What this Flood gave us and what we ought to give back- an entrepreneur’s perspective on rebuilding Kerala

On the 72^nd Independence Day of India, Kerala woke up to another form of independence. A human face of freedom struggle. Freedom from ego, freedom from unwanted biases, freedom from religious, political differences. The entire state put their best efforts to rescue and save millions of lives who got stranded in various flood ridden places.  Humanity prevails and we saw it in the smallest of kind acts around. 

The Youth whom we so far called “reckless” , went ahead and took charge of working at the rescue and rehabilitation shelters, the fishermen who came along with their boats and saved innumerable lives from the water logged areas, the businessmen who gave away rehabilitation materials for free, the large number of volunteers who came forward as rescue soldiers, the army, navy and local area leaders who took up saving and serving the disaster victims – all are great examples of leadership.

A significant contribution of a crisis is resilience – the survivors develop confidence about self and also become grateful about whatever they have.  I would call this an opportunity which we should utilize towards building the state.

Being an  entrepreneur – my mind is probably tuned to look at various opportunities amidst all the adversities . I now take the liberty of thinking like an entrepreneur whose entire business is lost in a disaster and the challenge of starting from scratch .  

The strengths  and weaknesses  , the priority and the implementation plan – all needs to be looked at.

Weakness – We lack funds.  We are in a bad shape . Economy, infrastructure and everything is devastated. We have to start from scratch at many places. 

Strengths – We have a huge reservoir of skilled people inside the state as well as people outside who are willing to help.  And the best part is that this people are now united beyond caste or creed. Humanity is what binds them and they have a great zeal to rebuild.

Opportunities – We now have an opportunity – to rebuild our lost infrastructure to excellence as well as to channelize the youth energy towards betterment of the state. 

Threats – Without proper planning, implementation and transparency, we will lose out totally. Our economy will get shattered, our people will get into depression, our infrastructure will get lost and our growth get delayed. We also face threat of medical and psychological catastrophes if we don’t channelize the positive vibes. And yes, dont forget the threats like communal disharmony and outsiders foul plays , terrorism. 

So, what are the possible strategic measures , our state could do ?

1.       Channelise the youth energy – the people who joined together  forgetting all differences , religious, political ideologies towards rebuilding Kerala . Provide them the necessary funds, guidance, freedom and expertise for the same. Facilitate the youngsters to build startups which could help in rehabilitation and rebuilding works.

2.       Make a plan of action by including the bottom of the pyramid . Just like the fishermen who came up to rescue, we have immense talents and expertise at the bottom of the pyramid who are still unutilised

3.       Make a priority list and take up only the  high priority ones to be done by government machinery and outsource all the rest.

4.       Manage funds effectively and ensure transparency and accountability. Collect funds from all possible sources and invest in things that bring results and outcomes first and then only work on  second level priorities.  Let the prioritization happen at local level planning than at the central. 

How to implement the above? 

1     
     In 1997, Kerala did something which was a path breaker – The decentralisation of governance. Instead of the top-down approach to planning, the bottom –up planning method was implemented in the state. One of the significant methods of this was the conduct of Gramasabhas – where people in the locality got together , identified what are their needs and then made a project plan. Thus the funds were disbursed based on the project , the timeline and the necessity. I suggest a similar model for rebuilding Kerala . An "Action 365 days"  project which will help in re-building the state's needs within the next one year. 

• .       Every local panchayat / municipality can form a special flood rehabilitation committee which comprises of experts from all sectors – education , engineering , health , sanitation , social welfare, women and children, agriculture, logistics etc. Most important, there shall be atleast two local entrepreneurs.  It should be mandatory that local area experts as well as youngsters  be involved in this act. - deadline - 15 days from now. - We call them "Flood Action Startup"  . (For heaven sake , let this not be formed based on political ideologies but purely based on expertise) 
• 
  
• .       This committee which will act like a startup  - a local area startup shall sit together and find out all the necessities and come up with an action plan along with a deadline. - one month time 
•      The Startup shall make a pitching to Government for their needs and also explain the implementation plan. Note: The implementation plan shall be made based on a priority list and execution capability list. For eg: A national highway damage needs state / center intervention where as a demolished wall of a school can be taken care by the local startup. 
•     This startup shall be assisted with necessary funds as well as available central resources and technology support.  
•      Each local startup CEO shall be given a online portal to update their requirements and also update the fund utilization pattern. The fund could be from various sources – Govt, NGOs, private parties etc. Each local startup could also be given a target to pool in funds from various sources and not to rely fully on Govt funds. Self-sustainable projects is what is needed. 
•      Appreciate and award the local panchayat FloodAction startups who perform and complete the plan within this 365 days action deadline. 

          Other points to be noted . 

•        Look for every opportunity to build enterprises which will enable generation of funds.  Every devastated land or property shall be looked at as opportunity first and look at options for starting up something out of the existing rather than spending money on expenses.
• .       Look at BOT model for physical infrastructure than utilising entire funds from Govt in capital infrastructure
• .       Have proper transparent distribution of funds based on requirement and also have social audit mechanisms
• .       Make one hour of extra voluntary work mandatory for every Govt officials until we get back to shape (which I think will take one year )
• .       Students and NGOs who are willing to take up roles can be channelized properly based on needs. Let students spend a portion of their day to work on rebuilding projects. This will enable not just in rebuilding but also building skills of the students.
• .       Provide leadership and autonomy wherever possible.  Autonomy and elimination of bureaucracy is also critical
• .   Eliminate corruption and publish financials regularly. Every penny must be spent wisely

Whatever I have listed above may sound small for some people. But looking at the kind of devastation as well as the kind of funds that will flow to the state, I think what we need is a proper implementation mechanism involving people. People are the greatest power and we have shown it now. What we need now is to channelize the people power to re-build the state. And this needs entrepreneurial drive and not mere political or ad ministerial efforts. 

Let’s re-build Kerala - the entrepreneur's way.  I am sure , it will be faster, effective and cheaper. 

#CeeVee

  

P.S: The above is just an outline. Will need lot of  deliberations .