Progress Report
Connecting the Dots

 

Progress Report H1 (AMJ and JAS) 2019

General
  • A slow progress in the first half of the year due to unexpected medical events with couple of our team members, but we still managed to reach significant milestones in our journey in the first half of our second year of operation.
 RUJO: Rural Job Creation

Farm Sector

  • Facilitated Establishment of Unnatisheel Farmer Producer Company: Unnatisheel Farmer Producer Company Private Limited was successfully formed and registered on May 13, 2019, with support of over 80 farmer members from 8 villages of Mandawar Tehsil of Alwar District (Pehal, Raipur, Behroj, Jeendoli, Mator, Ranoth, Sukhman Heri, and Tatarpur). All expenses for registration of the FPC were borne by B2Ic.
  • Formal inauguration of Unnatisheel FPC’s office and operations was held on May 30, 2019. The first activity undertaken by the FPC is Input aggregation.
  • Government of India has mandated two agencies, NABARD and Small Farmers Agriculture Consortium (SFAC) to support development of FPCs. NABARD provides financial assistance for administrative expenses to the FPC for the first three years of its formation, trains the FPC Board of Directors and Management on management skills, and supports the FPC through its partner NGOs for three years. We facilitated engagement of NABARD to support Unnatisheel FPC’s development. We organized NABARD’s District Management to visit the FPC and meet with Unnatisheel’s Board as well as witness excellent farming technology and technique deployed by member farmers. The proposal to NABARD for support of Unnatisheel FPC through NABARD’s partner NGO is work in progress.
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  • Mission Drip Irrigation Kicked-off: B2Ic funded Unnatisheel FPC first tranche of our pledge of INR 5 lakhs as rolling fund for adoption of Drip Irrigation by the member farmers of the Farmer Producer Company for enabling farmers to avail interest free loan from the FPC to pay for unsubsidized cost of Drip Irrigation system.
  • Three member farmers of Unnatisheel FPC were provided funding in June by the FPC under this initiative, who have since installed Drip Irrigation systems.
  • As Unnatisheel FPC selects more farmers, B2Ic will continue to provide the pledged funding.
  Non-Farm Sector  
     
  • Stitching Production Center (SPC) for Village Women by Usha Silai School: The Stitching Production Center, Pragati Village Women’s Business Enterprise (VWBU), that went on-stream at Pehal village in March with 10 days of training by Usha Silai School to 17 village women on stitching of daily use wear, it was decided to train these women on stitching of Uniforms to target huge market of Uniforms from corporate sector and from the schools.
  • B2Ic sponsored additional training for a week by Usha Silai School on stitching of Uniforms to the member women of Pragati VWBU. This training for imparted in June, 2019.
  • Realizing the inadequacy of week-long training provided for stitching Uniforms, for enabling finesse and quality in stitching Uniforms for successfully competing in the market, B2Ic has engaged a full-time local trainer for Pragati VWBU. Since July, this trainer is handholding and enabling the member women of Pragati VWBU to enhance quality of their stitching to a level where their product is commercially acceptable.
  • One of our benefactors has also been supporting this initiative by providing funding for raw material for School Uniform stitching.
  • Once the Pragati VWBU is able to deliver quality Uniforms, B2Ic will facilitate connecting Pragati VWBU with few companies in the region for potential business.
 CODO: Connecting the Dots for Holistic Rural Development
     
  • Engagement with a Leading Foundation to launch 360° Development of all our 9 adopted villages: One of B2Ic’s key objective is to bring excellent work done by various NGOs/NPOs/Foundations/Organizations to our adopted villages to solve specific problems of our villages.
  • B2Ic has been able to rope in a leading Foundation of the country, that will launch its SmarTgram project for 360° development of all our 9 adopted villages. This leading Foundation works on all aspects of village development, education, healthcare and nutrition, women empowerment, local governance, farming and farmer development, water management, enabling small scale village units for manufacturing top quality food and consumer products, and more.
  • This Foundation has launched SmarTgram development program in 119 villages in Haryana (103) and Uttarakhand (16).
  • This will be Foundation’s first foray in Rajasthan with all our 9 adopted villages for launching their SmarTgram development program.
  • There is significant synergy in B2Ic and Foundation’s objectives specifically in establishing small scale village manufacturing units, women empowerment, farming and farmer development, water management, and education. B2Ic will learn a lot from the Foundation on holistic village development. We believe our adopted villages will be immensely benefited by Foundation’s engagement in their fulsome development.
  • The Foundation will also support development of Unnatisheel FPC.
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  • Development of Government School at Kohrana: As previously identified, three development interventions have been initiated.
  • B2Ic received funding commitment from 5 women benefactors for constructing 4 additional toilets for girl students who are a majority in this school. The construction work is in progress.
  • B2Ic committed funding for painting all the classrooms of Primary Section and its veranda with learning aids for enabling permanence of these aids and ease of learning by visual engagement. This painting work of learning aids will be undertaken by identified painter during Diwali Holidays.
  • B2Ic identified an agency for correcting the flaws of the water harvesting system in the school. This work will be completed within Q3.
 TWINT: Teach What is Not Taught
  • B2Ic has sponsored annual subscription of ‘Jyotirgamay’, a very informative monthly magazine for children of primary and middle school. Our adopted Government school at Kohrana (and three other schools, two at Pehal village and one at Gurgaon) will be beneficiary of this subscription. The children have been enjoying this magazine since May.