2015 is coming to an end and I have been reflecting on my key learnings of the year. The key thing that stood out for me is the abiding power of Positive action. Human mind has a tendency to stick to the negative. It is so easy and even comforting to moan about all the negative things around us. And if you live in India, we are especially blessed to have an amazing array of negatives that one can moan about!! You can moan about the traffic, the pollution, the infrastructure, the corruption, the dirt, the government that does not work, the “system” and so on and on.
The problem with negativity is that you just keep on sinking deeper and deeper. There is the momentary catharsis of unburdening yourselves. However, there is no way out and you keep on spiraling downwards. Therefore the only option is to focus on the positive and to take action however small that might be. The nature of life is such that you always have positive interspersed with negative, whether that be situations or people. To succeed you need to have the skill and habit to focus on the positive in any situation and person. It is essential that we focus on and take action on what is in our circle of influence and not be bogged down by our circle of concerns. If you act on your circle of influence it keeps on growing, but if you stay mired in your circle of concern it will submerge you.
I am sure all of us are well aware of the above principles of Positivity. However, the seductive power of negativity is so strong that we are not able to live by the principles of positivity, at least not consistently. In 2015 I was blessed to be a part of an initiative called the CarFreeDay, which is a great lesson in the power of Positive Action and I want to share that with you.
As background, I have been a part of NASSCOM Haryana for the past 5 years where we have been championing the vision of making Gurgaon the “Silicon Valley of the East”. As we assessed Gurgaon’s competitive position, it was clear that perhaps the greatest challenge the city faced was poor transportation infrastructure. There was limited public transportation (e.g., no public bus service), poor planning and limited integration between existing modes of transportation, and little support for walking and cycling (which are now the lifeline for most modern, well-developed cities). All this meant that the current road infrastructure was woefully inadequate in handling the ever increasing population and traffic in the city. This resulted in the city getting clogged with traffic jams, dangerous levels of pollution, and a sense of frustration & despair for the citizens.
As NASSCOM Haryana we have been focused on this topic for the past 4+ years. We have been lobbying with the state government to make the necessary investments into public transport infrastructure. However, after a while we realized that the response from the government was very slow. We then changed tracks and decided that instead of worrying just about the infrastructure/ supply side where we had little control, we should focus more on awareness building i.e., the demand side. We felt the demand side actions were more in our circle of influence. Over the past 2-3 years, we tried multiple initiatives from “CEOs walking to work” to producing a music video called “Walk On” along with Dr. Palash Sen and his band Euphoria to promote walking and cycling.
Many of our awareness building initiatives had only limited traction, but we finally struck gold with the CarFreeDay initiative. The idea came up in August/early September in partnership with Gurgaon Police to celebrate the World Car Free Day on September 22nd. Plan was to encourage users of private cars to not use their vehicles and instead use more sustainable modes of transportation like the metro, carpooling, shuttle services, cycling or walking. The entire concept was based on encouragement and not enforcement. The only enforcement was that 4 roads were identified where parking of private vehicles was not allowed. To cut a long story short, the first Car Free Day was a great success with both the print media and TV channels giving it massive coverage. This traction motivated us to celebrate CarFreeDay every Tuesday in Gurgaon and we have now done 15 consecutive Tuesdays without a break!!
We can’t claim that CarFreeDay has solved the traffic and pollution woes of Gurgaon, but I think it has been a very positive initiative on many counts. There are 7 positives that I want to call out:
- Corporates stepping up. Corporates are often accused of being insensitive to the social context in which they operate. In this case the entire CarFreeDay adoption has been led by the IT/BPO companies who are a part of NASSCOM. Companies like Nagarro and Authbridge have led from the front going 100% car free. Overall, there are 35-40 companies from NASSCOM and other industries who have embraced CarFreeDay and are recording average of 20-30% reduction in number of private vehicles on Tuesdays. Corporates are not just encouraging their employees to go CarFree but are making more systemic changes in tranport options they are offering to their employees (e.g., replacing cabs with shuttle buses). In some cases corporates are also championing community based solutions (e.g., Nagarro, Incedo, Snapdeal and number of other companies are working on an open database of employees to pool demand for shuttle bus services).
- Awareness building. The debate of going beyond cars and using more sustainable forms of transportation like metro, buses, carpooling and cycling has become center stage. Media has picked up the theme and has been giving it coverage every week. It has become a common topic for dinner and party conversations. Most heartening, schools have been taking up the CarFreeDay topic enthusiastically and the message is going to thousands of school children. Visiting a few schools on CarFreeDay gives me hope that we are beginning to see something similar to the momentum school children created with the “Say no to crackers” drive.
- Great people coming together. Perhaps the most inspiring and enjoyable aspect of the CarFreeDay initiative has been the opportunity to work with some truly outstanding people. A motley crew of CEOs, sustainability experts and social activists have come together united by their passion to make a difference to Gurgaon and to solve a complex problem that affects all of our lives. Our core team includes Sarika and Amit Bhatt from Embarq (consulting firm focused on Sustainability) who have brought subject matter knowledge and program management; Manas Fuloria, CEO of Nagarro, who has led by example personally designing and championing some of our most important solutions; Prabhat Aggarwal and Latika Thukral, two outstanding professionals, who have left their professional careers to dedicate themselves full-time to social causes; And, Mohit Thukral, a senior leader from Genpact, which is one of the largest employers in Gurgaon. When I see such talented and senior individuals coming together as a team and dedicating themselves to this cause in a true labor of love, I feel there is hope not just for Gurgaon but for our country!!
- P-P-C partnership. In our country we have a very negative view of all government agencies. In the case of CarFreeDay, the Gurgaon Police has led from the front and been a great sponsor and partner for this initiative. They have not only provided the enforcement of no-parking in the 4 corridors identified for CarFreeDay but have led the outreach to schools and other agencies including the Municipal Corporation. In fact the Police Commissioner, Mr. Navdeep Singh Virk has been personally involved in leading our customary cycle rally event on most Tuesdays. This partnership between the Police, Corporates (led by NASSCOM) and citizen groups is a great template for how many of the grave problems that our cities face can be solved. We have the beginnings of a Public-Private-Citizen (P-P-C) partnership model that can be a game changer for our country. Many of the problems we face are so complex that government alone can’t solve them. This partnership model could well be the answer.
- Entrepreneurs stepping in. One of the fascinating features of the CarFreeDay has been that a number of entrepreneurs have stepped up to provide solutions. Gurgaon lacks a public bus service and we have been lobbying for it for years. Over the past 4-6 months private operators like Shuttl and Ola have stepped in providing app based shuttle bus services, which is proving to be quite a game changer. Cykul has come in providing cycle stations to corporates making cycling a more feasible option. There have been a host of carpooling start-ups. There has even been a start-up (Baxi) providing app based bike taxi service. That is the beauty of India we now live in. Where government fails to provide public services, we have entrepreneurs jumping in to provide solutions. And often these solutions are more innovative and efficient. This is another example of the expanding circle of influence as we now do not need to be only dependent on government action on key civic problems.
- Snowball effect. The CarFreeDay initiative is now not just limited to Gurgaon. In a short time, it has been adopted by Delhi and also smaller towns like Karnal. After much hit n trial over a number of years we finally got success with CarFreeDay. But often when it rains it pours. CarFreeDay has become a trigger that is bringing the transportation and pollution topics to a tipping point. The discussion is now snowballing with even the judiciary stepping in and forcing center and state governments to act. We off course have had the odd-even decision by the Delhi government. I will not go into the merits/demerits of that decision, but it is clear that sustainable transportation and pollution are topics that have now captured the public imagination (a bit like anti-corruption a few years back) and this movement will only grow in force.
- Power of bottom-up and personal action. I have always been fascinated by top-down, big picture solutions. CarFreeDay has taught me that ‘’small can be beautiful”. We kept making big plans within the NASSCOM team for sustainable transportation but did not get real traction. But when we worked on an idea that was more bottom-up and touched people’s lives in a real way we got more traction. Personally for me the most meaningful change is that I have started cycling to work. That makes it more real and puts many things in perspective than just being part of making big plans. And therein lies the key lesson about positivity that I had started the note with. Big problems can seem unsurmountable. The best we can do is to break down the problems and just focus on the actions we can take personally. Those personal experiences lead to more intimate learning allowing you to connect the dots more effectively and come up with more practical solutions. Moreover, the personal actions can set in motion a chain reaction that can become an unstoppable force. Truly, once you have the right intent and take personal action, universe conspires to make it happen!!
The battle to ensure our cities are sustainable has just begun. There is a long way to go to solve the problems we face. Much work needs to happen on both the infrastructure side and in changing well entrenched personal habits. However, 2015 gives me lot of hope. Positive initiative by a few well-meaning individuals gave us CarFreeDay, which is having such a positive snowball effect. Now just imagine if many more of us were to take such positive initiatives? The opportunity for impact is breathtakingly exciting and limitless!!
On that positive note, let’s raise 3 cheers to the power of positivity, say a big thank you to 2015, and look forward to an even more positive and action-filled 2016!!
