Chapter 351 Reputation
Ron wants to do charity, but he doesn't donate the money directly, which is no different from throwing it into the water.
Indian officials are eager to embezzle every rupee in their accounts. Charity money? It’s mine here!
You want to use this money to build a hospital? I guarantee you'll end up with a shabby concrete building that takes seven or eight years to complete.
If you want to do charity in India, you have to do it yourself.
The famous Tata and Birla groups are also responsible for their own philanthropic work.
These are the only two large groups in India that are willing to invest money in public welfare undertakings. They both have profound background and a long heritage.
Ron is a rising star, but he also does charity work on his own.
Needless to say, the hospital caters to both the common people and the rich, and its goal is achieved as long as it can ensure a balance between income and expenditure.
He had promised Anand that if he made a profit of 100 million rupees, he would build an affordable hospital.
This promise was fulfilled a little late, but it can be considered a double repayment.
The most public welfare undertaking in education is naturally to build schools.
In fact, there is a combined Sur Elementary School and Middle School to the north of the Sur Park, which mainly serves internal employees and surrounding residents.
But this is not enough. He also plans to build a top school in Mumbai, covering primary school, middle school and high school, with a twelve-year system.
There is actually no shortage of affordable schools in Mumbai. There are private or public schools near almost every slum.
However, the quality varies greatly, and most of them can only undertake literacy tasks, and it is difficult to cultivate outstanding students.
So unlike hospitals which are open to the general public, schools take an elite approach.
As long as I invest money in education, can you say that I am not doing charity?
Ron plans to build the new school near Bandra, which is the new core urban area of Mumbai and has a lot of land to be developed.
South Mumbai is too crowded and there is no suitable land to build private schools.
Bandra is a good place, as it also has many wealthy people, mainly those in the entertainment industry.
Unfortunately, the supporting facilities have not caught up yet, so many celebrity children have to go to South Mumbai if they want to attend a good school.
Ron's elite school came at the right time. It was called Bombay International School and used English as the medium of instruction.
The school not only has many foreign teachers, but also Indian teachers who have studied abroad, all of whom are specially hired.
The arrangement of teaching materials, courses, etc. is basically in line with international standards. It is a completely different teaching method from church schools and local language schools.
The schools in Mumbai are a mixed bag, with girls' schools, church schools, Marathi and Gujarati schools, and English schools.
These schools are products of decades ago, and some are old schools established during the British colonial period. However, no new elite schools have been opened in Mumbai in the past thirty years.
However, the number of school-age children increases year by year, and admission places are becoming increasingly tight, so children have to queue up for registration as soon as they are born.
The rich are not immune either, they have to queue up honestly or beg for help from their relatives and friends through connections.
Mumbai's urban resource planning is extremely unreasonable, and its performance in water use, medical care, and education is a mess.
Once Ron's Bombay International School is built, it will inevitably become the eighth good school in this city.
The first seven are all in South Mumbai and are completely unable to meet the huge needs of a population of more than 16 million.
This leads to the fact that behind every student status in a good school is a transaction of money and power, and ordinary small bosses cannot even get a place.
Elite schools are so scarce, so it's normal for Ron to get involved.
He is doing public welfare, not charity.
The core is to meet social needs and create social value, not just provide free services.
Medical care and education are the most suitable public welfare activities. Not only can they bring him huge prestige, but it is also a way to control upper-level resources.
Sur Advanced Clinic and Bombay International School are not social resources that ordinary people can access. They are both aristocratic services on an implicit level.
The scarcer and more valuable the resources are, they may become the best tool for maintaining relationship networks in a few years.
Who doesn’t get sick? Rich people, officials, and their families all want the best treatment when they are sick.
At this time, the Sur Advanced Clinic becomes particularly important, as it is a service that only people with agency rights can enjoy.
Not to mention schools, where places are limited and only given to government officials who can help, and children of business partners.
In India, the line between generosity and bribery is often blurred.
This form of bribery is more covert, safer, and often urgently needed by the parties involved.
Compared to bags of cash, hospital beds and school places are more legitimate and can satisfy the vanity of those who accept bribes.
Of course, Ron is not worried about being accused of being too aristocratic in his charity work, because he is also benefiting ordinary people.
Apart from the three affordable hospitals, the Sur Secondary School, which caters to the common people, is a low-cost alternative to the Bombay International School.
Although the school was built for company employees, it was originally designed to be large and could accommodate tens of thousands of students.
This is enough to radiate to the entire central Mumbai and solve the education problems of children in countless families.
What's more, the school tuition is not expensive and can be considered affordable.
To keep these hospitals and schools running, it’s not excessive to set up some private charging projects.
The promotional video aired on Sun TV was directed by Chopra himself, featuring speeches and on-location shots at hospitals and schools.
After the morning news was broadcast, it immediately became a hot topic in major media outlets.
Public welfare is a rare thing in India.
India has been implementing a policy of economic openness for six years, coinciding with the golden age of global peace and development.
With the dual support, the pace of economic development and social change has significantly accelerated.
The market economy became prosperous, and giants began to emerge one after another, or had their prototypes.
People's lives have also improved significantly, and of course the rich are always the ones who have seen the fastest growth.
One step ahead, step by step ahead, the gap between the rich and the poor is rapidly widening.
The right-wing ideology of the Indian government believes that rapid economic development is more important than final distribution.
What the left cares about is the living conditions of the lower classes. They are more concerned about whether social development indicators, including child mortality rates, have improved.
However, neither faction attaches importance to the gap between the rich and the poor. Many people believe that it does not cause much harm to the economy and that growth is the top priority at this stage.
Under this kind of cognition or intentional or unintentional neglect, the bottom of Indian society has actually not seen much improvement.
Social security is weak and inequality remains the norm.
According to normal historical laws, when the problem of uncontrollable inequality intensifies, bloody massacres often break out to balance this relationship.
Therefore, some social elites will realize the need to pay more taxes and provide more social security for the poor.
But India is different. This country is destined to be an exception in the history of social development.
Hundreds of years of colonial rule and thousands of years of caste system have made all social, historical and economic laws invalid.
Everyone is aware that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, but the government has not taken any remedial measures and the media has not paid attention to such issues.
Only some scholars have harshly criticized that the government and businessmen have invested very little in medical care and education, and that the taxes paid by the super-rich are far from commensurate with the social responsibilities they should bear.
No one cares. Even areas that the government and the media don't pay attention to are destined to remain stable.
After all, the poor are all of low caste, and it is difficult to guarantee them even basic human rights, let alone social welfare.
Ron's massive involvement in philanthropy is truly a breath of fresh air among Mumbai's wealthy and deserves special mention.
He also cooperated by accepting interviews from several newspapers. After all, the purpose of spending 500 million rupees was to boost his reputation.
He wanted money, and fame.
After building a golden statue for himself, Ron was busy with Sun TV's affairs.
From its launch in September and October last year to November this year, Sun TV has been operating for a full year.
Karuna specially compiled a set of data to analyze the TV station's operations from various angles, including ratings, subscribers, content programs, etc.
Sun TV currently has 32 million subscribers, and there is no doubt that variety shows such as "China's Got Talent" have played a huge role in promoting it.
Although a considerable number of new users are still in the free period, the annual subscription fee is still around 300 million rupees.
This is the subscription revenue after deducting the operator's share. In fact, at least 20 million users use Sun TV's own cable TV network.
In other words, without considering the profit sharing, Sun TV's subscription revenue can reach the threshold of 500 million rupees.
Including various advertising and sponsorship fees, the TV station's total revenue is roughly 800 million rupees.
But this is not profit, Sun TV's expenses in the previous year were also very high.
It cost 300 million rupees just to lay the cable TV network, and more than 100 million was spent on purchasing TV dramas, producing variety shows, and replenishing the film and music copyright library.
There are also staff salaries and daily operations of the TV station. After deducting all these, the profit is about 300 million rupees.
Being able to achieve profitability in the first year is actually very good, as the investment in cable TV networks is a fixed high-quality asset.
In the future, you can basically sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor, with only a small amount of maintenance fees to pay.
However, Ron had some other ideas about Sun TV. He felt that the cable TV network was worth exploring in depth.
"Next year, we will separate the cable TV division into a separate company."
"Why?" Karuna was stunned.
"We already have an advantage in the market and can free up our TV network and make full use of these resources."
"Ron, do you mean to take in other TV stations to expand the cable network's revenue?" Mary asked.
"Yes," Ron gave her an approving look, "We have a distribution network in all the major cities in India. It would be a shame not to make good use of it."
To put it bluntly, Ron has his eyes on the TV operator market.
They have the largest television network in India, which is equivalent to having the largest cinema chain in the film market.
It would be a shame not to use the profit to earn a share.
It doesn't matter whose program it is, it's all money, it's not a shame.
"Boss, will this affect our own TV channel?" Karuna was a little worried.
"Probably not. Currently, the only threat to Sun TV is Zee TV. Cable TV networks are not open to them now, so other private channels can boldly accept them. If we don't occupy the channel market, others will."
Ron studied private television stations in India, which are numerous but small in scale.
They are basically based in the city where they are located and rarely affect other cities.
This means that they will not pose a threat to Sun TV, and it would be a waste for local TV stations not to make money from the channel fees.
After hearing the explanation, Karuna no longer objected and his focus was on Sun TV.
"Mary, I'll leave the establishment of the branch to you."
"No problem," she shrugged.
"Sun TV's broadcast center is too small and needs to be expanded. I've contacted the municipal administration, and the fifty acres of grassland to the south will soon be allocated to the TV station. Karuna, you'll be responsible for drawing up a plan."
"Yes, boss." He was no longer sleepy when he said this.
Ron wanted to say something, but the phone on the table rang.
He picked it up and listened to a few words, his face became serious. Something happened in Tamil Nadu again.
(End of this chapter)
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