On day number four, we had a virtual get together with students from the Athena School of Management and were able to exchange with each other. Together with Rishi Nair and Sangeeth Pillai we talked about the future of India. We learned about the potential of renewable energies and heard about trends and forecasts for their sustainable co-evolution in the post-digital and post-pandemic era.
In the afternoon, our cooking skills were tested with Vanessa Mehri from Swahili Foods. We learned how to cook Chapati at home – it was so delicious. Right after Andrea Gasser-Burri from NGO Dignity Freedom Net gave an interesting speech about Indian Healthcare and Education System which was followed by the Blaser Swisslube part 2.
Athena School of Management – Group building
Group building with Athena School of Management
The aim of this lesson early on Thursday morning was the intercultural exchange between the students of the FHNW and their counterparts of the Athena School of Management, Mumbai. For this purpose, over twenty students from the school in Mumbai have joined the Zoom meeting. As an initiation, the director Prof. Aditya Singh of the Athena School addressed the students. He himself has 2 decades of experience and teaches project management, marketing and business strategies at the school.
He spoke of challenging times in the world due to the corona virus. But he also emphasized the opportunities which this pandemic brings. We may be students at a seminar today, but leaders of the world tomorrow. All that is needed for success is the will, a mission and a vision. A first step was the will to participate in this seminar. The connection established through this meeting can possibly bring about great things in the future.
Jessica Kibui took the microphone to lead us through this hour. In order to strengthen the understanding of the participants from India for this seminar, she briefly introduced herself, the project team and the goals of this seminar. Highlighting how today’s session was all about learning something from one another’s foreign culture. This applies to both the Swiss and the Indian students. A first step would be personal conversations between the students in breakout rooms. The conversations should cover topics similar to those in job interviews. In Breakout Room 6, the Indian students M. Majumdar and M. Modi were waiting. The two 22-year-old students explained how they were already in the first year of their two-year master’s program. They had completed their bachelor’s degree in business administration. In contrast to universities of applied science in Switzerland, students in India go straight to university after high school. For this reason, the two students have hardly been able to gain any professional practical experience.
After this 15-minute exchange, it is the students› task to introduce each other in the main room with all participants. Since this worked so well, this process is repeated and the students are divided into new breakout rooms.
This time N. Shah and M. Thakkar joined the breakout room. The questions were a bit more specific. For example, they talked about the internships of the students of the Athena School or the process of the corona restrictions in India. The other statements concerning the educational path were also very exciting. At the school in Mumbai, students have the option of three majors: finance, marketing and international business. Students also have the opportunity for an exchange semester at one of the partner universities in the USA or France. Similar to Switzerland, students in India are currently also studying through distance learning. This benefits some, as they can stay in their states for the semester and do not have to book extra student residence in Mumbai. Unfortunately, the Indian Master’s students have never been able to see each other in person and so the annual joint decoration of the Christmas tree could also not take place. This was a really good opportunity to feel what it’s like to study at an Indian university.
– Written by Florian Sennhauser, Julia Estermann & Vithusha Nallathamby
Rishi Nair – The Now and Future of Renewable Energy in India
Mr Rishi Nair started off by taking a look at India and Its current state of Energy. India is the 3rd largest consumer of energy in the world, with currently 80% of the used energy being produced by non renewable sources, such as oil, gas and the biggest source coal, which on its own covers 43% of the energy.
We learned, that big scale hydropower in India is not considered to be a solution with big potential, because it faces two major problems. One of them is the potential flooding of valleys together with the building of massive, huge dams. The second problem is the irregular downfall of rain, which is very high in the monsoon season and then comparably low for the rest of the year.
India is also taking part in the Paris Climate Agreement, but it is a challenge that the power in India does not only have to be clean, but also really affordable and the supply has to become both more stable and distributed in the whole country, with specific problems in the supply in rural areas. India’s Plans for facing climate change involve reducing the dependence of non renewable energy to under 40% by 2030 and the creation of carbon sinks for at least 2.5 billion tonnes CO2 through planting of forests.
When it comes to specific, promising programs, we learned about a project called the National Solar Mission, which was established in 2010. While the goal of achieving 100GW by 2022 does seem ambitious, the cost of solar power in India is now one of the lowest in the world and now financially more viable than coal generated electricity, thanks to technological improvements and support of the Indian government. In 2019, the KUSUM Scheme was established, with the goal of installing a capacity of around 10GW in solar energy on barren land, as an additional income for farmers, also bringing further input to switch to electrical machinery such as electrical water pumps instead of ones that are driven by fossil fuels.
In India, there now is also an airport, that receives its needed energy completely from locally built solar power plants, where those area’s are additionally used for crop production.
At the moment, the biggest challenge to further increase the amount of renewable energy are on one hand the storage of the electricity, where suitable technologies are yet to emerge and on the other hand in the distribution of power, where the infrastructure cannot handle the current influx of renewable energy. The solution to this would be called a green energy corridor that would allow the transport of that energy, but the Corona pandemic slowed momentum for the whole switch to renewable energy through travel bans, economic risks, and logistic issues. While India still has over 70% of its renewable capacity to construct, the will to change looks promising with a continuing focus on wind and mainly solar energy.
– Written by Andrea Haueter & Benjamin Walter
Rishi Nair
Vanessa Mehri – Cooking with Swahili Food
Swahili Food
Ms. Vanessa Mehri taught us on Thursday how to prepare Chapati. Chapati is a typical pan bread which is predominantly prepared in Kenya and Tanzania. As I have already been to Tanzania where I had also prepared Chapati, I wanted to know the different types of chapati and which was the most famous one. Ms. Mehri explained, to an interactive audience, the various types of Chapati and how to prepare them. The one I hade mad in Tanzania must have been the most common one. Given the limited time, she chose to show us a simple recipe. The pan bread is popular all around the world, and India has its own type, called Naan.
Previous to the cooking session we all had to cook our sweet potatoes, which we got a few day ago from the sponsors and Focus India. After mashing the potatos, we had kind of a puree. To this puree we added some salt and flour.
Guiding us carefully through this recipe, Mr. Mehri always asked us about how it was going and which stage we were at. This way we could really feel that we were all cooking together and enjoying the class.
We all got a kind of a sticky dough out of our sweet potato, flour and salt mixture. Some of us were a bit insecure on how the dough should look like. Since Mr. Mehri was very well prepared, she had installed 2 cameras which allowed her to show us every single step as well as how the dough should look like and how we can proceed with our doughs.
We all formed thin circles out of our mixture with a dough roll, which we put in our pans and could observe how they were cooked with a perfectly goldish/brownish texture.
Mr. Mehri accompanied us during the whole process and told us about her story, her roots and how she became such a successful food influencer. What I really appreciated were the tips she gave us at the end of our class, on how to become successful on social media. What we should keep in mind and that consistency is the most important factor. Mr. Mehri encourages us to participate in collaborations in order to gain more followers. She said it doesn’t always matter how many followers the other party has. It may only be 500 people but they are still 500 potential people that might not have known about you before.
– Written by Nicole Lehmann
Andrea Gasser-Burri, Dignity Freedom Net – Indian Health care and Education Systems
On the fourth day of the preparatory seminar of Focus India, we had a visit from Andrea Gasser-Burri. She is the National Director of the Dignity Freedom Network (DFN) in Switzerland. DFN is an NGO and aims to bring dignity and freedom to mostly marginalized and vulnerable people in India. DFN focuses on four topics: education, healthcare, trafficking prevention and skill training. DFN runs over 100 schools across India for marginalized children where they distribute essential medications. Access to health care in India is a big issue, which DFN focuses on.
In India, access to health care is not the same for everyone. There are some top-class health care systems, which are affordable for people with a higher income. Furthermore, there are a lot of barriers which poor people have to overcome to get health care: Because of poverty, people cannot afford the medication and health care based on their needs. Furthermore, gender discrimination is a big issue in India. Women are sometimes considered to be of lesser value than men which leads to them being left out of proper health care. Age can also be a discriminatory factor. Retired and elderly people do not actively contribute to the income of a family anymore. Consequently, the person might be considered to be unworthy to spend money on. Moreover, there is the caste system in India, which determines the level and status of people in society. The caste system influences the income and also the domicile. Geographical isolation is also a challenge – with the next hospital or medical facility often being many miles away from their home. What is more, the level of accessibility varies, so not all families have access to education. Illnesses are often discovered late because the knowledge of symptoms is missing. Educated parents react quicker when their child is sick than parents without any education.
The top goal of DFN last year was to build a women’s and children’s hospital. Often women are the ones that are in need of health care in India. Moreover, there were plans to build regional clinics and the quantity of community health workers was supposed to be increased. Because of the corona crisis, however, they had to postpone their plans. Covid-19 has worsened the situation of the barriers to health care and many employees lost their jobs. Many people could no longer provide for their families. Through the lockdown, rural villages were completely cut off from infrastructure. There was a fear of an infection at the hospital and the hospitals even closed or treated Covid-patients only. The consequences were overloaded hospitals.
DFN had to be flexible and adapt their plans. They organized food distribution to prevent hunger in poor neighborhoods. To assist citizens in the Corona crisis, they educated them on hygiene measures and distribute hygiene kits. Following the school closures, they organized distance learning in a non- or semi-digital setting. DFN helped with house visits as much as possible once the strictest lockdown was over. They also started a telehealth project, which is supposed to include 100 E-clinics in the future. They are currently collaborating with a virtual health platform, which should be launching soon. People who do not have access to any mobile devices can get in contact with the health care workers of DFN. Through the engagement of DFN, many Indians get the support they need.
– Written by Tho Do Anh Vo & Larissa Hänni
Andrea Gasser-Burri, Dignity Freedom Net