S.B. Dangayach

Pragmatic ways to accelerate growth of India

S B Dangayach

In the current turbulent times. We are doing relatively better than most economies. With an effective and decisive leadership at helm combined with our fundamental strengths we are going to record a growth in GDP of 6-7%.

There are, however, many pragmatic India centric policies and actions that can add around 4% to annual GDP growth. Fortunately all these measures are going to need less of financial, material and energy resources but more of human resources that collectively are surplus in India in most segments.

Essential paradigms in overall plans

•Resource /capacity utilisation
•Resource efficiency
•Waste reduction /reuse/recycle /recover /recreate (5R principle)
•Integrated and holistic oil approach as against reductionist thinking and philosophy •Hardnosed and pragmatic approach from policy to action
•Calibrated reduction of subsidy in predefined years from launch to drive people to self reliance through hard and honest work
•Adopt maxim “Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam “everywhere

These steps are feasible in all domains and thus are easy to implement in near future.

Suggested steps for additional 4% GDP growth

1Utilisation of “wasted “lands
*Good lands that have not been used for last 20 years and will not be used for next 20 years to be classified as “wasted lands”
*Large parcels with govt ,trusts,temples ,waqf boards, churches, enterprises etc
*Allowing utilisation for designated purposes without change in ownership

2Leasing of wastelands to all for limited period
*Throw open leasing of wastelands for agriculture, dairying, animal husbandry,h orticulture etc to all
*Varying lease period for different activities

3Speedy clearance of building projects all over India that meet national building code or other rational rules
*Reform process of approvals of plans using technology and other means
*Reduce regulatory time and costs dramatically
4Awareness campaign for change in rent control act made in Gujarat state
*Exemption to all new constructions after 2011 and vacant old properties from rent control act *Need for massive awareness to bring large number of properties in rental market to improve housing or building situation and attracting investment in rental markets for all types of premises

5Flexibility in labour laws
*To give two options to future employees
-Employment with prevailing laws
-Employment without legal recourse of any type but carrying retrenchment allowance of 75 /90 days for each year or part of employment
*Conversion of contract workers doing long term jobs into regular employees with above options *Flexibility to employers to arrange skilling in relevant field and transfer as per needs of enterprise

6Skilling for all types of jobs
*Improvement and excellence needed for proper execution at all levels *Skilling to be encouraged using appropriate means
*Will improve quality, output and confidence of workers

7Higher priority to waste to wealth opportunities *Waste is a resource at wrong place
*SBA+ to be adapted and implemented aggressively

*Conversion of all organic waste into biogas, organic fertilizer, power etc feasible
*Policy for reuse of treated wastewater in place in Gujarat. To be reviewed and made practical for attracting enterprises
*Wasted talents in plenty in education to be harnessed for supporting education and skilling

8Increased thrust on renewables in energy mix
*Renewables now cheaper than fossils in many domains
*New models for decentralised distributed power using renewables feasible and to be supported all out
•Designing transmission infra time to handle mix of discontinuous and continuous power supply

9 Genuine support to MSME
*Micro and small nearly 99% of all in numbers providing employment to self and others
*Flow of funds to be proportionate to GDP and employment generated by them
*Encourage creation of plug and play modules with all clearances “for them by private developers or government for rental or ownership all over Gujarat. Will reduce investment and time to start business for enterprises

10 Boost to agri and rural enterprises
*Decentralised micro grids feasible. Energy economics now very different *Local cold chain facility using renewables or blended power now possible *Local processing, value addition etc to be given huge boost

11Thrust on tourism
•To be given high priority status
•To aim for 10 % contribution to GDP of India in 10 years

12 Revisit and amend existing schemes to improve implementation
•Many important schemes untapped due to impractical contents. Example -treated wastewater policy of Gujarat or SATAT of GOI.
•To remove anomalies and difficulties for quick adoption

13 Using technology to improve vital services like justice delivery
•Justice delivery a cause of concern
•E courts and other measures to reduce cost and time of delivery of justice to all people and enterprises

14 Thrust on preventive and promotive aspects of health
•Allopathy good in curative only
•Need to openly support AYUSH for preventive and promotive aspects of health
•Health and wellness centres to have dominant role of AYUSH
•Food and nutrition improvement as well as immunity boost through solutions in AYUSH

•Prorata support of funding, research, grants, promotion etc to be given to AYUSH

•To build plans around AYUSH +Allopathy or AYUSHA as limitations of allopathy are fully exposed

15 Support to open, blended and outcome based learning
•Paradigm shifts now in the way knowledge is created, transmitted and delivered
•Need to reduce cost and time for delivery of quality knowledge using technology and other means
•To reduce controls in process of education and skilling
•Instead go for outcomes and evaluation of learning by transparent bodies for certification
16 Importance to operation and maintenance in planning and execution
-Budget for operation, maintenance and upkeep of capital assets
-Lay thrust on carrying out proper operations and maintenance of all capital assets to enhance life and reduce overall cost of ownership
-Give boost to training and employment in this domain
-Give boost to circular economy and climate solutions

Conclusion
Since independence, we have followed prescriptions of the Western world-first a mixture of socialism, communism and capitalism and now neocapitalism. Our policies and programmes have been deeply influenced by Western schools of thoughts and consultants. In the process, we have not attempted to give attention to many India centric low hanging steps that are better suited to us and are in harmony with our needs. Partial list of simple, smart sensible, sustainable and spreadable ideas as given above can help in double digit holistic economic growth.

S B Dangayach
Founder Trustee
Innovative Thought Forum (ITF) sbdangayach@gmail.com
www.itf-india.com
+919998822680

Sewage treatment has been receiving attention from authorities since long. Central Public Health Engineering and Environment Organisation (CPHEEO) has been the nodal technical organisation for sewage treatment and technologies helping various state boards and local governments for decades.

Despite grand plans for treatment of all sewage generated in the country is far from successful. NGT under the authority of Supreme Court has been pressing local and state governments with limited success and has now imposed “penalty “in form of a “ring fenced “amount to be earmarked by state government for creating needful infrastructure and ecosystem for total management in a short period.

Pragmatic actions

-Work out end to end costs including health and environment for collection, conveyance and treatment of sewage
-Plan for metering sewage discharged in the pipeline by individual waste generator
-Apply Polluter Pays Principle and recover all the charges from waste generators in proportion to quantum
-Standardise several models of package sewage treatment plants proven successful for commercial tendering and bring them on GEM platform
-Standardise STPs of of small to medium sizes and find ways to bring them on common rate contracts or GEM platforms for seamless and quick installation
-Encourage decentralised and localised STPs to reduce conveyance costs
-Encourage leasing of wastelands and wasted (surplus lands with trusts, temples, waqf boards, enterprises, institutions, government departments, farmers etc) for processing facility all over the country
-Revisit Guj Govt policy of “reuse of treated wastewater “and remove the roadblocks to attract entrepreneurs in pure business mode
-Give the flexibility of pricing of treated sewage to industries and institutions to entrepreneurs
-Quickly adopt successful business models as in case of Surat Muni Corporation and promote them aggressively
-Treated sewage found nutrient rich by most farmers and hence business models and enterprises capturing hidden values of sewage through proper technology to be encouraged
-Ban groundwater extraction in agreed time frame to force institutional and industrial users to treat and reuse their own Wastewater or buy treated sewage of requisite norms from private treatment plants
-Throw open sewage business to all new technologies for demonstration at the cost of the entrepreneurs for one year and agreed payment on success
-Plan in totality for conveyance (pipe network) and treatment plants to make optimal use of investment
-Fasten liability and stiff penalty on defaulting local governments or employees

S B Dangayach
Founder Trustee
Innovative Thought Forum
www.itf-india.com
sbdangayach@gmail.com
+919998822680

Pragmatic ways for municipal solid waste management (MSW)in India

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management started receiving attention from 1996 after a PIL on the subject. Supreme court approved Solid waste management rules, 2016 following which detailed manual was circulated to all administrators.

SWM ,2016 urged all waste generators to segregate dry and wet wastes and give it to local authorities for conveyance and processing. As there have been major gaps, NGT authorised by Supreme Court has now held state governments responsible for
deficiency in management and imposed a “penalty “that has to be kept in “ring-faced “account for creating needful infrastructure for total management as per norms in near future.

Pragmatic actions

-Work out end to end costing for different types of wastes: dry, wet, mixed, hazardous etc
-Apply Polluter Pays Principle and recover all the charges from waste generators in proportion to quantum
-Create rules and ecosystem for management of wastes suitable for biogas and organic fertiliser (kitchen, food and animal wastes)
-Put stiff penalties for mixed waste to push people to carry out segregation
-Work out “Zero wet /mixed waste or “policy for bulk generators
-Encourage waste entrepreneurs in business mode all over the country
-Encourage leasing of wastelands and wasted (surplus lands with trusts, temples, waqf boards, enterprises, institutions, government departments, farmers etc) for processing facility all over the country
-All garden waste to be converted into revenue generating products like briquettes, RDF, compost etc in business mode
-Removal of subsidy and facilitate business by a combination of recovery of all costs including health and environment hazard from waste generators, revenue from resource recovery, revenue from value added products etc
-Encourage Decentralised and localised processing and management to reduce logistics costs
-Standardise equipments for all types of MSW processing and management and bring them to the GEM platform for seamless techno commercial transactions
-Throw open bio mining to all bidders in the world and ask them to install their equipments on trial without payment for one year and demand payment on success as per agreement
-Segregation, logistics and non-littering to be major driver for success along with recovery of full costs from waste generators
-Fasten liability and stiff penalty on defaulting local governments or employees

S B Dangayach
Founder Trustee
Innovative Thought Forum
www.itf-india.com
sbdangayach@gmail.com
+919998822680

India centric agriculture and rural development for Atmanirbhar Bharat

Agriculture is the foundation of India and has close linkage with water, energy, food, fertiliser, nutrition, health and climate change. With diverse climates India is the cradle of wide variety of crops that are starting materials for many processed products. Despite several schemes and programmes of governments, share of agriculture in GDP is falling continuously and stands at 14%.

Rural industries based on agriculture and other resources are in similar slot with their proportion dropping steadily. Services offered by rural and remote areas are losing out due to favourable factors driving urbanisation and shift of talent, technology and trade to urban pockets.

We are celebrating 75 years of independence that has been a mix of several successes and failures. Despite freedom on the physical plane, we are continuing to suffer from mental and intellectual inadequacies resulting into adherence to thoughts and practices from the Western world either in pristine form or modified versions. Whereas in the initial decades we had adopted Western socialism or communism, in later decades we have gone for capitalism. Our inability to aim for India centric economic policy is clear from the fact that “Arthashashtra “of Kautilya , now lauded as the founder of modern economics , is absent from libraries and curricula of all economics and business schools of India.

Our diffidence is also obvious from the reading of essay on “science “in Wikipedia where India is conspicuously absent as a contributor in the fields of Mathematics, Astronomy, Health etc despite having been the pioneers in the world.

In the field of finance, we are oblivious to drainage of our wealth in offshore tax havens controlled by old colonisers and lack the courage to question defective financial architecture harming us.

In the backdrop of the above developments, clarion call for Atmanirbhar Bharat is timely and laudable.

Independent India centric thinking is the basic need for Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Innovative Thought Forum (ITF) and Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM ) have arranged round tables of domain experts on the theme of “pragmatic ways for Atmanirbhar Bharat”on following subjects recently and have come up with an anthology containing 75 articles by India centric thought leaders to suggest feasible and practical ways for making India stronger.

• Foreign trade
• Internal trade and e commerce
• Finance and taxation
• Health and wellness
• Skilling and employment
• Education and research
• Environment and climate change
• Energy and water
• Farming, Fertilisers and Foods
• Land and infrastructure
• Defence and space
• Technology and entrepreneurship

Common themes emerging from the above deliberations were

• Designing or engineering for proper utilisation of our resources
• Waste reduction /reuse/recycle /recover /recreate (5R principle )
• Integrated and holistic costing taking into account capex and opex
• Continuous skilling of Human Resources for building internal capacity for optimum quality output
• Concomitant changes in education , research and programmes for India centric thinking and action
• Transition from present Western model of capitalism 1.0 based on pure profits (Shudhh Labh ) to Indian model of capitalism 2.0 based on ethical profits (Shubh Labh)

Major issues with agriculture and rural industries

Though all the governments have apparently talked for growth of agriculture and local industries citing massive employment in the sector and need to improve all parameters for rural masses, gap between rural and urban populations is increasing . Sincerity and diligence are generally low for agricultural and rural pursuits that is generally attempted to be covered with subsidies or give a ways. Important issues are many such as

• Under-performance of Agriculture–Low growth rate of 3 per cent over recent decades
• Continuing decline of share of Agriculture in GDP—Now @14 per cent only
• Inefficiencies in use of resources like water,land and energy
• Increasing burden of subsidies without commensurate gains
• High post harvest losses in horticulture,aquaculture and foodgrains
• Decreasing interest of youth in agriculture driving migration to urban areas
• Poor value addition in rural areas
• Poor availability of power for desired processing
• Lack of entrepreneurial talent , energy and ecosystem in rural areas

Causes for the above issues

There are many reasons for the problems as mentioned above. The governance structure prevailing today is an extension of colonial past and reflects lower priority in everything. The paradigm is to go for giving subsidy selectively and not really work towards capacity building and genuine empowerment. Here are a few prominent causes

• Inertia in adoption of appropriate technologies. For example slow adoption of proven tools like micro irrigation in many areas
• Slow speed of innovation and spread of simple concept like micro irrigation for small and marginal farmers or fish production in small areas with supply of quality seeds
• Distortion in optimal use of resources like land and water due to short sighted subsidy based ecosystem
• Limited research, development and extension of efforts appropriate for India and it’s people
• Lip service to vital inputs like organic manure, validation of it’s properties and application in different crops to reduce dependency on chemical fertilisers
• Lack of efforts to turn wasteland into useful pursuits like water harvesting, aquaculture, dairying etc. to boost incomes and livelihoods
• Lack of evolution of framework to produce renewable energy from animal waste, biomass ,wind etc at local levels to boost outputs in rural areas of agriculture, horticulture or aquaculture so as to boost food processing and decentralised cold chain
• Lack of scientific study on water footprint of different crops to work out crop plan in different zones or areas
• Excessive use of water leading to massive wastage, soil damage, soil degradation and contamination due to free or subsidised power in the country
• Lack of treatment facilities of sewage to prescribed levels to make it available for agriculture nutrient rich water that can reduce fertiliser demand simultaneously
• Absence of innovative thinking on phasing out subsidies or making various arms of the sector attractive to most people
• Rigidities in land laws, leasing or renting laws etc. as well as imbalances in statutes for landlords, tenant farmers etc forcing non cultivation and disuse of many resources
• Limited cold chain infrastructure at local levels of production leading to reduced incomes to producers, high post harvest losses and fall in quality
• Lack of integrated approach to food processing in decentralised format to help create jobs in rural areas
• Very high inefficiencies in procurement, storage and distribution of food grains leading to massive carrying costs like Rs 5 per kg (As estimated by Planning Commission)
• Association of rural with poor quality shoddy products
• Lack of design and customer centric thinking in all policies
• Shackling of farmers

Solutions for healthy and hefty progress

We have continued to depend on Western educated and oriented planners and models for solving our problems .New digital technologies are paving the ways for decentralisation in education , skilling , training , employment , healthcare , finance , production .We can adapt and use them with our other tools and knowledge to

• Evolve cost effective solutions for small and marginal farmers in resource effective manner (Like telecom revolution that has made mobile affordable to masses)
• Focus on sustainable agriculture by mainstreaming resource efficiency and waste management
• Demonstrate in near future waste to resource recovery or energy projects that can create additional incomes for rural areas(For example show that Gobar from a cow has an economic value of Rs 20000 + per year if converted to biogas and manure in a biogas plant)
• Encourage and scale up use of treated sewage of prescribed quality for agriculture
• Innovative uses of wasteland for several profitable activities like aquaculture, poultry, dairying, biomass, solar power, hydroponics etc by a variety of instruments like leasing, cooperative farming etc.
• Removal of controls in leasing of land and making contract farming upto a certain level easy and hassle free
• Phase out harmful subsidies on fertiliser distorting desirable 4:2;1 NPK use ratio as also power subsidy and plough back saved financial resources into public investment for level playing field for organic manure, micro irrigation, green houses, hydroponics, biogas plants, decentralised renewable energy plants, marketing, extension etc
• Bring about convergence and effective coordination across various formations at central, state and local levels
• Plan next 5 years for diversification trials as food grain supply expected to exceed demand and nutrition considered very vital for overall health
• Integrate decentralised renewable energy plants with cold chain creation at local levels
• Involve Swadeshi private sector in last mile infra connectivity
• Avoid high inventory carrying costs of foodgrains by efficient logistics ,storage and distribution
• Integrate Biotech,Nanotech,Cleantech and ICT in agriculture to boost innovation as well as productivity
• Push for modernisation to make agriculture and food processing a hot area for investment and employment
• Tap international markets by appropriate as well as value added products in several domains of agriculture -Like organic cotton fabrics ,organic tea etc
• Aggressive adoption of Homoeopathy and Ayurveda in healthcare of animals, poultry, fishes etc where they have succeeded
• Extra efforts to research and develop Homoeopathic and Ayurvedic formulations to bring down costs as well as prevent contamination of food chain by Allopathic medicines
• Highest priority to skilling of agriculture workers by revamping and redrawing relevant extension programmes
• Enhancing availability of finance on soft terms and low interest alongwith phasing out of subsidies
• Improvement of numerary and digital skills in the country especially rural areas with Edutech
• Exposure of all higher secondary and college students to elementary and important aspects of Vyapar or business through simple courses like “Vyapar Sutra”
• Treatment of farmers as “ entrepreneurs “and giving them the freedom of doing business throughout the world -Giving aggressive push to tourism and creativity +craft industries all over the country
• Adopting lessons from Arthashashtra based on Sanatan Dharma for Sarvodaya of India end globe
• Public private partnership (PPP) at local levels by micro and small enterprises

Successful examples

There are many examples of Innovative solutions that show us immense scope of many economic activities for Sarvoday of India

• Dhoraji model for plastic waste processing

Dhoraji is a town near Rajkot that had a thriving oil milling industry. When the old business closed down, premises became idle .A few entrepreneurs thought of using these wasted premises for processing of plastic waste into several useful products like tapes, pipes, types etc. Today Dhoraji is the biggest cluster for plastic waste processing with a distinctive ecosystem including Mandi for waste procurement from all over the country and markets for their value added products. As of now over one lakh tonnes is processed leading to huge employment and value addition.

This is a successful model of use of wasted premises, waste materials and surplus or idle manpower to create a sustainable business model without any subsidy or grant.

• NDDB model for biogas and organic fertiliser

NDDB and cooperative dairies are mandated to maximise milk and derivatives production so far. Capture of value from Gobar or manure is now getting long overdue attention

In a few villages like Munjkuwa and Jamiatpura , dairy cooperatives have created local Sakhi cooperatives for organic fertilisers. Members have installed family size Biogas plants that give adequate quantity of biogas for cooking besides liquid slurry that is collected from each family for processing into Phosphate rich organic manure (PROM) and other organic fertilisers. This programme pays for itself in less than 2 years without subsidy and can be replicated by all the cooperatives at village level

Lessons from this work shows that so called waste like Gobar helps farmers to meet their cooking energy need while giving additional income to them

• Kerala model for health and wellness

Health is prerequisite to all four purusharths of our life (Dharmarth -////)

Wellness is important part of health. Health centres and spas created in rural parts of Kerala and other states show a proper way to leverage our knowledge of Ayurveda to restore health and remaining diseases free on a sustainable basis.

All such centres are operating without any subsidy and can pave the way for enormous development as health improvement is important to all.

• Jaipur Rugs for training of rural women for high quality rugs as a role model for “creativity and craft industry”

In the villages around Jaipur and other parts of the country, Jaipur Rugs has been converting their designs into excellent rugs for global markets by training and self employed women. This firm, like many others, are blending their design and marketing knowledge with widely distributed network of processors or converters for weaving.

There is a scope for entrepreneurs to look at such models to generate wealth and distribute to artisan community in equitable manner and to build Creative industries.

• NextWealth for using rural youth in small towns for advanced services (www.nextwealth.com)

NextWealth is a social venture providing many advanced technology services internationally like AI/ML Data Services and IT/ BPM services.

NextWealth has over the past decade developed and perfected a unique Distributed Delivery Model that delivers from centers in small towns.

This company trains youth from rural areas and small towns and thereafter deploys them for delivering services all over the world.

Advantages of working in small towns and with NextWealth are significant- Lower attrition, skills availability and lower cost of operations.

NextWealth was started by a few senior experts from Wipro and can be a role model for many such enterprises that train, skill and empower unemployed youth in rural or semi rural areas for generating wealth there.

• Economic cluster in South Australia

Sewage is no more a problem in many parts of the world like Israel and parts of Australia. Near Adelaide city a revolutionary economic model has prospered. Sewage of the city is being used to irrigate vineyard and other crops after needful treatment.

Wine produced from grapes now fetch excellent price and have helped in creating new economic model altogether.

Israel has been able to show superior value in nutrients of sewage after suitable treatment and been able to use all the sewage after treatment in most of the areas.

Important lesson from this example is the use of wastewater as resource after suitable treatment which is the basic premise of circular economy.

Conclusions

Agriculture and rural development have indeed received less attention in independent India as evident from honest analysis of plans, programmes, finances, subsidies, attention etc. Glamour and glitz of urbanisation have directly or indirectly led all things rural to inferior position.

It is high time to shed this stereotype by focusing on 5 Es

• Education with parts suited for rural India and skilling
• Energy secured through several routes especially renewables in suitable mode
• Environment by focusing on organic , water efficient and energy efficient farming alongwith waste to wealth enterprises
• Employment by appropriate skilling and training as well as creation of jobs in rural enterprises , tourism and agriculture enterprises in rural areas
• Entrepreneurship by development of ecosystem to create and empower micro enterprises

It is feasible to shift value addition to rural areas by needful energy availability and entrepreneurial actions on all fronts including brand building and marketing.

Utilisation of wasted lands and wastelands for economic activities in flexible manner by eligible people without change in ownership can be the biggest game changer.

Chanakya and his predecessors always exhorted ethical wealth creation for self and society by all. It is worth invoking and learning from their wisdom to empower farmers and rural enterprises with knowledge and other resources for Atmanirbhar Bharat.

References

1. Pragmatic ways for Atmanirbhar Bharat by S B Dangayach and Anil Sharma
2. nextwealth.com
3. JaipurRugs.com

India Centric Technology & Engineering for Atmanirbhar Bharat

Prologue

India is celebrating 75 years of Independence that have witnessed ups and downs. Despite freedom on the physical plane, the people in general are continuing to suffer from mental and intellectual inadequacies resulting into adherence to thoughts and practices from the Western world either in pristine form or modified versions. Whereas in the initial decades the Western models of socialism or communism had been adopted, but they gave way to capitalism in the later decades. The inability to aim for an India centric economic policy is clear from the fact that “Arthashashtra” of Kautilya, now lauded as the founder of modern economics, is absent from libraries and curricula of all economics and business schools of India, albeit it would need to be modified to suit the present socio-political culture.

The diffidence of the people is also obvious from a reading of the essay on “Science” in Wikipedia where India is conspicuously absent as a contributor in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, health, etc. despite having been the pioneers in the world. The main reason being that the thought and learning processes plus the omnipresent media have been allowed to be West dominated.

In the field of finance, persons and businesses concerned are oblivious to drainage of India’s wealth in offshore tax havens controlled by old colonisers and lack the courage to question the defective financial architecture harming the country

In the backdrop of the above developments, the clarion call for Atmanirbhar Bharat is timely and laudable.

As a thought is needed to be translated into action, associations such as the Innovative Thought Forum (ITF) have arranged round tables on the theme of “Pragmatic Ways for Atmanirbhar Bharat” on many subjects recently and have come up with an anthology containing 75 articles in 12 areas, by India centric thought leaders and experts, to suggest feasible and practical ways for making India stronger.

1. a) Foreign Trade
2. b) Internal Trade and e Commerce
3. c) Finance and Taxation
4. d) Health and Wellness
5. e) Skilling and Employment
6. f) Education and Research
7. g) Environment and Climate Change
8. h) Energy and Water
9. i) Farming, Fertilisers and Foods
10. j) Land and Infrastructure
11. k) Defence and Space
12. l) Technology and Entrepreneurship

Technology and Engineering for Real Solutions

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge, basic and applied, for practical purposes and is thus the sum total of all known techniques, skills, methods and processes used in building and the production of desired structures, goods and providing services.

Engineering, on the other hand, is the use and application of science and technology to design and build machines, structures, etc., both in physical and virtual space.

For sake of simplification, the term engineering in this article will cover both engineering and technology.

India is unique in most ways by having distinctive sets of problems in every domain. The current paradigm of globalisation predicated on “one size fits all” is not going to serve the country well and hence there is a need to put India first and evolve solutions that address its needs optimally through a combination of local solutions and adapted global prescriptions.

Although there are nearly 7000 engineering institutions producing over one million engineers a year, it is found that the country is saddled with nagging problems because the engineers are not applying their mind nor putting in time and efforts to find solutions using their innate and acquired knowledge. Inadequate monetary benefits from such pursuit also drives engineers to other lucrative areas or emigration to other countries.

With resetting of the vision and an India centric perspective, dramatic changes could be brought about in all the spheres. A few of the engineering efforts which would really help India in becoming Atmanirbhar are Agriculture and Food, Renewable and Green Energy, Housing and Infrastructure, Waste to Resource or Environment, Health, and, Education and Skilling

Agriculture and Food

Agriculture has deep connection with water, energy, food, fertiliser, nutrition, health and environment. Agriculture Engineering encompasses science and the principles relating to the various disciplines of food science, environmental, mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical, and software engineering to improve the efficiency of farms and agribusiness enterprises as well as to ensure sustainability of natural and renewable resources. A few India centric areas for agriculture engineering and food that need attention are:

• Massive production of low-cost Tools and Equipment for farming.
• Decentralised Cold Storage facilities using a mix of renewables and fossil.
• Decentralised Dehydration facilities using renewables.
• Decentralised Agri processing facilities.
• Decentralised or Cooperative Organic fertiliser production using efficient biogas plants.
• IT opensource solutions for a variety of Agri activities.
• GIS for agriculture.
• Cultivation of Organic Medicinal Plants and conversion into Nutritional and Medical products.
• Hydroponic, Aquaponic and Aeroponic systems for cultivation at desired places.
• Development of biofertlisers and organic fertilisers for production and widespread use, and
• Engineering for Rainwater collection, storage and efficient use for multi cropping.

Renewable and Green Energy

The Energy sector is undergoing a rapid change with renewable energy now lower in cost than that from fossil fuels. Solar Power is being contracted at less than Rs 3 per unit in India and Rs. 2 in many parts of the world without any subsidy. Wind Power is also becoming cheaper all over the world and would see further decline with technical advancements both in onshore and offshore installations. The inherent drawback of discontinuity of renewable power availability will be thing of the past with progress in cheaper power storage technologies.

India is a major importer of fossil fuel and will gain a lot by focusing on renewables in an appropriate way. The focus of the policy makers so far has been on the supply side and very little work has so far been done on the demand side despite some resolutions by top leaders. In a recent survey conducted by the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) it has been learnt that the demand of power of rural enterprises is for 10/12 hours and that for agriculture for a few hours. India centric and design centric thinking as enumerated below, throws up many pathways for reducing import dependency and improving the country’s prosperity.

• Solar installations for pumping water – there is a perfect match in the discontinuous demand and supply.
• Solar installations in all manufacturing units to meet their demand partially.
• Decentralised Microgrids using renewables like solar, biogas, biomass, wind, small hydro, etc.
• Small Windmills for low-speed areas.
• Biogas plants with suitable improvements for production of gas, power and fertiliser from animal and kitchen waste.
• Engineering for improving efficiency of use of power in all sectors: manufacturing, transport, agriculture and buildings.
• Engineering for deployment of solar thermal applications in cooking, heating and industrial processing.
• Engineering for hybrid use of solar and fossil fuel thermal energy.
• Engineering for production and use of hydrogen for many uses like in heavy vehicles, buses, etc. and decentralised power grids, and
• Engineering for energy storage – hydro, batteries, phase change materials, hydrogen, etc.

Housing and Infrastructure

Housing is a basic need. Due to a mythical shortage of land and the complex regulatory or licence regime, shortage of proper pucca housing is faced in many parts of the country and that has given rise to mushrooming of slums and unhealthy living quarters.

Infrastructural requirements are really humongous and need judicious use of technology and engineering. Some of the steps that can help the country are:

• Using GIS and related technologies for identification of Wasted Lands, i.e., land parcels within exiting built environments, that have not been in use for last 20 years and will not be put to use for the next 20 years. Wasted Lands are thus different and distinct from Waste Lands. The Wasted Lands should be incorporated into the Master Plan of the built environment.
• Using a suite of technologies to convert Wastelands for agriculture into useful lands for aquaculture, sericulture, poultry, etc. in PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) or Public-Private People Partnership (PPPP) mode as well as for housing.
• Using IT to manage such leased parcels for Wastelands and Owned parcels of Wasted Lands for designated purposes.
• Technologies for efficient usage of energy in built spaces.
• Technologies for efficient usage and recycling of water in built spaces.
• Mechanised or semi mechanised methods of construction for better quality, and
• IT for online approvals of plans and monitoring of the approved plans.

Waste and Environment

Every activity generates waste and the proponents of Circular Economy demonstrate that every waste could be used as a resource for some other place or thing. There are many engineering methods to give shape to this dictum. A few feasible low hanging fruits to tap are:

• All animal waste like Gobar and food waste is great for biogas and organic fertiliser. Biogas plants to suit different needs can be designed and engineered to convert the waste into useful products.
• Technologies for treating sewage for use as industrial water or agricultural water.
• Low-cost biotech solution for treating human waste at site for maintaining hygiene of toilets all over India
• Technologies for sorting, transportation, managing and processing dry solid wastes.
• Perfection of technologies for use of plastic waste in road construction that can improve the quality of roads and thus also improve the environment. Plastic waste could also be converted/ moulded for use in other building materials.
• Knowhow for use of Fly Ash in agriculture and forests to increase output.
• Low-cost technologies for ZLD (Zero Liquid Discharge), and
• Clean production technologies to reduce air pollution.

Health

Health is recognised as a prerequisite for all pursuits -Dharm, Arth, Kam, and Moksh.

The health sector has evolved and now involves various branches of science and engineering such as agriculture, nutritional sciences, biomedical engineering, phytochemical engineering, public health engineering, chemical engineering, biotech, etc. A few solutions that stem from these are:

• Biotech Engineering for affordable production of specific immunity tools like vaccines, nosodes, etc.
• IT for telemedicine to deliver quality service and counsel all over the country.
• Nanotechnology based solutions for safer and better medicines.
• Engineering for improved medical devices and surgical tools, and
• Engineering for on-site and low-cost disinfection of water to improve public health.

Education and Skilling

Education is the foundation of every successful civilisation. Training or skilling has proved to be a game changer in the competitive world and is the backbone of developed nations who give it equitable place in all their plans.

Education technology, in short called Edutech, has shown it’s immense utility in the current pandemic. The country is endowed with an abundant population that can be a more valuable resource with proper education and training, for all ages, by combination of centralised and decentralised options. Building flexibility in the processes while focussing on the outcomes and reducing controls in the education field, can reap rich dividends.

A few transformational engineering initiatives in this domain worth considering are:

• Building platforms for open-source online education, training and skilling
• Building platforms for involving willing retired teachers and trainers to impart knowledge online and offline
• Building platforms for RPL (Recognition for Prior Learning) by diluting entrance criteria in time with India‘s needs and by having a two-tier certification system
  • Type A for people with poor literary or numerary abilities or skills
  • Type B for learners with proper literacy and numerary skill sets
• Technology for delivering skills or knowledge to people in their own habitats
• Using ICT to impart education and skills at optimal cost while enhancing each
• Priority to skilling of agricultural and construction workers for all round improvement
• Assessing demand of India and recasting education and skill programmes to meet it
• Incorporating simple modules for basics of business in all courses at secondary and higher levels for sharpening entrepreneurial skills of micro and small enterprises
• Digital literacy for various sections of the society

The examples given above can provide sustainable results if a few cardinal factors are incorporated in all the domains.

• Designing or engineering for proper utilisation of the resources.
• Waste Reduction/ Reuse/ Recycle / Recover/ Recreate (i.e. use the 5R principle)
• Integrated and holistic Costing taking into account Capex and Opex and accounting for the full life of the facility.
• Continuous Upgrading of Knowledge and Skills of all Human Resources for optimum quality and quantity outputs.
• Concomitant changes in Education, Research and Programmes for India centric thinking and action.

Conclusions

The expanse of Engineering is ever increasing and now even Financial Engineering is commonplace. In the Indian context, conversion of engineering solutions into enterprises would hold the key to the success of a mission. The Start-up ecosystem for local and global markets would be an important lever for success. A confident engineering community to efficiently solve the problems of India without sacrificing their abilities to win global markets is the need of the hour.

References

1. “Pragmatic ways for Atmanirbhar Bharat”, 2021 by S B Dangayach and Anil Sharma
2. Shobhit University, International Webinar Series in Open Source Digital Technologies for Self-Reliant India, Topic “Pragmatic ways for Atmanirbhar Bharat”, 1st January 2022

Link for published Article in Official quarterly magazine of CEAI on Becoming Atmanirbhar Concept to Reality:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11VYJsy0dYdD9y26npI4RBhPNNTd2gOa7/view?usp=sharing

Integrative Public health- Crying need of India

Public health relates to policies, programmes and actions for promoting wellness and preventing diseases. Private or personal health starts when a person is afflicted with a disease and is required to undergo clinical treatment or is required to remain isolated to check spread of contagion to others in the community.

Public health is indeed a complex interdisciplinary subject with interconnection and interplay of many disciplines, sciences and knowledge systems. Ayurveda, our own exemplary repository of life sciences is by far the most integrative healthcare system in the world. According to it, a person is considered healthy when all forces acting within and without are in balance with each other. Thus, Ayurveda looks at facets holistically and urges the individuals and community to adopt right lifestyle, food habits, Yoga, pranayama etc. Besides, Ayurveda has been able to integrate many nutritional and medicinal elements and plants in our regular intake of foods for easy promotion of wellness, immunity, and prevention of diseases. It is also the cradle of inoculation or vaccination with a proven history of over 1500 years for securing specific immunity against selected pathogens as illustrated in case of small pox .

Post Independence, we have created better infrastructure with disproportionate attention for personalised clinical treatment (or personal health) using mainly biomedical or allopathic sciences but have done much less for the vital and relatively easier aspect of public health. Most of our efforts through various health missions like NRHM, NUHM or NHM have failed to address public health issues adequately.

It is with the above background that National Health Policy, 2017 has urged holistic action. Ayushman Bharat, a programme following the policy has emphasised creation of health and wellness centres all over the country to give thrust to public health part while assuring masses to secure clinical treatment with a suitable state sponsored insurance plan.

Our country is unique in health traditions and practices. Whereas we are fast growing in biomedical field, we are having many vibrant health sciences under the umbrella of AYUSH that has Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Sidhha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy verticals in it. Our government has recognised the value of rational integration of AYUSH and Allopathy and has planned to promote Integrative and holistic approach with “one nation, one health” mission.

Current status of public health in India

An objective appraisal of the current position in respect of public health shows the following vital points

• Integration missing since independence
• Many ministries working on components of public health like water, sanitation, food, nutrition, immunity boost, air, pollution, environment etc without much coordination
• Public health put under MoHFW since long that is responsible for coordinating with World Health Organisation created by UN and member countries for public health
• Mother and child programme with Min of Women and Child Welfare (WCD). This ministry handling programmes relating to nutrition
• Lack of clarity in meaning of the term “Public Health”. Called variously as community health, social health, community medicine, preventive medicine etc. In essence non clinical health understood as public health. Clinical part of health taken as the major responsibility of the ministry of health and family welfare
• Bhore committee starting point. Health centres created all around allopathy. Work of various committees in India for integrative health given in annexure 3
• Public health generally covering non clinical. But taken over by clinicians putting thrust on curative or medical part with diagnostics
• Indian systems of medicine and Homoeopathy or other versions of traditional systems never became part of public health pan India
• Kits of Indian system of medicines and Homoeopathy introduced by then P M Vajpayeeji but the programme was short lived
• Asha and ANM training again geared towards curative side
• Very poor training of these people in adopting and using AYUSH
• Even Yoga not a part of these resources
• NRHM, NUHM and now as NHM same practice continuing Course of “preventive and social medicine (PSM)” in many colleges since long.
• Specialisation for epidemiology or public health in some Public health engineering and environmental engineering a part of engineering colleges with focus on water, sewage, sanitation, environment but not made a part of public health programmes pan India Paradoxically, though non clinical largely, public health centres headed by MBBS NRHM, NUHM and now NHM also largely unable to integrate Coordination missing between MOHFW, AYUSH, WCD, Environment, Water and Sanitation ministries
• Recent MOU between AYUSH and WCD ministries for collaborative work for nutrition under “POSHAN Abhiyan” a proof of non integration
• Even after 5 years, work on “diabetes control through Yoga” not mainstreamed
• Mammoth effort for Open defecation frees India (ODF) under SBM since 2014. A case of great success made possible with proper planning and execution with liberal funding for infrastructure, maintenance and IEC
• SBM + a potential success if similar thrust and dedication at all levels in coming years

Future solutions for India

As learnt from various interactions and inputs from experts in the field, we have to look at the following recommendations seriously

• To propose a strategy and implementation plan for a comprehensive integrative public health system in India building on the existing initiatives (such as the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness centres, National Health Mission, National AYUSH Mission etc.) and with an emphatic focus on health promotion, disease prevention and holistic primary health care Health and wellness centres to reflect aims as given in National Health Policy, 2017
• To compile relevant works done in area of water, sanitation, food, nutrition, spices, organic vegetables, herbs, medicinal plants, home remedies, simple AYUSH medicines for first line of treatment, yoga, pranayama, lifestyle etc to prepare simple modules for use in health and wellness centres for
• Training and use of ASHA and ANM workers
• Training of senior personnel for HWC
• Use by clinical doctors in practice
• Exchange of knowledge within AYUSH ministry as the six branches have some common but many unique features
• Exchange of knowledge between MOHFW and AYUSH to understand unique strengths and weaknesses of all branches
• Common modules for AYUSH based HWC and regular HWC for all promotive, preventive, rehabilitative and palliative parts. Difference in only primary curative part
• Yoga and Pranayama to be mainstreamed everywhere with simplification and feasible and basic modules like Suryamaskar, pranayama etc
• Health committees for centres to be made with people from WCD, water, sanitation, food, nutrition, yoga, naturopathy etc to be a part with AYUSH and MoHFW to be there for regular interaction and holistic work.
• Representation of community also needed for active support and involvement from them
• Swachh Bharat Mission or it’s derivatives to be a part of health movement
• Biogas programmes for families, communities or enterprises like GOBAR DHAN, SATAT etc to be integrated for conversion of organic wastes into biogas, power and organic fertilisers to be also blended with the health programmes
• Waste management programmes created by other ministries like environment and climate change to be also understood from health angle for suitable integration Cultivation of organic vegetables and herbs to be promoted at all levels in Anganwadis, schools, HWC’s etc
• Introduction of compulsory subject on health (Arogya or Swasthya) in all educational institutes at appropriate levels
• Wellness insurance products to be promoted as per IRDAI guidelines
• Constant exchange between AYUSH HWC and regular HWC in the relevant area
• Aggressive use of telemedicine and online solutions

Conclusions

Every community or country has unique health issues and hence “one size fits all” paradigm is not suited to all nations. India has pluralistic wellness knowledge traditions with abundant evidence of efficacy and effectiveness in foods, nutritional .elements, natural medicines, Yoga, Naturopathy, Homoeopathy etc that can be adopted in public health programmes after suitable examination. There is also an urgent need to adopt AYUSH components in regular health and wellness centres as well as to evolve several formats of exclusive AYUSH health and wellness centres in private, public or PPP modes. A proper combination of public health with personal health is the best way for a healthy and happy India. This much needed holistic thinking and action by all stakeholders as envisioned by Arogya Bharati will keep us disease free most times and bring us to wellness from illness in pathy agnostic manner rapidly and safely.

S B Dangayach

National vice president

Arogya Bharti

and

Founder Trustee

Innovative Thought Forum

sbdangayach@gmail.com

+91 99988 22680

Questions for IMA

Indian Medical Association (IMA) was founded as a voluntary organisation by allopathic or biochemical doctors for serving the needs of the members and to further well being of people in the year 1928. Today it is spread all over India with over three lakh members. It is a founder member of World Medical Association (WMA) that also works for furthering interests of allopathic system and doctors.  Allopathy prides itself in being “scientific” and does not want to see progress of “unscientific” AYUSH. IMA has gone out of it’s charter to urge government to change it’s healthcare policies many times including surgery by Ayurvedic doctors and integrating healthcare systems.

In light of many debates during current pandemic, it is worthwhile seeking answers to some obvious questions that were not raised earlier by most of the people.

1. Allopathy claims to be totally evidence based? Can you share evidences that ICMR ,Task force for Covid and IMA used for recommending HCQ, Azithromycin, Remdesivir, Doxy, Steroids, plasma etc for treating Covid 19 ?
2. When the disease is new and unknown, how can you build and use evidences?
3. Disease occurs when there is an imbalance of forces acting on physical, mental, emotional and other places. How can allopathy be scientific when it concerns itself only with physical plane all throughout?
4. Have you read Limits to medicine by Ivan Illich, Bad Pharma by Ben Goldcare, Selling sickness by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels? All go to show grave constrains with allopathy
5. Inoculation or vaccination was invented in India and not by Edward Jenner Have you read “Shitala “by Mitra Desai? or Four pillars of healing by Dr Leo Galland?
6. Vaccine gives specific immunity against one microbe or pathogen. If the virus mutates, how do you ensure effectiveness of vaccine meant for older and different version?
7. Is vaccine working on allopathic principle?
8. Is it true that Samuel Hahnemann, founder of Homoeopathy coined the word Allopathy to describe pathies that have opposite effect to symptoms?
9. Have you compiled data on side effects due to irrational medicines? Are you aware that side effects are worse than the cure?
10. Have you compiled side effects on mental, emotional and other planes of the patients that cause life long damage to the person?
11. Why vaccine makers like Pfizer are demanding immunity if they are sure about successful prevention with their product?
12. Why Moderna CEO asking people to go for a third vaccine to counter the new variant?
13. Are we going to need a new vaccine for every variant?
14. If we are going to need a new vaccine, called booster dose to hide the reality, why should the vaccines meant for older variant of COVID-19 be given to people being useless in present context?
15. Do you call a new vaccine as a booster dose to avoid clinical trial process? Is it not a gross deception on people and authorities?
16. What are the solutions in allopathy for wellness?
17. Is allopathy confined to treatment of ill people?
18. Health has two parts -wellness and illness .If there is nothing for wellness in allopathy, is it not half health science?
19. As allopathy wants to expand ,is it not common to see it creating sicknesses and treating them with life long drugs as shown in “selling sickness “ by Ray Moynihan and Akan Cassels?
20. Allopathy is combination of Allo or opposite and pathy or treatment Allopathy is purely a medicinal field. How can you claim surgery as allopathy?
21. Sushrut is accepted as the founder of surgery, He had mastered the science and art around 2000 years ago that is a part of Ayurveda? How can you ever claim surgery as an exclusive part of allopathy? Is it not a fraudulent claim by IMA
22. Please show how surgery, vaccination and diagnostics are an exclusive part of allopathy when they are common adjuncts to all medicinal sciences?
23. India has given recognition to various sciences like Ayurveda, Unani, Sidhha, Homoeopathy, Yoga etc? There are councils giving membership to qualified doctors? How can they be prevented by Govt for treating Covid patients on the strength of their own specialised sciences?
24. Is IMA not anti national when it blocks treatment of diseases by qualified practitioners?
25. Has IMA ever looked at overall health, wellness enhancement and holistic treatment ever in it’s long career?

S B Dangayach

Founder Trustee

Innovative Thought Forum

www.itf-india.com

sbdangayach@gmail.com

+91 99988 22680

Need for employment intensive

India centric development

 We are all aware that one size cannot fit all and thus a development model meant for other nations cannot be adopted blindly. After failure of communism in most parts of the world, leading economists have turned to varying forms of capitalism that is completely shorn of ethics and ecological considerations. Underbelly of capitalism in form of offshore tax havens or international financial centres is aiding speedy concentration of wealth in fewer hands raising spectre of plutocracy. A few corporates and families are now able to instal leaders and bureaucrats across the world.

Big agri corporates have decimated small farmers. Big Pharma has taken control of our lives and big tech is going to decide how we conduct ourselves. Deployment of technologies like AI, robotics, blockchain, cryptocurrency etc may give us more material comforts but will compromise human dignity, health and happiness.

We have set a goal of 5 Trillion Dollars of GDP in a few years that will have technology, unbridled capital and big business as the driving forces. As we are guided by global consultants, we shall probably go for consumption oriented, wasteful, reductionist and jobless economic model that will pay lip service to ethics, equity and environment .With addition of around 2 crore people every year, we shall have a grave challenge to provide meaningful employment to large populace. We may probably face the spectre of financial colonisation followed by data colonisation if we do not think in India centric manner.

There are several pragmatic steps that can help us in a holistic and healthy development of the nation while providing meaningful employment to our people 

1. Utilisation of “wasted lands” 

• Good lands that have not been used for last 20 years and will not be used for next 20 years to be classified as “wasted lands”
• Large parcels with govt, trusts, temples, waqf boards, churches, enterprises etc
• Allowing utilisation for designated purposes without change in ownership

2. Leasing of wastelands to all for limited period 

• Throw open leasing of wastelands for agriculture, dairying, animal husbandry, horticulture etc to all
• Varying lease period for different activities

3. Speedy clearance of building projects all over India that meet national building code or other rational rules 

• Reform process of approvals of plans using technology and other means
• Reduce regulatory time and costs dramatically

4. Skilling for all types of jobs 

• Improvement and excellence needed for proper execution at all levels

Skilling to be encouraged using appropriate means in agriculture, building, construction, sanitation, hospitality and other low investment professions

• Will improve quality, output and confidence of workers

5. Flexibility in labour laws 

• To give two options to future employees
• Employment with prevailing laws
• Employment without legal recourse of any type but carrying retrenchment allowance of 75/ 90 days for each year or part of employment
• Conversion of contract workers doing long term jobs into regular employees with above options
• Flexibility to employers to arrange skilling in relevant field and transfer as per needs of enterprise

6. Higher priority to waste to wealth opportunities 

• Waste is a resource at wrong place
• SBA+ to be adapted and implemented aggressively
• Conversion of all organic waste into biogas, organic fertiliser, power etc feasible
• Policy for reuse of treated wastewater in place in Gujarat. To be reviewed and made practical for attracting enterprises
• Wasted talents in plenty in education to be harnessed for supporting education and skilling

7. Increased thrust on renewables in energy mix 

• Renewables now cheaper than fossils in many domains
• New models for decentralised distributed power using renewables feasible and to be supported all out
• Designing transmission infra time to handle mix of discontinuous and continuous power supply
• Great for decentralised business activities

8. Genuine support to MSME

• Micro and small nearly 99% of all in numbers providing employment to self and others
• Flow of funds to be proportionate to GDP and employment generated by them
• Encourage creation of plug and play modules with all clearances for them by private developers or government for rental or ownership all over India. Will reduce investment and time to start business for enterprises

9. Boost to agri and rural enterprises 

• Decentralised micro grids feasible. Energy economics now very different
• Local cold chain facility using renewables or blended power now possible
• Local processing ,value addition etc to be given huge boost

10. Special thrust on tourism

• To be given high priority status
• To aim for 10% contribution to GDP of India in 5 years and at least 10% of overall employment
• Scope for all types of tourism with enabling environment and proper skilling  of people

11. Thrust on preventive and promotive aspects of health 

• Allopathy good in curative only
• Need to openly support AYUSH for preventive and promotive aspects of health
• Health and wellness centres to have dominant role of AYUSH
• Food and nutrition improvement as well as immunity boost through solutions in AYUSH
• The above two aspects of health alongwith palliative and rehabilitative parts sure to create many employment opportunities

12. Support to open, blended and outcome based learning 

• Paradigm shifts now in the way knowledge is created ,transmitted and delivered
• Need to reduce cost and time for delivery of quality knowledge using technology and other means
• To reduce controls in process of education and skilling
• Instead go for outcomes and evaluation of learning by transparent bodies for certification

13. New paradigms in overall plans 

• Resource/ capacity utilisation
• Resource efficiency
• Waste reduction/ reuse / recycle/ recover/ recreate (5R principle)
• Integrated and holistic approach as against reductionist thinking and philosophy
• Hardnosed and pragmatic approach from policy to action
• Calibrated reduction of subsidy in predefined years from launch to drive people to self reliance through hard and honest work
• Adopt maxim “Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam” everywhere

14. Adoption of Third way or Indian model of development

• Time to motivate society to move from Pure Profit (Shudhh Labh) or Zero Profit  (Shunya Labh) to Ethical profit (Shubh Labh)
• Time to also probe offshore tax havens that permit transfer of funds to huge but dishonest corporates and groups for low employment but high tech and high capital model of economic growth.

S B Dangayach 

Founder Trustee

Innovative Thought Forum

+91 99988 22680

sbdangayach@gmail.com

www.itf-india.com

AYUSH -Nextgen business

Current pandemic has unravelled strengths and limitations of all medicinal sciences .Allopathy,modern or biochemical system has failed to address menace of new virus in the same way as it’s failure to treat common flu .Relatively safer management with AYUSH (Ayurveda ,Yoga and naturopathy ,Unani ,Sidhha and Homoeopathy )by way of promotive ,preventive and curative aspects for mild to moderate COVID patients have opened new vistas for it .

Allopathy claims to be evidence based .However ,several conflicting studies and results have now exposed subjectivity and arbitrariness in the clinical research space in allopathy .A comprehensive observational study assessed by Dr V M Katoch committee has enabled government to now permit Ayurveda and Yoga in treatment of mild to moderate Covid patients .It has also shown the path to others for similar studies for showing rational proofs or evidences in efficacy of many other old and new AYUSH formulations .

Looking at successful companies like Himalaya ,Dabur ,Patanjali ,Sheth Bros ,SBL ,Arya Vaidyashala etc it is time for entrepreneurs to tap huge and varied opportunities in AYUSH such as
-immunity boosters of different types and kinds
-natural extracts,supplements and combinations for correcting deficiencies
-several AYUSH medicines for treating most ailments in a safer and surer manner
-clinical trials and validation through empirical studies for safe and popular formulations and such contract research organisations
-various types of certification courses for increasing knowledge of Yoga ,naturopathy ,food ,nutrition ,plant extracts ,home remedies etc
-creation of new markets altogether
-safe alternatives for management of lifestyle diseases
-cultivation of medicinal plants ,processing for different products and exports
-research and development as a business for coming up with new solutions for business enterprises
-expansion of yoga sciences for improving wellness and wellbeing of people

There are many ways to come up with excellent business models based on market creating innovations and improvements in current products and services .

Consumers generally look for access ,authenticity ,affordability and availability in AYUSH .Entrepreneurs and businessmen can address these issues well by innovative thinking and action .With new thrust on wellness ,AYUSH is sunrise sector for businessmen to tap .

GOI is working on integrative health policy in which AYUSH is expected to play a huge role .For genuine entrepreneurs ,there will be great support from both central and state governments

In short next decade will belong to AYUSH and wellness solutions as health comes before all activities including wealth creation .

“//DHARM ARTHA KAMA MOKSHANAM AAROGYAM MULAM UTTAMAM //”

The health is core for acquiring four purusharthas ( objectives of living)  in human life. Those are dharma, i.e. the duties towards our family members , our friends, our society ,our country, our mother nature and so on.; artha i.e. the ability to get material gains ; kama i.e. the wishes, desires; moksha that is the freedom from cycles of birth , rebirth and the agonies attached to.

S B Dangayach
National Vice President
Arogya Bharati
and
Founder Trustee
Innovative Thought Forum
sbdangayach@gmail.com
www.itf-india.com
+919998822680

Time for Homoeopathic vaccines or nosodes

A vaccine is biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease .A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body’s immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and to further recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future.

Allopathy is a combination of two Greek words -allo meaning different and pathy meaning suffering .It was a term coined by founder of Homoeopathy ,Samuel Hahneman to describe a system that allowed substances opposite in action to suffering .Homoeopathy was founded by him with the principle of “similar cures similar”

Vaccines by the above definitions are not allopathic in nature .Now it is also agreed that origin of vaccine has been in the practice of inoculation perfected in India in around fifth century A D to provide immunity against smallpox.

There are two methods of preparing biological substances or vaccines .In allopathy ,these are prepared as per respective pharmacoepias or rules .In Homoeopathy ,the principle of making vaccines (termed as nosodes )is also well defined .

Thus the starting materials for the two are the same but difference lies in the method of manufacturing,storage ,handling,administration etc .
Government of India (GOI)has come up with “new drugs and clinical trials rules 2019 “for allopathy wherein the entire procedure for making and marketing new vaccines is laid down .As there are no rules relating to Homoeopathy ,new Homoeopathic vaccines or nosodes are expected to follow these rules in relevant parts like clinical trials .

COVID 19 is a flu variant and track record of flu vaccines is a probable indicator of things to come .As per data from U S ,effectiveness of flu vaccines or shots over last 16 years (from 2004 to 2019)has varied from 10 % to 60% with an average of around 40% for protection of a year .In India ,the efficacy is expected to be much less due to many factors especially cold chain disruption .Thus .prospects of total protection to masses through allopathic vaccines for flu like pandemic look impossible .

GOI is of the view that keeping safety and efficacy levels the same it is open to all sciences and pathies .It is hence time for concerted working on development of Homoeopathic vaccines or nosodes for COVID 19 and others
Making of vaccines is no more a rocket science .It can be done in prescribed facilities with the biological materials that are easily available .For bringing them to market ,complex ,arduous and expensive process of clinical trials is to be traversed .This is however feasible now at least upto phase 2.The next phase 3 trials can be undertaken by entrepreneurs after looking at results and assessing risks .

If homoeopathic vaccine passes phase 3 trials ,benefits are colossal .Firstly ,cold chain need will vanish as they will be stable at ambient temperature .Secondly ,administration costs will go down with oral versions .Thirdly ,shelf life will be longer .And fourthly manufacturing large number of doses for billions of people will be feasible .

In the vaccine domain ,bulk purchases are by government and marketing costs are expected to be lower than sunk costs of clinical trials and approvals .
Acquired immunity of people to epidemics and infections by cost effective Homoeopathic vaccines will indeed be a boon to the world .It is time that we became pathy agnostic and supported all rational approaches while keeping safety and efficacy levels the same .

There is actually no single solution to our problems .It is evident from the fact that the most powerful branch of allopathy viz vaccines does not work on allopathic but a kind of Homoeopathic principle .

S B Dangayach
Founder Trustee
Innovative Thought Forum
and
National Vice President
Arogya Bharati
sbdangayach@gmail.com
www.itf-india.com
+919998822680