Resetting Green Revolution

India’s agriculture became moribund decades ago, and shows no sign of uplift for the long haul needed. Indeed, the rain gods have played havoc with Indian farmers. But not just the gods, Indian states have done precious little to tackle the problem head-on. The government solution is to give financial sops to farmers to buy peace from time to time. It is equally unfortunate that farmers just accept the sops and go away, only to return when hard times hit them again.

India’s agricultural growth rate has hovered around 2-3% annually, when in fact it should be at least 5%. Former Prime Minister said Indian agriculture must grow at least at 4% without which there will be no real rural poverty alleviation and no relief to distressed farmers. India’s green revolution is fatigued and needs a scientific and technological boost.

Indian agriculture is sick and it needs a strong dose of bitter medicine Market based solutions are the only way forward. India investment in agricultural science and technology and rural infrastructure must be upped by 25% and Indian council of Agricultural research must be turned into a private research corporation headed by a business minded CEO and private equity participation must be brought into India’s agricultural R&D.

Secondary agriculture must drive rural economic development. Small-scale farmers and subsistence farming must be gradually phased out as its size is not economically viable in 21^st century. No amount of shoring up economically unviable agriculture can help. Stubbornly persisting on flogging a dead horse is not going to improve the farmer’s plight. The NDA government has given no evidence of its intent to set a future looking agenda so far. That is not good for the nation neither for the NDA electoral fortunes in the years to come. It needs to act fast.

Biggest Tech Brands in the World

Technology Brands are all the rage right now so it’s no surprise that Apple and Google have occupied the top two positions in Interbrand list of most valuable global brands for three straight years. Branding consultancy recently released list of top 20 brands names in the world of Technology. This article includes their Global Rank in 2014 & 2015 and also their Brand Value in 2014 & 2015.

Foremost is the Apple. Their Global Rank in 2014 & 2015 is one. Brand Value of Apple was $118.863 Billion and in 2015 it is $170.276 Billion. Second spot is hold by Google. Their Global Rank in 2014 & 2015 is two. Brand value of Google was $107.439 Billion and in 2015 it is $120.314 Billion. Microsoft Global Rank in 2014 was five whereas in 2015 it is four. Brand Value of Microsoft was $61.154 Billion and in 2015 it is $67.67 Billion.

IBM Global Rank in 2014 was four and in 2015 is five. IBM Brand Value in 2014 was $72.244 Billion and in 2015 it is $65.095 Billion. Next is Samsung with Global Rank seven in 2014 & 2015. Their Brand value in 2014 was $45.462 Billion and in 2015 it is $45.297 Billion. Amazon Global Rank in 2014 was fifteen and in 2015 it is ten. Brand value of Amazon was $29.478 Billion in 2014 and in 2015 it is $37.948 Billion. Intel Global Rank in 2014 was twelve and in 2015 it is fourteen. Their Brand value was $13.153 Billion in 2014 and $35.415 Billion in 2015.

Cisco Global Rank in 2014 was fourteen and in 2015 it is fifteen. Brand Value of Cisco was $30.936 Billion in 2014 and in 2015 it is $29.854 Billion. Oracle is sixteen in Global Rank in 2014 and 2015. Brand value of Oracle was $25.980 Billion in 2014 and in 2015 it is $27.283 Billion. HP Global Rank in 2014 was sixteen and in 2015 it is eighteen. Their Brand value in 2014 was $23.758 Billion and in 2015 it is $23.056 Billion. Facebook Global Rank in 2014 was 29 and in 2015 it is 23. Their Brand value was $14.349 Billion in 2014 and $22.029 Billion in 2015.

SAP Global rank in 2014 and 2015 is twenty five and twenty six. Their Brand value was $17.340 in 2014 and $18.768 in 2015. EBay Global Rank in 2014 was twenty eight and in 2015 it is thirty two. Their brand value in 2014 was $14.358 Billion and in 2015 it is $13.940 Billion. Canon Global Rank in 2014 was thirty seven and in 2015 it is forty. Their Brand value in 2014 was $11.702 Billion and in 2015 it is $11.278 Billion. Accenture global rank in 2014 was 44 & in 2015 it is 42. Their Brand value in 2014 was $9.882 Billion & in 2015 it is $10.8 Billion.

Sony global rank was 52 in 2014 and in 2015 it is 58. Their Brand value was $8.133 Billion in 2014 and in 2015 it was $7.702 Billion. Panasonic global rank was 64 in 2014 and in 2015 it is 65. Their brand value in 2014 was $6.303 Billion and in 2015 it was $6.436 Billion. Adobe global rank in 2014 was 77 and in 2015 it is 68. Their brand value in 2014 was $5.33 Billion and in 2015 it is $6.257 Billion. Xerox global rank in 2014 was 62 and in 2015 it is 71. Their brand value in 2014 was $6.641 Billion and in 2015 it is $6.033 Billion. Huawei global rank in 2014 was 94 and in 2015 it is 88. Their Brand value in 2014 was $4.313 Billion and in 2015 it is $4.952 Billion.

Social Entrepreneurship

Over 60% of the Indian Population still lives on less than $2 a day. India is placed second highest in terms of net income inequality among 34 countries in the lower middle income group. India has made rapid strides in Economic Growth but how can the country maintain healthy Gross Domestic Product growth while addressing the inequality among its citizens?

Social Entrepreneurs are a key stakeholder segment to engage in delivering such basic services and opportunities efficiently and effectively to the underserved in India. Every year, Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOY) Awards organized by the Schwab Foundation and Jubilant Bhartia Foundation attracts hundreds of Social Entrepreneurs from all over the country. Some of them employ innovative, cost efficient and often technology enabled business models that deliver basic services to those who lack access.

Many of these organizations work at an impressive scale serving millions of low income households and transforming their quality of life. An example is Aravind Eye Care System in South India, which focuses on curing blindness among India’s poor. The hospital chain serves approximately 12,000-15,000 outpatient visits and 1,500 surgeries each day. Karuna Trust and its public private partnership model serve over 2 Million low income clients by transforming government primary health centres into hubs of low cost, high quality healthcare delivery.

When compared to magnitude of Social challenges facing the country, their efforts fall short; their impact is often limited to select geographies. How can India build on the wonderful work by these pioneers for social change at a national scale? True public-private collaboration is the key to make this happen. When designing and implementing policies, the government should draw on the knowledge and experience of social entrepreneurs, the ideas and dynamism of it youth and the capabilities of the corporate sector to plan and execute large scale projects.

With half of population under 25 years of age, India has an unrivalled youth demographic. Beyond their direct reach and impacts, social entrepreneurs represent a powerful idea, an idea that is relevant today more than ever before. That business can be a vehicle to create both economic values as well contributes to building a fair and equitable society.