Nokia Tej,

Nokia Tej

Still in the state of Maharashtra, Frances heads north to the town of Kolhapur, an important hub of India’s lucrative textile industry. There she meets up with a local textile agent and two factory owners who are piloting new technology, Nokia Tej in which mobile phones are being used to help increase sales efficiency and productivity. Frances finally begins to see her phone in a different light…

The chances are that that shirt you bought recently in the high street was born and bred in India. Millennia-old, the country’s famous textile trade is still one of its most important industries and biggest exporters. But as with industries the world over, it’s the ability to keep up with the times and innovate which is key, especially in today’s harsj economic climate.

In the town of Kolhapur, I meet Nokia’s Chand Malu, and Nikhil Gadhia, a local textile agent piloting the product. I ask Nikhil if I can join him on his rounds of his clients, the town’s fabric shops.

India’s spirit of entrepreneurship is famous but so also is its bureaucracy. The paper trail surrounding the tiniest transaction can seem overwhelming. Just checking into my hotel the previous evening had required the filling in of a form, a ledger and a questionnaire, and leaving my passport with reception so that more paperwork could be completed.

‘With Tej’, Nikhil explains , ‘When I come to place an order with the manufacturers, the whole process is so much more simple for both me and for them… It also cuts down on my administrative work, so that I can get on with visiting many more clients in a day.’

While Nikhil talks, he inputs into his phone the shop keeper’s order – three bales of cotton and one of polyester - before hitting the ‘Send’ button. Shortly afterwards his phone beeps. It’s a text message from the manufacturer confirming his order.

Later, I go to meet Gopal Marda, another Tej piloter and director of his family’s enormous textile factory on the outskirts of the city. We walk around the works admiring spinning spindles and furious weaving machines. Meaning ‘speed’ in Hindi, Gopal explains, Tej ensures just that: that orders can be received and processed far faster than before.

‘It also removes the problems of human errors that come from copying the same information over and over again on many pieces of paper’, Gopal continues. ‘And both parties – agent and manufacturer have copies of the original agreement – a good way to avoid big disagreements later!’

From Kolhapur, I head north to the state of Gujarat and the city of Ahmedabad to meet Jitendra Hundia, whose family is owner of the stainless steel kitchen equipment manufacturer, Garuda. As he gives me the full tour of the factory, he explains why Tej appealed to him.

‘Though simple and inexpensive, the device is highly adaptable’, Jitendra says. ‘We have tailored Tej to the requirements of our company. And it’s portable!’, he explains waving his handset at me.

As we continue the tour, a rather dapper little pressure cooker – a Garuda best seller apparently – catches my eye.

‘The speed and efficiency of the system has helped increase our productivity, and improved our customer service’, Jitendra continues. ‘It allows us to offer something our competitors can’t, as well as giving us good green credentials with all that saved paper!’, he says with a wink.

As my rickshaw carves a path through the heaving mass of humanity shopping at the market, I try to imagine India’s economy if all her population had access to Tej for their different business needs and purposes...

It’s a kind of Epiphany: no longer merely a means of communication, phones today are portable, affordable, adaptable commuters for the masses. It’s just up to you what you do with them.

I picked up mine to make a call:

‘Hello, Jitendra? You know that little pressure cooker that you showed me...?”

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