India News / GIZ STAFF MAGAZINE 3 / 07.2012 / COUNTRY DIRECTOR'S CORNER Dear Colleagues, CONTENT The only constant thing in life is change. COUNTRY DIRECTOR'S CORNER On the first of July, a truly historic change has taking place in the GIZ: Dr. Bernd Eisenblätter, SPOTLIGHT long-serving chairman, has handed over to Tanja Gönner. NEWS FROM GIZ IS / CIM DESK Dr. Eisenblätter has led and shaped our organisation. He is the father of all successful developments over the last twenty years, including GIZ CAPTURED IN IMAGES the merger of GTZ with Inwent and DED. He has overseen the decen- tralisation, the strengthening of IS, and our system of OuR which is MY SPACE more flexible than a very stringent set of rules. GIZ IN NEWS Thank you, Dr Eisenblätter! WHAT'S NEW @ GIZ Tanja Gönner is the first woman to lead GIZ or any of the predecessor organi- sations. She has served as a Minister of Environment in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg and bring a wealth of political and administrative expe- rience to GIZ. IMPRINT Published by Welcome, Tanja Gönner! Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (Photograph by: Karsten Thormaehlen) Communication Team GIZ Office New Delhi There has also been a change in the set up of the Asia Department: India is 4th Floor, B-5/2, Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi - 110 029 no longer clubbed with China and Mongolia, but now forms the core of the E-Mail: [email protected] new South Asia Division which also includes Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Let us expect more opportunities to work jointly with our South Asian neigh- Editorial Stefan Helming bours. Tushita Mukherjee Layout & Design The division is headed by Ms Sandra Schenke. She has experience from many Gurjit Kaur parts of GIZ, including a stint in IS and as County Director in Tunisia. She will come for the first visit to India soon. Editorial input The Editorial Team thanks all the PR coordinators and experts for their constant support. Welcome, Sandra Schenke! For your suggestions or comments Please write to us at [email protected] or [email protected] Yours sincerely, Stefan Helming (Country Director) YOUR TAKE Great job…….it’s come out really well.—Vaishali Nandan This time the newsletter-April 2012 is more attractive than ever. The layout, content and overall placements of pictures etc are really eye-catching. Many congratulations for you all.—Shantanu Garg Very nice and informative newsletter. It is excellent!—Reshma Verma Looks really great Tushita.—Sasank Vemuri You have done it again. The diversity of your stories is really amazing. Love it. Again well-done! —Irene Maweu, GIZ office Kenya, Communications, HIV and AIDS Focal Point It’s well done and quite comprehensive. —Nishtha Prakash It is really interesting and balanced combination of news + photos from within India as well as outside India giving an insight into GIZ operations (even at grass root level). I would really applaud the efforts of your team!—Kiran Kanda Congratulations on your India News! —Clarissa A. Dytianquin, GIZ Office Manila, Corporate Communications Manager 2 INDIA NEWS / GIZ Staff Magazine 3 / 07.2012 / SPOTLIGHT NEWS FROM THE CAPITAL IGEN-RE organises a workshop to look at the current energy situation in rural areas of India from a Gender perspective New Delhi, March 20, 2012: The Renewable Energy Component of the Indo-German Energy Programme (IGEN-RE) conducted a study to ex- amine, analyse and understand the current energy situation in rural areas from a gender perspective. With an objective to further enrich the study, its initial findings were shared with the gender and rural energy experts and practitioners in the workshop. The workshop saw participation from organisations such as TERI, USAID, UN Women, En- ergia and UNDP. The participants collectively reviewed experiences and best practices regarding gender issues in energy access projects. A set of recommendations for a more gender sensitive approach to policies and programmes for energy access in rural areas was devel- oped by the group. MSME and IGEN-RE jointly organise “Energise the BoP Work- GIZ-RSBY selects 10 candidates for the Young Professional shop” Programme New Delhi, April 26-27, 2012: To promote energy business models New Delhi, May 3-4, 2012: As part of capacity building measures at for low income Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) markets in India, the Re- the state level, the GIZ-RSBY Young Professional Programme (GRYPP) newable Energy Component of the Indo-German Energy Programme kick-started with the induction programme for the 10 selected candi- (IGEN-RE) and the innovation sub-component of the MSME Umbrella dates. They were trained on different processes of the RSBY to serve Programme jointly organised the “Energise the BoP Workshop”. The t h e c a u s e o f p u b l i c i n t e r e s t i n t h e s o c i a l s e c t o r . Contact: [email protected] GIZ-MoF Study on Willingness-to-Pay for a Comprehensive So- cial Security Scheme The Indo-German Social Security Programme and Ministry of Finance (MoF) are conducting a study on Willingness-to-Pay. The study will help understand how much the workers in the unorganised sector are able and willing to contribute for a Comprehensive Social Security insurance scheme including life, health, disability and pension insur- workshop was facilitated by the German consultancy-Endeva. It was ances. The study attempts to understand the demand for such a com- a platform for peer learning for successful entrepreneurs and start-up prehensive product. It will also shed light on the challenges and bot- innovators within the off-grid clean energy space. The one and a half t l e n e c k s t h a t m i g h t a p p e a r d u r i n g i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f s u c h a s c h e m e . days event was organised as a side event of the Asian Competitiveness Contact: [email protected] Forum 2012. Three successful entrepreneurs in the rural renewable energy sector (Envirofit, DESI POWER, SELCO) were acting as mentors GIZ-supported research programme discusses its preliminary for 15 upcoming Indian energy entrepreneurs. Furthermore, 11 inves- findings in a multi-stakeholder workshop tors and incubators represented the financial and incubaton sector. New Delhi, May 3, 2012: MSME Umbrella Programme has been sup- The start-up companies gained immensely from the experiences of porting a research and knowledge exchange programme on Green the mentoring entrepreneurs and the workshop also provided them Growth commenced by Overseas Development Institute (ODI). This with the options for designing and improving energy business models is a collaborative, four year, research programme in partnership with that respond to the low income Indian markets. other institutions in China, India and other emerging economies. In India, the GIZ MSME Umbrella Programme has supported the incep- tion phase of this research programme. IGSSP Planning Workshop New Delhi, April 3, 2012: IGSSP organised a Planning Workshop for This multi-stakeholder workshop titled- ‘India - Leading the Path to- steering the programme in the right direction. Experts, practitioners wards Green and Inclusive Growth’ was organised with the intention and partners from the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the to discuss preliminary findings of the inception phase research, vali- Ministry of Finance of the Government of India participated in the date the rationale and understand the expectations from this research event for a brainstorming session on the programme implementa- by stakeholders. tion. INDIA NEWS / GIZ Staff Magazine 3 / 07.2012 3 / SPOTLIGHT The workshop was also aimed at developing an informed research agenda for the main research phase. The workshop was attended by about 36 participants representing government bodies, think tanks, academics, private sector representatives, and financial institutions, multilateral and bilateral agencies. It was instrumental in understand- ing the key expectations of India from a research of this nature. Contact: [email protected] GIZ organises training workshop for CEOs of Cooperative Banks June 4-9, 2012: The training focussed on the need for adoption of ap- propriate governance structures, norms and practices for good gov- ernance, Board's oversight of bank's business operations, budgeting, adherence to banking laws and transparency in financial and non financial disclosures, Code of conduct for Board of Directors, Consti- GIZ organises training of trainers for the senior auditors in Odi- tution of sub-committees of the Board, their duties and responsibili- sha ties and their effective functioning and the importance of effective Odisha, June 4-9, 2012: Training of Trainers workshop for senior audi- Internal control systems for a well functioning and Prudent financial tors of the Cooperative Department in response to the request made institution. by the Government of Odisha regarding developing the capacities of their auditors and audit system. The training aimed to enhance/ The programme was well received and the role of GIZ in the design sharpen the domain knowledge, skill and insight of the auditors, who and conduct was appreciated by the state government and the partic- would assume the role of Trainers, for imparting training of auditors ipating bankers. Contact: [email protected] of the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in the state, with a v i e w t o i m p r o v i n g o v e r a l l q u a l i t y a n d e f f e c t i v e n e s s o f a u d i t o f P A C S .