Just writing

It's a crazy world out there!

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Profit in solving local problems

Yesterday there was an ad inviting global tenders for development of Dharavi . .. i always believed there was profit to be made in the biggest problem of Mumbai - slums. it is so sad that that b-schools keep on teaching case studies in increasing sales of soaps and refrigerators and not deal with real problems around. for example - the confluence (iima's famous b-school event) and other b-school contests can invite a business plan to solve the slum problem in Mumbai ; the end objective being twin - profit and welfare - tough nuts to crack together and surely a good challenger to all skills of MBAs. i always hated those fancily written HBR cases; when we know india has bigger and unique problems to solve- infra (poor urban infra, power, slow ports), poverty, sanitation and drinking water problem, the Ganga and Yamuna cleaning plan, tigers' dwindling numbers, poor education standard (read drop-out rates and absenteeism of both students and teachers) in rural schools and infinite others; and hold on, all this is not charity - govt spends thousands of crores in solving these problems inefficiently; that means there are chances of getting a pie of these thousands of crores; means there is profit to be made.