explain exactly how you will integrate that concept/construct/strategy into your project. Make it compelling. Don’t write generic forgettable text.

1. Making a mantra for the employee is the reason for why they are there, and is so vital for accomplishing any goal of a business. In our project, our mantra goes along the lines of “Making an impactful, social change through CSR collaboration”. We are not adding to the existing system, but rather seeking out to improve the conditions that companies and organizations must work under in this new law.
2. Get going: by being different and thinking different, you can do things 10x better than the existing practices. By studying the existing literature for CSR practices and guidelines in India, we can learn what already has been said about these partnerships and what our team has to offer that is a unique and valuable perspective.
3. Creating a unique product to the consumer that also adds value to the consumer – like Fandango, a simple to use and valuable product goes a long way when it delivers a need the consumer did not even know it wanted fulfilled. In the same way, companies and NGOs organized under the CSR law may not know they needed ways to improve their practices, nor the long term benefits for doing so. We want to show how improving social welfare now and consistently in the future will lead to not only improved quality of the surrounding community, but also a stronger reputation for the company as well as sustainable credibility for NGOs carrying out such initiatives.
4. Hire infected people – When adding more people to your endeavor, aim higher and bring in people that will add true value to the project. In our project, we hope as we expand the scope of our goals in the future, we will need additional partners to help disseminate our findings as well as to grow our research farther out past Mumbai. When adding more partners, we need to ensure they share the same values and have the capability to push our research and impact to the next level.
5. Weaving a MAT – In defining your Milestone, Assumptions and Tasks, you can create a clear plan for what your expectations and priorities are, and to communicate these with partners and stakeholders. Our milestones include:
   1. Identify interesting, compelling case studies of existing partnerships with companies and NGOs, and have them be interested in working with us
   2. Begin working on preliminary documentary clips  that explain who we are, what is the law, and problems the law is supposed to address.
   3. In fieldwork, ask questions and research what works for a successful partnership and how these factors have been developed.
   4. Produce a policy document and documentary clips that lays out our findings that are a guide for companies and NGOs to better their relationships.

In the article, “Why Indian Nonprofits Are Experts at Scaling Up”, many of the practices for how nonprofits are successful in India for overcoming both scale and scarcity happen to also parallel the main messages that Guy Kawasaki mentioned. Here are the mindsets nonprofits employ, and since our project looks at the interaction between companies and nonprofits, I think many of the key takeaways from Kawasaki’s talk can apply across organizations.

In partnership with one or at most two team members, present a business model canvas for your venture.

In collaboration with Nikki Groce and Olivia Abrams

List ten non-obvious assumptions about your target customers (or organizations) that you need to validate.

1. Target/Desire for Indian companies to engage in CSR
2. Target/Desire for Indian NGOs to utilize CSR given by companies towards their own aims
3. How organized companies are currently around engaging in CSR spending?
4. Is there a need to help bridge the gap between companies and NGOs, and do both organizations acknowledge the gap?
5. Companies as being essentially profit-driven entities – do they have other motives?
6. NGOs as being essentially issue-oriented, social change movements – do they have other motives?
7. Are companies independent from the influence of the government?
8. Are NGOs independent from the influence of the government?
9. Assume that companies/NGOs we select operate in Mumbai, do they have any other activities beyond this area?
10. How do they view outsiders (like our group) stepping in and giving them advice based on our research, for best CSR practices?

List ten hypotheses about your project that you need to test during fieldwork.

1. Which issues are getting the most funding?
2. What is the type of funding? Short-term, long-term, project based, etc.
3. How much money is from corporates versus other donors (foreign, individual, govt)
4. Are there differences in how much money companies give based on size, sector (extractive/technology), consumer or B2B, by ownership (family, publicly listed, led by women/men, cooperative, public sector)
5. Anything that the datasets and in person interviews can tell us about NGOs themselves- which kinds, how much of the spending goes to NGOs and how much is spent in other ways?
6. Are there regulations for how NGOs spend their money?
7. Is there a way to measure social impacts of CSR spending beyond NGO profits? How can we truly see a change (greater efficiency in education, better resource allocation, empowerment, organization)?
8. What partnerships work? What impact do NGOs have on companies? Companies impact on NGOs?
9. What does a successful partnership look like? How are these partnerships different from those that have failed, or have not lasted as long-term?
10. Who establishes the goal in the partnership between the company and NGO? How is this goal defined?

What do you think you bring to your team? How has your perception of your own strengths and weaknesses changed over the course of the class? Please be specific.

To my team, I believe I bring a strong skill for organization and thinking of the bigger picture, as well as trying to assess everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. In my past and present experiences on various teams, I can appreciate the value of cohesion and staying on the same page while striving towards our shared goal. At the same time, it’s important for every person to have a strong personal motive to be engaged on the project. My perceptions of my own strengths and weaknesses have been highlighted more over the course of this class, where I see myself being able to multitask more than I thought possible, as well as developed a stronger sense of constantly seeing the larger picture when becoming frustrated on a challenge in the every day to day tasks.

Our project does require IRB approval, as we are conducting interviews with human subjects and using that data for research. We will initially look into the IRB local ethics of Mumbai and see if there are any requirements for the area. After narrowing down our list of participants via email communication first, we will establish which organizations and members we will pursue interviews with. After building this rapport, our team will determine the specific questions and answers we are seeking, making sure they are ethical in terms of preliminary information gathering. As our first interviews will be broad in terms of investigating CSR initiatives, there will probably not be any deep or ethical considerations for these interviews. Questions will include why corporations chose these specific NGOs for their partnership, their perspective of the CSR law, how success is measured in their partnership, etc.

Our team has reviewed the best interview protocols via Zoom or Skype platforms, as that is what we will be using. There was a large emphasis on making sure to establish a good rapport with the organizations prior to the interview, and being open to all answers rather than asking questions that manipulate their answers. Additionally, we learned about the advantages of having face to face interactions, rather than interviewing through phone call only. Face to face interactions generally leads to more fruitful, deeper conversation and generally allows for subjects to feel more comfortable and open. We will begin each interview by asking consent for recording the interview, whether in terms of recording the interview via Zoom, or through taking notes on the side. This consent will also be confirmed prior to the interview, just to ensure that all expectations are met. Something we will  need to determine and identify for participants is how much information they will share will be based on personal experience and how much their reflections will represent their organization. There can be a conflict of saying anything negative about their organization, and thus those responses, during second or third interactions, will require more careful planning and ethical overview from the IRB.

In our project, the inputs will involve planning for our interactions with partnerships, interviews and research gathering. We will also connect corporations to NGOs or evaluate these partnerships from the outside. We will also be synthesizing the existing literature surrounding the best CSR practices and recommending these practices parallel to what companies and NGOs are already involved with.

Our outputs will be: the corporations and NGOs we are able to reach with our findings beyond who we are involved with directly with this year’s in-fieldwork, as well as other institutions involved with promoting these initiatives and already evaluating the effects of the Companies Act (like Indian universities, etc. ). Another sector of who will be reached indirectly will be the consumers of these companies and NGOs, and the clients of who these organizations focus upon. If their organization is made more efficient, then the company and NGO can better serve its clients. Our findings will be published via website and academia, and thus success can be measured by how many people visit the website and utilize these findings.

Our outcome will be more difficult to measure, but generally will be how these better practices allow for better social development in India. In terms of learning, corporations and NGOs will have more efficient ways to interact in cooperation in corporation – civil society arena. If these efficient practices lead to better outcomes for NGOs to accomplish their goals (in terms of more fundings and capabilities to solve issues on the ground in India), then they will be motivated to engage with private sector organizations and learn business knowledge from them as well. On the flip side, if companies are able to market their CSR in terms of ‘helping society’ and make their company more desirable to consumers, then companies will be motivated to help social development in the future. On the bigger scale, the government will be passing more contingencies for future regulations under CSR for this law, and thus will have a greater role in making sure programs are more effective and ultimately do encourage a spirit of giving. These practices and research we analyze will be added to the existing literature and help government the pros and cons of certain CSR partnerships going forward.

Based on your life experience, skills and interests, what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like?

Addressing problems often have the same path, from large issues like climate change to personal life ones like figuring out where you lost the car keys again. They all require you to take a step back, look at the bigger picture and find the origin. I’ve always been interested in the idea of change over time, and the rise and fall of problems mark change in the world and in our lives.

A design process then for me would start by defining the problem, as clear and simple as it can get. Learn as much as you can about this problem, who is it affecting and what is the scope of the implications this problem brings. Most importantly, I think a big first step is identifying what are the consequences on acting on this problem versus the consequences of inaction. Will your design and research do more harm than good in adding to what is already existing? I’ve realized, through working on various projects for my temple’s organization for example, that adding more processes, projects and goals doesn’t always mean more progress is happening. It can easily start to add to the clutter, to the noise, until your original aim is lost. So keep it honest and simple as if your problem really needs addressing by you specifically.

Let’s say I want to solve this problem of losing my car keys all the time. If I don’t find a way to design a solution, I will constantly lose my car keys, costing me precious time in the morning. It makes my meetings late, my boss mad at me, and it slowly chips away at my sanity day by day.

After identifying this problem and collecting information, analyzing a path to the best approach for a solution will be tricky. I think a good design process takes into account the varying branches of approaching you can have to finding the best solution. Sometimes you will have to talk to local experts, go beyond your boundaries and comforts, and pick up on approaches and possible solutions you haven’t thought about before.

This could retrace you back to the collect information stage, which inevitably leads to analysis again. Taking time to filter out various models for solutions I believe is crucial, especially when taking an interdisciplinary and open approach.

I’ve researched a hundred articles, ranging from mindfulness to boosting memory retention to switching over to automatic car opener things with a touch of a button. While weighing the options– their costs, convenience, etc. — I also talk to friends of mine that experience the same tragedy of losing their car keys in the mornings. I’ve heard solutions, from having an ungodly strong magnet of a keychain to putting reminders around the house. One friend even claimed to reach the height of frustration and Marie Kondo’ed their entire house, only to find the keys in her back pocket. 

Once you land on a single approach, it’s time to test it in the field and get feedback. The most vital feedback I have found is not in data analysis, but rather getting on the ground and hearing the impact of a solution from the words of the people experiencing the change. A good design process has mechanisms in place for constant evolution, rather than a straight input-> output -> success theory. Improve at every stage and become more efficient, starting with this valuable feedback.  From there, you start right at the beginning for your next, new problem.

To clear up the dilemma of the lost car keys, I decide to go with the “Stay Organized” approach, by putting my car keys in a specific spot every time I come home– a side table next to the front door.  Feedback looks good – no one is complaining about me tearing the house apart now, looking for the keys. They might fall off the table sometimes, so maybe that’s my next challenge.

How will you validate your project concept, technology, usability, operational / business model?

Our findings will be disseminated to corporations and NGOs for use, promoted by Indian institutions and partnerships with Universities to help validate our research. In terms of creating a sustainable system though our project concept and operational model, we hope it can be replicated in the future for revising the practices we put out. The partnerships we initially create with businesses and organizations will grow, and with a longer period of engagement with them, the project solutions will also be developed and refined to fit the needs and expectations of both the law and organizations.

As third party, independent researches, we offer an unbiased consulting agency to these organizations. Therefore, with credible institutional backing, our findings should be appealing for business and organizations to look into, as they only seek to help make the processes they are conducting to become more efficient.

Articulate your philosophy of engagement with communities, partners, and markets.

Everything in this world is interconnected, the fate of all things and people dependent on each other. No matter how distant it may seem, I want to connect to communities and people vastly different from my own, to fulfill the need of learning the endless things I don’t know and never have experienced. This knowledge should be an investment, one where I can give something in return as well.

I choose to engage with communities, seek out partnerships and problems possibly out of this need of obligation to serve a purpose greater than the limits of my own environment and time. Like I mentioned before, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of change over time and how each human can play a role in that. I recently read this amazing article where activist Morgan Dixon stated:

“There’s no other way to prepare ourselves for what’s ahead — which is changing culture, changing structures, changing systems — unless we make a discipline of doing the things that scare us.”

Our engagement should scare us a little, because that means we are pushing for a real change.

1. Give three examples of how you can use nature as a model / mentor / measure for your own designs (and life).

In the way that nature approaches to addressing problems via system thinking, I can approach the task of how to address CSR in India by addressing every issue as a component of a larger system rather than an independent aspect with unrelated consequences. When working with a multitude of organizations and companies, it will be important to understand that every situation will be different, and that one set of rules or practices cannot apply to all completely. Secondly, nature creates in the most efficient way possible. In my approach to this project, and life in general, I can focus more on quality rather than quantity. Instead of trying to build up as many connections and completing as many tasks as possible, it would be most sustainable to work smarter and integrate where I can. Lastly, to make solutions sustainable and self-replicating, it helps to refer back to the origin of the problem. Just as Janine Benyus described how shells begin and end their calcium carbonate build up by releasing a protein, it can help to see the gaps of CSR between companies and NGOs and where it makes sense to locate a self-organizing solution.

2. Pick one of Life’s Principles. Explain how you might apply it to your work and life (could be unrelated to your GSIF projects).

As a Regional Core Team Lead in my temple’s Hindu organization, I lead a small team in designing and implementing various projects to be carried out across temples in the Northeast region throughout the year. As it is nearly impossible for a small team like us to get active feedback and know exactly how our material is used at every single temple across the region (with over 30 centers). Therefore, I would apply being locally tuned and responsive to the needs of these centers in order to create practical material that will make significant change. I can do this by taking a backwards approach — going to these centers and asking what issues are they facing in terms of delivering content, managing their center’s activities, etc. Then, with that continuous feedback, programs and projects can be designed that address those needs.

3. How do you envision integrating the Cradle to Cradle Design concept into your project (and life)? Give one compelling example.

Our end goal is to deliver a rubric and information of the best practices that companies can follow when performing their CSR. In making this product sustainable and part of a closed cycle, there will nonetheless be practices and patterns we observed in the process that were deemed inefficient for making the most out of CSR.

Instead of discarding these practices and the research along with it, we can disseminate these findings as well, in a sort of warning for “Things you should not do” and explain why these practices and behaviors led to unfavorable effects. This can be a continued cycle, where the CSR practices are constantly evaluated for what is efficient, practical and implementable for bringing about real change, and which practices should be discarded or revised. Therefore, this will lead to saving time and effort for research.

4. Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.

1. A friend this semester, who majors in Computer Science, showed me the details and coding for every website, and how you can pull up this information and edit it so the text on a website changes. This does not lead to permanent change on the website itself, but was nonetheless very cool to see the analytics behind it. I know nothing about computers.
2. My mom (who I consider my friend) taught me the basics of Indian cooking, from using certain spices to being careful with temperature and cooking time. It was very interesting to truly learn about where food and spices come from, something I never gave a second thought to. Now the infinite combinations of texture, flavor and spice fascinate me.
3. My friend from high school taught me much about Chinese culture, coming from a very traditional Chinese family herself. This was a unique perspective that I have not seen before, as anything I had learned about the culture had come from the outside – from the view of textbooks or media. From her, I gained perspective of how similar I found her balancing of traditional and modern norms to what I experienced at home, growing up with Indian culture. Chinese culture was not a completely alien concept to me, but her insight gave me a way to look at ways of living that were different from my own in an introspective way.

In our CSR in India project, we anticipate the cultural issues of hierarchy based on ideas of caste and social status to affect the outcomes of our project. As corporations seek to pinpoint which issues and NGOs to partner with in the field of civil society for their CSR efforts, we anticipate preconceptions of social status may be a factor that corporations depend on. It may be an underlying issue, one that is not explicitly stated, but nonetheless must be addressed.

In addition, we expect cultural norms related to who believes to be the responsible party for innovation in India to be another issue. In India, there is a complex system of interactions between the government, the public, civil society, and the private sector. Within this system, there does not seem to be clearly defined norms for who is held responsible for addressing developmental and social issues that civil society often ends up rallying. In a cultural sense, there is little accountability and trust in local villages and communities put upon larger entities like the national government or big corporations. Navigating this system while defining who is responsible for change will be a crucial task for our project.

Finally, as a society rich with traditional norms and practices, India has sprung as an evolving, modernizing country in the last half century. However, this process towards modernization, both through economic and social spheres, has been uneven across the country, largely due to the great diversity each region holds. One step forward in Maharashtra means a different step forward in Uttar Pradesh. Therefore, a cultural issue that will affect our project is understanding the hold on traditional ideas and perspectives that the organizations hold within our region, as well as how we can anticipate these ideas to change. Like citizens of many developing countries moving at a fast pace, Indians can view change as threatening to their livelihood and another form of white colonization even after independence.

My family, originally from India, moved here in the 1980s in search of the American Dream. Growing up in America, I had a very different perspective on how culture factors into progress and innovation than they do. I have observed these social situations at home, in varying forms. Ideas about caste and hierarchy are not something explicitly expressed by most Indian households, but they are the undercurrent for all social activities. For example, my parents are taking on the more traditional route right now as they search for a suitor for my older sister. Criteria include being of the same caste and religious background.  Even while looking for someone in America, they hold onto these beliefs and hope it continues for generations. Another example I have seen this situation at home is my family’s views on politics. While they see the importance of the government’s role in facilitating change, they often view it as ineffective for listening to every local situation. And there is almost no expectation for corporations to hold any of that responsibility to give back to the community. Lastly, living in America as a first-generation student has taught me the precarious balance between accepting Western values and norms while also holding onto my cultural background. Expectedly, I hold more liberal and open views than my parents on topics of family dynamics, gender roles, and even career choices. Becoming flexible with the current times has not been easy for my immigrant parents, but they have adjusted well and have also learned how to walk that fine line.

Cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community/market problems include taking advantage of the community mindset, as well as the importance of selfless service and nationalism. Like many Asian cultures, Indian culture is very community based, where trust is strengthened by those who are close to you in proximity and in relation. This should be the basis of all CSR activity — an emphasis on defining that community in a broader spectrum. Why can’t those who are outside your normal social sphere also be part of one’s community if they share the same beliefs and goals as you do? In the age of technology, harnessing this community mindset to expand it further can be an advantage in connecting, and therefore helping, those in need to those who want to give. Additionally, the importance of selfless service (seva) is an important cultural practice widespread throughout the country, highlighted especially in Hinduism practices. Individuals feel the obligation, if they are successful, to give back to their community based on principles of ethics. CSR can be a way to channel this obligation into more meaningful practices. Individuals and corporations should not have to blindly donate to any cause, but should give to the most meaningful issue area that needs the aid the most. Lastly, nationalism can be defined as a cultural practice, although it has strong political implications. Whether it be pride in your community, village, town or country, nationalism is strong associated with community-oriented practices in India. Channeling the pride one feels for your neighborhood is correlated to making every effort possible to improve and uplift those around you as well. CSR therefore should and must be a source of national pride as it creates positive effects.

As an International Relations student for the past two and a half years, I have learned much about the common issues that citizens of the world face – poverty, conflict, discrimination, inequality, environmental degradation. However, it soon became apparent that the solutions to these issues would not come simply. When looking at certain core issues, such as poverty, there are many factors that come into play for explaining the cause. As such, it is always a case by case situation in every country. Is the government doing a poor job distributing resources or expanding opportunities for all citizens? Are there not enough resources to begin with? What institutional structures are in place to ensure people do not go into poverty again? Furthermore, I found it even more compelling how issues are almost always connected to each other.

Weak governance with a poorly functioning rule of law would provide little to no incentives for individuals to pursue entrepreneurial investment if they cannot be assured there are property or intellectual rights in place to protect their efforts. A lack of innovation in a society furthermore fails to push everyone towards a better standard of living, leading to often crime and illegal activities if people are desperate enough for their own survival. Now, there are not only economic implications, but also security and social concerns for the population. There can be countless ways this parallel can be drawn, but the conclusion through international development is the same: no issue stands on its own. Each creates ripple effects upon each other, and the best way to even begin to address these issues is in a multidisciplinary perspective. Across organizations, private and public, with individuals holding a range of skills and experiences in disciplines ranging from engineering to politics, it is essential to work together in order for comprehensive solutions to become successful.

I quickly realized that the best way for me to gain real-world experience in what it truly means to work in an impact on issue-driven, complex project scope is to jump right into one. I envision that this course will make me a better International Relations and Economics student by allowing me to work on the ground and see these issues first-hand. By speaking with companies and NGOs in India I hope to have a better understanding of the effect of such partnerships, and the way their relationship brought on by this newly passed Law can have future implications for governments of the whole world to follow by.

To address the problem of over one billion people not having access to eyeglasses, I would aim to follow a similar model that has worked for rural developing communities that allow workers to save their income in a way that is safe, as banking and financial institutions in the area were either too costly or unsafe to use. The way it worked was that it allowed rural workers to save their money on a virtual account by buying an inexpensive electronic card at a local store that allowed them to access an app to transfer their income into regularly. Over time, it allowed them to save their money safely with low costs to both the consumer and producer of the app.

Similarly, it would be beneficial for aid-centered organizations, whether they are NGOs or philanthropy-based channels, to direct and fund this initiative in an efficient way. They can partner with a manufacturing company based where the material to produce eyeglasses would be cheap and preferably close to the market of need. Optimally, the sources of eyeglasses could be made locally through reusing old material, in a way that is sustainable and cheap. Furthermore, local production can even employ surrounding populations. Then, with low manufacturing costs, the company and aid organization can work to move the glasses through these communities, either with cooperation of the health/hospital system provided through the government, or the individual health organizations and hospitals in the country. To get individuals tested for eye glasses, the company can develop an app or website that allows for testing eye sight. As almost everyone has a mobile phone or device these days, or can get access to one through a health system briefly, they can get tested without the need of a skilled or trained health professional. The cost here would be incurred for the development of the app, which would presumably be covered by the aid grants.

The app or website would then give individuals their prescription of eyeglasses, which can then be distributed for low cost through the health system or in local stores/pharmacies.