A few of us at GDL were asked to speak on development at the grassroots level at BITS Pilani on Sunday February 7th. The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership hosted an Entrepreneurship week and our panel discussion was one of the events. Fortunately we were also able to bring BEI’s Community Leadership team, a nine member team comprised of young leaders from Bagar and the surrounding villages, who had the chance to share their ideas on how to build trust with communities for the purpose of development. Above are a few pictures from the event. The people in the panel are Sahil Chaudry, Vivake Prasad, and Kaushal Rajoriya of the  Bagar Employment Institute, and Karthik Raman of  Source for Change. The guys in the uniforms are the BEI Community Leadership Team. It was a really great experience for the students who wanted to learn more about social enterprise and for the panelists who were able to reaffirm their commitment to development using business methodologies.

“We were extremely excited to execute on a project that required detailed web research. As always, we applied our rigorous quality checking procedures and delivered a high quality product to the client.” says Shrot Katewa, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Source for Change.

SFC saved UrboCorp hundreds of hours allowing the company to focus on its core competencies. According to Mr. Tom McCasland, the owner of UrboCorp, his company benefited financially due to the reduced cost of the project. A similar project completed in a major Indian metro costs 30-40% more. Mr. McCasland was pleasantly surprised by both the quality and the cost of the project completed by Source for Change. The project began on October 6, 2009 and the final product was delivered ahead of schedule on November 26, 2009.

“The quality of the final product, the professionalism of the staff, and the rapid completion of the project all exceeded my most optimistic expectations,” says Mr. McCasland. “Because UrboCorp is a startup company with limited staff, Source for Change provided the perfect partner for completing a large web-based data entry project that was crucial to the growth of my company. Working with Source for Change and the women that it employs in rural India has reinforced my deeply held belief that doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive concepts for businesses with vision, creativity and a social conscious.”

Source for Change is a solutions provider for business process services with a strong emphasis on quality which is creating tremendous efficiency gains for businesses. Now in its second year of operation, SFC offers its clients high quality outsourcing solutions with a competitive cost advantage by unifying three processes: people, quality, and innovation. SFC has completed 17 projects for 9 clients. Most clients have been from India, but UrboCorp is the fourth foreign client. Previously, The University of Maryland (USA), University of California, Los Angeles (USA), and Reel Colour Studios (UK) have all benefited from Source for Change’s industry leading quality assurance practices.

Source for Change, incubated by the Ajay G. Piramal Foundation, has its center in Bagar, Rajasthan. SFC works alongside the women of rural India in delivering the highest level of quality to our global clients while creating opportunities for educated women to learn new skills and develop their professional abilities. Providing employment opportunities for women is a way of tapping dormant talent, as there is much potential but few opportunities for professional women in rural areas. From thorough IT training to efficient project delivery, our business model operates on competitive cost and high quality while creating social impact.

]]> http://gdl.org.in/2009/12/31/source-for-change-completes-web-research-data-entry-work-for-us-based-real-estate-firm/feed/ 0 http://gdl.org.in/2009/01/12/the-bagar-paradox/ http://gdl.org.in/2009/01/12/the-bagar-paradox/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:26:18 +0000 Arbind Singh http://www.piramal.org.in/gdl/2009/01/12/the-bagar-paradox/ BEI was established with a single point focus of providing quality training to rural youth to bridge the gap between the urban and non urban students. The training would empower them to snatch a job in fighting situations. In the last year or so we have opportunities of delight when a student or two of our institute managed to grab a job at uban elite centres like LIFESTYLE  and others. But this year the delight and difficulty is different. Not one but two of our students were offered a job at this place but they refused citing the salary was too little . This offer was finally taken by  a student who was not earlier selected and is working there right now. The challenge that now appears is what is the scale that as an institute we should be looking for our students. Bagar being , socially and educationally rich compared to other rural area presents a paradox. The not rich are influenced by the rich and the migrant population in the middle east so a job offer of 5000 or so seems petite. On the other hand there are people who are ready to work even for 2000 thousand or less. The challenge here is to how to develope a strategy that caters to all. Otherwise in future the refusal of students will dent our relationship that we have built with potential employers

In collaboration with ASER (Annual State of Education Report) – 2008, facilitated by Pratham Rajasthan (Jaipur). The survey for level of elementary education was completed by the BEI team. This effort was co-ordinated by  Kaushal Rajoriya and State Head of ASER organization, Mr. Ajay Sharma. The survey was completed in thirty villages of the Jhunjhnu District, each consisting of twenty households. The objective of the survey is to assess the education level of 3 to 18 year olds, the condition of Angan bari centers, and village livelihoods. After completing the survey, ASER distributed certificates to the BEI team.

Currently, four batches of classes for computer job training are running. One of the new batches started this week and after a long time we started a combined batch (male/female). One of the new things we have done with this batch is created a Core Batch, combining computer with English skills Training. Robert from France is a new intern at GDL. He is taking over the English training class. All the students are very happy with him. Very soon the students will be familiar with him.

Additionally, we have started a regular Tally training class. Deepak from Jhunjhunu is the new Tally trainer. He is good in Tally with practical knowledge and the students are getting a good response. Initially this training is for in-house GDL staff, interns and Bagar community volunteers. After this, we will be scaling that class.

The Newspaper:

The article:

Many more updates to come soon.

The article was in All-India edition.

Congratulations to Shrot, Gagan, Alim and all the SFC interns on achieving this. This comes on the back of two other major milestones this week: SFC inaugurated it’s new office and computer lab on Monday, and has now expanded to 20 women!

Two of the four students, Balveer Bundela and Praveen Bundela of Bagar, were chosen for the CSR (Customer Service Representative) position. They have both accepted the job and have begun work today, June 23rd. Should they prove themselves committed, skillful and capable, they are likely to get promoted within the next six months to a year.

Up until the last interview the candidates’ communication skills were observed, their interest and commitment level tested, and a basic knowledge of retail and selling skills were sought. They were also tested on the content of their resumes. In addition, Balveer had noted that he had won a dance competition and was even asked to demonstrate his dancing skills at the last interview!
For those who didn’t get the job, their optimism is remarkable. This experience has served a motivating force for them to improve their English speaking skills and confidence. They admitted how much they learned from the week-long interview process and even shared their learnings with the two English batches that are now in session. In doing so, one of the students is so determined that he said that he knows he will get a job when he interviews again some time in the future. They know, recognize and are making a commitment to work hard. These students should be proud of themselves for extracting lessons from this experience.

Congratulations to Balveer and Praveen (below) and best of luck to the others! BEI is behind you 100%!