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Press Release: 2nd October, 2004 Mr. Rajeev Talwar, Commissioner cum Secretary, Dept. of Transport, NCT said that it was Mahatma Gandhi who realized that democratic fortunes lie at the bottom of period and economists today also see an untapped potential at the bottom of pyramid in which MNCs should invest, develop and make money out of it. Young generation economists are trying to say that information and knowledge mixed with your efforts will create the next stage of take off. But the question stays that are we really utilizing the potential in the form of investment fortune or the development fortune that lies at the bottom of pyramid? By citing the examples of funds directed to Wharton and Harvard schools, he highlighted the potential of generating money from educational institutes. He said that India also has good educational institutes to generate funds from but don't have the supportive policies. He said that the various power plants coming up in rural states of India and the construction of Golden Quadrilateral will help India connect to the bottom of the pyramid and generate opportunities of work and growth for them. We need to invest in rural areas and develop them so that their potential can be harnessed as a huge market lies there. On the final note, he posed a question - "Can you get richer than the richest?" Companies are investing huge money in fighting piracy cases. If this money is invested in the bottom of the pyramid, it can create fortunes. Just as this decade has seen growth in terms of services sector, the next decade will see a huge growth in employment generation. So we need to apply efforts in a direction that will realize the fortunes in the rural areas. Mr. Sachin Pilot: It is our belief in destiny that motivates us to go on. People, who don't get basic necessities of life, forge ahead with a hope that life will improve. He quoted Ms Indira Gandhi saying "Poverty is the biggest pollutant, so the challenge lies in transforming this liability into future potential". Companies, business organizations and corporations need to explore demand and customize themselves and their revenue models to fulfill these demands. This shows that a new demand economy is in the making. The financing and banking system in India needs to be reframed so as to facilitate credit to the farmers. The government should expand the financing schemes to rural masses. Talking of the bottom of pyramid he said, there lies another strata of society beneath the pyramid that are destitute, no way near the BPL and at the top are the companies, business houses who are building malls and urban markets, thus extracting money out of the people who are not able to earn even subsistence level of income. So we need to bring in equity in society. This raises the moral issue, whether it's proper to target the pocket of those who have just enough to sustain themselves. Saying that the business organizations, government, NGOs are lately talking of following bottom-up approach, he quoted Albert Einstein - "Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come". Contributed by - |
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