The theory of Motivation propounded by Maslow in 1959 states that one of the basic needs of human is shelter. Here, shelter needs does not mean mere occupation of a building only but also other amenities and hygiene which affect the mental and physical health of people. The people living in urban areas face challenges of proper housing, education, health, hygiene etc. The root cause of increase in the slums in the cities is mainly due to modern industrial civilisation and migration from rural to urban areas in search of livelihood, opportunities and growth. They also form a part of cheap labour in the units and a vote bank for the politicians. Hence, providing better housing or accommodation to all citizen irrespective of caste and creed is the integral part of economic development in India. With such increasing ratio it is estimated that slum dwellers will triple in the next 25 years and the cities like Delhi will have four and a half million slum dwellers and the cities like kolkatta and Mumbai will have even big numbers deprived of congenial environment (Bane and Rawal, 2002). There has occurred a need to empower their skills, creativity and resources to make them independent and healthy citizens of India. Here, the study aims at empowerment of the people living in the slum areas through social entrepreneurs. There has arisen a need to develop them to meet with new competitive challenges to foster sustainable development. A model has been designed where the social entrepreneurs would work as facilitators to make the slum people independent and developed through the resources available with them. The study is based on secondary sources to identify the present challenges of the marginalised group especially children and women in metro cities to empower them by providing support and direction. Concluding, the cooperatives here can work on providing shelter, education, health, employment and financial services to the people to make them relatively independent by developing their skills.
Subject area
Financial management, corporate finance, strategic management, managerial accounting and project management.
Study level/applicability
The case is suitable for courses such as MBA, Bachelor level business courses (in finance, business strategy) and training programs for working executives.
Case overview
The case study deals with financial and strategic appraisal of a unique coal-to-liquid project. India imported about two thirds of its crude oil requirements resulting in huge outflow of precious foreign exchange. As a result, it became necessary for the country to look for alternative sources of energy. The coal-to-liquid (CTL) technology of coal gasification offers a credible alternative source of fuels as proved by Sasol of South Africa. The Government of India short-listed Global Synfuels Company (name changed) as one of the selected few companies to build a CTL project. While the project is strategically important to the company and highly desirable for the country, there are serious doubts about the commercial viability of the project because of which the company is in dilemma whether to go ahead with the project. The case study presents this decision dilemma in a very interesting way and will be useful for teaching courses in corporate finance and strategic management.
Expected learning outcomes
The case can be used to engage participants to make a SWOT analysis for a new business opportunity, discuss environmental and financial issues facing a company, use DCF techniques to evaluate the project viability, carry out scenario analysis of the project to the changes in variables as well as challenge the participants to generate strategies for the success of a new project. Participants would also develop a better understanding of: environmental issues involved in CTL projects and new technologies to deal with such issues; and the employment impact of large projects such as the CTL.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.
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