the
in me against corruption made me to make a big career change last year becoming a full time practicing lawyer
my experiences over the last eighteen months as a lawyer has seeded in me a new entrepreneurial idea
which i believe is indeed worth spreading so i share it with all of you here today though the idea itself is getting crystallized and i'm still writing up
the business plan of course it helps that fear of public failure diminishes as the number of ideas which have failed increases
the leading real estate company in my home state kerala and then worked professionally with two of india 's biggest businessmen but in
in two thousand and three when i stepped out of the pure play capitalistic sector to work on so called social sector
definitely did not have any grand strategy or plan to pursue and find for profit solutions
for an emergencymedicalresponse service in india similar to nine hundred and eleven in usa to address this i along with four friends founded ambulanceaccess for all to promote life support ambulance services in india
for those from the developing world there is nothing absolutely nothing new in this idea but as we envisioned it we had three key goals
and has transported over one hundred thousand patients and victims since inception the
the service responded effectively and efficiently during the unfortunate twenty six eleven mumbai terror attacks
and as you can see from the visuals the service was responding and rescuing victims from the incident locations
even before the police could cordon off the incident locations and formallyconfirm it as a terror strike
ended up being the first medicalresponse team in every incidentlocation and transported one hundred and twenty five victims saving life
in tribute and remembrance of twenty six eleven attacks over the last one
we have actually helped a pakistani ngo aman foundation to set up a self sustainable life support ambulance service in karachi facilitated by acumen fund
it's a small message
from us in our own small way to the enemies of humanity
then
other social enterprises one is education access for all setting up schools in small town india and the other is
i guess we seem to be doing at least a few things right because diligent investors and venture funds
have committed over seven point five million dollars in funding with the significance being these funds have come in as a qt capital not as grant or as philanthropy
now i come back to the idea of the new social enterprise that i'm exploring corruption
bribes and lack of transparency you may be surprised to know that eight speakers yesterdayactually mentioned these terms in their talks
common man and the demand side being mostly politicians bureaucrats and those who have discretionary power vested with them
yet if you analyze the common man he or she does not wake up every day and say hmm let me see who i can pay a bribe to today or let me see who i can corrupt today
often it is the constraining or the back to the wall situation that the hapless common man finds himself or herself in that leads him to pay a bribe
in the modern day world where time is premium and battle for subsistence is unimaginably tough the hapless common man simply gives in and pays the bribe just to get on with life
now let me ask you another question imagine you are being asked to pay a bribe in your day to day life to get something done what do you do of course you can call the police but what is the use if the police department is in itself steeped in corruption
most definitely you don't want to pay the bribe but you also don't have the time resources expertise or wherewithal to fight this unfortunately
many of us in this room are supporters of capitalist policies and market forces yet the market forces around the world have not yet thrown up a service
you can call in pay a fee and fight the demand for a bribe like a bribe buster service or one eight hundred fight bribes
preventcorruption org such a service simply do not exist one image that has haunted me
from my early business days is of a grandmother seventy plus years being harrassed by the bureaucrats in the town planning office
all she needed was permission to build three steps to her house from ground level making it easier for her to enter and exit her house yet the officer in charge would not simply give her the permit for
even though it pricked my conscience then i could not or rather i did not tend to her or assist her because i was busy building my real estate company i don't want to be haunted by such
a group of us have been working on a pilot basis to address individual instances of demands for bribes for common services or entitlement and in all forty two cases where we have pushed back such
using existing and legitimate tools like the right to information act video audio or peer pressure we have successfully obtained whatever our clients set out to achieve without actually paying a bribe
and with the cost of these tools being substantially lower than the bribe demanded i believe that these tools that worked in these forty two pilot cases can be
and franchisephysical offices for a fee to serve anyone confronted with a demand for a bribe
the target market is as tempting as it can get it can be worth up to one trillion dollars being paid in bribes every year or
india 's gdp and it is an absolutelyvirgin market i propose to explore this idea
to examine the potential of creating a for profit fee based bpo kind of service to stop bribes and prevent corruption
i do realize that the fight for justice against corruption is never easy it never has been and it never will be in my last eighteen months as a lawyer battling small and large scale corruption
the battle against corruption exact a toll on ourselves our families our friends and even our kids yet i believe the price we pay is well worth holding on to our dignity
and making the world a fairer place what gives us the courage as my close friend replied when told during the seeding days of the ambulance project
that it is an impossible task and the founders are insane to chalk up their blue chip jobs i quote of course we can not fail in this at least in our
so let me let me give you an example somebody who had applied for the passport the officer was just sitting on it and was demanding around three thousand rupees
and he did not want to pay so we actually used the right to information act which is equal to the freedom of information act in the united states and
pushed back the officers in this particular case and in all these forty two cases when we kept pushing them back there was three kinds of reaction a set of people actually
and he will push us back so you take the next step or use the next tool available in what we are putting together and then he relents by the third time in all forty two cases we have achieved success
but if it's a three thousand rupee seventy dollar bribe what fee would you have to charge and can you actually make the business work
well actually the cost that we incurred was less than two hundred rupees so it actually works
you
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