| FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) |
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Que 1. What does Boond mean?
Que 2. What is Boond’s Vision & Mission?
Que 3. What is Boond?
Que 4. What does the Boond Development Kit have?
Que 5. Who are the customers?
Que 6. How do the poor customers buy the products?
Que 7. How and by Whom is the Boond Development Kit sold?
Que 8. Where does Boond get the capital to finance the kits?
Que 9. What is the default rate for the kits?
Que 10. What will Boond do in case of a default?
Que 11. What happens to the supporter in case of a default?
Que 12. What is ‘Support’?
Que 13. Why do I have to buy a Jute Bag when I support?
Que 14. What are the Support products?
Que 15. Where is Boond based?
Que 16. Why Boond at all? Why lighting? Why clean water? Why Mosquito nets?
Que 17. Does Boond have IPR on the products it sells?
Que 18. Is the Boond Model scalable?
Que 19. What does it mean by 50% and 100% refundable?
Que 20. What is the $20 Boond Individual Support towards? Why is it not refundable like the others?
Que 1. What does Boond mean?
Ans. Boond in Sanskrit and Hindi means a ‘drop’. It is extensively used in India and also signifies small efforts. The name signifies our vision of major development issues being resolved by small collective efforts.
Que 2. What is Boond’s Vision & Mission?
Ans. “Reach 1 million individuals with light, clean water and pest control by 2012”
Boond’s mission is to bring development to the poor living in remote areas of India through the specially designed Boond Development Kit. The specially designed kit consist of a Solar lamp, a water filter and a mosquito net and is sold through local villagers with 3/6/9 month financing schemes to make it affordable for the BPL household.
Que 3. What is Boond?
Ans. Boond Engineering & Development Products (Boond, www.boond.net) is a for profit social enterprise that provides Solar lamps (lighting), water filters (clean water) and mosquito nets (pest relief) to poor people living in remote areas of the country as a part of its Boond Development Kit.
Que 4. What does the Boond Development Kit have?
Ans. Presently, the Boond Development Kit has a Solar Lamp (with a cell phone charger), a water filter and a mosquito net. Research is still on for other products that can be added in future like a micro-insurance product, a fuel efficient cooker and a cycle.
Que 5. Who are the customers?
Ans. Boond customers are poor villagers who are classified as ‘below poverty line’, earning less than $2 or Rs. 80 a day (or Rs. 2400/month). They mostly live in very remote areas with no or rudimentary infrastructure.
Que 6. How do the poor customers buy the products?
Ans. Since the capacity of these ‘below poverty line’ consumers to purchase the products upfront is limited, Boond finances the Development Kit with 3/6/9 month installments (as low as Rs. 300/month). This makes the kit affordable and for one small monthly payment, three major development problems are solved.
Que 7. How and by Whom is the Boond Development Kit sold?
Ans. The Boond Development Kit is sold by village micro-entrepreneurs called ‘Boond Officers’ who are trained and mentored by Boond and work on a commission basis (they earn 3% from every sale). Also, Boond utilizes NGOs working in the area for warehousing, marketing and human resource development and they too earn on a commission basis (2% of every sale). This way everyone in the value chain is incentivized to spread the Boond mantra and we get the maximum reach into the remote villages.
Que 8. Where does Boond get the capital to finance the kits?
Ans. Boond finances the kits through loans that Boond takes from Banks and other institutions. Boond also utilizes the www.boond.net platform to source working capital to fuel its financing schemes where people from all over the world buy Boond products or NGO made items at a premium price to support the Boond movement.
Que 9. What is the default rate for the kits?
Ans. Based on similar institutions (microfinance and rural retail models), Boond expects a default rate of 3-4%. This number is much less than credit card default rates among middle class customers in India and has been a reason for the success of the microfinance movement. But more importantly, rather than focusing on the number of defaults Boond plans to understand the reason for the defaults through their village based Boond Officers.
Boond’s goal is to make the kit payment plans as dynamic as possible so that a rural poor is not forced to default and has a repayment rate that he or she is comfortable with. Also, we allow a month of payment forgiveness incase of genuine reasons (sickness, death or natural calamity), if we are notified in advance by the families.
Boond also attempts to minimize default by going through village based NGO organizations and self help groups that provide these rural poor with services other than the Boond kit. This creates a social pressure on the individuals to pay back as they have a lot to lose if they default.
Furthermore, the Boond kit eliminates kerosene lamps so this expenditure (that the families now can save) can be used to pay for the installments.
Que 10. What will Boond do in case of a default?
Ans. In case of a default, Boond send a Boond Officer to the house of the customer to discuss the reason for the default and issue a notice. Most often defaults happen as the customers forget to pay or have a family illness or are stuck at work. Giving them a little more time easily overcomes this problem. If a customer still refuses to pay then the Boond Officer goes to the household with the local NGO worker and tries to explain the reason why he needs to pay and what he stands to lose if he does not. If he still does not pay and another month lapse, Boond takes back the products from the household and the family is barred from participation in other Boond or the local NGO schemes (We have never encountered this case!).
We prohibit the use of force by our Boond Officers or the NGO workers and if the household refuses to pay and also does not return the products then we will write off the amount than resort to violence. Excommunication threats and social pressure work well in the villages and we do not believe a situation like this will arise if our awareness campaigns are done well and the NGO participation is productive.
Que 11. What happens to the supporter in case of a default?
Ans. If all our resorts to get the money from the customer fail (social pressure, NGO intervention, excommunication threats, explanation and awareness campaigns) then Boond will inform the supporters of the particular village. The supporter is assured of his refund if desired but can also waiver his refund and help save Boond the default costs.
Que 12. What is ‘Support’?
Ans. Support means to support light, clean water and pest relief in a remote village by buying a Boond rural artisan made product from the www.boond.net website.
Que 13. Why do I have to buy a Jute Bag when I support?
Ans. Boond Engineering and Development Pvt. Ltd. in collaboration with Boond Foundation (Registered NGO), collectively referred to as Boond does not issue debt or take direct charity. We believe in transparency and are hence online sellers who pay sales and DVAT taxes and sell products on our website.
When you ‘Support’ we sell you an article made by our rural partners and also send you a bill. We pay tax on it and the money that we get from the margin over the cost of the products is used for our Entrepreneur Development Fund and payment plan schemes.
Que 14. What are the Support products?
Ans. Support products are jute bags and slippers made by rural artisans of West Bengal and coin purses made by artisans of Kashmir. We plan to increase this portfolio and also provide these artisans a fair price and platform to sell their work.
Que 15. Where is Boond based?
Ans. We are based in Delhi and our products are manufactured in Noida and Faridabad (in Uttar Pradesh). The villages we supply are in West Bengal and Manipur. One of our goals in the next year is to de-centralize out manufacturing and locate ourselves closer to the rural centers that we cater to.
Que 16. Why Boond at all? Why lighting? Why clean water? Why Mosquito nets?
Ans. In India, nearly 300 million people still live in complete darkness while WHO statistics highlight that a million every year die from water borne diseases. Boond believes that these are the two biggest development challenges we face and can be surmounted by a collective effort of ordinary individuals. Malaria, nearly eradicated from the Western world still kills nearly 300,000 people a year and we believe that this is unacceptable since it’s easily preventable for a low cost.
Boond is also trying to change the peoples mindset through its website and campaigns (www.boond.net) and encourages collective action to fight the biggest challenges faced by India today – Light, Clean Water and Pest Control
Que 17. Does Boond have IPR on the products it sells?
Ans. Boond does not have IPR on its products but has published the kit and ‘rent to own’ model on its website. The polymer manufacture holds the IPR for the Solar lamp casing but all the rest is unprotected.
We have not concentrated too much on IPR since we want to concentrate our resources in streamlining the supply chain and coming up with the best functional design and products for the kit and do not want to be dependent on any manufacturer. Furthermore, we work on contractual basis to keep overheads low and will be regularly making changes to the kit based on the feedback from the BPL consumers.
Que 18. Is the Boond Model scalable?
Ans. The concept and model is immensely scalable and easy to replicate. Our goal is to reach 1 million individuals with light, clean water and pest control by 2012. This can be broken down to 250,000 households (considering avg. of 4 people per household) or 250 villages (considering avg. of 1000 household per village) or 10 districts (considering avg. of 10 villages per district). With an adoption ration of even 10%, we would need to penetrate around 100 districts, which with our constants efforts for NGO partnerships is very tangible and conservative in three years.
We have presently partnered with three NGO who serve about 8 districts cumulatively and hence hope that at this rate we will easily reach our goal. The scale can be expanded further as the model is very replicable and we plan to soon decentralize our warehouses. Presently we have one warehouse in Delhi but our three month goal is to have two more in Kolkata and Imphal.
Que 19. What does it mean by 50% and 100% refundable?
Ans. This means that you as a supporter can ask for the refund of your amount or can reinvest after one year. As an Indian supporter, we can offer you the money back instantly with a check and international customers can claim Amazon or Ebay Gift coupons for the same amount. We do this since we get the money from the poor in nine months and would like to pay you back as much as we can (taking away the costs).
We do this since we get the money from the poor in nine months and would like to pay you back as much as we can (taking away the costs).
Que 20. What is the $20 Boond Individual Support towards? Why is it not refundable like the others?
Ans. The Boond Individual Support of $20 helps Boond pay for the expensive logistics, the breakage and defaults. It is not refundable because the costs incurred are quite high and we do not recover this money. The Boond supporter gets a nice coin purse made by Kashmiri artisans and it itself costs about $10 (incl. shipping).
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