Exploring prosperity

Exploring Prosperity Team came into existence in September last year, when a few Aurovilians got together, concerned with the present reality that is drifting away from the concept of prosperity  envisioned by The Mother for Auroville, whereby not only the groups like W.C. or F.A.M.C and A.V.C. stand for this vision, but also the Auroville Residents are engaged in different spheres of activities to make tangible the city of 50,000 residents, where the prosperity aspect based on sharing, no exchange of money between Aurovilians, provision for all basic needs like food, house, education, is the first step for a new and fair society  with the purpose to give to everybody the dignity for a better life. 

The five Resolutions from UNESCO and the Auroville Foundation ACT 1988 from the Indian Parliament were made with the intention to support the vision of The Mother and to manifest on this earth, the spiritualized society that humanity is waiting for.We as a collectivity have the responsibility to manifest this.

This effort to realign Auroville to Mother’s Vision, garnered support of 70 Aurovilians by signature and more than 100 Aurovilians supported the team during the first inspirational presentation in October 2017, through the CAT platform outlining the creation of  Focus Teams to study and bring forward well thought out proposals to realign the economy of Auroville and to realize it’s self-supporting aspects on short, medium and long-term basis.

In the process, we realized that a number of other groups & individuals were also engaged in exploring ways and means to improve the economy and the vision of Auroville Human Unity.

1. Integral Entrepreneurship Lab  - Torkil,Uma, Aurelio, Gijs and Marc (coffee)

2. New Economy Lab - Jaya, Sitharth, Divyanshi, Shivaya, and others.

3. Lotus Group - Yves, Michael, and others.

4. Re-visioning FAMC presentation by Chandresh.

5. Individuals like Toine, Min, and others.

Inputs from these sources were shared with the support group to ensure a large collective participation and to create a platform, where these ideas, research & proposals could be synthesized into concrete actions with the approval of the Residents Assembly.

An important development in the form of Government of India, Goods & Services Tax (GST) coming into play brought about the urgency to consider a revised structure of the economy to maintain our efforts towards a big joint family which does not require paying GST on our internal services and distribution systems.

This prompted consultations at different levels and in view of the urgency to find a suitable structure, Exploring Prosperity came up with a proposal circulated to the support group and working groups under the title "A STRUCTURE FOR NEW ECONOMY". This proposal reiterates what the experts say, that is, to have 2 verticals (or Trusts) and all services and commercial units as departments of AV Foundation. We believe that it is possible to have applications to achieve this seemingly impossible task of accounting and processes if we have the will.

In a CAT on the 9th of February, overall about 50 residents were in favor of the proposed

 “STRUCTURE FOR NEW AUROVILLE ECONOMY”.

Please find the document in the file attached.

To view the video and the powerpoint presented at the CAT event, please click on the link below.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hkfmOBT3lDuuDwIS6Ma3jkmuIiYto8Lg

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15rAcwFKXgdLt_4iVvV-4ISURCV4NhEgV

Exploring Prosperity team offers to collaborate with the working groups towards realigning our Economy to the Vision.

Normally, Exploring Prosperity would have studied all the implication in depth to come to Resident Assembly to endorse the changes towards re- alignment for  a cash-free Economy. The short time frame for GST registration by 31.03.2018 and the Governing Board  Meeting being scheduled soon the team feels the need to consult with urgency the largest possible population of Auroville.

The members of the community has a collective need  to be knowledgeable by an Information general meeting with the WC, the FAMC, the Exploring Prosperity team and also the other groups working on Economy to compare the different studies or proposals about the GST, its impact in Auroville, and then via a Resident Assembly meeting (RAD), to express by voting the socio-economic destiny of Auroville.

It is necessary because it is not only a technical tax issue exclusive to the Auroville units, but an economical social issue that will affect the collective future purpose of Auroville and the vision of a sharing, caring and self-supporting society.

For this purpose, we present the exploring prosperity’s target as a draft resolution.

DRAFT RESOLUTION

A New Auroville Economy

• Achieving an in-kind internal economy within Auroville.
• Achieving the aim of a self-supporting township.
• Achieving that all Aurovillan residents are provided ( in- kind) with the basic needs.
• Achieving that the income-generating units can grow, attract capital & cooperate with external companies without this affecting the tax status of Auroville Foundation

The action plan may include organization restructuring, re-grouping of Auroville units and activities and other measures that can contribute to the realization of the above-mentioned outcome.  A task force needs to be set up with a mandate to present an action plan by 30th April 2018 to the Auroville Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC).

This proposal may in due course, be the basis of a Resolution of the Resident Assembly at the earliest.

Your feedback at the email below is most welcome.

Exploring Prosperity Team:

Joseba, Luigi, Mita, Umberto, Giacomo, Pashi

exploringprosperity@auroville.org.in