Sustainability & CSR By Mr. Arun Lakhani

Posted by vil india on October 17th, 2016

Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd. (VIL) specializes in three Infrastructure sectors – Water, Waste Water and Transportation. VIL has been ground-breaking innovative PPP models in water infrastructure sector. VIL philosophy of creating value by removal of inefficiencies and ensuring win-win for all the stakeholders is in tune with the social nature of water projects. Understanding and focus on implementation details and awareness of last mile problems and their mitigation is strength of VIL to create value by removing inefficiencies from the system.

Arun Lakhani says it’s ‘People’- the fourth P that makes the critical difference to PPP (Public –Private Partnership).It’s the 4th Pthat powers PPP – PPP to 4P Model. Ever since the Indian economy was opened and the process of liberalization was set in, various private players added their might partnering with public enterprises in various sectors. PPP as a concept on paper brings in very good synergy of Private enterprise efficiency with Public ownership of assets. But in reality we see a trust deficit between the ultimate stakeholders, People on one hand and Government & Private 30 years can be a risk unless people are on boarded. Our answer to this situation is Involve / Integrate the Fourth P – People – citizens in the PPP Model enhancing its credibility. PPP can be very successful if the fourth P- People are integrated in the structure with openness and responsibility of communicating with larger masses. People as largest stakeholders in any PPP must participate to monitor the contracts done between the two Ps.

With the fourth P of People, PPP is enriched with a completely new dimension of a more humane face & greater sensitivity towards its largest stakeholder- the people. Every PPP project is conceived to benefit the People, but often in the dry domain of numbers this fact is lost sight of. The factoring in of this fourth P as a central focus has a completely transformative impact on the long-term success of the project. An analysis of failed PPP projects will bear out that the major cause of failure was the ‘People’ dimension being ignored. Without the active involvement of ‘People’ from conceptualization to the final execution no PPP project can hope for long-term success. In the current context taking ‘People’ on-board with open communication & transparency is a business imperative for the Private Partner rather than a CSR initiative. Water PPPs are Social Projects and for them to succeed, the roles of the stakeholders with People as integral part of the project shall be: P – Public – Policy Maker, P – Private – Efficiency improvement with investment, P – People – Communication & Monitoring. Communication, Transparency and On-boarding of the largest stakeholders “People” are more of a business need and mitigates many risks. Arun Lakhani goes on to say that in any project people’s voices matter and that’s a major reason as to why we need to filter in their take on any projects. We understand the problem through first hand source its better and gives authentic insight.