Parivarthanam

It is estimated that around 80% of the students enrolled in engineering and similar professional colleges are not completing their course on time due to multiple backlogs papers/subjects, and they end up on a dead-end of their education and career. Such students, called as ‘aspiring and fresh youth’ in this report, from the economically backward families of the focus group, suddenly find themselves in an extremely difficult dual task where they are expected to repay their education loan as well as support their families. In turn, they are forced to take up menial / manual labour for survival and in the process pushing themselves to a trap of never accomplishing their professional dream.  There is a dire ‘need’ to create a sustainable source of income for this group of youth which is sufficient enough to support their livelihood and help them to continue with their studies until graduation. This ‘need’ demands a business model through which sustainable jobs are to be created and the ‘aspiring and fresh youth' skilled appropriately to take up such created jobs. The model also needs qualified team leaders, who apart from leading the business, shall guide, motivate and monitor the team members until they complete their graduation and exit from the business model. This will become the biggest achievement of the project.  The ‘Parivarthanam’ project is all about fulfilling the above need by creating a parttime job, that will financially support their family, repay their education loan and fund to continue their studies by investing 2 to 3 hours daily. The students can utilize their out of work time for the study for their backlog papers and up-skilling. 

 

The objective and role of KSCADC is to handhold and promote this model put forward by Roy V Nagendran for the benefit of fishermen, the fish consuming general public of Kerala and the unemployed youngsters of Kerala who look for employment and up-skilling.  The objective of CIFT is to ensure the quality of the fish and related products to be the best throughout the business cycle until it reach the end user consumer.  The third-party will develop and operate the entire systems for this project with the support of the two other parties. An initial financial assistance from the first party, to the tune of around 10 Lakhs as initial kick off expenditure and approximately 5 Lakhs to the fishermen community to procure specified ice boxes are the only meagre investment required from GOK. These amounts can either be considered as grant for the project and included in the provisions of any of the ongoing welfare/ community development programs of the government. The total operation will be designed, manned and managed by the third party. KSCADC will be monitoring and meandering the project with statutory government norms and CIFT will ensure the quality of procurement, processing and products.  The Operator (third party) is a team lead by Roy V Nagendran, a 30 plus years experienced man in fisheries sector along with a team of well experienced people in fisheries, management, and related industries.  CIFT will assist the project initially as its social responsibilities to the nation.  After six months, this project will become financially self-supported and become an autonomous entity. 

Fixed price system in the marine sector will help traditional fishermen to reduce fuel consumption, as they need not hurry to reach the auction hall. Maintenance cost for the outboard engine also will come down and those who are using two engines can spare one. As they are using ice fish at the fishing spot, the shelf life also will be improved many folds and the fish will no more be a highly perishable commodity. This may help the traditional fishing sector to save around 20 Crore litres of Kerosene every year, reducing the pollution in the atmosphere and sea, which is equivalent to around 5.108 Tons of CO2 (Carbon Credit Units).

The project also will make arrangements to procure farmed fish on a long term contract basis from the aqua-farms in and around Kollam and to import high-quality frozen fish, when the supply of the local catch or farms are in short supply. A live fish sale is also planned in phase 3.

The fish will be processed and packed at a processing centre designed by CIFT complying with protocols and norms as set by European standards. The personnel employed for processing will be trained by CIFT in batches. This training will be aligned with the NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) syllabus for food processing and therefore a certification by NSDC is also possible. This certification is expected to be mandatory, country wide, for all personnel involved in food processing industry, in the near future, and voluntarily going for such a certification will make Kerala another role model for the entire nation.  The protocol requires that the ice used in the entire process edible. Integrating traceability into the system will help quality management system to trace the source of the fish and pin point any issues or corrections as required. 

For the sake of end users, very innovative quality self check option, developed by CIFT, will be incorporated on the fresh fish packet. This is an auto colour changing strip, which when the fish is fresh will be slightly yellowish and will turn red if any slightest change in condition of the fish inside the packet. This will help the end user to check and ensure that what they buy is fresh.

Sales to end user are carried out through outlets that will be opened in strategically selected

locations/ regions, as per following criteria, with clearly marked geographical boundary to avoid

clash between two neighbouring outlets.

The skilling courses offered by NSDC can be selected based on the aptitude and basic qualification of the youth and this, in turn, will motivate them to branch out into various sectors that'll catapult their lives and secure their future. The training provided to these youth will mould them to be confident and motivated entrepreneurs who can venture out into a field suitable to their aptitude. 

The rest will be arranged for rent or lease initially and will be added on later from Operator's account. Will arrange a bank loan for the entrepreneurs, if required. The working capital account of the project and the entrepreneurs will be in the same bank. This is to make the financial transactions more transparent and for the ease of operation. The total operation will have a separate bank account and will function independently with the monitoring of KSCADC till it become financially self-reliant and become an autonomous entity.

• Marine fishing sector  • Pollution level in Marine waters due to OBMs  • Atmosphere pollution in that area  • Kerosene consumption in the traditional fishing sector  • Engine power usage  • Improvement in fish handling and quality of fish  • Standard of ling of fishermen community  • Inland fish farming  • Local fish trade/ distribution  • Employment generation through this project  • Impact on the premature professionals 

This impact study can be carried out by CIFT.

 An initiative with Kerala Technical University to support the Engineering students to clear the backlogs, who are participating with this Project.  • Understand the areas to be improved.  • Online tuition supports for the B Tech subjects.  • Properly communicate exam schedule and exam registration.  • Counselling and preparation for examinations.  • External NSDC Skill training and support for those who qualify B Tech course.  • Finish school / guidance to get an appropriate engineering job as per their qualified skill and interest.