Here is your daily dose of headlines about innovative or anti-innovative ideas from around the country: Microfinance ACCESS Development Services and Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development will work to build cooperation between Europe and India to assist 20 MFIs in the country. SKS Microfinance and Bajaj Allianz will form a partnership to provide clients [...]

Brought to our attention by Technology, Health & Development Blog by Aman is a story of technological innovation at its finest. The challenge was to create an affordable, portable electorkardiogram (EKG) that helps doctors assess various heart ailments, particularly acute heart attacks and strokes. The original story can be found in Business Week. Here is [...]

Saurabh Garg muses on the need to foster innovation in India and wonders if there could be a market where people with complementary skills can come together and make ideas happen. Just as markets have buyers and sellers, Garg highlights the possibility of a market where intellectual capital can be leveraged into action. In India, [...]

Editor’s note: The following interview is part of an ongoing series for ThinkChange India where we interview social entrepreneurs firsthand. The ThinkChange India staff is committed to providing our readers with interviews with people we believe are at the brink of something special but have for the most part been overlooked by the mainstream media. [...]

Editor’s note: The following interview is part of an ongoing series for ThinkChange India where we interview social entrepreneurs firsthand. The ThinkChange India staff is committed to providing our readers with interviews with people we believe are at the brink of something special but have for the most part been overlooked by the mainstream media. [...]

Here are the top 3 posts over the last seven days. Santhosh’s discussion of cricket teams hiring the Washington Redskins cheerleaders find and train homegrown versions garnered substantial attention. In second place, another post from Santhosh. This time he highlights the creation of the country’s first social investment management company. In third place, an older [...]

The Hindu reports that AcerlorMittal, the worlds largest steel company has promised to spend US$ 500 million on CSR initiatives focussed on Jharkhand and Orissa. Its no coincidence that the company has multiple project sites within these states. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal-promoted world’s biggest steel company has announced two steel projects in Jharkhand and Orissa of [...]

Giulio Quaggiotto at PSD Blog, a World Bank Group blog, highlighted a very intriguing trend that is emerging within governments and companies: the use of prediction markets to help predict customer trends or citizens’ desires. His post brought forth some articles and studies that have recently come out. A McKinsey & Co. report on prediction [...]

Microfinance: SKS Microfinance is getting serious about microinsurance, by partnering with Bajaj Allianz to provide coverage to its members. Also, ACCESS Development Services will be providing intensive capacity building support to MFIs in India, and access to loans from European cjompanies. The project is partially funded by the European commission [both stories via Microcapital] Healthcare: [...]

Food Shortage Crisis: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that the country has sufficient food to feed the people and that prices should reflect that soon. Sending conflicting signals, PM Singh may call a meeting with Chief Ministers on controlling prices. Shockingly, another article highlighted the extremely high amount of crops wasted annually — RS [...]