A good friend of mine came up with this unique idea of connecting people and went on to start a new venture called Mentorpolis. A blog dedicated solely to applaud months of his hard work. His venture only reiterates that efforts do pay off....
Observation:
Most of the time, we are unable to get into good institutions both in India/abroad because of "Lack of Information" or "Guidance". Preparation for entrance exams of all levels can also turn directionless, if we don't know how to go about preparing for that particular exam. Mentorpolis is an effort in that direction to help plug that gap on an individual basis.
Suggestion:
Mentorpolis is an effort to establish a new communication channel that connects mentees who seek academic / professional advice, with accomplished and suitable mentors, via one-to-one interaction. It provides mentees with personal guidance and direct access to mentors, who can help them make informed decisions.
Mentees could be high school students, undergraduates, young professionals, whereas mentors are students and professionals who once were in the same situation, but have now made it big : and thus precisely understand problems faced by mentees and want to share their wisdom in a nurturing manner.
I am sure all aspiring students would greatly benefit from this venture, since this is not just an online portal where one can post their queries, but it also provides a great opportunity for aspiring students to connect to a mentor of one's choice on a one-to-one basis.
The vocational training is predominantly the responsibility of the Government. However, the growth in training facilities is far behind the actual requirement and this has resulted in huge shortage of trained, certified artisans. This is primarily because of a mismatch between the vocational training needs and training facilities. The training facilities are mainly located in cities and big towns whereas the requirement is at the ‘Kasba’ or ‘Moufissil’ town levels or even at village level.
Suggestion:
Individually, the requirement of training artisans at these places is small and the training requirement gets saturated in a short period. Creation of fixed training facilities will be costly and will not be fully utilized. To meet this special requirement it is important that a flexible approach in delivery of training is adopted using “Mobile Training Units”.
This will facilitate imparting of vocational training to a very large number of artisans who are not able to join mainstream education through Industrial Training Institutes. There is a huge untapped market which is available for training and certification of artisans. There is also space for large number of players in this market because of the special demographic condition in India and South East Asia.
The outcome can be measured by the unemployment rate of the area where the project has been launched after a few months of providing the vocational training to artisans along with the increase in the average earnings of these men after training.
The “Mobile Vocational Training Unit” model is proposed to be implemented in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India, which has a large youth population, and severe shortage of training / higher education facilities. This can subsequently be replicated in other states of India/Countries after necessary fine-tuning.
Business Model:
Engage retired railway and defense personnel who are master craftsman as Instructors and provide them with “Mobile Training Units” on partnership basis.
The training software and hardware to be centrally procured and disbursed.
The training curriculum to be kept uniform with large component of multimedia modules.
Get Government registration for Certification.
Local personnel to be given preference for such assignments as they are familiar with the geography of the region.
The above model will keep the cost of operation minimum.
Infrastructure: Mobile training vans (e.g. Eicher LCVs converted to accommodate two related trades.)
Partnerships: With local Primary/Secondary schools, Panchayats.
Customers: Youth in the age group of 16-30 years.
Revenue model: Fees from the students (artisans), government aid, certification fees and sponsorship from Corporate.
Cost of Capital: (Assumptions)
Capital cost of one “Mobile training unit” will be approximately Rs. 6 lakhs.
Depreciated over 5 years : Rs. 6 lakhs/5 =Rs. 1.2 Lakhs per annum
Interest burden @ 10% p.a. = Rs. 0.6 Lakhs per annum
Total cost : Rs. 1.8 Lakhs per annum
Cost of Operation: (Assumptions)
Cost of instructor: Rs. 10,000 per month
Cost of helper : Rs. 4000 per month
Running cost of unit: Rs 10,000 per month
Total : Rs 24,000 per month
Overhead: 50% of the above = 0.5 * Rs. 24,000 = Rs. 12,000
Total cost of Operation per MU p.a.= (Rs. 24000+Rs 12000) * 12 = Rs 36000*12 = Rs 4,32,000
Revenue generated: (Assumption)
Training per unit per day in hours= 8 hours
No of days per month = 25 days
Batch Size = 15
Total no. of trainee hours per unit = 25*8*15 = 3000 trainee hours per unit per month
Fees per trainee hour = Rs. 20
Total fees per unit per month = 3000 * 20 = Rs. 60000
Total Revenue per annum = 12 * 60000 = Rs. 7,20,000
SURPLUS = Revenue – (Cost of Capital + Cost of Operation)
The print media is on a roll!! The world over, a number of dailies/magazines are being published, in a wide range of languages, that bring the happenings of the world to our doorstep.
Observation:
How many of the newspapers/magazines are positive? Most of them have related to political happenings, financial crisis, sports / entertainment industry and what the who's who did during the week, murders, or opinions of the columnists. All these make good reading material, and are definitely good for sales, but what has not been reported is the positive development that is happening around the world.
It is my strong belief that there are more good people than bad. If a murder happens at some place, there is definitely a family adopting a young one at some other part of the world. If a bridge collapsed somewhere, there is surely another one that is coming up.
Suggestion:
Why is there no newspaper that is committed to publishing news about the positive developments happening around the world? As a citizen of this country (India), I am very keen to know how the Metro work is progressing, including a map to show all routes that are functional now, and what processes go into building a metro rail. As a citizen of this country, I would love to know about India's Moon mission, all the launch vehicles till date. I would love to know about the architectural wonders around the world, and how people have accomplished this feat. As a music lover, I would like to know about different instruments, and how to go about learning them. As a citizen of the world, I am really keen on knowing how people are helping the needy and poor. As an entrepreneur, I would love to know about people who have made it big on their own mettle and have succeeded in life. The list is endless...
What I would like to emphasise upon is that we can use the media as a place to just report the sensational happenings around us, and we can use it to inspire people around us by making them aware of the 'Positive' things that are happening around us. The choice is solely ours....
Observation: How many of us love to eat at McDonald's? Or at KFC's? These 2 names are currently considered synonymous with Fast Food, with a "Happy Price Menu". But is the menu truly Indian? I wouldn't say so. Burgers / Wraps are not of Indian origin. I am not doubting their taste, or their nutritional value, but these dishes are not traditionally Indian. Not everyone would relish a burger. It is a possibility that its only their "Reduced Price" that titillates many and not the burger itself!
Traditional Indian snacks on the other hand gel with the peoples taste-buds. With adequate masalas and a tinge of spice, they are especially well suited for the people of this sub-continent. The Indian snacks menu is amazingly long! Be it our very own Samosas, BhelPuri / ChaatPuri, or an assortment of Pakodas, the list is endlessly delicious, mothwatering, and to top it all, quite filling.
Sugestion: What we are missing though, is a Brand value attached to it. What we need is somebody to start a chain of multiple, small outlets, with a "BRAND", that caters to quick service with delicious and hygenically prepared food. It could be intially started as a take-aways, and later expanded. What we require is giving a "Name" to our desi snacks and promoting , commercializing and making them available to all at extremely affordable rates.
A recent successful example for this would be our very own Jumbo-King, which have taken our very desi "VadaPav" under its wings and given it a different value all together, all at the cost of Rs 5 per Vadapav.
Hopefully India too can sell its own set of Samosa / Bhel brands and prepare the wonderful delicacies for the world to Eat and Enjoy!!!
