DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE, A PERSPECTIVE

Observations and findings of the interview conducted with the leaders in Anand:

1. INTERVIEW : Ram Manohar Vikas

The interview is fraught with comparisons between organizations that the interviewee has
worked for during his tenure as an employee in these organizations. The first organization
where he rendered his services was L&T. It possessed a matrix structure; it didn’t have a
predilection for standard processes. There was a truancy of standard driven processes. It
possessed geography based offices, and within offices had vertical offices. The second
company that he worked for was Mott McDonald, which is a UK based company. They
possessed local independent offices, but the employees could have been of any country. And
thirdly, the organization was IRMA. This organization possesses a flat structure. There exist
just three levels, as in, an assistant professor, an associate professor and a professor. There
are a plethora of revenue generation activities like student fee, MDP, grants, etc.

This paragraph insinuates information about the third organization, which was IRMA. The
institution earns through student fee, government grants, government organisations that
proffer money through chairs (RBI chair, NABARD chair), consultancy projects, and
research sponsorships. The cost side includes salaries of the employees, infrastructure
maintenance, incentives to the faculty, and incentives to the staff, certification, and
overheads. When it comes to the formation of policies, there are committees, like a standing
committee. There is a term of reference for the committee that has to be looked into, a report
has to submitted accordingly, and then the committee is resolved. There are administrative
bodies like PRM committee, which looks into issues pertaining to academics, disciplinary
committee that looks into discipline issues, etc. The director possesses the power to take
decisions. The assortment of governors has the director as their agent to bring changes. The
director doesn’t have an absolute authority, but is the person where the convergence of
various policies takes place.

2. INTERVIEW : Anand Patel, Chairman, Gujurat Environmental service society

Anand Patel serves as the current chairman of the Gujurat Environmental Service Society, a
labour cooperative formed with the vision alleviating the financial status of the unorganized
labour force in Anand, later it got expanded to many other cities in Gujurat During the
interview we tried to understand how GESS is benefitting the unskilled labourers and about
his perspective towards development sector.

According to him development is strengthening the society, bridging the gap between the
poor and the privileged. Providing the opportunities is the core of any development activity
and he believes GESS is also doing the same. It is providing opportunities to the unskilled
labourers and helping them leverage their collective power to bargain with the organizations
for a better remuneration. He thinks the way GESS is managing its workers is unparalleled
and there has been no major internal conflict among the workers. Workers are being treated
 very well with timely payments, compensations and additional perks like medical insurance,
provident fund and higher compensation to the older and permanent employees.

He advocates a fixed vision for any development organization. The vision should drive the
path of the activities conducted by the organization and they should help the organization
prioritize the things. He feels that the vision should be coupled with strong leadership within
the organization and there should be an organic working structure for the employees.

3. INTERVIEW : Professor Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan

Q1. Since when have you been associated with the development sector?

-Since the year 2004.

Q2. Which all sectors have you worked in?

-          IT, academics, energy, human development, water, sustainability, social reform, electoral
reform, disarmament.

Q3. Which organisation has been/is you’re favourite to work with? Why?

-IRMA has been the favourite because it has all the advantages of B-school without having
the disadvantages. People do not have horns here and are very down to earth.

Q4. What have been the most challenging situations in your career?

-          I faced difficulty when I wanted to move from IT to development sector. I had to do a lot
of courses for it. In the development sector, getting your suggestions accepted by
organisations is a very difficult task and many of our work is not accepted even after pushing
for it.

Q5. What qualities, do you think, a development leader should have?

-          A development leader should be sensitive to other people’s needs and aspirations and not
push only his/her own agenda. He/she should also believe in liberty, equity and fraternity.

Q6. What, according to you, is the most pressing development issue to be tackled in India?
Why?

-          Overpopulation is the most pressing issue as it leads to increased scarcity of resources. I

believe if India maintained its population close to that during independence, the country
would have progressed much higher. Caste discrimination is also a very pressing issue.

4. INTERVIEW : Sumona Shetty Program manager Teach for India

Q.1 Since how many years have you been associated with the development sector?
- Since 2016
Q2. In which sector have you worked?

- Education

Q.3 which organisation has been/is your favourite to work with? Why?

- Teach for India because its programmes are very well formulated and structured.

Q.4 Most challenging situations in your career?

- In teach for India when I used to teach then many times Children were not doing well,
while we used to put a lot of effort but after seeing performance of children it used to be a
very challenging for me to handle.

Q.5 what are those qualities, you think, a development leader should have?

- A development leader must have Passion for development, and he/ she can work with less
resource.

Q.6 what, according to you, is the most pressing development issue to be tackled in India?
Why?

- I consider health is one the most pressing development issue to be tackled, as it is the basic
need but there is no proper health centre in rural India where 70% of the Indian population
reside. Many lives are lost on daily basis due to lack of proper health care services.

5. INTERVIEW : Uday Shankar Saha

“Focusing on Irrigation is important as Agriculture is mostly Rain-Fed”

ABOUT UDAY SHANKAR SAHA

He had done his under graduation in Agriculture background and later went to Indian
Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) the country's premier national Institute for agricultural
research, education, and extension and did his MSc. and Ph.D. there. He then was recruited
for NABARD and joined there as a Development Officer where he worked in the Policy
department.

He recalls that his journey was challenging and enriching at the same time. His first project
was there on irrigation where he started new policies for Agri innovation. Thereafter he
moved to the credit and operation department where he focused on risky finance by
NABARD for short term loans to RRB and problem in that. Then he joined the corporate
planning department where he developed a five year corporate plan for NABARD. Then he
shifted to the Development Policy department where he worked on Tribal Development
Program. He also shifted to Lucknow Regional office and there he worked on Watershed
Development Program. Then after that, he worked with various institutes, RBI and many
other partnering agencies.
VIEW ON HOW INDIA CAN PROMOTE EQUAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL

He majorly focused on Irrigation as the whole system as there is an excess shortage of

irrigation facilities. Whatever facilities are available he said that too are inefficient. If
irrigation facilities are up to the mark then we can focus on increasing productivity. This will
help us to improve on food security; hence in this way, if we can promote food security then
we can satisfy the basic need of people and hence we can then work on promoting Equal
development for all.

VIEW ON THRUST AREA WE CAN WORK UPON

There are two major which we can work upon that is Propagation of watershed management
and having an integrated approach toward which includes market linkages and providing
proper backward linkage also. He said that Agriculture in India is mostly Rain-fed and
farmers do not know what to do when water is in excess or there is water scarcity. So if we
can help the farmer to develop the watershed for the villager then they can help the farmer to
do the cropping in lean season also. He also focused upon having an integrated approach
toward agriculture where the Government and other agencies should focus on providing
technical knowhow of agriculture and finding a market and developing market linkage for the
same.

VIEW ON NEED OF DEVELOPING SYNERGY BETWEEN SECTORS

He said that the synergy is required between various sectors but we have to look that Social
Sector is not getting funds and hence most of the projects are halted. The projects whichever
are completed also have not developed proper monitoring and assessment tools which can
justify the impact of the project. Hence when the Social sector is not getting funds, then no
one wants to collaborate with the social sector and hence this synergy is not possible. Hence
we should first work on providing more funds to the social sector rather than just developing
synergy only.

VIEW ON AGRICULTURE IN INDIA

He believes that the agriculture sector is growing but it is highly dependent on rain-fed
methods of agriculture. We don’t have proper mechanisms in place to promote irrigations and
that is why we have one of the lowest productivity per hectares. Though this can be attributed
to the unscientific way of doing agriculture we have to admit that we have not able to
increase our productivity after the Green revolution.

To improve upon this he suggests that we should look upon cropping intensity also as
cropping intensity is most of the time looked away. We have to see also that the Government
should also focus upon the allied Agri Sector including dairy. This will improve livelihood
and will help to enhance the income of farmers. He further adds that an income of 15-20 k
per farmer would be sustainable for agriculture in the long run.

6. INTERVIEW :C. Shambu Prasad

C. Shambu Prasad, is Professor, General Management-Strategy and Policy, at the Institute
of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). At IRMA he chairs and coordinates the Incubator for
Social Enterprises and Entrepreneurs for Development (ISEED). His expertise and research
straddle several interdisciplinary fields such as social entrepreneurship, science and
technology studies, rural livelihoods, ecosystem management, innovation management, and
managing producer collectives. He is a recipient of the Villgro–CSIE–IITM award in 2013
for academic contribution to social entrepreneurship. He was Fulbright Senior Research
Fellow at Cornell University (2013–14). He also serves on the Board of a few non-profit
organizations and is an advisor and mentor to few social enterprises.

Question: What is this ISEED all about? What type of organization is this?

Prof. Shambu: I would not say this as an organization since it has no legal form. ISEED is
under IRMA and functions under its full supervision. Founded in 2016, IRMA's incubator
ISEED (Incubator for Social Enterprises and Entrepreneurs for Development) is an incubator
focused on rural, social and collective enterprises. ISEED works with social enterprise
partners and ecosystem partners across India to provide a nurturing and empathetic
entrepreneurial ecosystem through mentoring and networking support, collaborative research,
entrepreneurship training and capacity building. We work with early-stage enterprises in
underserved regions and ecosystems and seek to add value throughout their journey.

Question: What is the role of the leader in the ISEED?

Prof. Shambu: ISEED works in project mode and the role of leader is to shape the project.
The ultimate goal is to build social entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. As far as social
enterprise and rural enterprise is concerned this ecosystem hardly exists. We organize
workshops to train people. Recently we finished three-day workshop on “Bringing and
managing Social Enterprise”.

We realized that the medium of learning needs to be vernacular and also focus should be on
the ways in which we provide the content that should be easy. So, we are developing the
project of Vernacular Training. We are about to develop a curriculum which is completely
based in Hindi. It is not just based on the language but the way you do these things.

Question: How do you manage the organization’s goal and its implementation?

Prof. Shambu: There are many incubations in the country but a very few have focus on
social enterprise. We have chosen a specific focus on rural and social enterprise. Recently,
we have also started focusing on collective enterprises. The logo was initially designed
through competition and with time it changed. Now the name of ISEED tells everything, i.e.,
Incubator for Social Enterprises and Entrepreneurs for Development. There is a difference
between both these things. Here the development part is linked there.

Question: Who is the incubator for? How are you different?

Prof. Shambu: We are not looking at enterprises which use rural areas to strengthen their
balance sheet but organizations which are making changes in lives through livelihood
generation and more. So, the very idea is to support those social enterprises that are in that
space and they need networking support. We also work with NGOs which are in this
entrepreneurial space. We do not call them “Incubatee” but we call them partners, so it is an
association of partners. We have social enterprise partners and ecosystem partners.
Ecosystem partners are other organizations working in this space. We do not have money to
fund. Unlike other incubators we cannot take equity in the organization. If you take equity
you will have to work for profit making organizations. In this way we can work with non-
profit making organizations.

Question: What do you think is the most important trait for an individual leading this
type of organization?

Prof. Shambu: I think experimentation is the most important thing. You need to experiment
frequently. Matchmaking is required between the organization and the human resource
required. There should be capacity to design the project according to the people involved and
the circumstances. The person should be more oriented towards the ground-work or field-
work. The individual concerned with such organizations should think him as a mere
facilitator and in some sense as curator. He should be able to manage the ecosystem. Rural
philosophy should be engrained in what you articulate and how you perform.

Question: What are the challenges which you might have faced? What are your major
learnings?

Prof. Shambu: One of the major challenges is the decreasing trend of trained manpower
moving towards Development field. Even if you look at IRMA, the number of students has
considerably decreased who are going to join a development or social enterprise. So, the rural
connect is missing.

There have been many learning. There is a concept called “learning organization”. We
continuously learn. “How should we work to satisfy our philosophy?” is the major challenge
and learning as well. Many organizations deviate from their mission. The main focus is to
work so as to minimize the mission drift.

7. INTERVIEW: Md. Sahidul Islam

Q. With what kinds of organisation have you worked?

Response: I have worked with organizations like WBSRLM and NRLM. The activities of
such organizations are carried out through civil societies, SHGs and federations. The
operations are related to livelihood generation, livelihood diversification activities, and
financial linkage of the poor communities. The major livelihood activities that I have worked
are fisheries, agriculture, small and medium sized business like Pickle making.

My role was to enable the communities to avail the benefits of government schemes that have
been specially designed for them.
Q. On which Post did you work?

Response: I was the in charge of a block and my designation was that of a BPM i.e Block
Project Manager. Being a block representative, I had to ensure that all the benefits reach the
community in an integrated manner.

Q. What are the main areas that you have worked upon?

Response: I have worked in the areas of finance, household level entrepreneurship like
women making Pickles and fisheries. Basically me and my team used to work as middlemen
and worked to strengthen the backward linkage and the forward linkage. Also we worked to
provide market linkage and develop a platform where the communities, SHGs and other
federation can interact and make sales.

Q. Throw some light on you working environment and responsibilities?

Response: At the block level, I and my team have worked with the seventh civil Panchayat.
Every Panchayat has one federation (4000 members) and every federation has one GB, I have
worked with office bearers and clusters and basically 28000 beneficiaries on a whole.

Q. According to you, what are the most important qualities that a development professional
has in him?

Response: According to me, a development person should always be ready to work in the
field. The main requirements are Acceptability, Adaptability and a person who is open
minded. A development professional has to look beyond the discrimination and difference of
color, caste, creed and gender. Also a person should have good communication skills and
should be able to build up rapport with the community fast. He or She should have Empathy
for the community on the peak and be proficient in the skills that are required to justify the
responsibility. One also has to ensure that confidentiality about the work is maintained.

Q. Having worked with three different organizations with different visions and missions how
did you ensure that the goals of each can be fulfilled completely?

Response: All the three development organizations work with the poor community and down-
trodden class of the society. So I also developed my qualities and my values to devote my life
and utilize my skills for the benefit of the poor and the needy.

The biggest constraint is the financial one for the poor people. We had to ensure financial
linkage. Based on the indicators there are 8 of them we segment the people and based on
these segmentations we formulate certain strategies for different classes of people, conduct
Monthly meetings etc.

Q. How did you get interested in the development sector and why social work?

Response: I have done my graduation in social work a degree of masters in social work Have
empathy for marginalized sector, poor and slums. If I am from a tribal community, I have felt
the same. If I want to develop our own community then let the leader emerge from the same
community. So that proper articulation can be made in front of the higher authorities and
government officials. It depends upon the observation that you make in from you and you
notice the inequality and discrimination in the society and then you form an objective to work
for the same to build up nation.

Q. Any role model or guidance to select development sector? What was your driving force?

Response:
 AmbedkarJi
 Swami Vivekananda
 Mother Teresa

Q. What is your perspective of people working in development sector and what is the role of
NGOs?

Response: Market failure, Govt failure are the reason why NGOs emerged. NGOs are a
bridge between poor and decision makers. Principally these organizations are ideal and
working nicely but they also have deviated now, looking for profitability, professional
approach and lack empathy e.g ambuja foundation, and reliance foundation working at grass
roots but with a profit motive. Govt skill development and subsidies, lack of knowledge
regarding the usage of loan amount have trapped them in a double vicious cycle of poverty
more funding with NGOs due to CSR norms.

Q. What is the level of utilization in previous 20 years? Does it have proper infrastructure and
how efficiently do they use the funds?

Response: 18 million NGOs in India but with the trend of having personal ngos as
foundations, the vision and mission has been diluted

The professionals are required for good standard of work and efficiency demand higher
salaries. Such huge funds are not available so NGOs lack professional support. Also
development enthusiasts have started switching to CSR to earn more; hence there is lack of
efficiency.

Q. Your job experience in brief

Response: Make federation to mobilize women: 200/250 SHGs

Based on the areas and community location, acquiring two or three people from there,
training them and using them to formulate an SHG in your area

Bank linkage of SHG accounts, Convergence role: all schemes of state and central to be
implemented through SHGs Promotion of FPOs and other collectives.
8. INTERVIEW : Prof. Sudhir Sinha

About Prof Sinha:

Prof Sudhir K Sinha, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, has been engaged in promoting and
advancing the agenda of Transformational CSR against Transaction philanthropy, also
presented a social theory of “Underlying Impacts”, a critical indicator for determining CSR
and development projects. He has launched a campaign, CSR Satyagraha, for bringing
reforms in CSR. He is a LEAD Fellow, a CSR specialist and practitioner. As Professor at
IRMA Anand, he is leading the Centre of Excellence for Responsible Business Management
& Corporate Philanthropy. He is the Founder Director at the Centre for Sustainability
and Responsibility Inc (CSR Inc). He is a Founder Member of the Human Rights and
Business Resource Group (HRBRG).

In his career of over 35 years, he headed and managed CSR/Sustainability functions of

leading Indian & MNC brands such as Tata Steel, Cipla Ltd, Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai
Ambani Group, Moser Baer and Arcel or Mittal. He was associated with PwC as Advisor-
CSR. He holds Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development from XISS. He has represented
India and participated in the formulation of ISO 26000. He has served the Expert Group on
Development of National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Economic and Environmental
Responsibility of Businesses in India (NVGs). He has domain expertise in CSR,
Sustainability, Human Development, Human Rights, Stakeholder management;
Environmental Management System; Natural resource & Joint Forestry Management; Water
& Sanitation, Agriculture, Women empowerment, Public health, Conflict Resolution
(corporate-community); Perception Management; Resettlement & Rehabilitation;
Volunteering, Advocacy; Sustainability Communications & Reporting. 

Question: What is CSR Satyagraha all about? What type of organization is this?

Answer: CSR Satyagaraha is not an organisation, it is an initiative run by the organisation

called Centre for Sustainability and Responsibility Inc (CSR Inc) Pvt Ltd. It was
conceptualised because the way CSR is understood and practiced in India is not yielding the
desired results and it has not been delivering the actual impact that it is intended to. CSR
needs to be carried out differently and Prof. Sudhir who is an ardent follower of the Gandhian
Principles conceived this idea in Vardha. The idea is to change the way CSR is perceived and
is currently functioning. The companies alone are not solely responsible for the failure of
CSR, rather all the stakeholders are equally responsible. The Government, implementing
agencies like big NGOs and CSR leaders play a key role in the performance of CSR. Thus
there is a need of auditing and monitoring all the stakeholders in order to ensure its desired
functioning. It should not be merely understood as philanthropy. This initiative is intended to
change the perception of CSR in India. It’s a Gandhian way to assert and reassert- peacefully
and non-violently- for effecting overall transformation as well as change in CSR policies and
practices that are morally, ethically and legally wrong.

Question: What is the role of the leader in the CSR Inc?

Answer: The role of a leader in CSR Satyagaraha is simply to ensure the values of the
campaign are being carried forward in each project that it undertakes. He has to reach out to
people in the industry and make sure that the CSR activities evaluated by them are following
the concept of CSR in actual spirit. He has to propagate the spirit of CSR Satyagraha and
reach out to all the stakeholders to make them understand their roles and responsibility. It is a
reform platform and can be called as ‘constructive activism’. Thus the leader has to lead the
way in engaging with companies and make the CSRs in India more impactful.

Question: How do you manage the organization’s goal and its implementation?

Answer: The goal is to preserve and protect the spirit of CSR. It is reform oriented. CSR
Satyagraha is a reform agenda and quiet movement against the rudimentary thinking for CSR
and conventional, cosmetic, and transactional approaches to CSR.

Question: What do you think is the most important trait for an individual leading this
type of organization?

Answer: Generalising for the development sector as a whole along with a long term vision,
Leaders need to have more empathy than sympathy. They have to be more compassionate,
more sensitive towards human and proactive in their action towards protecting and preserving
the nature less. They should lead by example, be law abiding and not just the managers of
law. Conviction and passion are the essential characteristics that a leader should have.

Question: What are the challenges which you might have faced? What are your major
learning?

Answer: My role is full of challenges. CSR Inc (Satyagraha) is struggling with the
acceptance and recognition amongst business houses. No organisation likes being questioned
on their operations and that’s why our journey is full of challenges. But we understand any
new change has to undergo some sort of difficulties and we need to stay in order to
accomplish our goal. Patience and perseverance are the most important learning for me as an
individual. There are always ways to solve a problem. CSR Satyagraha is a Peaceful and
Non-violent War against CSR wrong doings and malfunctioning