 Rotary Bangalore Udyog is Seven years old Club. We are based in Peenya Industrial Area, South-Asia’s biggest industrial town. We are 65 members as on 10th July 2007. All our members are working or residing in and around Peenya. In fact 90% of them own industries in Peenya. Some of our major projects executed are
• providing Mid-Day meals to 1450 students in 4 Schools in association with ISKCON Akshay Patra
• Construction of classrooms and 1 Library block in Peenya Govt. School.
• Construction of classrooms at Sanjaygandhi nagar slum govt. school
Udyog Bhavan – Vocational Training Centre
In 2004, the Rotary Bangalore Udyog Trust purchased a land of 7500 Sq. ft at the cost of Rs. 14 Lacs (USD 35,000) and later constructed Vocational Training Center called ‘Udyog Bhavan’ . Udyog Bhavan is having 10,000 Sq. ft area. 5000 sq. ft. each in basement and ground floor and the cost of construction was Rs. 40 Lacs (USD 100,000). We took a loan from Nationalised Bank and gave a floor on rent to the same bank, thus adjusting the rent to the EMI. We are also planning to construct first floor in late 2008 or in 2009 to expand our training activities.
The Vocational Training centre is right now conducting job oriented classes on Tailoring, Computers, Generator Repair and Maintenance course, CNC Operators Course, and Soft Skills for middle-level management from industries, etc. We have tied-up with two professional training institutes who have more than 10 years experience in the field. We have ambitious plan to pick boys and girls who are 16 years and above from the nearby slums, give them skilled-based training in various vocations, get them placement in industries as there is large demand for skilled labors.
The challenge:
The prospective students have to pay ½ of the course fee, which is typically Rs. 2500 (USD 62.5) – Rs.4000 (USD 100) and other half is being arranged by the tie-up institutes. But the students find it difficult to pay these fees and we want to help these young students.
The Solution: Micro Credit Program
Our club wants to help these students by giving loans and not grants. The details of the project are as detailed below.
It will cost on average Rs.3, 000 (USD 75) for each candidate to contribute and many of the candidates don't have this money to pay, we can give this money as loan, which will be repaid by these candidates after getting job in SIX months time along with Service Charges of Rs.450.00 and also we can charge a processing fee of Rs.150 upfront which will not be difficult for candidates to pay. We will give placement to candidates. The candidates after getting job will return 500+75=575 divided into 6 installments. The interest collected will be used to pay for the person who will do administration work for this project.
We plan to pilot this project by giving just to 75 candidates every month for 6 months, once we are successful; we can roll-out in big manner and then can give to hundreds of deserving candidates every month. Loan will be given only to those who will undergo course at Udyog Vocational Training Centre. We are planning to do this project along with a NGO doing Micro Credit work in Bangalore.
We have to arrange one-time money of Rs.13,50,000 (USD 33,750 ) for on-lending and we can rotate the same principal amount again and again and Rs. 50,000 (USD 1,250) for one-time expenses of setting the required infrastructure like Computer System, Printer, MIS & Accounting Software, Furniture & Fixtures, etc. This will be long-term project, Micro-Credit is not short-term project, and lot of work will go in designing process and systems. You are all aware that I am working with Micro-Finance organization for last 4 years directly and more than 8 years in-directly and have some experience. I with help of my professional colleagues will design process; systems, supervise the whole project.
Rtn. Abhay Kanjikar, President-Elect-2007-08, Rotary Bangalore Udyog | 
