The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Management school for NGOs inaugurated

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 03, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Management school for NGOs inaugurated

Staff Reporter

‘NGOs have often an egoistic way of functioning’

‘Social initiatives can succeed if spirituality is combined with management’
‘It is time to develop a prototype of solutions for the rising number of problems’

BANGALORE: Social initiatives can only succeed if stakeholders combine spirituality with good management practices. But society’s collective mindset of insensitivity and corrupt bureaucracy that only chooses to look at statistics have made delivery of social initiatives to beneficiaries difficult, said M.N. Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice of India, on Saturday.

Mr. Venkatachaliah, who inaugurated the Centre for Social Initiative and Management (CSIM), which offers customised courses on social entrepreneurship, consultancy services on non-governmental organisation (NGO) management and volunteer management, said it was time to develop a model or prototype of solutions for the mounting number of problems that keep the country from developing into a healthy, prosperous nation.

Quoting several statistics that paint an alarming picture of India in 2020, Mr. Venkatachaliah said the projected demand for water would go up by 50 per cent, and so would the demand for power. The country needs 6,000 primary schools, and 3,500 paramedical units in remote areas where no service is available. “The child health indices are appalling, and they require enormous funds, attention from Government, policy makers, and from NGOs who can make a difference in increasing access to services,” he said.

However, even NGOs have several drawbacks and often an egoistic way of functioning that takes away from the importance of the work they do. “I recently read that 50 per cent of the executive class air tickets out of Orissa were taken by NGOs,” he said.

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