At a monday morning, I am thinking about the last three years of Bihar Development Trust . It has been a whirlwind drive , a roller coaster ride. Starting with no idea except development of Bihar to finally a diversified group with interest in Microfinance, Textile, Agribusiness. Starting with two people to a 30 people team working in various programmes. Somehow, a shape is being visible far away. Either we emerge as an INFOSYS or TATA Group, it has to be seen. As there are 4 indepenedent promoters from 2 to start with and whose number will keep on increasing as we need manpower and money, we seem to be following INFOSYS model. INFOSYS is a group of 7 people leading a team of more than a lakh professionals. We may be same as Infosys. But, our domain is not single one. We are already in 3 verticals and trying to consolidate that. Then, wwe will increasing our verticals as Bihar need power, many more factories of production and services. We may be building power plants albeit from renewable sources for rural electrification . We may be building biggest decentralised handloom production system of textile in Bhagalpur. We may be building food processing factories as well as creating Kisan Sewa Kendra and rural godowns.
Activity wise, we are following TATA model with BDT becoming a holding trust for Microfinance, Textile and Agribusiness and many other initiative.
I do not know when and how we throught 20 billion dollar dream for Bihar. But, as we are growing through struggle, the convictions seems on getting stronger and stronger. All 4 promoters now believe strongly that a 20 billion dollar enterprise is possible in Bihar. The journey started with 2 promoters with 5000 rupees. The journey has reached to a balance sheet size of 2 crores in three years. It took three months to open a bank account. Now, banks are requesting to open accounts in their branches.
Over the last 3 years, we have been able to reach 3000 families and providing them some services. This is a miniscule fraction of 10 lakh families that we seek to reach. But, we have started and journey continues.
This is a long journey and we are just started walking. We know that we have to keep walking........................... Keep Walking........................
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
A positive Story on Bihar in WALL STREET JOURNAL
APRIL 10, 2009 India Defies Slump, Powered by Growth in Poor Rural States Article
By PETER WONACOTT
DEV KULI VILLAGE, India -- This country's path out of the global economic turmoil may start here, among a community of outcastes who dine on rats.
In Bihar, India's poorest and least literate major state, the Mushahar are the poorest and least literate. Most are farm laborers. About one in 10 can read. So impoverished is this group that they hunt field rats to supplement a deprived diet. Mushahar is Hindi for "rat eater."
But the outlook for the state's two million Mushahar has brightened in the past year. Thanks to government aid programs, more Mushahar children are attending school. Increased state investment in roads and local factories has put their parents to work. Demand for laborers has pushed up wages for field work.
Bouncing Up From the Bottom Rung
View Slideshow
Peter Wonacott/The Wall Street Journal
The one-room primary school for Mushahar children at Bihar's Dev Kuli village, where several hundred of the low-caste Mushahar families live.
In a sign of the times, a government proposal to promote rat farming was ridiculed by the Mushahar, the very group of untouchables, or Dalits, it was supposed to benefit. They worried it would pull their children out of school and extend a social stigma to the next generation. Some protested on the streets of Bihar's capital, Patna, shouting: "We want to learn to use a computer mouse, not catch mice."
The Mushahar in Bihar are part of a political and economic shift that is building across the Indian countryside. The transformation, largely driven by development spending by national and state policy makers, will be put to a test starting next week. The world's largest democracy kicks off a month of polling April 16 in which many of the leaders behind these experiments are seeking re-election.
Growth has slowed in the new India of technology outsourcing, property development and securities trade. But old India -- the rural sector that is home to 700 million of the country's billion-plus people -- shows signs it can pick up the slack. The rural awakening helps explain why India continues to grow even as the U.S. recession drags on the world economy.
The change is largely political. In years past, many state leaders rode to power with vows to give voice to lower-caste voters. But after failing for the most part to lift living standards, these officials have been replaced in many cases by leaders who have. In poor and largely rural states from Orissa in the east to Rajasthan in the west, many new leaders have invested in health, education and infrastructure. That has set the stage for the creation of industry and consumer markets and enabled upward mobility.
It's unclear whether development spending in rural India will spark longer-term expansion. "Up till now, a lot of our growth has been bubble growth," says Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd., a software and outsourcing company. "That makes the internal reforms even more important now, so we create momentum for future growth."
Teaching India's Untouchables
3:18
India's lowest castes, the Dalits, are known for their illiteracy and deep poverty. But in rural India, something remarkable is happening: Dalit children are attending elementary school. Peter Wonacott reports from India.
The rural economic rise is recent, with few figures yet available for 2008. In the five-year period ending in 2007, rural Indians' consumer spending grew faster than that of city dwellers, according to Indian brokerage IIFL. Rural India has surpassed urban centers in the number of households earning $2,000 a year, above which families begin to have disposable income.
Companies from Coca-Cola Co. to telecom provider Reliance Communications India Ltd. say rising sales in once-spurned rural areas are driving their India growth. The Indian unit of LG Electronics, which sells low-voltage appliances for power-deprived areas, expects rural areas to account for 45% of its Indian sales this year, up from 35% last year. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a car and tractor maker, says it couldn't keep up with orders for its new Xylo, a cross between a minivan and SUV, in part because of surprising rural demand.
"If any one part of the economy is decoupled from the global crisis, it is India's rural sector," says Anand Mahindra, vice chairman of auto maker's parent company, Mahindra Group.
Tariff Barriers
The countryside's strength comes in part from a trade policy that free-market economists say may hurt India in the long run. Tariffs on agricultural imports are among the world's highest and may have deterred investment in rural India. But these tariffs have also sheltered swaths of the country. An estimated 88% of India's rural incomes are tied to activities inside those markets, according to IIFL.
Even slight improvements here are significant, economists say, because they build on a base of practically zero. "For so long, these states were a drag on our economy," says Surjit Bhalla, head of Oxus Research & Investments, an advisory firm in New Delhi. "Now larger rural populations can become a fillip to growth."
India's economy has held up better than most, in spite of slowing tech sales and falling real-estate and stock markets. The International Monetary Fund projects India will grow 5.1% in 2009, faster than Brazil (1.8%) and Russia (-0.7%). India is also closing the gap on China, whose 6.7% projected growth for 2009 marks a sharp decline from recent double-digit gains.
Bihar, which borders Nepal, was once a breadbasket of eastern India. But it largely missed out on the economic miracle of the last decade. In the 1990s, as India's economy expanded about 5% a year, Bihar barely grew.
Infrastructure was poor. Farm goods often rotted before reaching the market. Amid corruption and rampant crime, the state was branded India's "kidnap capital." The young left to seek education and jobs.
More than half Bihar's 83 million residents live below the international poverty line of about $1 dollar a day. Fewer than half are literate. The state attracted $167 million in foreign direct investment between 1994 and 2004, a period when India as a whole attracted $29 billion.
Government Open House
In recent years, political candidates won elections with promises to empower to lower-caste voters. But education, health and infrastructure projects were often neglected, presenting opportunity for opponents. In late 2005, a former railways minister from a low-caste background, Nitish Kumar, became chief minister, the leader of Bihar state.
Breaking from the torpid bureaucracy of his predecessors, the 58-year-old Mr. Kumar has tried to prod the government machinery into action. He hosts Monday open houses at his residence, where ministers and department secretaries are required to field public complaints. Bureaucrats must also accompany him to town-hall meetings in far corners of the state, where they pitch tents in fields. His critics say the exercises simply aim to drum up votes; Mr. Kumar says an open government serves the people and the economy.
"My message is that democracy should provide solutions to the problems," he said in an interview at his residence, where he wore traditional white linen trousers and shirt.
With an alliance led by his ruling Janata Dal (United) party, Mr. Kumar has built thousands of miles of roads. He has hired 200,000 schoolteachers and is recruiting 100,000 more. He has lured private-clinic doctors back to public hospitals.
Development projects and strong harvests have helped Bihar's economy close the gap with the national average. The state is growing at an annual rate of about 5.5%, and that is expected to accelerate, according to the Asian Development Research Institute. The number of people migrating out dropped 27% in the 2006-08 period compared with 2001-03, according to the Bihar Institute of Economic Studies, a local think tank.
Homes in a Gully
One of Mr. Kumar's toughest challenges is improving the lot of the Mushahar in places like Dev Kuli village.
Home to about 10,000 people, Dev Kuli is surrounded by farming hamlets and abuts a two-lane highway where long-haul trucks blast their air horns as they rumble toward New Delhi. The lives of all residents, from low caste to high, have long revolved around the rice and wheat harvests.
Special Coverage: India Elections
See news, analysis and opinion from The Wall Street Journal on India's elections.
Several hundred village families are outcaste Mushahar, who live among goats, pigs and swarms of flies in a dried-out gully. The government began to build brick houses but left them without windows or doors.
As a caste the government has identified as "extremely backward," the Mushahar will be eligible for a $57 million government program that will provide families with a water supply, toilets, radios and educational support, according to Vijoy Prakash, the principal secretary for two government departments dedicated to low-caste assistance.
On Mr. Prakash's desk sits a stuffed rat, a reminder of who such programs aim to help. Yet he says past efforts have failed in part because only 9% of the Mushahar can read. "This is the group that has remained excluded from India's growth," he says.
As the sun came up on a recent day, a group of Mushahar gathered round a water pump to wash clothes. Later in the morning a long line of Mushahar children made their way up a mud embankment and, in a profound departure from community tradition, headed to primary school.
Parents complain that their children face discrimination even at Dev Kuli's one-room school for Mushahar children, the name of which translates as "Slum People's Primary School." Children from other castes attend a school nearby.
The government has repaired the school's roof in recent months, hired a new teacher and added an extra bathroom to provide privacy for girls. Even so, the school doesn't have chairs or desks, so students sit on empty grain bags and write on a cement floor covered with dirt.
Each day, a group of government-hired Mushahar, known as "motivators," roust children from their homes and escort them to class. Motivator Phulwanti Devi, a recent and rare Mushahar college graduate, says she battles parents almost every morning to release their children from farm work.
"We tell them, 'It will improve their future,'" says Ms. Devi, 25 years old.
"They reply, 'We don't see that you have such a good job.' I tell them: 'I have a diploma, and so I can get a better job. What about you?'"
Still, Ms. Devi and other motivators say attendance at the school has grown. Teachers say about 150 children are enrolled. On a recent day, the motivators rounded up about half that many.
There are other challenges. Some motivators say they haven't been paid their salaries of 2,000 rupees a month, about $40. Local officials occasionally tell teachers to skip class to conduct government work, such as counting votes at election time.
Mr. Prakash, the secretary for lower castes, says the motivators will soon be paid from funds his department has set aside. Bihar's education secretary, Anjani Kumar Singh, says a Bihar court has ruled that teachers can't skip class for government work, but admitted the order could be hard to enforce at election time.
Spicy Masala
Generating genuine business activity among a largely illiterate community hasn't been easy, either, judging by Mr. Prakash's rat-farming initiative. He estimated that three million people in the state would welcome a stable supply of the protein-rich meat.
Many Mushahar say they enjoy the meat, typically barbecued or cooked with a spicy masala, and believe it keeps their hair dark. But many resented being pushed into farming them. "If we get involved in rat farming, our children will also get involved," says Ms. Devi.
After some Mushahar protested in Patna late last summer, Mr. Kumar, the chief minister, shelved the proposal.
Yet Dev Kuli's economy has improved. The infrastructure push has created jobs building and repairing roads. That has helped bring factories to the area, say locals, including a steel mill and a cola-bottling plant. Those jobs have boosted farm wages to the point where the Mushahar won't work in the fields for less than about $2 a day, says Raj Ballabh Raji, a local farmer from a different caste.
Mr. Raji, who now works his six acres with a new tractor, notes one more sign of prosperity. "You can now find a petrol pump within a mile of here," he says in a tone of pleasant surprise. "The economy is changing."
—Manoj Chaurasia in Patna and Vibhuti Agarwal in New Delhi contributed to this article.
Write to Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com
By PETER WONACOTT
DEV KULI VILLAGE, India -- This country's path out of the global economic turmoil may start here, among a community of outcastes who dine on rats.
In Bihar, India's poorest and least literate major state, the Mushahar are the poorest and least literate. Most are farm laborers. About one in 10 can read. So impoverished is this group that they hunt field rats to supplement a deprived diet. Mushahar is Hindi for "rat eater."
But the outlook for the state's two million Mushahar has brightened in the past year. Thanks to government aid programs, more Mushahar children are attending school. Increased state investment in roads and local factories has put their parents to work. Demand for laborers has pushed up wages for field work.
Bouncing Up From the Bottom Rung
View Slideshow
Peter Wonacott/The Wall Street Journal
The one-room primary school for Mushahar children at Bihar's Dev Kuli village, where several hundred of the low-caste Mushahar families live.
In a sign of the times, a government proposal to promote rat farming was ridiculed by the Mushahar, the very group of untouchables, or Dalits, it was supposed to benefit. They worried it would pull their children out of school and extend a social stigma to the next generation. Some protested on the streets of Bihar's capital, Patna, shouting: "We want to learn to use a computer mouse, not catch mice."
The Mushahar in Bihar are part of a political and economic shift that is building across the Indian countryside. The transformation, largely driven by development spending by national and state policy makers, will be put to a test starting next week. The world's largest democracy kicks off a month of polling April 16 in which many of the leaders behind these experiments are seeking re-election.
Growth has slowed in the new India of technology outsourcing, property development and securities trade. But old India -- the rural sector that is home to 700 million of the country's billion-plus people -- shows signs it can pick up the slack. The rural awakening helps explain why India continues to grow even as the U.S. recession drags on the world economy.
The change is largely political. In years past, many state leaders rode to power with vows to give voice to lower-caste voters. But after failing for the most part to lift living standards, these officials have been replaced in many cases by leaders who have. In poor and largely rural states from Orissa in the east to Rajasthan in the west, many new leaders have invested in health, education and infrastructure. That has set the stage for the creation of industry and consumer markets and enabled upward mobility.
It's unclear whether development spending in rural India will spark longer-term expansion. "Up till now, a lot of our growth has been bubble growth," says Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd., a software and outsourcing company. "That makes the internal reforms even more important now, so we create momentum for future growth."
Teaching India's Untouchables
3:18
India's lowest castes, the Dalits, are known for their illiteracy and deep poverty. But in rural India, something remarkable is happening: Dalit children are attending elementary school. Peter Wonacott reports from India.
The rural economic rise is recent, with few figures yet available for 2008. In the five-year period ending in 2007, rural Indians' consumer spending grew faster than that of city dwellers, according to Indian brokerage IIFL. Rural India has surpassed urban centers in the number of households earning $2,000 a year, above which families begin to have disposable income.
Companies from Coca-Cola Co. to telecom provider Reliance Communications India Ltd. say rising sales in once-spurned rural areas are driving their India growth. The Indian unit of LG Electronics, which sells low-voltage appliances for power-deprived areas, expects rural areas to account for 45% of its Indian sales this year, up from 35% last year. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a car and tractor maker, says it couldn't keep up with orders for its new Xylo, a cross between a minivan and SUV, in part because of surprising rural demand.
"If any one part of the economy is decoupled from the global crisis, it is India's rural sector," says Anand Mahindra, vice chairman of auto maker's parent company, Mahindra Group.
Tariff Barriers
The countryside's strength comes in part from a trade policy that free-market economists say may hurt India in the long run. Tariffs on agricultural imports are among the world's highest and may have deterred investment in rural India. But these tariffs have also sheltered swaths of the country. An estimated 88% of India's rural incomes are tied to activities inside those markets, according to IIFL.
Even slight improvements here are significant, economists say, because they build on a base of practically zero. "For so long, these states were a drag on our economy," says Surjit Bhalla, head of Oxus Research & Investments, an advisory firm in New Delhi. "Now larger rural populations can become a fillip to growth."
India's economy has held up better than most, in spite of slowing tech sales and falling real-estate and stock markets. The International Monetary Fund projects India will grow 5.1% in 2009, faster than Brazil (1.8%) and Russia (-0.7%). India is also closing the gap on China, whose 6.7% projected growth for 2009 marks a sharp decline from recent double-digit gains.
Bihar, which borders Nepal, was once a breadbasket of eastern India. But it largely missed out on the economic miracle of the last decade. In the 1990s, as India's economy expanded about 5% a year, Bihar barely grew.
Infrastructure was poor. Farm goods often rotted before reaching the market. Amid corruption and rampant crime, the state was branded India's "kidnap capital." The young left to seek education and jobs.
More than half Bihar's 83 million residents live below the international poverty line of about $1 dollar a day. Fewer than half are literate. The state attracted $167 million in foreign direct investment between 1994 and 2004, a period when India as a whole attracted $29 billion.
Government Open House
In recent years, political candidates won elections with promises to empower to lower-caste voters. But education, health and infrastructure projects were often neglected, presenting opportunity for opponents. In late 2005, a former railways minister from a low-caste background, Nitish Kumar, became chief minister, the leader of Bihar state.
Breaking from the torpid bureaucracy of his predecessors, the 58-year-old Mr. Kumar has tried to prod the government machinery into action. He hosts Monday open houses at his residence, where ministers and department secretaries are required to field public complaints. Bureaucrats must also accompany him to town-hall meetings in far corners of the state, where they pitch tents in fields. His critics say the exercises simply aim to drum up votes; Mr. Kumar says an open government serves the people and the economy.
"My message is that democracy should provide solutions to the problems," he said in an interview at his residence, where he wore traditional white linen trousers and shirt.
With an alliance led by his ruling Janata Dal (United) party, Mr. Kumar has built thousands of miles of roads. He has hired 200,000 schoolteachers and is recruiting 100,000 more. He has lured private-clinic doctors back to public hospitals.
Development projects and strong harvests have helped Bihar's economy close the gap with the national average. The state is growing at an annual rate of about 5.5%, and that is expected to accelerate, according to the Asian Development Research Institute. The number of people migrating out dropped 27% in the 2006-08 period compared with 2001-03, according to the Bihar Institute of Economic Studies, a local think tank.
Homes in a Gully
One of Mr. Kumar's toughest challenges is improving the lot of the Mushahar in places like Dev Kuli village.
Home to about 10,000 people, Dev Kuli is surrounded by farming hamlets and abuts a two-lane highway where long-haul trucks blast their air horns as they rumble toward New Delhi. The lives of all residents, from low caste to high, have long revolved around the rice and wheat harvests.
Special Coverage: India Elections
See news, analysis and opinion from The Wall Street Journal on India's elections.
Several hundred village families are outcaste Mushahar, who live among goats, pigs and swarms of flies in a dried-out gully. The government began to build brick houses but left them without windows or doors.
As a caste the government has identified as "extremely backward," the Mushahar will be eligible for a $57 million government program that will provide families with a water supply, toilets, radios and educational support, according to Vijoy Prakash, the principal secretary for two government departments dedicated to low-caste assistance.
On Mr. Prakash's desk sits a stuffed rat, a reminder of who such programs aim to help. Yet he says past efforts have failed in part because only 9% of the Mushahar can read. "This is the group that has remained excluded from India's growth," he says.
As the sun came up on a recent day, a group of Mushahar gathered round a water pump to wash clothes. Later in the morning a long line of Mushahar children made their way up a mud embankment and, in a profound departure from community tradition, headed to primary school.
Parents complain that their children face discrimination even at Dev Kuli's one-room school for Mushahar children, the name of which translates as "Slum People's Primary School." Children from other castes attend a school nearby.
The government has repaired the school's roof in recent months, hired a new teacher and added an extra bathroom to provide privacy for girls. Even so, the school doesn't have chairs or desks, so students sit on empty grain bags and write on a cement floor covered with dirt.
Each day, a group of government-hired Mushahar, known as "motivators," roust children from their homes and escort them to class. Motivator Phulwanti Devi, a recent and rare Mushahar college graduate, says she battles parents almost every morning to release their children from farm work.
"We tell them, 'It will improve their future,'" says Ms. Devi, 25 years old.
"They reply, 'We don't see that you have such a good job.' I tell them: 'I have a diploma, and so I can get a better job. What about you?'"
Still, Ms. Devi and other motivators say attendance at the school has grown. Teachers say about 150 children are enrolled. On a recent day, the motivators rounded up about half that many.
There are other challenges. Some motivators say they haven't been paid their salaries of 2,000 rupees a month, about $40. Local officials occasionally tell teachers to skip class to conduct government work, such as counting votes at election time.
Mr. Prakash, the secretary for lower castes, says the motivators will soon be paid from funds his department has set aside. Bihar's education secretary, Anjani Kumar Singh, says a Bihar court has ruled that teachers can't skip class for government work, but admitted the order could be hard to enforce at election time.
Spicy Masala
Generating genuine business activity among a largely illiterate community hasn't been easy, either, judging by Mr. Prakash's rat-farming initiative. He estimated that three million people in the state would welcome a stable supply of the protein-rich meat.
Many Mushahar say they enjoy the meat, typically barbecued or cooked with a spicy masala, and believe it keeps their hair dark. But many resented being pushed into farming them. "If we get involved in rat farming, our children will also get involved," says Ms. Devi.
After some Mushahar protested in Patna late last summer, Mr. Kumar, the chief minister, shelved the proposal.
Yet Dev Kuli's economy has improved. The infrastructure push has created jobs building and repairing roads. That has helped bring factories to the area, say locals, including a steel mill and a cola-bottling plant. Those jobs have boosted farm wages to the point where the Mushahar won't work in the fields for less than about $2 a day, says Raj Ballabh Raji, a local farmer from a different caste.
Mr. Raji, who now works his six acres with a new tractor, notes one more sign of prosperity. "You can now find a petrol pump within a mile of here," he says in a tone of pleasant surprise. "The economy is changing."
—Manoj Chaurasia in Patna and Vibhuti Agarwal in New Delhi contributed to this article.
Write to Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com
Monday, February 23, 2009
GIVE FUND TO BDT
Dear Friends,
Greetings!!!
We are happy to share the growth of Bihar Development Trust with you. Without your support and good wishes, we may not have survived two years. Over the last two years, we have lots of problems and tribulations but some how we keep surviving. Generally, it is said that first 1000 days for a organisation is crucial for its long term survival. We have crossed 700 days of our existence and hope to cross the 1000 days milestone with glory.
Over the last two years, we have not done any charismatic changes on the ground. We have given loans to 750 women borrowers who do not have access to credit from formal system. These women are returning loans which is commendable and needs to be celebrated in Bihar. We are trying to help 30 weavers to earn their livelihood through market orders. To help them in retaining their traditional weaving and giving them enough work so that they need not to migrate. We have much more to do for them. We are planning financial inclusion for our silk weavers. We have been forming producer company in which weavers have been made shareholder. We have worked in september providing food and clothes to flood affected people in Kharik Block. Recently, Bihar Chief Minister visited the same Kazikoraiyya village where we have distributed food and clothes and promised solution for these flood affected villages.
Our achivement is not that we may have provided some services to women , silk weavers or flood relief. If we have not been there, some other agency would have been doing that and many more are doing. We have been able to demonstrate to some extent that middle class educated youth can turn entrepreneur in Bihar by virtue of its professional education. There will be difficulties but if you dont have the guts to face the problems, you should not turn entrepreneur.
Our biggest battle is to get Loans in Bihar. Banks officials have simple abandoned to lend to entrepreneurs in Bihar. They simply say that we dont give loans in Bihar. If you dont give loans, then why are you having branches in Bihar. Just to suck out money from Bihar and give it to some project in Gujarat or Maharashtra or other states. Entrepreneurs in Bihar are as much creditworthy as outside. We are presenting ourselves as a serious credit worthy organisation. Only thing is that we do not have much collateral to offer. Our Networth will be 15 lakhs but we need crores of loan. We have fixed assets worth Rs.15 lakhs. Our debt equity ratio is 2.15:1. Our balance sheet size will be 80 lakhs for FY 2008-2009. This battle is still being fought upon.
Bihar is looking like a positive investment destination. People are enquiring a lot about starting an enterprise to us on daily basis. People are deriving hope from us. Bihar Development Trust is a good investment opportunity for people who have social inclination and not looking for astronomical return. Stock market has crashed and returns expectation is lower now. We are seeking corpus donation from people who wish to give back some thing to Bihar. We are seeking loans from people who own some companies and can give inter organisation loans. We are seeking monetary donation from people who wish to contribute for Bihar Development through us.
We would like to clarify that our plans for this year may include Bhagalpur, Patna, Munger, Banka, Jamui etc. We plan to expand to all district in Bihar in a gradual manner while doing significant work in each district. Our area of activities will include Microfinance, Tusser Silk weavers livelihood and their financial inclusion, Micro insurance of LIC, dairy, agarbatti stick manufacturing, health camps etc.
Our dream is to create 20 billion dollar enterprise in Bihar.
Kindly visit www.bihardev.pbwiki.com for all kind of information about Bihar Development Trust.
Regards
Ravi Chandra
--
Dr Ravi Chandra
Managing Trustee
Bihar Development Trust
Ph-9470017752
bihardev@gmail.com
www.bihardev.org.in
www.bihardev.pbwiki.com
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=34946028
http://picasaweb.google.com/rchandra1231/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bihardevelopmenttrust
Bihar Development Trust is an idea to adapt GRAMEEN and AMUL model to Bihar context and in different services and commodities supported by most efficient technologies.We have dreamt of building a US$20 billion enterprise in Bihar by 2020. The areas of opportunities are very common ideas like microfinance, handloom and handicrafts, fruits and vegetable, Agricultural commodities, health care and education, power and BPO(animation,graphics etc),carbon trading and tourism etc. We believe in executing things in Bihar which many big companies finds unable to do it.
Greetings!!!
We are happy to share the growth of Bihar Development Trust with you. Without your support and good wishes, we may not have survived two years. Over the last two years, we have lots of problems and tribulations but some how we keep surviving. Generally, it is said that first 1000 days for a organisation is crucial for its long term survival. We have crossed 700 days of our existence and hope to cross the 1000 days milestone with glory.
Over the last two years, we have not done any charismatic changes on the ground. We have given loans to 750 women borrowers who do not have access to credit from formal system. These women are returning loans which is commendable and needs to be celebrated in Bihar. We are trying to help 30 weavers to earn their livelihood through market orders. To help them in retaining their traditional weaving and giving them enough work so that they need not to migrate. We have much more to do for them. We are planning financial inclusion for our silk weavers. We have been forming producer company in which weavers have been made shareholder. We have worked in september providing food and clothes to flood affected people in Kharik Block. Recently, Bihar Chief Minister visited the same Kazikoraiyya village where we have distributed food and clothes and promised solution for these flood affected villages.
Our achivement is not that we may have provided some services to women , silk weavers or flood relief. If we have not been there, some other agency would have been doing that and many more are doing. We have been able to demonstrate to some extent that middle class educated youth can turn entrepreneur in Bihar by virtue of its professional education. There will be difficulties but if you dont have the guts to face the problems, you should not turn entrepreneur.
Our biggest battle is to get Loans in Bihar. Banks officials have simple abandoned to lend to entrepreneurs in Bihar. They simply say that we dont give loans in Bihar. If you dont give loans, then why are you having branches in Bihar. Just to suck out money from Bihar and give it to some project in Gujarat or Maharashtra or other states. Entrepreneurs in Bihar are as much creditworthy as outside. We are presenting ourselves as a serious credit worthy organisation. Only thing is that we do not have much collateral to offer. Our Networth will be 15 lakhs but we need crores of loan. We have fixed assets worth Rs.15 lakhs. Our debt equity ratio is 2.15:1. Our balance sheet size will be 80 lakhs for FY 2008-2009. This battle is still being fought upon.
Bihar is looking like a positive investment destination. People are enquiring a lot about starting an enterprise to us on daily basis. People are deriving hope from us. Bihar Development Trust is a good investment opportunity for people who have social inclination and not looking for astronomical return. Stock market has crashed and returns expectation is lower now. We are seeking corpus donation from people who wish to give back some thing to Bihar. We are seeking loans from people who own some companies and can give inter organisation loans. We are seeking monetary donation from people who wish to contribute for Bihar Development through us.
We would like to clarify that our plans for this year may include Bhagalpur, Patna, Munger, Banka, Jamui etc. We plan to expand to all district in Bihar in a gradual manner while doing significant work in each district. Our area of activities will include Microfinance, Tusser Silk weavers livelihood and their financial inclusion, Micro insurance of LIC, dairy, agarbatti stick manufacturing, health camps etc.
Our dream is to create 20 billion dollar enterprise in Bihar.
Kindly visit www.bihardev.pbwiki.com for all kind of information about Bihar Development Trust.
Regards
Ravi Chandra
--
Dr Ravi Chandra
Managing Trustee
Bihar Development Trust
Ph-9470017752
bihardev@gmail.com
www.bihardev.org.in
www.bihardev.pbwiki.com
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=34946028
http://picasaweb.google.com/rchandra1231/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bihardevelopmenttrust
Bihar Development Trust is an idea to adapt GRAMEEN and AMUL model to Bihar context and in different services and commodities supported by most efficient technologies.We have dreamt of building a US$20 billion enterprise in Bihar by 2020. The areas of opportunities are very common ideas like microfinance, handloom and handicrafts, fruits and vegetable, Agricultural commodities, health care and education, power and BPO(animation,graphics etc),carbon trading and tourism etc. We believe in executing things in Bihar which many big companies finds unable to do it.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Updates
Dear Friends,
Greetings!!!
You are receiving updates from Bihar Development Trust at slightly irregular intervals. I apologize for that. I personally went through very tough times through illness and financial bankruptcy. Bihar Development Trust also went through credit crunch due to drying up of credit in sub prime turmoil. All funding agency delayed loans which were due. To manage my expenses, I have to ask my friends and look for work.
Now, We are happy to say that Bihar Development Trust survived the test. Somehow, We survived with your support and well wishes. You all were very much supportive of us during the tough times. I am also not looking for work now in external agencies. My plate is full from BDT itself.
Since last 4 months, there were no new group formation and very little disbursement. Our group processes went into tailspin due to non disbursement of loans in field. New groups without loans disintegrated. We were into a shell and focusing on just surviving somehow. Now, we have regrouped and group processes have begun and new loan disbursement has begun. Many well-wishers have donated money in these tough times. We are thankful to them for supporting us in crisis.
We did flood relief work in month of Sep 2008. It was done in kharik block with support of CARE TODAY. We provided food and clothing’s to 11000 people affected by flood. Our work was covered by INDIA TODAY & AAJTAK.
Now, We have received sanction notes of
Rs.2000,000 from TMN Lucknow
Rs.1000,000 from Indian Bank
Rs. 500,000 from FWWB
Rs. 500,000 from RGVN
Rs. 625,000 from SIDBI as grant
Our proposals are in process with
AXIS BANK of Rs.2000,000
UNION BANK OF INDIA of Rs.2000,000
SBI of Rs.10,000,000
BOI of Rs. 5000,000
FWWB of Rs.4000,000
BASIX of Rs.2000,000
We plan to raise Rs.10,000,000 in next one year time duration.
TASAR SILK WEAVERS LIVELIHOOD INITIATIVE
We have initiated the formation of Producer Company for 50 weavers in Lodipur Village, Sabaur Block, Bhagalpur. The community has elected directors for the company. We have executed work worth more than Rs.600,000 through them. We are in process of executing Rs.2000,000 orders from various partners.
Our buyers include IIM Ahmedabad, Community Friendly Movement, Kamdhenu Trust.
Our E Commerce partner includes MAKE TICK FOUNDATION, USA & DRISHTI NOIDA.
Potential buyers include XLRI & IIM Kozikode.
DAIRY INITIATIVE
We are in process of organising dairy farmers in villages around Bhagalpur. We are doing what AMUL did 60 years ago. We will be setting up procurement centers and chilling plant and begin with 5000 litres. Buyers have been arranged for the milk we will be collecting through our channel. Our focus is in KOLKATA Market. What bombay did from Anand, We hope that Kolkata do it for Bhagalpur. AIF is supporting us for our Dairy initiatives.
Mr. Dev Kumar Dubey visited BANGLADESH and visited the birth place of microfianance and met icons like Mr. Saifuddin Chowdhary of ASA. We are motivated by success of ASA, GRAMIN etc.
Our team is motivated and going in full flow. We are getting addicted to grow BDT as the biggest enterprise of Bihar & Then India.
We need your support for achieving this dream
Regards
Ravi Chandra
--
Dr Ravi Chandra
Managing Trustee
Bihar Development Trust
Ph-9470017752
bihardev@gmail.com
www.bihardev.org.in
www.bihardev.pbwiki.com
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=34946028
http://picasaweb.google.com/rchandra1231/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bihardevelopmenttrust
Bihar Development Trust is an idea to adapt GRAMEEN and AMUL model to Bihar context and in different services and commodities supported by most efficient technologies.We have dreamt of building a US$20 billion enterprise in Bihar by 2020. The areas of opportunities are very common ideas like microfinance, handloom and handicrafts, fruits and vegetable, Agricultural commodities, health care and education, power and BPO(animation,graphics etc),carbon trading and tourism etc. We believe in executing things in Bihar which many big companies finds unable to do it.
Greetings!!!
You are receiving updates from Bihar Development Trust at slightly irregular intervals. I apologize for that. I personally went through very tough times through illness and financial bankruptcy. Bihar Development Trust also went through credit crunch due to drying up of credit in sub prime turmoil. All funding agency delayed loans which were due. To manage my expenses, I have to ask my friends and look for work.
Now, We are happy to say that Bihar Development Trust survived the test. Somehow, We survived with your support and well wishes. You all were very much supportive of us during the tough times. I am also not looking for work now in external agencies. My plate is full from BDT itself.
Since last 4 months, there were no new group formation and very little disbursement. Our group processes went into tailspin due to non disbursement of loans in field. New groups without loans disintegrated. We were into a shell and focusing on just surviving somehow. Now, we have regrouped and group processes have begun and new loan disbursement has begun. Many well-wishers have donated money in these tough times. We are thankful to them for supporting us in crisis.
We did flood relief work in month of Sep 2008. It was done in kharik block with support of CARE TODAY. We provided food and clothing’s to 11000 people affected by flood. Our work was covered by INDIA TODAY & AAJTAK.
Now, We have received sanction notes of
Rs.2000,000 from TMN Lucknow
Rs.1000,000 from Indian Bank
Rs. 500,000 from FWWB
Rs. 500,000 from RGVN
Rs. 625,000 from SIDBI as grant
Our proposals are in process with
AXIS BANK of Rs.2000,000
UNION BANK OF INDIA of Rs.2000,000
SBI of Rs.10,000,000
BOI of Rs. 5000,000
FWWB of Rs.4000,000
BASIX of Rs.2000,000
We plan to raise Rs.10,000,000 in next one year time duration.
TASAR SILK WEAVERS LIVELIHOOD INITIATIVE
We have initiated the formation of Producer Company for 50 weavers in Lodipur Village, Sabaur Block, Bhagalpur. The community has elected directors for the company. We have executed work worth more than Rs.600,000 through them. We are in process of executing Rs.2000,000 orders from various partners.
Our buyers include IIM Ahmedabad, Community Friendly Movement, Kamdhenu Trust.
Our E Commerce partner includes MAKE TICK FOUNDATION, USA & DRISHTI NOIDA.
Potential buyers include XLRI & IIM Kozikode.
DAIRY INITIATIVE
We are in process of organising dairy farmers in villages around Bhagalpur. We are doing what AMUL did 60 years ago. We will be setting up procurement centers and chilling plant and begin with 5000 litres. Buyers have been arranged for the milk we will be collecting through our channel. Our focus is in KOLKATA Market. What bombay did from Anand, We hope that Kolkata do it for Bhagalpur. AIF is supporting us for our Dairy initiatives.
Mr. Dev Kumar Dubey visited BANGLADESH and visited the birth place of microfianance and met icons like Mr. Saifuddin Chowdhary of ASA. We are motivated by success of ASA, GRAMIN etc.
Our team is motivated and going in full flow. We are getting addicted to grow BDT as the biggest enterprise of Bihar & Then India.
We need your support for achieving this dream
Regards
Ravi Chandra
--
Dr Ravi Chandra
Managing Trustee
Bihar Development Trust
Ph-9470017752
bihardev@gmail.com
www.bihardev.org.in
www.bihardev.pbwiki.com
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=34946028
http://picasaweb.google.com/rchandra1231/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bihardevelopmenttrust
Bihar Development Trust is an idea to adapt GRAMEEN and AMUL model to Bihar context and in different services and commodities supported by most efficient technologies.We have dreamt of building a US$20 billion enterprise in Bihar by 2020. The areas of opportunities are very common ideas like microfinance, handloom and handicrafts, fruits and vegetable, Agricultural commodities, health care and education, power and BPO(animation,graphics etc),carbon trading and tourism etc. We believe in executing things in Bihar which many big companies finds unable to do it.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Entrepreneurship fund raising travails
Dear Friends,
Greetings!!!
I would like to know about fund raising methods employed by member organisation when they were start up.
Bihar Development Trust is an emerging MFI in Bihar. It has been promoted by young IRMA graduates of 2006 batch. We are spread up in 50 villages, 6 blocks, two districts ( Bhagalpur & Patna). We are following grameen model.
As usual we started with our own money and friends, well wishers money. With effort, we were able to get funding from FWWB, RGVN, BASIX & Trust Microfin Network, Lucknow.
Then, the India macro economic scenario got worse and government and RBI panicking about inflation and started absorbing excess money from market. Interest rates are rising and credit squeeze are happening.
In this scenario, small fledgling organisation like us are suffering credit drought. I am moving around all banks and funding agencies.
The basic bottleneck faced by us is 3000 members and 3 year experience. On one side, sector is devoid of professionally promoted & managed microfinance organisation , on the other side, if some professionally qualified person begins its entrepreneurial journey, he is encouraged only by words but not by deeds of funding agencies or agencies like SIDBI, Indian Bank, NABARD etc.
We are one of the rare breeds of professionally qualified individuals slugging out in Bihar. We are feeling like players of roman collossium who are destined to die with all funding agencies and support organisation watching and getting their thrill of our fight. If we die, then also you will clap and cheer and if we survive, then also all funding agencies and support agencies officials will clap and cheers.
Every professional and consultant worth its salt will harp on robust system processes and control system. Even, if some one does not understand how does these processes translates during implementation, these shallow consultants go on harping their jargons about system and processes.
I am getting fed up with all gyan given by these funding agencies and so called capacity building and support organisation who just jump on any new organisation to sell their so called systems and processes.
The issue is that professionally qualified professionals from IRMA/IIM/TISS/IIFM etc are trying to slug out in eastern part of india. They are facing chicken or egg first problem. Funding agencies ask them to attain size but dont give money to grow to that size.
So, how start up like us grow if no fund is made availble to them?
I would like some members who have gone through this experience and made it big share their story. I would like members who are going through the ordeal also to share their story.
I am thankful to all my friends, well wishers and funding agencies for helping us to growing to this stage and understanding the challenges associated with entrepreneurship.
Regards
Ravi Chandra
Greetings!!!
I would like to know about fund raising methods employed by member organisation when they were start up.
Bihar Development Trust is an emerging MFI in Bihar. It has been promoted by young IRMA graduates of 2006 batch. We are spread up in 50 villages, 6 blocks, two districts ( Bhagalpur & Patna). We are following grameen model.
As usual we started with our own money and friends, well wishers money. With effort, we were able to get funding from FWWB, RGVN, BASIX & Trust Microfin Network, Lucknow.
Then, the India macro economic scenario got worse and government and RBI panicking about inflation and started absorbing excess money from market. Interest rates are rising and credit squeeze are happening.
In this scenario, small fledgling organisation like us are suffering credit drought. I am moving around all banks and funding agencies.
The basic bottleneck faced by us is 3000 members and 3 year experience. On one side, sector is devoid of professionally promoted & managed microfinance organisation , on the other side, if some professionally qualified person begins its entrepreneurial journey, he is encouraged only by words but not by deeds of funding agencies or agencies like SIDBI, Indian Bank, NABARD etc.
We are one of the rare breeds of professionally qualified individuals slugging out in Bihar. We are feeling like players of roman collossium who are destined to die with all funding agencies and support organisation watching and getting their thrill of our fight. If we die, then also you will clap and cheer and if we survive, then also all funding agencies and support agencies officials will clap and cheers.
Every professional and consultant worth its salt will harp on robust system processes and control system. Even, if some one does not understand how does these processes translates during implementation, these shallow consultants go on harping their jargons about system and processes.
I am getting fed up with all gyan given by these funding agencies and so called capacity building and support organisation who just jump on any new organisation to sell their so called systems and processes.
The issue is that professionally qualified professionals from IRMA/IIM/TISS/IIFM etc are trying to slug out in eastern part of india. They are facing chicken or egg first problem. Funding agencies ask them to attain size but dont give money to grow to that size.
So, how start up like us grow if no fund is made availble to them?
I would like some members who have gone through this experience and made it big share their story. I would like members who are going through the ordeal also to share their story.
I am thankful to all my friends, well wishers and funding agencies for helping us to growing to this stage and understanding the challenges associated with entrepreneurship.
Regards
Ravi Chandra
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