The journey has been long and eventful. In this period I did loose some loved ones and met some many more loving and affectionate people. No doubt that I can now claim of have friends sitting in every nook and corner of this world. Be it micro finance practitioner in Kenya to a techie in New york or a Doodhwala in AMUL.

Over the years I had dreamt of moving back to Himachal and so I did with a IL&FS in 2007. But it is only now that I have truly started exploring my real dreams of being an entrepreneur. Last few months have been quite exciting and at the same time have tested me as well. From managing HimVani.com,one of the largest read news portals about Himachal to hosting the toughest Mountain Biking Challenge in India and helping start GreenKrafts, a handicrafts based social venture near Dharamshala. Have tried my little bit of contributing to the society in a positive manner.

More recently have been involved with few like minded entrepreneurs to start an IT initiative in Himachal Pradesh. We have some interesting plans for up-skilling the youth in the region and hope to generate employment for many. In the process we probably will end up guiding few youngsters in setting up similar initiatives.

So the task is cut out in front of us and we shall use every second of this year working towards fulfilling our dreams.

Ending this piece on a rather selfish note, I seek your blessings, support and guidance throughout the year.

So wish us luck ! Bon Voyage !

The figures are based on the pricing sheet provided by these service providers on 30th March 2010. The Euro and the Dollar conversion rates into Rupees are also of the same date. Hope this is of some value to my fellow internet users.

Exchange rate

1 Euro = 60.53 INR
1 $ = 45.06 INR

The picture is not so rosy when it comes to the service delivery aspect of it. In the last 3 months HimVani team has been hearing stories of customer apathy from many of its readers and citizen journalists. Boudhayan, who had recently moved to Shimla from Delhi wanted to renew his motorcycle’s insurance policy. The last one was issued by Reliance General Insurance in Noida. But he was shocked to find that in spite of having centralised systems the companies branch in Shimla was unable to process the renewal of the policy reason given was that branch did not fall in the same zone as Delhi. The option available to him were to go back to Delhi with his vehicle, get it inspected and then a new policy would have been issued.

Service delivery in private sector bank is no better. On a visit to ICICI bank in Shimla one is bound to find bored to death faces of front desk staff, which is just doing its job rather then creating a customer experience. The latest PR campaign of the bank says that it is well capitalised and has high networth. Well Mr. Kamath, certainly your bank is doing well in financial terms but customers expect good service. The “Hum Hein Na” factor is missing in this part of your operations.

Closer by on the mall road, the branch of HDFC bank is no better. Recently a friend wanted to open an institutional savings account for their society in the bank. She was surprised to find that the staff did not proper knowledge of the product as well as the documentation required for it. An account which normally takes an hour to open in a public sector banks is yet to be opened after chasing bank officials for more then 20 days. At the time of application the bank executives found that the board resolution is not in the format which is acceptable to the bank. However they accepted the application with a promise that they will be able to take approvals from their Cluster Head for the same. Surprisingly the approvals are yet to be taken in spite of chasing the bank executives almost every day.

Surprisingly in the both cases the ray of hope came in the form of the much criticised public sector institutions. Boudhayan who finally went to United General Insurance in Shimla had a new policy issued in one hour . All his paper work, vehicle inspection and processing of papers was done by an agent of the company who did not even charge any money from him. Shilpa got her societies account opened with State bank again in one hour and could put in her first cheque the same day. In both the situations the paperwork was completed and the service delivered at the branch itself. The same would have taken 15 – 20 days in private sector institution as service delivery comes from centralised offices in Mumbai or Gurgaon.  It is due to this the HDFC bank executives are still figuring out whether they will get approvals from their bosses or not.

An analysis into the situation shows that in public sector institutions the branch managers have lot more decision making authority. Moreover for them the business is totally dependent of relationships and not on the process. A branch executive in a private sector institution is not confident while committing a service delivery to their clients unlike their counterparts in public sector institutions. Now that most of the public sector institutions are heavily using IT to deliver services through ATM and Online banking the staff is lot freer to offer personal services to customers thus increasing the whole customer experience as well as competition for the private banking and financial institutions.

The problem impacts us in many ways. The immediate impact is in terms of the health of people living in the dirty surroundings. There is an increasing population of street dogs which continue to roam freely, feed on the garbage dumps and on and off do not dither from taking a bite at human flesh. The worst case scenario is when we are left with nothing beautiful to show to our traveller friends in our hill stations.

Garbage dump in Khalini

In the past one year, we have seen all kinds of stakeholders taking initiatives to clean up Shimla. The honourable High Court took upon itself to ban the dumpers in Shimla. Following these orders, the Shimla municipality went ahead and partnered with the Centre for Development Communication, Ahmedabad to implement a door to door collection scheme. However, it is a different matter that the scheme has completely flopped. Now the municipal corporation is planning to blacklist the company.

The government at its level had instructed the forest department to form a committee comprising of Municipal commissioner and representatives of PWD. The committee is yet to meet. It is interesting to note that a proper site to dump garbage in Shimla is yet to be identified. The one in use is already filled up and most of the times garbage is thrown around it and not in it.

Garbage in the Nallah flowing between the Lift and Hotel Combermere

We, the responsible citizens are to be blamed too. I mean how many times the responsible citizens have thrown garbage inside the dumps and not around it. How many times have we segregated the garbage, which we dispose into perishable and non perishable items. Owners of eateries on the Mall make good money selling pastries, pakoras and sandwiches, but have done little efforts to dispose of paper plates, which tourists throw in bins placed recklessly by them in front of their shops.

Dustbins on Mall road, Shimla

Democracy is about engagement. Until and unless citizens engage in the process, it is bound to fail. While talking to my mother, I got to know that the garbage dump in our street in Dharamshala is now being cleaned regularly. What made the difference? The citizens of the area got together and said, “Well, we have had enough”. So they ensure that ward members, municipality officials come to the spot and take responsibility to get the dump cleaned. Sometimes solutions to many problems are quite simple. All we need to do is to engage.

Now we know that Municipal corporation is clueless, so is the Government. It’s time that we the citizens get-together put our brains together and suggest ways to get our habitations clean. We invite our readers to send their suggestions to help tide over this crisis. You can suggest methods of waste disposal which work effectively. Send references of experts on this subject. Tell us how citizens have organised in your neighbourhood to make it clean? Can private sector play some role here?

We promise to compile your views and send it to the concerned officials, follow it up and keep you informed. So leave your comments or Write to Us