CHICAGO: Indian American Business Council [IABC] a non-profit organization based in Chicago, signed a milestone ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with the “Mentor-on-Road” project, India [MOR] – a grassroots advocacy group engaged in promoting entrepreneurship, women businesses, and inter-country collaborations via Indian Diaspora.
The Indian American Business Council is the collaborator of the program in Mid-west. Mentor-on-Road project is being supported by U.S. Commercial Services (USCS), the US Department of Commerce and the US-India Importers’ Council (USIIC). The Ahmedabad-based organization will undertake the 78-day-long drive across America in the June-September period in two legs crisscrossing 30 cities in 24 states.
MOR Team will be in Chicago on September 5 and 6. Detailed agenda with location would be published online around April 15 at www.IABCouncil.org. A senior representative of Ministry of External Affairs, India, would be joining the MOR.
In 2015-16, Jagat Shah, founder of Mentor-on-Road, had crisscrossed India covering 9,500-km across 24 states and 35 cities encouraging entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs to understand their challenges in ease of doing business and presented a report to the Centre with possible solutions for consideration as part of its ‘Make in India’ drive of Indian Government.
The purpose is to meet Indian Diaspora in USA in each of the 30 cities is to encourage them to engage in Personal Social Responsibility (PSR) in India by contributing their time, experience, network and ideas to programs like Clean India (Swachh Bharat), Stand up India for women entrepreneurs, Skill India, Digital India, Start-up India, Smart cities / villages/towns and “Make In India”.
Indian Diaspora will find reasons to adopt their native home village/town in India to convert them into smart village/town in one to two years where they will be helped with pain point diagnostic and financial inputs for the project. They do not have to invest any amount; only have to manage the project.
Jagat Shah presentation will include topics like idea of smart cities, villages/towns and a snapshot of what type of investments should come. What are the factors which an adopter should consider before adopting in such a villages/town. In the implementation process, issues in villages/towns will range from health care, sanitation, education, usage of technology, water management, waste management, to e-governance, etc.
Indian Diaspora will get first-hand information on Indian villages’ dynamics. The presentation will cover aspects like, which state is doing well in villages/towns? What are the business (cottage and small businesses) styles & approaches in different villages/towns?
Also very importantly, the responsibilities of an Adopter would be discussed. Such responsibility will ensure great benefits to the locals, and will help convert villages/towns into “smart
villages/towns”.Other topics of discussions will include tech transfer from USA to India.
The entire team of IABC including Vice President Girish Kapur and Directors Keerthi Kumar Ravoori, Mohammed Faheem, Harish Kolasani, Chacko Kurien, Nazneen Hashmi, Dr. Arshad Qureshi, Maya Patel, and Attorney Afshan Khan is on board with the project group.
IAB Council works in collaboration with Chamber of Commerce as well as other public and private organizations that facilitate trade delegations. IABC is registered as a not-for-profit in the State of Illinois and recently launched an India chapter. IABC works closely with US Small Business Administration (SBA), Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise and five Indian States.
Surendra Ullal
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