For those of you not fluent in Hindi (haha, i’m certainly not!), the title of this post refers to the poem by Ghalib, A Thousand Desires Like These (also the title of an excellent film on youth revolution in India). A recent announcement from the UN touts the 1000th clean energy project to be approved [...]

A recent article on www.sramanamitra.com postulates that SKS Microfinance, which offers “several microfinance options to the poor in India for a variety of businesses from agriculture and livestock purchase to basket weaving and photography,” and has to date “provided over $550 million in microcredit,” will most likely follow Compartamos’ model and go public. According to [...]

In 65 days, 70% of Gujarat’s villages will be linked with Broadband connectivity, promised Chief Minister Narendra Modi[via iGovernment]. Lets see if he comes through. He cant fool us here at TC-I, our correspondent Prerna is in Ahmedabad as we speak. Staying with promises, the Chhattisgarh government proposed to electrify 79 villages using Solar Energy [...]

From Let Me Know, here is a conference and essay competition on “Technology For Rural India: Challenges and Perspectives.” The conference will focus on the following: In celebration of the ISTE Day 2008, the Delhi Section of the Indian Society of Technical Education (ISTE) is hosting a conference on “Technology for Rural India: Challenges and [...]

TC-I frequently covers the headlines concerning the current food shortage crisis in India, and this issue has deep roots and sobering implications. Infochange interviewed M S Swaminathan, a plant geneticist and advocate of sustainable agriculture.  Swaminathan breaks down the global issue, its effect on India, future scenarios, and what needs to be done to address [...]

Its been almost three years since Businessworld India published a feature on Rural BPO, writing about a company called Lason. Lason had just just set up its first rural BPO unit in Kizhanur village, 50 km from Chennai. The unit was the brainchild of Pradeep Nevatia, then managing director of Lason India, a subsidiary of [...]

As a follow-up to previous posts relating to the role of mobile technology as an enabling factor in the development of rural India, IBM has recently launched a pilot project in south India that will allow rural communities to access information ranging from healthcare service providers to potential markets for finished goods through a toll-free [...]

Health: According to a report, India is not on track toward the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child and maternal mortality. The number of children who die before their fifth birthday stands at 76 per 1,000 live births, while the goal is 38. Government Schemes: The Gujarat state government’s Jyoti Gram Yojana, a program to [...]

A new report released by the Women’s World Banking (WWB) observes that as many microfinance institutions transform from non-profits to traditional financial intermediaries, they tend to shift away from their original focus on helping poor women and instead focus on making larger loans a la a traditional financial institution. The results were disheartening as the [...]

Titled India: Growing at the Speed of Thought, this year’s India Business Conference at Columbia University looked to the unbridled growth and change that India has experienced over the last 15 years since economic liberalization spread throughout much of the country. The conference brought in some major names within their respective fields and also appeared [...]