``Corporate organisations must recognise the importance of developing the social sector. After all, business cannot grow on the plinth of a weak social sector,'' says Kalra. The association head feels that AIMA has the right credentials for setting the social development agenda for the corporate world. With 3,000 corporate organisations as institutional members, 30,000 professionals as individual members and a network of 58 local management associations (LMAs) across the country, AIMA has the wherewithal to carry the various social development programmes to the needy.

``Primary health is an area that needs immediate attention,'' says Kalra.``It is a shame that 50 years afterindependence, 44 million people suffer from water-related health problems and 700,000 children die of diarrhoea diseases each year.''

Providing safe drinking water to the rural sector is uppermost on Kalra's agenda. During his long stint with the Inalsa group, a leading player in the domestic deep-water hand-pumps segment, Kalra came face to face with the grim realities in the rural sector. ``Just imagine. In many of the villages, women walk miles to collect a pot of water. And, worse still, the source of water in these villages is brackish, leading to all kinds of water-related diseases among the people,'' he says.

In one of the villages that he had visited some years ago, the headman showed him how girls in the village had become aged and weary at a very young age because of over-exposure to the elements in their trek for water. The headman told him that because of this, nobody wanted to marry women from the village. ``The deep-water hand-pump changed the lives of people in these places. Even a childcould operate the pump. It was incredible to see that in one of the villages, people even revered the pump as their eeshwar (god),'' recalls Kalra.

Such is the transformational change that technology is capable of bringing about. Kalra feels that what Inalsa and other bodies achieved as commercial players, could be taken up on a voluntary basis by AIMA.

``AIMA can not only deliver the appropriate technology to the doorstep of the villages, but also monitor the progress of many of these social development programmes,'' says he.

``For instance, it is found that more than half the water-pumps in the rural sector are not working properly. AIMA could devise a suitable technical and monitoring system to ensure that these problems are solved,'' says Kalra.``We are in touch with the Unicef, the World Bank and the government of India on this subject. We could devise management systems and tools to ensure seamless delivery of these programmes,'' he adds.

Water harvesting and conservation are other areas thatwill be taken up in conjunction with this programme. Water harvesting is not entirely new to India. Traditionally, people in villages were known to construct tanks along the river bank, to preserve water for the dry season. But such practices are no longer in fashion in the villages. Perhaps, people in the villages could now be re-educated on how to manage their water resources, through practices that are wholly indigenous.

AIMA also plans to provide assistance to the immunisation programmes launched by the government from time to time. ``We could facilitate the development of a chain in the rural sector,'' says Kalra.

``For want of a cold chain in the rural sector, it is heard that exhausted vaccines have been used in the immunisation programmes in certain villages,'' he says.

``What is required are these 2-20 handy boxes that can store vaccines at a cool temperature. This will ensure that the cold chain will extend to the very last user in the village,'' he adds.

``AIMA can train the trainers forthe immunisation programmes, conduct relevant studies in villages, ensure a durable delivery system for these programmes and facilitate technical assistance. But, of course, we will not duplicate what the government is doing in these fields,'' Kalra adds.

AIMA is also planning to introduce ``management of social sector'' as a separate discipline in the course curriculum of business schools.