Date: Monday,22 March, 2010

Time: 5:30 PM TO 8PM

Venue: Jaaga, Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opposite Hockey Association Stadium Main Gate, Shanthinagar, Bangalore

Directions: http://jaaga.wikidot.com/contact  and  http://goo.gl/oElS

Navigation Tip: From Richmond Road take a left right next to the Cafe Coffee Day and proceed straight.

For queries contact Vallabh, Asst Editor, YourStory 09886033217 vallabh@yourstory.in

Samhita is building a social marketplace that will be the one-stop portal for all information, interaction and resource mobilization in the development space.  Samhita and TC-I have entered into a strategic partnership to create a dynamic knowledge resource section which will have news, updates, case studies, research papers, white papers, best practices, inspiring stories, interviews, event coverage, etc related to the development sector. It will serve as the ultimate information database for all the stakeholders in this sector. The content will be strategically shared between the two platforms – Samhita and TC-I.  We are looking for a dynamic person to handle this responsible position of editing and managing the resources section.

If you are interested in the position, please find more information on the role and how to apply here: TCI-Samhita Managing Editor job description

In this edition, TCI-changemaker focuses on MILLEE, a non-profit organization focusing on spreading literacy to under-privileged children using mobile phone games. Badhri met Shabnam Aggarwal, Project Manager and Co-founder of MILLEE to find out more about the organization, its work and its future plans. (Shabnam Aggarwal’s answers are not verbatim)

How did you get to be associated with MILLEE?

MILLEE initially started as a research project in University of California, Berkeley carried out by Dr. Matthew Kam (then PhD candidate) to find the efficacy of cell phones in spreading literacy. During his research, he spent some time in India. At the end of the research project, he took up a job as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. So he was looking for a social entrepreneur who wanted to work in India and be his project manager on the ground running the pilot and doing some fund raising. That is where I came in. At that time I was in Cambodia working for Digital Divide Data.While in Cambodia, I developed a program to impart English literacy skills to young women rescued from brothels. I was looking to come to India, I knew I wanted to work on education and I wanted to work with mobile phones since I have prior experience with mobile phone solutions during my tenure as an intern at Microsoft Research India. MILLEE really satisfied all the three criteria. So, from September 2009, I  started working full time for MILLEE as the project manager and co-founder of MILLEE.

If I understand correctly, MILLEE’s primary focus is on the software games that go into the mobile phone….?

MILLEE as a team develops an end-to-end solution with respect to providing literacy using a mobile phone. We do the research on our target population, then we develop storyboards for the kinds of games we want to develop and then develop the games themselves. We primarily work with government schools so it makes sense for us to follow the Andhra Pradesh State curriculum while we are here in Andhra Pradesh. So we go through the complete spectrum starting from piloting to deployment. Nokia donated 450 cellphones as well as some money to run one year of piloting.

What is the current stage of the project now? Is it in the piloting stage or have you gone into full-fledged commercialization?

We are not at the commercialization stage quite yet. I would say that we are at the end of the piloting stage. We have piloted this project for six years already but since we are very academically focused and human-centered we take a target population like the children we work with and try to figure out what they need and then cater our design around that. So ours is a very iterative process and specific to a target population. That is why it has taken us many years in piloting. But I do hope that we attain commercialization next year.

To understand a little bit more about the product, you work on a game that helps to learn English. After playing the game, say for a month, what do the students learn? A bunch of words?… how to speak…?

We focus on standard five of the Andhra Pradesh curriculum, where the main focus is vocabulary. By the time the students reach std. five they should have learnt phonetics and pronunciation. But I have gone to a lot of schools in India and conducted baseline test for English and Telugu literacy, from which I find that there is a wide range range of students …

…meaning there can be students in say, 8th or 9th standard who don’t know how to pronounce….?

…right. So, we follow the Andhra Pradesh state syllabus and develop about ten lesson plans for one unit. Each lesson plan may normally take a couple of days for a child to learn and hopefully at the end of one month the child would have learnt one unit which may teach about 10 to 20 different vocabulary words. We also try to teach them frequently used words like “of”, “an’, “the” – words that you don’t have pictures for, by including them in stories and games. So when they read the story or play a game, they can hear the audio while looking at the word and learn how to use it.

Now that you have 450 cell phones with your games, do you approach schools directly? How do you bring the product to the students? How do you ensure that all the students who receive these cell phones are actually playing the games and learning?

We approach NGOs who have partnerships and  established relationships with schools. Right now we work in close relationship with Byrraju foundation which has taken up a lot of different schools in villages all over Andhra Pradesh. We work in East Godavari, where the foundation has completely taken over villages and transformed them. So the villagers, the conveners and panchayats respect them very much. So when Byrraju foundation recommended MILLEE, they readily accepted it.

About your second question, in the pilot that is coming up we give the phones to students during school hours and they play for an hour, while we watch, ask a few questions and take notes and videos. But we have done a pilot earlier in January 2009 which was more of an uncontrolled experiment in which we just gave them the phone and let them play when they find time. The phones were really powerful in that they can keep logs about everything that is done on the phone. When we get the phone back, by looking at the logs we understand how many words they learn in a week. It was interesting to find that a lot of kids play after hours and teach each other. There was one kid who came out as the “leader” too. (Laughs)

…and how do you find out how much they have learnt?

We have a baseline test in the beginning, followed by a test once every month or two. We also have end-term tests that run at the end of the year. During the tests we give a bunch of cards and ask the student to read them, or show them some pictures and identify if they are able to verbalize them. The idea is to make the tests as simple as possible.

We have a controlled pilot coming up in which on one hand we only administer baseline, midterm, and endline tests on a group of 400 village school students learning English the normal teacher-student method, and on the other we have a group of 400 students who learn English only with MILLEE games. So, now we have an opportunity to compare and find out how much both the groups learn using the different methods of learning.

Using the cell phone games, they learn to read and speak. But how do they learn to write?

For the pilot we are developing a workbook that goes along with the games that they can use to learn writing. But it is not feasible to hand over workbooks with our games when we commercialize. So, from that perspective, we currently have one game which has an animation of a pencil that writes different alphabets. This would help students to understand the manner in which the alphabets are written. As far as writing grammar and more advanced English, we haven’t got there yet (laughs…)

For a low-income family, a cell phone can be a prized possession and off-limits to children. How do you think your initiative can get past that hurdle?

For this initiative to be a success, parents should be convinced that when the children play the game- they are learning. So, for commercialization, we are planning to give a few games free along with the cell phone. That way when the children do get to play the games, their parents would hopefully realize that they are learning, For the pilot though, the parents are included from the beginning. We get their consent for the students to play. But we are also thinking about getting the parents to learn along with the child. That would be great because now the entire family is learning. But right now our main focus is on the students.

Do you think that this way of learning would be better than a person teaching?

Never. Our goal is not to replace the teacher with the technology. I strongly believe that a person is definitely a better teacher as long as the person is well educated. However, in large parts of India, especially rural areas, there is no proper training system for teachers to learn new methods of teaching. Most of the government schools and even a lot of affordable private schools don’t have formally trained teachers. I think that is where this technology would help.

How do compare your product with other technology-based educational initiatives like One Laptop Per Child or XOXO?

I think they are all very valiant projects, and computers are obviously very powerful. But I think a computer can be a completely foreign object to the students. However, every single child I have spoken to has at least seen a mobile phone with someone in the community and most of them have even played with it. So, I think learning through cell phones is a more indigenous approach.

When you commercialize, what would be your business model for generating money?

We are planning on an “iPhone” like model, where we give a set of games free along with the cell phones; It may be prepackaged into the cell phone or be available as a free download. The subsequent games may be purchased for a nominal fee, say, Rs. 20/- per game. Our goal is to stay focused at the the bottom of the pyramid (BoP), but we can also tap into the next billion in which people have expendable income so that we can make our business more self-sustainable. However, from our research, we understand that even those who are in the BoP allocate a portion of their little income to education when they understand its value for their family. So, our business plan is to really stay focused on the BoP, while ensuring self-sustainability so that we don’t have to keep looking for funding. In addition, this way we empower the customer to value the games they have purchased.

From our conversation so far, I understand that you work with NGOs to reach out to students and with companies like Nokia in the technology front. Is there any other category of organizations that you work with, but haven’t talked about yet?

One group I haven’t mentioned is the group of college undergraduate students. As I mentioned earlier, we would like to make our design as indigenous and human-centered as possible. With that in mind, we went to IIIT-Hyderabad last year and talked to undergrads about our approach to designing a new game and how to develop the games themselves. We found that the students have come up with really cool ideas for games that relate to every day life of students, like riding an auto-rickshaw and running over a right word etc. So, that is one group we like to work closely with. When they graduate they have the opportunity of working locally with MILLEE in India or to go abroad to Carnegie for an internship. There is also a possibility for the students to intern with companies that we partner with. So, the students do have a lot of incentives for working with us.

Great! Now what are your plans for the next year or two?

For the whole of next year we will do the controlled piloting that I talked about earlier with 400 MILLEE students and 400 village students going through conventional schooling. After that, we would like to expand MILLEE into other Indian cities. Since the project should have a home-grown approach, we will incorporate local state curriculum into our games. We are also looking at the possibility of partnerships with other NGOs like Pratham or Naandi Foundation that work on education at the national level and see how we can build into each others’ space.

Finally, how can a common man like me who has a full-time job, but can afford to spend some time for social causes help you?

I have had a lot of people come and tell me that they want to get involved in MILLEE’s efforts and wanted to know how they can contribute. It is really great, but I think the best thing they can do is to tell me what their strengths are, because if I ask them to make a video game and if they don’t know how to do it, it’s not going to work right?  But as far as what I need is concerned, I need to raise funds for the project. Given that we focus on the BoP, I feel why should we raise money from the people who are in the middle and upper classes? If I can somehow reach out to people at the BoP and sell the project idea to them, even if they donate Rs.10/- each it would be a great way to generate funding. But it is really hard to reach them and I need people who can give ideas on doing that. Further for the piloting itself, I need people who can be field operators and curriculum developers etc. So we do have a lot of requirements, and would like to hear from interested people about how they can contribute.

This year’s event includes online networking, interactive sessions, enterprise showcase stalls, videos, and the challenging Sankalp awards. Connecting social enterprises with investors, Sankalp is sure to be the springboard for social enterprises looking to take off!

This year’s five high-impact sectors:

1. Agriculture, Food & Rural Business
2. Clean Energy
3. Inclusive Education
4. Health, Water & Sanitation, and
5. Technology for Development

Log on to www.sankalpforum.com today to upload your profile, network with attendees, view enterprise models online, and APPLY for a Sankalp Social Enterprise Award.

Be part of Sankalp 2010 and engage with the New Global Economy!

Ankur Saxena (IIT Kanpur) and Rishikesh (BITS) spent the last summer working with Ethos Philanthropy on bringing together nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, donors, and individuals on a single web based platform. The team conceptualized a fellowship program (isupportfellowships) to engage professionals to volunteer for short-term consultancy projects for nonprofits. The program has been implemented and has seen participation from professionals working in MNCs in Bangalore and Mumbai as well as  MBA students from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. Sarabjeet Singh (IIT-Kharagpur), another E4SI fellow went on to work for Ethos full-time after graduating and is determined to help to turn their project into a “one-stop portal for change in India”

Some of the other fellows worked on designing cool and interesting products. Chitta Ranjan (IIT Kharagpur), worked with D.Light to develop a lighting device for hawkers. While designing the prototype, Chitta traveled and sought input from end users in rural areas of U.P. One of the final designs was selected by D.Light for full production. Srinath Ramakkrushnan (IIT Madras) spent his summer designing a paddy dehusker/dry-grinder/oil-expeller machine for SELCO. Srinath was so inspired by his experience that he went on to found the Rural Consultancy Group for delivering technical solutions to rural challenges. Anurag Priyam (IIT Kharagpur) and Neha Kumari (BITS) took on the task of developing a management information system for MFIs while working at Intellecap. Both of them raved about the mentorship they received and the charged and insightful debates with their colleagues. Neha summed up her experience as, “Engineers for Social Impact fellowship doesn’t finish with the immersion experience. It begins there”

Navesh Priyankar (IIT-K) worked on a project at A Little World for a fingerprint recognition and duplication tool for banks in rural areas – an interesting and impactful idea that can help bring safe banking to the masses. When asked about the impact of this experience on him, Navesh said, “The 2 months with ALW provided a whole new perspective on the economic and social conditions prevailing in the villages of our country. It made me aware of the enormous amount of work being put into this sector by the government, NGO’s and other social enterprises for the social and economic welfare of the masses.” Pankaj Agarwal (BITS), while also working for AWL, had a completely different experience working on analyzing feasibility of bio-gas plants in villages – a project that took him from working with scientists to the manufacturing floor to negotiating with village Panchayats.

Every single E4SI fellow I have interacted with left the program highly inspired – and this includes some fellows who knew nothing about social enterprises before the program. While building experience and skills like any other internship, such programs provide an unmatched leadership experience. If you have been part of a similar program in any part of the world, we would love to hear about your experience.

A core goal of the program is to link teams of Yale students with mission-driven social entrepreneurs in India over a four-month long course designed to bring the students and social entrepreneurs together to address a specific management challenge the social enterprise is facing.  Key attributes of the course are:

·    Five teams of 4 to 6 students (advised by India-based Morgan Stanley staff) will work with each social enterprise on a project vital to its continued organizational development;

·    The selected social entrepreneurs will visit the Yale campus for an intensive week of faculty and student interaction in September/October 2010;

·    Student team members will visit India to get a more practical view of the challenge and to meet each social enterprise’s management, staff and trustees;

·    A two-day conference will be held in India in January 2011 at which social enterprise representatives, students, faculty, Morgan Stanley staff, and invited guests will hear and discuss the plans and explore issues of broader import to social entrepreneurs.

Yale is actively seeking applications from social enterprises in India interested in collaborating during next fall’s course.  A one-page description of the program and an application form (due no later than March 10, 2010).

In this edition TCI-changemaker focuses on First Energy, who spun out of BP and now is an alternative energy startup focused on delivering affordable cooking stoves to rural and tribal India. Vinay sat down with Mahesh Yagnaraman, a founder of First Energy to learn more.

What exactly does your organization do?

First Energy is an alternative energy business, catering to consumers in rural and suburban India through an affordable cooking offer branded “OORJA.” Oorja consists of a biomass stove and a fuel – made from pelletized agri-residue. The stove uses biomass gasification technology, developed and patented with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The fuel is made from compacted agri-residue. Both come together to form an affordable cooking offer – making a meal for a family of 5 for less than Rs. 5 per meal.

Why start this? What personally drove these entrepreneurs to start this?

The business was developed by BP. As part of a strategic review of its businesses, BP decided to exit this business. I along with Mukund Deogaonkar, who worked on the venture within BP came together. Sreeram Thiagarajan and Raymond Moses from The Alchemists Ark,a specialized consulting organization also came on board. All four of us saw that the venture has potential and once done at scale will help bridge the energy divide while providing an energy security alternative and also being environmentally friendly. The clear 3Ps (People, Planet & Profit) potential of the venture drove the team to take on the mantle when a large corporation had decided to walk away from the space.

What do you think is lacking in the sector of your organization’s interest in spite of your intervention?

The policy framework for energy is very lop sided. Subsidies are making fuel unaffordable for the Government and the country. At the same time, the alternative energy subsidies have not led to any adoption of scalable, sustainable alternative energy development.

In the case of the specific business of FE, the company faces twin challenges – cooking gas, LPG, is subsidised to the extent of Rs 290 per bottle and the wrong incentives for biomass power generation has driven up the prices of agri-waste artificially.

Who are the founders and management? What do they do?

The founders are myself, Mukund Deogaonkar, Sreeram Thiagrajan and Raymond Moses. I have been the Managing Director of FE since 2006, Mukund is the Operations Director. Sreeram & Raymond are executive directors on the board and actively support the team through their guidance and coaching.

At the Alchemists Ark, Sreeram and Raymond consult for and add value in sales, marketing, supply chain to several MNCs and large corporates in India and abroad. Raymond is alumnus of IIT Kanpur while Sreeram is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.

I have been at the helm of the business in India since its start in Feb 2006 bringing together an initial team of talented people, and setting up the company. I did my MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur and have a career spanning 19 years in different countries/continents and across strategy, sales, marketing, supply chain and IT implementation at Unilever, Castrol and BP.

Mukund Deogaonkar has been associated with the business from the start and has been the part of the team that was responsible for creating business concept and heads the operations. He has sales and marketing experience for over 17 years in fuels and lubricant industries and has strong proven ability to forge partnerships and relationships across the value chain

How is it funded?

The venture is self-funded at this point by the founders.

How do you measure your effectiveness?

We use the two straightforward metrics of profitably and stoves sold.

Assuming this problem exists in similar forms throughout the world, what unique challenges do you face in fighting it here in India?

India’s energy framework is still very closed and not liberalised. The heavy subsidies makes the entire thing very inefficient.

How do you intend to scale this model going forward? What are the future goals/plans for the venture?

We aim to be profitable this year, at least at the per unit level. In the next 3 – 5 years we want to reach 1 million households. Beyond that, however, like 10 years out we have not thought that far.

What criteria do you use to identify partners/beneficiaries ?

We look at their ability to provide channel or route to market, share the same values and commitment in serving underserved markets, willingness to exercise patient capital, and have the ability to influence or shape policy.

If some one else is starting off on your own sector of work, what advice do you have for him/her?

You have to play for the long haul. We have to think of creating an industry and not just a business. We don’t yet feel we have the right experience to give broad advice for start ups and would humbly state that we are in the learning curve and we are happy to share learnings with anyone on a one to one basis.