Expat Goan, returning home, finds enterprise here isn't a gift

EXPAT GOAN, RETURNING HOME, FINDS ENTERPRISE HERE ISN'T A GIFT

By Frederick Noronha fred at bytesforall.org

"I love my Goa," says 65-year-old Manuel Caldeira, as he enters into his home's gate, in the quaintly-named Novo Portugal (literally, New Portugal) locality of the North Goa village of Moira. Like many in these emigration-prone parts of Goa, Caldeira spent a large part of his life away from home -- in Portugal, Germany, Greece, Algeria and Canada.

But, despite the longing to return, today he has one word of advice for anyone wanting to exercise their enterprise here: don't.

Back in Goa for two years, he came loaded with enthusiasm and plans to craft his long-time hobby of ceramic work into a cottage industry here. "I didn't come with money, but with tools, techniques and ideas," he says. He was however in for a rude shock. His plans got stuck in the ground for a number of complex reasons, which reflect the reality of current-day Goa.

Scattered across his large home are tiles, some ready for dispatch in boxes, with various Goan motifs. But this one-time student of civil engineering in Portugal, and former aeronautical engineer from the Technical University of Berlin, certainly hasn't been having it easy.

Caldeira's roots go back to Merces and Chandor, but he opted for life in Moira, as he finds semi-urban Merces at least too crowded. While an engineer for 27 years serving with North American corporates -- like Northern Telecom, Allied Signals and ITT as its software quality assurance manager -- he kept his interest alive.

He spent his spare time over 15 years at trade-shows, gift shows and wood-craft shows, picking up hints about the workings of the global gift industry. "Countries like Thailand have well-crafted gift industries. But I realised that India's gift industry is probably less than five per cent that of North America's. Unlike the other countries, we don't use sophisticated tools and processes for the production of gift items," he says.

So, when he came back, he brought a forty-foot container packed mainly with tools and the technical support to create what he believes could be a centre "excellence in the craft industry in India".

But can a cottage-industry run out of a cottage? This is an issue he's currently trying to sort out with the authorities, and a small number of complaining neighbours.

Goa Handicraft, he says, told him that no NOC (no-objection certificate) is needed by a cottage industry. But complaints from a neighbour led him to be visited once by the sarpanch, thrice by the health officials, twice by pollution control authorities from Panjim, once by the tax department from Panjim, twice by the electricity department from Mapusa, and once by the deputy collector from North Goa and even by the police inspector at nearby Mapusa.

In one visit, Caldeira claims the police came in with two weeks with nearly a dozen people to take him and his wife into custody. He has been fined Rs 63,481 by the electricity department too.

But currently, this man with an unusual past, believes he can stick on. Caldeira left for Lisbon at the age of 19 to study engineering, and was the first Goan student after the end of colonial rule to leave Portugal to become Indian citizen in Paris. In 1964, while studying at the Technical University in Berlin, he crossed swords with the pro-Portuguese Goan movement who he sees as having been then linked to subversive activities in Goa.

But it was the gifts sector that has been a long-time passion. "Today, most countries use sophisticated tools, processes, packaging and make quality products at competitive price and have good customer reputation," he says. But he feels that India has a lot of catching up to do.

For a state which promises the red-carpet to its large number of emigrant sons and daughters, cases like these throw up inconvenient questions. Does Goa encourage the small entrepreneur, a sector which could bring about big change if replicated across a sufficient number of cases? How does the state balance neighbourhood concerns with with entrepreneurial intent? Above all, for a state notorious in allowing big industry to get away with the open violation of the law, what yardstack does it use for the small player?

"In North America," argues an angry Caldeira, "it takes less then 20 minutes to register your tiny enterprise or small scale industrial (SSI) unit with the authorities. After registration, you can manufacture and sell the product and the contribute tax to the Government."

But, he sees Goa as being vastly different. Says he: "There is very little interface with the government here. In Goa, we have a (bureaucratic) government system with all possible obstacles to kill progress. The bottom and the top of governance is mostly rotten in Goa."

Goa, he believes, is both beautiful and rich in resources. "But some people with a mediocre mentality have embraced corruption, killing prosperity and this is one of the reasons why every investment is running away (from here). Unless there is a dramatic change in Goa, nobody, including NRIs, should come back to become victims of jealousy and corruption," says he.

"(Officials) they tell me this is Goa and you have to follow our rules. There are many cases in the villages where the government officials have no mercy of poor. I was told that a poor farmer had to sell three goats to get the job done; a single mother with two kids had to pay 5,000 rupees to official to get her child admitted in the school...," an embittered Caldeira alleges.

He sees the multiple-NOC (no-objection certificate) system as a dubious, if not questionable, procedure. It allows for blocking and extortion at varying levels, he suggests. Caldeira argues for ending the NOC system and having a more effective and clean manner of approving useful proposals while balancing diverse interests. Besides, he suggests, the government authorities should make public the time required to process every document, including in the judicial area. These are the basic actions needed for urgent changes to be introduced "to get the wheel of prosperity in Goa in motion", He says.

There were other challenges in working to make things work in a place like Goa, where he dreamt of creating "export-quality products".

Training local skills was the first challenge, as much of his equipment was not known here. He then could also not run the electric motors, because they use a 60 Hertz circuitry and not the 50 Herts prevalent in Goa. Then, all his cutting tools have carbide components, and he could not find a single source for sharpening the same in Goa and in Mumbai!

"There are no sanding materials available for my different sanding equipment. There are too many power interruptions during the rainy season. The rainy weather is hard on the tools and is not good for woodworking. Wood is expensive here, not kiln dried, the quality is not consistent and supply is limited. So I shifted to ceramics," he explains.

Ceramics is considered eco-friendly, and it is still in its infancy in India as compared to the situation in other countries. "It could employs a lot of un-skilled labour, well suited to rural areas and only few resources need to be imported. Most of ceramic manufacturers in India are located in the north (of the country) and it is an opportunity for Goa to take the leadership for the south," argues Caldeira.

Plans for his firm Manuel Ceramics (MC), a tiny enterprise registered with the Department of Industry and Mines, has its goal to design and make export-quality ceramic items of bone China, stoneware and red clay, to make ceramic decorated tiles, plates, coasters, beer mugs, souvenirs, dinnerware, mirrors, jewelry and one day even furniture.

Processing of 8"x10” ceramic tiles is done mainly by tile manufactures. But he believes that his unit could change this, producing images of religious and other monuments, sceneries and decorative images. So, he employed three fine-art graduates and six support staff, to create multicolour tiles with Goan and Indian designs -- including depictions of wild life, Madhubani art, and the Ashtavinay (popular Indian religious icons).

Strewn across his sitting-room in his large home, he has wooden-framed ceramic work packaged and titled 'Beautiful Goa' with the coconut-leaves design on it. "To maintain quality of our product we also make the wood frames. We also created clocks using the design of Goan shell windows. Then, we created a 'Demikombo', a rooster with a head of Goan. Demikombos will be decorated with coconut leaves and different Goan images," he explains.

Caldeira believes he could introduce to Goa the slip-casting process,'Demikombo' beer stains, souvenirs, dinnerware statues and tall vases. His dreams of exhibiting in the Fontainhas Festival of the Arts and the International Film Festival of India didn't come true, with the authorities undertaking multiple investigations, follow-ups and stop-work orders.

Caldeira says he told the authorities that he was creating "real long term opportunities for our unemployed youth". But the message, he says, wasn't received with enthusiasm.

Village authorities, following the complaints, ordered him to stop all his work activities. "This results in a big loss for NRI investments, a loss of genuine dreams to contribute for a prosperous Goa," as he sees it, but obviously others taking a different perspective would see things differently.

"My operation is a cottage or tiny enterprise and does not belong to industrial category. It is malicious to call my operation an industrial operation, which allows the authorities and complainants to beat me with a heavier stick. In Goa, industrial units are only found in industrial estates, segregated from the rest of population by a security wall and security guards. Abroad tiny enterprises and SSI units could be found everywhere," he argues.

Caldeira argues that he knows places in downtown Vancouver with more than fifty employees doing manufacturing work.

But, while these issues can be debated, Goa does have the odds against it -- official claims notwithstanding -- when it comes to unleashing the entrepreneurial skills of its own citizens, its siezably-large diaspora, and also potential migrants who have something positive to contribute here rather than just be lured in by talk of subsidies and misutilised bank-loans. (ENDS)