- WHAT WE DO -
I have been in discussions with my good friend Sri. Jagdish Khattar (formerly MD of Maruti Suzuki) – we work together in a couple of Boards and are neighbours. He is aware of SALF’s activities.
The humble bicycle in his well-researched study is his passion now. He shared it with me and we discussed the findings at length. He is serious about it and has ignited the NITI Aayog who has appointed him as the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the government. NITI Aayog has formed the inter-ministerial committee to identify issues relating to the supply and demand of bicycles, how to make it a product within the reach of masses.
“There are 320 million Indians who walk 6-10 km every day to their place of work (Census 2011),” says Khattar, “There is a big difference in potential between India and Bharat. We need to focus on latter… Family income of households increase 30% if bicycles are available. Similarly, attendance rates of girl students in schools have gone up after the Bihar government started distributing cycles. The bicycle needs to be reached out to such sectors and needs to be affordable.”
While the annual growth of cars is at 10 per cent per annum, the bicycle industry is growing at just 2 per cent. Close to 16 million cycles are sold every year in this country, an annual growth of 2%, whereas Indians bought over 23 million two-wheelers and 3.4 million automobiles last year. In contrast, China, the world’s largest cycle maker, produces more than 110 million bicycles of which 80 million are exported.
SALF is studying this space to make a difference for the community of children we are serving.
As a first step SALF provided 15 Cycles for Children of the SRV School, in Cochin and 5 Cycles to the inmates of the School at Bhubaneswar.
We are now building a CORPUS for this Project
The humble bicycle in his well-researched study is his passion now. He shared it with me and we discussed the findings at length. He is serious about it and has ignited the NITI Aayog who has appointed him as the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the government. NITI Aayog has formed the inter-ministerial committee to identify issues relating to the supply and demand of bicycles, how to make it a product within the reach of masses.
“There are 320 million Indians who walk 6-10 km every day to their place of work (Census 2011),” says Khattar, “There is a big difference in potential between India and Bharat. We need to focus on latter… Family income of households increase 30% if bicycles are available. Similarly, attendance rates of girl students in schools have gone up after the Bihar government started distributing cycles. The bicycle needs to be reached out to such sectors and needs to be affordable.”
While the annual growth of cars is at 10 per cent per annum, the bicycle industry is growing at just 2 per cent. Close to 16 million cycles are sold every year in this country, an annual growth of 2%, whereas Indians bought over 23 million two-wheelers and 3.4 million automobiles last year. In contrast, China, the world’s largest cycle maker, produces more than 110 million bicycles of which 80 million are exported.
SALF is studying this space to make a difference for the community of children we are serving.
As a first step SALF provided 15 Cycles for Children of the SRV School, in Cochin and 5 Cycles to the inmates of the School at Bhubaneswar.
We are now building a CORPUS for this Project