MANAGING RESORTS IN AN ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY WAY

Here’s a nice article I read in TOI. Resorts can use this to their advantage. Besides being enviorment friendly, it makes tremendous sense cost-wise.

:Times Of India Bangalore
:Jan 5, 2006

Another Naga revolution
By PANKAJ SEKHSARIA About five km from Kohima on National Highway 39 to Imphal is a small bamboo and cane structure that looks just like any other roadside hotel here. Nothing about it appears worth writing home about until you notice its intriguing name, Dzucharu Hydroger Hotel. Roupgukhrielie Chuse and Khrievi, a young couple from the nearby Phesama village, own the place. Dzucharu, Chuse says, is the name of the small rivulet gushing down the mountain slope just behind their place. Hydroger is the small mechanical contraption installed besides this stream that lights up the space where we sit down to have a cup of tea. Also called pico or micro hydro, the hydroger is a small turbine system that uses the flow of mountain streams to generate between 10 kw and 100 kw of electrical energy. A single hydroger, in a normal situation, could provide decent lighting to a village of 20 houses. It’s the fundamental unit of a system of decentralised power generation that could revolutionise the energy scenario in the country, particularly in the mountainous region. One of the key movers of the hydroger idea in Nagaland is Sancho Odyuo, an executive engineer in the Nagaland government’s Irrigation and Flood Control Department and presently part of the Nagaland Empowerment of People through Economic Development (NEPED) programme that is funded by the Indo-Canadian Environment Facility (ICEF). Odyuo says, with more than 1,000 streams flowing through the state for at least seven months in the year, this system of power generation could earn the state revenue to the tune of Rs 4 crore per annum. The Nagaland State Human Development Report 2004 points out that the state generates only 29 mw of power while the peak load demand is about 75 mw. The report also indicates that the quality of power is low, with frequent curtailment and interruption, transformer failures and low voltage. The (Nagaland Department of Power) DOP’s current financial situation, the report says, is dire with a revenue collection of Rs 19 crore against a power purchase bill of Rs 36 crore. An investment projection of Rs 4,500 crore has been made to raise the generating capacity of the state to 450 mw. A hydroger-based system in comparison has the potential to generate nearly 1,000 mw. It’s a decentralised system that avoids the costs and the infrastructure of installing and linking up to a centralised grid and can light up hundreds of villages in remote mountainous country. It’s a non-polluting source of renewable energy (a number of units could be set up in a cascade along the same stream of water), and importantly, ensures the protection of the catchment to ensure that the water keeps flowing. The village of Phesama, for instance, has already taken the decision to protect the forests that provide water to the Dzucharu river. The unit on the Dzucharu is only the pilot of a process that is now poised for take off. The team is hoping to install, on an average, one hydroger a day in the year 2006 in the state, at a cost of a little less than Rs 2 lakh for each hydroger. The project has been approved by the state government and the Union ministry of non-conventional energy; both have sanctioned Rs 1 lakh each. This would take care of hardware procured from China (220 units) and from manufacturers located in various parts of the country. The rest of the money will be needed for things like purchasing pipes, completing civil works, exposure trips and capacity-building programmes for the communities themselves. ICEF, the state government and the Planning Commission have been approached for this support. The community itself is expected to contribute roughly 10% of the project cost primarily in kind; with stones and boulders and their own labour. The plan is to install hydrogers in 1,200 villages in Nagaland. By 2020, Odyuo says, Nagaland will be in a position to even sell power generated from these hydrogers.

The writer is with Kalpavriksh, an environment NGO.

IDEAS FOR 2006

Here are some interesting thoughts which cross my mind while I complete the long & arduous drive from work to home and home to work everyday: Some great product ideas & other stuff

 

1. Traffic light Index for Hoardings- Is there are rationale to the price for advertising on various hoardings on the road or does it just depend on how well you can negotiate. Should’nt there be an Index/ Matrix for the same? One good way is to use the length of traffic light stop as an Index to price them. This ofcourse is aside from the usual other things that matter- Length/Width/Angle/distance & visibility. If there can be a Mcdonald Index for PPP, why not this?
2. Gillette – Have you ever noticed the amount of shelf space Gillette has in majority of the Grocery stores/ Super Markets? All credit to them for putting innovative products out but they are always overcharged because of the almost monopolistic market share Gillette has. I would love to have their shares (at par at that)! But the issue is: how come other FMCG companies fail to take note of this? Park Avenue & Old Spice make some very feeble efforts and relegated to the back shelves. Whatever happened to a good company called SUPER MAX. Also, did you know that COLGATE actually makes shaving foams too?
3. Diabetics- My father in law is a diabetic. It is a well known fact that Diabeties has reached epidemic proportions in Indian. We just have to look at our traditional medicinal remedies to counter these. A good product, which I used, but it is surprisingly not available in India- is “Karela Chai”- Tea bags made out normal tea and dried shreds of bitter gourd. A hit in the far east cultures? Perhaps “Himalayas” should launch this in India?
4. Women Safety products-  Bad Behavior in public with women and Sexual assault has been going up. Infact, one of our staff who was in a frontline job resigned recently because she could not take this abuse both physical & verbal in nature from passengers. While more and more women want to work and it necessitates dealing with all kinds of people, surprisingly noone wants to prepare to preempt these attacks. This is a great opportunity for products like the well-tested “RED PEPPER SPRAY” which women can use to thwart any such attempts. Marketers! Wake up!   
5. Eye care   - Noticed the number of Opticians stores which have come up with more people using computers and worse watching TV? They are doing great business but I just wish eyes were strained due to reading more books!  But should’nt they also be telling people about eye Care- There are products like eye Pillows which opticians should sell in order to add value to their clients.
6. Resorts Connectivity – If you look at the business resorts do over the year- they are full on weekends and completely empty on weekdays. One reason is ofcourse that they are not offering enough incentives to people to travel on weekdays by lowering their prices, but the other reason is that it is so difficult to reach the good ones. People spend more time driving to these resorts than at the resort itself. That should change. Resorts should get together to build helipads and gravel air-strips (3 to 5 years in the horizon..)
7. Fire Safety-  Salesmen for fire extinguishers manufactures must be doing a bad job- Book shops, Cloth stores etc. all do not feel a need to buy one. or may be it has to do with our culture of poor planning for safety.
8. Backpacking in India  Can backpacking catch on in India? After all, we are one of the youngest populations and will remain so for years to come. With low cost Airlines around, travel is already affordable but not so the accommodation. Right time for a Youth hostel Chain or Branded Home-stays?

 

Happy 2006! May more entrepreneurs be born this year!