Report: 43 million Europeans lack food, 120 million at the verge of poverty

A report on presstv.ir, based on a study by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies titled “Think differently: Humanitarian impacts of the economic crisis in Europe” states:

The Red Cross says that the financial crisis in Europe has left 43 million of its citizens with insufficient food to eat, calling it the worst humanitarian crisis over a half century.

Bekele Geleta, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) presented a report in Geneva on Thursday over the impacts of the economic crisis.

The report also showed that some 120 million Europeans face the risk of poverty and many continue to suffer in countries that are in the process of recovering financially.

“People’s lives have been thrown into turmoil and there seems to be a gradual degradation, with millions existing on a day-to-day basis, with no savings and no buffer to withstand any unforeseen expenses,” said Geleta and added, “Europe is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in six decades.”

Excerpted from: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/10/328709/43-million-people-lack-food-in-europe/ (Oct. 10, 2013)

Also see: “Five years on: The European economic crisis leaves a legacy of poverty

Comment by Dr. Rajnish Tiwari

“What else if this does not document the need for affordable and ‘good enough’ products & services targeted at price-sensitive consumers? Companies need a rethink of their current business stratgies and innovation practices that are based on opulence, superfluousness, and planned obsolescence! Frugal innovations are not only meant for the emerging economies, we need them in Europe too, in the very heart of the industrialized world.”

Godrej comes up with a disruptive, frugal innovation for mosquito repellents

According to a press report, India’s Godrej Group has come up with yet another disruptive, frugal innovation. Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GPCL) has developed a mosquito repellent that works without electricity and costs just 1 Rupee (about 1.2 Euro cents). Ms. Nisaba Godrej, executive director of GCPL elaborated in  an interview with Ms. Nupur Anand of the Daily News & Analysis (DNA, Oct. 7, 2013):

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Vortragsfolien zum Symposium “Hidden Champions” (IWH 2013)

India Week Hamburg 2013Jetzt haben wir die Vortragsfolien zum Symposium “Indien als Herausforderung für ‘Hidden Champions’: Erfolgsfaktoren der Marktbearbeitung für deutsche Mittelständler” (10. Sept. 2013, Handelskammer Hamburg) online zur Verfügung gestellt. Das Symposium fand im Rahmen der India Week Hamburg 2013 statt und wurde vom Institut für Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement der TU Hamburg-Harburg, dem German-Indian Round Table Hamburg, und der Handelskammer Hamburg gemeinsam organisiert.

Bei Rückfragen oder Anmerkungen wenden Sie sich bitte an Dr. Stephan Buse oder Dr. Rajnish Tiwari.

“Cheap razor made after P&G watches Indians shave”

A report of the Associate Press appearing on the Internet site of India’s NDTV.com (October 6, 2013), says:

File pic: A man gets during the annual cattle fair in Pushkar, Rajasthan

File pic: A man gets during the annual cattle fair in Pushkar, Rajasthan. Photo: Associated Press. Coutsey: NDTV.com

New York: Procter & Gamble executives say it was striking the first time they witnessed a man shave while sitting barefoot on the floor in a tiny hut in India.

He had no electricity, no running water and no mirror.

The 20 US-based executives observed the man in 2008 during one of 300 visits they made to homes in rural India. The goal? To gain insights they could use to develop a new razor for India.

“That, for me, was a big ‘a-ha,'” said Alberto Carvalho, vice president, global Gillette, a unit of P&G. “I had never seen people shaving like that.”

The visits kicked off the 18 months it took to develop Gillette Guard, a low-cost razor designed for India and other emerging markets. Introduced three years ago, Guard quickly gained market share and today represents two out of every three razors sold in India. The story of how Guard came to be illustrates the balance companies must strike when creating products for emerging markets: It’s not as simple as slapping a foreign label on an American product. […]

This report also underlines the “lead market” function of India for frugal innovations that has been researched by our team and has been dealt with in greater detail in our forthcoming book “Aiming Big with Small Cars: Emergence of a Lead Market in India” (Springer). We are organizing a symposium on frugal innovations to cover upcoming key questions on global growth in both emerging as well as developed markets through affordable and good-enough solutions and to disseminate the results of our research. Meanwhile interested readers might like to read our article “Assessing India’s lead market potential for cost-effective innovations“, published in the Journal of Indian Business Research.

Report: “7 companies with over-average rural exposure fare better in stock market”

According to a report appearing the Economic Times (Mumbai, Oct. 4, 2013), “India Inc’s rural champions have probably never had it so good.” A good monsoon is seen as having “kindled hopes of a turnaround in demand for key products”.

A Hero SPLENDOR-NXG

A Hero SPLENDOR-NXG. Photo courtsey: Hero Motocorp

The ET report citing an unnamed study by the Deutsche Bank says: “At a time when the rest of India Inc is either groaning under heavy debt or struggling to sell in a sluggish market, companies with heavy rural focus are literally licking their lips in anticipation of a surge in demand in India’s villages and towns. Already, two-wheeler sales are inching up, tractor sales are booming and banks are hiring employees in far-flung regions, hoping to benefit from a monsoon that has increased the kharif area by 5% and water reservoir levels by 15%.”

The 7 firms examined in the study are Hero Motocorp, Emami, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, M&M Fin Services, and ITC. All of these companies can be regarded as champions in having mastered the “frugal challenge“.