Dr. Santhosh Babu is a Medical Doctor turned Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer of the 1995 batch, of the Tamil Nadu cadre. He is an alumnus of the Government Medical College, Trivandrum. He is also a Chevening Gurukul Scholar from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an LKY Fellow and MPM Degree holder from the National University of Singapore and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

 His abiding passion has been to transform governance within his jurisdiction to world-class levels, using modern management practices and tools that information technology provides. He has about 250 plus transformational initiatives and innovations to his credit, including installing ERP driven “anytime, anywhere” Government offices, developing and implementing numerous web based application software, establishing India’s first Rural BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) units etc.

A few recognitions have come his way, like The Best Collector Award of the Government of Tamil Nadu for child labour eradication. In 2017, Poompuhar won the National e-Governance Award and the Skoch Smart Governance Platinum Award under his leadership.

He has spoken at numerous fora including TEDx IIT Chennai, TEDx Hindustan University Chennai and TEDx SVCE Chennai. His best moment so far has been when, the former President of India Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, quoted his work under the heading “Committed Leadership” in his speech on the occasion of the 7th National Civil Services Day, 21st April 2012, at New Delhi.

He is currently the Principal Secretary/CMD, the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation. Earlier, he was the Principal Secretary to Government, Information Technology Department.

In an exclusive interview, Santhosh Babu shares with Marie Banu his initiatives for empowering artisans in Tamil Nadu.

What are the challenges the artisans face and what measures are being planned to address them?

We have seven production centres and 15 showrooms. Unfortunately, we had to lock them all down due to Covid. There are about 80 artisans who work with us directly, and are paid on a monthly basis. It is the 70 thousand plus artisan families outside in the unorganised sector, who are  facing challenges in marketing their products as no one would want to buy their products at this point in time. The State Government is now working on a package for them and once that is done, we shall ensure that all these families are offered support.

While there are many artisans who are well off, many of them are  poor and depend on the sale of their products to meet their day-to-day needs. They sell their products at cost plus a percentage. Those artisans who market their products through Poompuhar make a decent profit. But those who do so through middlemen, stand to lose.

Poompuhar is a completely online organisation. Every aspect of administration, marketing, design and production, are online. This helps the artisan indirectly, in a big way. We will be shortly launching India’s first Virtual Reality Handicrafts Showroom.

Do you think it is the right time we introduce Fairtrade concept into our system?

Yes. I am also in touch with Mr. Panchaksharam of Fair Trade India on this. We need to ensure that the artisans get the right price for their product. We are only a 130-people organisation and hence need the time and the skills to understand and implement the concept in order to help our artisans.

Obviously a market also may require middlemen, but it is they who make most of the money.  It is precisely to get over this problem that we have created an e-Repository for Artisans, www.tnartisaan.com; about 20,000 artisans have registered themselves on this portal. Once registered, the artisan can enter the portal using his mobile number as ID and OTP as password. He/she can upload good quality, preferably high density photographs of their products and keep changing it. We have linked our e-Commerce site www.tnpoompuhar.org to this site so that people across the world can buy products made by Tamil Nadu artisans. The world is their market and they can have a better price than before!

Most of the artisans are illiterate and do not own a smartphone. Some upload their own pictures instead of their product picture. My biggest challenge has been to promote the site and educate the artisans on how to make use of it to their advantage. We would welcome the support of the NGO sector in achieving this.

What are the traits of a good leader?

My philosophy of leadership is concisely written down in my personal website www.santhoshbabu.org.

Leadership is tested only during times of crisis. The current pandemic has seen many leaders disappearing and many emerging out of nowhere. For me, a leader is one who is the first to come into crisis and the last to go out of the crisis.

The only resource God has given to every human being irrespective of differences, is “time”. The 24-hour capsule that constitutes a day has to be budgeted so that we have time for everything and everybody. A leader will not waste the time of others.

He is good listener, an enabler and one who allows people go grow. He empowers people and makes them realize their potential. He shares his power and builds confidence and self-esteem. He does not hurt anyone with his words, deeds, look or thought.

Essentially, all people are the same. It is the circumstances that makes them different. We need to understand the value of each person and be non-judgmental. Then, we will have a different perspective to dealing with people and ensure that they come out with their best.

What is your philosophy of giving back to society?

According to me, there are only 2 phases in our life. One, when you are a taker, that is when you are not on your economic feet. You take love, affection, money, ideas, thoughts etc. from your near and dear. You are being prepared to become a giver. Once you are on your economic feet, you will realize that 90% of your waking time is actually spent for others. Actually, our life is meant to serve others. If you can take the “me” out of the self and start thinking about the living conditions of our less fortunate brethren, then we also manage to take the stress out of us. Being self-less and stress-less together.

When this lockdown is finally lifted, and our planet is up and about, we can also contribute in our own small ways to our poor artisans, by buying their products and embellishing our homes. My request is, kindly patronize our artisans, before thinking of buying that item from abroad. Poompuhar will be at your service on this. By buying a lamp or keeping a Tanjore or Kalamkari painting or a bronze idol, we are actually helping an indigent artisan. This should be a purposeful thought and we should be aware of it. Thus, charity literally begins at home!

About the recent Fight Corona IDEAthon and its plans?

I was part of the Grand Jury of the “Fight CORONA IDEAthon” promoted by Forge, a Coimbatore based Incubator, recently. We had 5000 plus entries of students, educators and innovators and professionals and startups. It was a completely online exercise, for the participants as well as for the jury. This is probably the first time that a completely online hackathon has been conceived and it was a huge hit and an instant success!

What I realized during the jury process via Zoom with my co-jury members and the participants, was the amazing thought process of our young students, on how they can contribute to fight this deadly pandemic in their own ways. There were some extremely brilliant thoughts. Technology is a tool that can offer solutions to most of our problems. We should unleash the intellectual potential of our creative young people, to think world class and with a scientific bend of mind.

I have joined with 3 other like-minded individuals, to develop a Covid health related app, that we think will have a huge impact. The app is fully developed. We are currently awaiting the approval from Google Playstore for its installation.