DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

When Power Ministers of various states gathered in New Delhi last month at the conference of power sector called by Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, it was the issue of capacity addition that came up majorly for discussions. The other issues that were discussed on priority were those relating to unbundling of state electricity boards, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Viduytikaran Yojana and energy efficiency, among others. If India is grow at a fast pace in the next decade, it cannot lag behind in infrastructure development. Other fast developing countries such as Brazil and China are investing huge money in developing their  infrastructure, particularly the power sector.

India has the fifth largest generation capacity in the world, according to KPMG. The installed capacity is 152 GW as on September 30, 2009, which is about 4 percent of global power generation. However, the average per capita consumption of power is around 700 kWh, which is much less by global standards, especially when compared to the US and China (approx 15,000 kWh and 1,800 kWh respectively).

The government believes that in the 11th Five Year Plan period, around 62,374 MW capacity addition would take place. If it puts its best foot forward, it believes that an additional 12,590 MW is also possible. The government's optimism comes heavily from the performance it hopes from the private sector. Shinde recently talked of the government plan to target 1 lakh MW capacity addition in the 12th Five Year Plan, and the govt hopes that 60% of which would be added by the private sector.

In the last 60 years, it has been 2009-10 that has seen the highest capacity addition of 9,585 MW in a single year. The share of the private sector in total installed capacity has grown from 4% in 1990 to 11% in 2006. 

With so much action ready to unravel in the power sector, it would be a good time for entrepreneurs to look for opportunities in this sector.

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While Happy Women's Day is trending on Twitter, amidst the din in the Upper House of Indian Parliament there is a Women's Reservation Bill is being tabled to give 33% quota to women in Parliament and assemblies. Both seem to be mere symbolic gestures to salute the fairer sex while the situation on the ground remains unchanged. There is still no light at the end of the tunnel for millions of women in small towns and villages. They work on fields, in factories and homes only to be marginalized and paid much less than their male counterparts.

Just the mere passing of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament will serve no purpose until real empowerment takes place. The Act could become a tool in the hands of corrupt politicians to use women as dummy candidates in elections while the real power rests with them. Similarly, we will twitter today and forget the next day. It will all be back to pulling women down and creating hurdles for them. 

Empowerment lies in entrepreneurship. More women should be encouraged to come up with business ventures, innovative ideas and ways to partner in existing businesses. Starting your own business and successfully running it requires skills such as proper business and financial planning, marketing, communication and understanding customer needs. It for each of us to impart theses skills to marginalized women to help them look positively at opportunities of self-employment. 

Another point to be considered is funding. Some banks have worked out some special schemes to encourage women in entrepreneurship but still it is difficult to avail of these loans. Lack of awareness is a big problem. DARE did a story on why loans for women entrepreneurs are not taking off.

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Not long ago in 2009 it was mayhem in the gems and jewellery units across the country with shutters going down on many small manufacturing shops and workers losing jobs. The major export markets of US and Europe, which have been traditional strongholds of Indian companies for long were in chaos due to the economic slowdown. With people going on recession diets, there was surely no money to buy the luxuries of life such as gems and jewellery.

The year 2010 is ringing in some good news now. With recession now paving way for growth, the gems and jewellery units are smiling their way to gloary. Gitanjali Gems has glittered with 39% jump in net profit at Rs 41 crore in the third quarter of 2009-10. The company's jewellery sales turnover has gone up 60% to Rs 1,098 crore in the quarter under review. According to IBEF, the gems and jewellery industry in India is highly fragmented with a large number of domestic private sector players. It says that India has around 450,000 goldsmiths, 100,000 gold jewellers, 6,000 diamond processors and 8,000 diamond jewellers. According to a report, rating agency Fitch has improved its outlook for this sector.

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Rs 30,000 crore is an alarming figure. And this is not the size of a scam or the allocation the government is making to any of its social sector schemes. If industry chamber FICCI is to be believed, Rs 30,000 crore worth of fruits and vegetables are wasted annually due to glaring holes in the supply chain and storage facilities. Only around 2% of fruits and vegetables are processed, and the figure stands at 26% for marine, 6% for poultry and 20% for buffalo meat, as against 60-70% of the overall food production in developed countries.

While jam and sauce have been on the dining table of millions of Indian families for a long time, there are many other processed foods that are also making way to Indian households. Food habits are changing as a result of lifestyle changes and this is leading to increasing demand for processed foods. According to an update by IBEF, the Indian packaged processed foods industry is estimated at US$ 10.87 billion – US$ 13.05 billion, including biscuits, chocolates, ice-cream, confectionery, snacks, cheese and butter. It adds that growing at a healthy 14-15 per cent over the past two-three years, major players in the sector include Britannia, Nestle, Amul, ITC Foods, Parle, Kellogg’s, GlaxoSmithKline, Wrigley and Frito-Lay, among others.

So not a bad time to look at the opportunity in the agro-processing sector. If so much of raw material -- fruits and vegetables -- are going waste, it only makes sense to put them to better use while availing the benefits of cheap labor, some good incentives from banks and make an entry into this sector.  The growth of business depends a lot on the nature of the produce and processing methods. The food quality should be top-class, and therefore, procurement of superior quality of raw materials becomes imperative. This industry is labor intensive, providing employment at each step—production of raw materials, processing at various units in organized and unorganized sectors, packaging of end product, transport and selling at retail stores.

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The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, if works out as planned, could turn out to be the UPA government's flagship initiative just like the National Rural Employment Generation (NREGA) scheme.  Among the various initiatives aimed at giving a fresh impetus to the renewable energy sector, three are noteworthy: Allowing large scale domestic manufacture, a long-term policy to purchase power; and R&D support to reduce material consumption and improve efficiency. The solar mission is among the 8 national missions that comprise the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

The solar PV market is growing quite fast and indeed has enough scope for new players to enter. The market now has over 30 state-of-the-art PV module and cell suppliers. " The aggregate module production capacity rose from less than 60 MW in 2005 to more than 1 GW in 2009, setting India up as a possible major manufacturing hub for the global solar PV market," according to a fresh analysis done by research firm Frost & Sullivan. The aggregate module production capacity in the market was 972 MW in 2008 and is estimated to reach 2,575 MW in 2015, it says.

Under the National Solar Mission, the government aims to install solar generation capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020, 1,00,000 MW by 2030 and 2,00,000 MW by 2050. The government has estimated that the funding required for this will be anything between Rs 85,000 crore and Rs 105,000 crore. “The government is mulling to raise funds for the solar program to Rs 12,000 -15,000 crore under the 12th Five Year Plan,” says a story in DARE on Solar Photovoltaic Cells, quoting an IREDA official. By 2022, the government aims to install 20 million square meter solar thermal collectors in the country and save about 7,500 MW power generation capacity.

The good thing is that the government wants 20 million solar lights to be installed by 2022, which could save about 1 billion litres of kerosene every year. Are you ready to make the most of this opportunity?

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