Access to global markets is critical to the economic security of many of the world’s poor working in the informal sector. According to SEWA, in India, this sector includes home-based workers, vendors, manual labourers and service providers; it accounts for up to 70% of gross domestic product and over 40% of exports; of the total workforce, 93% operate within the informal sector, and 60% of these are women.

In 2000, ITC won an award at the World Bank’s Development Marketplace competition for innovative ideas for poverty reduction (see Forum 1/2000). The winning project, “Empowerment of Rural Communities to Export Organic Spices from India” uses Export Production Villages to organize smallholder spice producers, build partnerships with local NGOs, and ultimately provide access for rural villages to higher-value export markets for organic products.

India’s Department of Science and Technology, in collaboration with a public-sector unit, initiated a pilot project on Integrated Waste Management (IWM) in Mumbai. A prototype fuel “pelletization” plant was engineered, procured and erected with entirely indigenous inputs.