Amit Chandra from Bain Capital Speaks to CNBC at Sankalp Global Summit 2019

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL) has launched a first-of-its-kind open Innovation Challenge with Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) to spearhead a change in packaging and find innovative alternatives to plastics.

According to an estimate by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates almost 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily. Approximately 43% of manufactured plastic in the country is used for packaging purposes, most of which is a single-use plastic waste. As the apparel and textile industry is struggling with plastics waste, the Innovation Challenge aims to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenges.

Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director of ABFRL, said, “At ABFRL, we aim to use 100% sustainable packaging material by eliminating any type of pollutant. Going forward, we will be exploring innovative packaging solutions to reduce our carbon footprint. We are pleased to partner with CAIF for this initiative. We endeavor to lead industry practices around sustainability and platforms such as these enable us to bring forth ideas and innovations that accelerate the adoption of sustainable fashion.”

“We are hoping to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenge of reducing the usage of single-use plastic packaging. We are confident that the Innovation Challenge initiative will help the industry to transition to circular business practices,” he added.

Dr. Naresh Tyagi, Chief Sustainability Officer, ABFRL, stated, “In 2013, ABFRL began a unique Sustainability Program called ‘ReEarth’ which addresses the most significant economic, environmental and social issues that humanity faces today and since then we have done pioneering work in a sustainable and circular fashion. This initiative is another step forward in that journey. We are delighted to partner with CAIF and are certain that innovators and startups present here will be able to leverage this opportunity to come up with eco-friendly alternatives to plastic.”

Circular Apparel Innovation Factory

Circular Apparel Innovation Factory is an industry-led initiative with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail and The DOEN Foundation as anchor partners and driven by Intellecap with a vision to make India’s textile and apparel industry circular through building the capabilities and ecosystem needed for this transition. Open innovation challenges are one way by which CAIF addresses the discovery gap and helps its industry members to identify opportunities for change and possible partners for collaboration to make circular business practices a reality.

Vikas Bali, CEO of Intellecap, said, “We know that ‘business as usual’ will not help solving the size of the problem India and the world is witnessing with regard to plastic waste. We are proud to help ABFRL as an industry pioneer in its journey to finding ways to rethink current approaches to packaging.”

CAIF Conclave

CAIF Conclave, a first of its kind industry conclave was hosted by Intellecap in partnership with ABFRL and The DOEN Foundation. The conclave focused on the need for change towards circular business practices and showcasing some of the industry’s most forward-thinking efforts towards a circular economy.

The conclave, which happened as part of this year’s Sankalp Forum saw the participation of 300+ industry participants and some of the country’s most innovative circular fashion startups.

“Never provide poor solutions to poor people,” says Chetana Gala Sinha, Founder of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank and Foundation, focused on women micro-enterprises.

Sinha, who set up the cooperative bank in 1997 with a small amount raised from friends, has been a proponent of financial inclusion and one that treats all as equal. The bank now has a capital of Rs 150 crore and over one lakh rural women are banking with Mann Deshi.

Speaking on the sidelines of recently concluded Sankalp Summit on impact investing, Sinha said rural people have come out of poverty mindset and are embracing technology. “Mainstream banking sector needs to take more risks with women micro-entrepreneurs. Microcredit being given to rural women self-help groups need to be extended women run micro-enterprises.”

Women run micro-enterprises are already there, and they need scaling, which is difficult with the fragmented economy in India. She also spoke about creating an ecosystem to facilitate micro-enterprises by leveraging technology and improving ease of doing business in rural areas.

Here’s an excerpt from the conversation Sinha had with CNBC-TV18 about impact investing and the funding challenges for women micro-entrepreneurs running social enterprises.

Q: I was reading some data which said that while in the normal commercial enterprises only about 8 to 10 percent women are running it, but when it comes to social enterprises a lot more women are running social enterprises and when it comes to financing for that how far are we?

Chetna: So honestly, we have to walk 1000’s of miles for that, but one thing I’m a bit more hopeful about that things is now very different. When you talk about women-owned businesses, women-owned social enterprises and investing in that. Because of technology, you have real-time cash flows. A lot of informal economy is coming in digital. The question is that if it would be easier for them, that whole supply chain of digitalization should be done and people are coming forward. So, if you have that, on one side you have the credit rating, on the other side you have the digitalized working capital or you have those transactions. You can find out how much is the working capital required, so you have real-time data on the financial transactions of these people.

And then the third is with technology we can leverage the last mile.

Finance Minister talked about the social stock exchange. How will the social stock exchange operate, if the micro-enterprises don’t flourish? So micro-enterprises are ready, these women have already started the business, and they now need to scale. Scaling is difficult with the fragmented economy in India, the way we have villages, but now, the shared economy is coming together and e-platforms are coming up. Let me give you an example of GST or registration of businesses for micro-enterprises or getting food and drug licenses. I feel that ease of business is still a big challenge in this country and this is what the government has to make real.

Q: Ease of doing business ranking comes in every year. And we see that India is improving in a lot of parameters. You are saying that it’s actually not reflecting especially on the rural side or micro-enterprise side?

Chetna: India is like a mini Europe. So in some states, you will see that it’s doing very well. But in some states like North India how many women enterprises are there? Like in Bihar, UP, I know Ajeevika is doing great in Bihar but I think we should now graduate from that. So in that way, I think that ease of doing business index has improved but do you just want to surpass five more countries or want to surpass thirty-five countries like China? In villages, women have never been to school but they are doing digital transactions. So why do we think that we are happy being better than just five more countries? India is having the highest number of IT Engineers. I think we just have to be more ambitious.

The government delays payments or does not deliver on promises made earlier, posing challenges to businesses, principal economic advisor to the finance minister Sanjeev Sanyal said.

Biggest constraint to doing business in the country is poor contract enforcement, and the blame for the same rests mostly with the government, a top finance ministry official said on November 26.

The government delays payments or does not deliver on promises made earlier, posing challenges to businesses, principal economic advisor to the finance minister Sanjeev Sanyal said.

Even as we have leapfrogged on the overall ease of doing business ranking, we are still ranked 163rd among 190 countries when it comes to enforcing contract, and only “dysfunctional and war-affected” countries follow us, he said.

“The biggest constraint to doing business in our country is simply the business of enforcing contracts. Unfortunately, many people have whined about it for long, but very little actual thinking has gone into it,” Sanyal told an event organised by impact investing firm Aavishkar.

The economist-turned-policymaker sought to take the blame for the same onto the government.

“In many cases, the poverty of contract enforcement relates not to two private parties, but the government which is violating these contracts,” he said, adding this happens as both the Centre and the states “violate” honouring payments or other commitments.

He assured that the present government is working on these issues through interventions like ensuring the timely payments to vendors.

“If the role of the state is to be the real sovereign, then the word of the sovereign has to be printed in gold,” Sanyal quipped.

MUMBAI: Five IT firms, including three prominent global players, will use data analytics to detect frauds and red-flag suspicious transactions in the Centre’s health insurance programme,Ayushman Bharat, that has catered to almost 5 lakh patients across India within 80 days of its launch.

At least 14 IT majors had been vying for the job since the scheme, touted as the world’s largest government-funded health initiative, was announced.

Currently, 60% of the 15,800 empanelled hospitals are from private sector. Dr.Indu Bhushan , CEO of Ayushman Bharat, told TOI on Wednesday that frauds can’t be entirely prevented, but they will not be tolerated. “It hampers sustainability, brings bad name and once that happens we also lose political support,” he said, underlining that data will be the scheme’s biggest armour. The scheme is expected to cater to 50 crore beneficiaries, which translates into that many patient files.

He said data analysis has already allowed them to spot unusual patterns such as 77 cataract surgeries being performed in one centre in a single day, or oddly male patients undergoing “hysterectomies”. “The hysterectomies turned out to be a coding error but it shows the potential of data,” Dr Bhushan said. He added that special teams have visited suspicious centres once they were red-flagged by the data team. Around 2% of cases will undergo medical audits.

Five players in the data and analytics field have been shortlisted to detect frauds in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), popularly known as Ayushman Bharat. The companies — LexisNexis, Optum, Greenojo, MFX and SAS — will compete to detect malpractice by hospitals part of the scheme for six months. The best performer among the five will be taken on board as Ayushman Bharat’s official fraud and abuse detection firm.

Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO of Ayushman Bharat, said, “These are major companies and among the best in the world. They have a lot of experience in detecting frauds and abuse of such schemes. For the first six months, the firms will be working free of cost. Once the best company is taken on board, their team will get outcome-based payment depending on the fraud they have detected.” Dr. Bhushan was speaking at Sankalp Global Summit in Goregaon on Wednesday.

Nearly 60% of procedures under Ayushman Bharat is being carried out in the private sector. At a time when the focus should be on strengthening public hospitals by improving infrastructure and getting better services, the ambitious government scheme has been criticised for directing public money into the private sector. There have also been many reports of a spurt in certain procedures in private hospitals, patients being charged for surgeries.

Dr. Bhushan said, “We have been carrying out selective audits. Packages that are prone to frauds have been restricted to public sector hospitals. For example, mental healthcare is restricted to public hospitals. There are certain procedures that require pre-authorisation from the States. We follow up with patients randomly to keep a check as well.”

Infosys founder N. Narayan Murthy on Tuesday said that every enterprise has to first master the art of selling, at the 10th Sankalp Global Summit, an initiative by Intellecap at NESCO in Goregaon.

Addressing budding entrepreneurs and discussing the theme of ‘Agenda 3 Billion: Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystems,’ Mr. Murthy said, “It is the most important aspect of any kind of entrepreneurship, second is finance. Obtain better returns for your investors. Then you need a team with various strengths, technology and lastly, without luck, it is very difficult to succeed.”

The Infosys founder said that the what India needs is cultural transformation through honesty and discipline.

Speaking on the occassion, Niti Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant said that in India, we have travelled the journey of opening a bank account in 10 months to now to 55 seconds using biometrics, when we use instruments like Aadhar.

“The process of urbanisation provides unlimited opportunities to entrepreneurs in India and across the world to use technology and innovation to tackle our immense challenges,” Mr. Kant said.

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy Tuesday called for a cultural transformation to address the big developmental challenges facing the country.

Addressing an event, Murthy said transformation in terms of honesty, discipline, and caring for the underprivileged is necessary for achieving overall development.

“Every enterprise has to first master selling as it is the most important aspect of any kind of followed by finance where you have to offer better returns to your investors. Also, you need a team with complementary strengths including technology and lastly luck.

“But the most important thing that we need today is a cultural transformation marked by qualities like honesty and discipline,” Murthy said addressing the Sankalp global summit

He also noted that leaders of capitalism in every major country have to come together and work together to show the rest of the world how they can show self-restraints and how they ensure there is reasonableness in their lifestyle.

The adoption of Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 has globally generated momentum in working towards inclusive development for a sustainable tomorrow. Across the spectrum, extending from the public to the private sector, conversations centered on the 5Ps – people, prosperity, peace, partnership and planet that form the foundations of the 17 Goals are in focus to create impact.

These goals include 169 defined targets cutting across sectors to achieve zero poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable clean energy, decent work and economic growth; among others.

An important part of this global vision is the role of youth for realization of these goals. An UNDP report in 2017, Youth as Partners for the Implementation of the SDGs, estimated that over one third of the 169 SDG targets highlight the role of young people and the importance of their empowerment, participation, and well-being. 20 targets across six SDGs are strongly focused on youth: Zero Hunger, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Reduced Inequalities, and Climate Action. Further, the YouthSpeak global survey of 180,000 young people showed 68% believe the world will be a better place by 2030.

With changing aspirations, young people are optimistic and increasingly willing to come forward and contribute to social transformation. Young minds in governance, entrepreneurship, investing circles, corporate world understand the need to proactively engage and involve themselves with the accomplishment of this ambitious agenda. A recent report by Ernst and Young,”Sustainable investing – the millennial investor”, suggests that the demand for sustainable investments is being driven, in part, by millennials who prefer to invest in alignment with personal values. At the same time, responsible global citizenship has extended into business solutions that are aimed at tackling development challenges.

Social entrepreneurship among the youth is also seeing a powerful positive trend. Current demographic trends, coupled with the challenge of unemployment in the traditional job market, are pushing the youth to explore alternative avenues and tap into their entrepreneurial skills. There is a renewed commitment to influence impact and a willingness to take risks. Harnessing this energy, young entrepreneurs are looking to balance and optimize the profit and purpose equation.

Several initiatives globally, and in India are encouraging young minds to ideate and innovate. Business federations, large corporations, accelerators, incubators, management schools and governments are some key stakeholders in this ecosystem, who through their multiple programs are pushing for cutting edge business solutions. The NITI Ayog’s Atal Tinkering Labs, Villgro’s iPitch, TATA Social Enterprise challenge are some notable ones to name a few. State governments across the country are also encouraging innovation with dedicated support to such entrepreneurs.

Whether it is competitions, mentorship programs, or awards – the recognition that there is a need to reinvent the wheel by endorsing innovative thinking is widely accepted. It is at the heart of all such initiatives that celebrate and support businesses contributing to driving social change.

While in recent years, there has been an enormous upsurge in using business to create social impact, there also remain many stories of failed attempts. This also needs to be addressed. It necessitates a deepening of the discourse around youth entrepreneurship to understand what can be done to make these ideas, innovations and solutions sustainable and viable. It is imperative to approach the problem holistically, and see to it that the stories of impact are not short term successes riding the wave. An ecosystem facilitating good mentorship, upskilling, collateral specialized support services is fundamental to sustainable business building. It is only through such sustainability that long lasting impact is created that shall eventually lead to the accomplishment of the 17 SDG Goals set out.

The Sankalp Global Summit, as one of India’s largest inclusive development and impact investing platforms, recognizes that the ecosystem approach lies at the core of celebrating entrepreneurship. It aims to build consensus and facilitate dialogue with some of the most relevant stakeholders for solving emerging challenges across high impact sectors.

The Sankalp Awards, as a part of the Summit convening seeks to support, engage, and recognize high potential enterprises tackling development challenges. The program is designed to support emerging social enterprises by strengthening their business strategies, providing fund raising opportunities and access to a global network of investors

Established as one of India’s most prestigious social enterprise awards, since 2009, Sankalp Awards has recognized more than 1500 social enterprises, facilitated 500 + mentoring connections and raised more than USD $250 million equity investment.

When it comes to impact investing, Sunil Munjal, chairman of Hero Enterprise, is the newsmaker of 2017. In April, Munjal wrote a cheque of ₹100 crore to Aavishkaar, an early-stage, social venture capital firm. The investment, dubbed the biggest such by an Indian HNI, was part of Aavishkaar’s ₹2,000-crore Aavishkaar Bharat Fund to bankroll startups as well as other companies that operate in sectors such as agriculture, financial services, renewable energy and health care.

The 57-year-old entrepreneur, who moved out of his family’s flagship company Hero MotoCorp in 2016, is also a votary of India’s traditional arts and crafts. “If it can be branded and positioned appropriately, it will truly build India’s soft power,” Munjal tells Forbes India in an interview.