Perspectives on Various Issues of Interest

Innovation and supply chain management for uplifting underprivileged communities

Last month (July 2022) I spent time in an Indian village working with an organization that connects rural communities to solar, water, education, professions and advocacy to help communities and individuals take control of their lives and the well being of their communities. As part of its mission, Barefoot College International (BCI) aspires to increase economic mobility by making vocational and educational opportunities accessible to women and girls from the most marginalized communities around the world. The organization seeks to ensure that every woman and girl has the skills and knowledge she needs to be a catalyst for change to the benefit of herself, her family and her entire community. The organization is involved in four programs - Solar, Enriche, Water, Livelihoods.

The Solar program seeks to ensure that every woman and girl has the skills and knowledge she needs to be a catalyst for change to the benefit of herself, her family and her entire community. BCI achieves this by making vocational and educational opportunities accessible to women and girls from the most marginalized communities around the world. By training women to become Solar Engineers, even if they are illiterate or have no formal education, rural resilience is forged by each village at a time.

The Enriche program supports women’s aspiration to transform themselves and their communities. It provides them with the opportunity to embark on an empowerment journey; a journey to gain the confidence, skills and knowledge they need to reach their full potential as agents of sustainable change and to support their entrepreneurial aspirations.

As part of the Water program, the organization aims to harness every drop of fresh water that falls from the sky rather than relying on hand pumps, wells, and unpredictable groundwater levels. By combining traditional harvesting practices with new technologies, BCI make water accessible, clean and safe to drink for millions of people in need.

The Livelihoods program plans to address the challenges of climate change by envisioning soil-based livelihoods that generate resilience and dignified wages for small landholding farmers using Regenerative Agriculture, Permaculture Principles and Agroecology built systems to sustain life and care for land.

I primarily worked with the team that manages the supply chain for the Solar program. 

Notwithstanding the lack of formal education (in the case of many team members), I observed a strong desire to learn and improve operations and supply chain. I shared some thoughts on improving supply management, inventory management, and quality management practices with the team and also learnt from them.

My work with the organization gave me an opportunity to understand how best practices that are widely used in developed (and for-profit) contexts need to be tailored in light of the underlying contingencies.

I also learnt about the innovative ways in which educational programs are being developed for women.

Overall, an enlightening experience and I hope to continue my efforts to contribute to strengthening grassroots innovation, operations and supply chain management practices that are aimed at uplifting underprivileged communities.

An enlightening and inspiring experience visiting the underprivileged communities in Panama

It was an enlightening and inspiring experience visiting and witnessing success stories of student-led consulting projects in underprivileged communities (villages) in Panama. These projects are facilitated by Global Brigades, an international non-profit that uniquely implements a holistic model to meet a community’s health and economic goals. The projects include establishment of internationally recognized community-owned banks in some of the country’s most under resourced, rural communities, micro-financing ventures created and run by indigenous tribes, helping these ventures succeed by offering hands-on business solutions, and providing healthcare to underprivileged communities.

 

Humanitarian operations and supply chain management - My visit to Hathi Basti and Kishangarh Village

A project focusing on supply chain management for food distribution to underprivileged communities in India took me to Hathi-Basti, a settlement of families of elephant keepers (mahouts) and garden laborers on the banks of the Yamuna River overlooked by the surrounding city of New Delhi. I also visited Kishangarh village near Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. The visits gave me an opportunity to observe the collaboration between the Indian FoodBanking Network and Samarpan Foundation, a charitable not-for-profit entity that works to provide global support and assistance to humanitarian, ecological, environmental and animal welfare needs. The visits offered insights that go beyond food distribution to areas such as child and adult education as well as women empowerment. Given the right opportunities, the underprivileged community can do some amazing stuff. There are several avenues for sharing management practices to strengthen humanitarian operations. Here are some photos from the visits:

 

 

 

 

Grass root innovation and supply chain management

Enjoyed observing and learning about grass root innovation and supply chain management during my recent visit to the Barefoot College...had a good time staying in village Tilonia in Rajasthan.

Memories of Key West

The great peninsula of Florida extends over 400 miles south from the eastern seacoast of North America. Below its southern tip, a curved archipelago, consisting of thousands of small islands and coral reefs, stretches another two hundred miles south and west. It helps to form a great natural barrier between the South Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. We visited Key West in June 2005. 

They call these islands the Florida Keys. Most of them rise only a few feet above the shallow seabed and are covered with mangrove swamps, shallow beaches strewn with shells and occasionally a few palm trees. A few islands are large enough to support thriving villages. 

Key West is the far frontier, edgier and more eccentric than the other keys, and also far more captivating. At its heart, this 7-sq-mile island feels like a beautiful tropical oasis, where the moon flowers bloom at night and the classical Caribbean homes are so sad and romantic it’s hard not to sigh at them.

The view of sunset left deep impression of divine artistry at its best. As the Sun approaches the horizon and leaves its last unobstructed reflection on ocean's belly, nature extends its warm invitation for the artwork display that is about to begin.

The sky transitions into being lit afire and the clouds present the imagery of fumes from the fire erupting in the horizon. 

The Sun peeps through the clouds, as if to epitomize the spark of the fire afar. The grandeur of the scene brings a simultaneous release of mixed emotions of peace and excitement. A realization of our humble existence in nature's lap.   

As day unites with night one witnesses orchestrated painting, rhythmic concert, and an eruption of spontaneous dance - all coordinated at the same time by some divine intervention. This symphony of artistic medley rouses the senses deep within. The magnificence of this nature's stage is breathtaking. 

It makes one realize the true beauty of union. The union of the two forces of day and night imprint their distinct signature, yet maintain their core essence. The blend brings out an image that is nothing less than spectacular. What a display by nature in preparation of its nightly slumber!

  

One is reminded of the elegant elucidation of the satisfying and mystifying beauty of a sunset that George MacDonald wrote in his book The Portent:

"There I would often lie, as the sun went down, and watch the silent growth of another sea, which the stormy ocean of the wind could not disturb - the sea of the darkness. First it would begin to gather in the bottom of hollow places. Deep valleys, and all little pits on the hillsides, were wellsprings where it gathered, and whence it seemed to overflow, till it had buried the earth beneath its mass, and, rising high into the heavens, swept over the faces of the stars, washed the blinding day from them, and let them shine, down through the waters of the dark, to the eyes of men below."

People gather on the pier to enjoy the sight of the sunset and have few drinks:

The Key West lighthouse:

 

We visited Ernest Hemingway's house. This is the room in which he penned some of his great novels:

 

Almost 70 miles (113 km) west of Key West lies the remote Dry Tortugas National Park. The 100-square mile park is mostly open water with seven small islands.  Accessible only by boat or seaplane, the park is known the world over as the home of magnificent Fort Jefferson, picturesque blue waters, superlative coral reefs and marine life,  and the vast assortment of bird life that frequent the area.

The 3rd largest living coral reef in the world is located just off the Florida Keys. I spent some time snorkeling in the gorgeous pristine waters.

Memories of Grand Canyon

Unique combinations of geologic color and erosional forms decorate a canyon that is 277 river miles (446km) long, up to 18 miles (29km) wide, and a mile (1.6km) deep. Grand Canyon overwhelms our senses through its immense size. These pictures are from our visit to Grand in 2003.

The poem "Silence of the Canyon" by William Wendell Riley aptly captures my memories:

Grand Canyon had no speech to make.
She never said a word.
While I viewed her matchless glory,
I was startled by a bird.

It came flying, tumbling through the air,
And stopped beside me there,
And sung the sweetest little song.
How I wanted you to hear.

A little chipmunk then rushed out
And stood on his hind legs
And chattered me a welcome
To this land of towering crags.

Then, another little songster,
From the tip top of a pine,
Sang as sweet as ever echoed
In the valley of the Rhine!

But the Gorge was mute, but glorious,
Magnificent, sublime!
Her secrets still remain her own
And will throughout all time!

 

In "The Lost Continent" Bill Bryson writes, "… Nothing prepares you for the Grand Canyon. No matter how many times you read about it or see it pictured, it still takes your breath away. Your mind, unable to deal with anything on this scale, just shuts down and for many long moments you are a human vacuum, without speech or breath, but just a deep, inexpressible awe that anything on this earth could be so vast, so beautiful, so silent. Even children are stilled by it. I was a particularly talkative and obnoxious child, but it stopped me cold. I can remember rounding a corner and standing there agog while a mouthful of half-formed jabber just rolled backwards down my throat, forever unuttered. I was seven years old and I'm told it was only the second occasion in all that time that I had stopped talking, apart from short breaks for sleeping and television. …
… The scale of the Grand Canyon is almost beyond comprehension. It is ten miles across, a mile deep, 180 miles long. You could set the Empire State Building down in it and still be thousands of feet above it. Indeed you could set the whole of Manhattan down inside it and you would still be so high above it that buses would be like ants and people would be invisible, and not a sound would reach your. The thing that gets you - that gets everyone - is the silence. The Grand Canyon just swallows sound. The sense of space and emptiness is overwhelming. Nothing happens out there. Down below you on the canyon floor, far, far away, is the thing that carved it: the Colorado River. It is 300 feet wide, but from the canyon's lip it looks thin and insignificant. It looks like an old shoelace. Everything is dwarfed by this mighty hole."

 

Memories of New York Central Park and Ice Skating Arena

These are some of the pictures from the visit to New York Central Park and Ice Skating Arena in 2002. 

The park with an area of 843 acres (341 ha) between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side, roughly bounded by Fifth Avenue on the east, Central Park West (Eighth Avenue) on the west, Central Park South (59th Street) on the south, and Central Park North (110th Street) on the north is iconic. It was established in 1857 on 778 acres (315 ha) of land acquired by the city. As Columbia University professor Elizabeth Blackmar notes in her book The Park and the People: A History of Central Park, it’s made cameos in high and low culture alike, from the writings of Walt Whitman and J. D. Salinger to pop culture standbys like “Wall Street” and “When Harry Met Sally.”

Memories of New Orleans

Here are some pictures from the New Orleans trip in 2003.