Today, the NY Times published an article entitled, “India Nurtures Business of Surrogate Motherhood.” The article describes the rapidly expanding business of “reproductive outsourcing” to India, through which fertility clinics “provide surrogate mothers for foreigners.” The cost for the procedure comes to roughly $25,000 for the foreign couple, and pays the surrogate mother approximately $7,500. [...]

Indicorps is a non-partisan, non-religious, non-profit organization that aims to build principled leadership in the Indian diaspora through grassroots service. Indicorps’ programs are designed empower visionaries, inspire collective action, and unite India towards a common vision by productively engaging Indians around the world in service of their country. For the August 2008 cycle of the [...]

The SEED Initiative is currently accepting applications from individuals with innovative or entrepreneurial ideas in the realm of sustainable development, specifically in the context of developing countries. The deadline for submission is March 16, 2008. Click here for more details regarding the application process. A brief description of the award follows from OneWorld South Asia: [...]

Today happens to be the last day to apply for the InSPIRE Summer Fellowship, a 5-week program in India which aims to inspire South Asians through service. If you should need further information, feel free to contact Raj Kanani at . InSPIRE (www.SummerInIndia.org) is a 5-week summer program in India for South Asians between the [...]

Previously, ThinkChange India posted on the Acumen Fund’s investing strategy. In that post, we pointed out how a major factor in the Fund’s decision-making process is the BACO, or best alternative charitable option. Due to a comment posted in response to this article, Brian Trelstad chose to follow up with Acumen’s readers on the BACO’s [...]

Here are some stories from various news sources: Water Aid works hard to increase water access for women Gender inequality and the lack of sanitation and drinking water are woven into a vicious trap. As women and their daughters spend hours collecting water, they cannot go to school, work and earn; while poor sanitation lead [...]

While the work of microfinance institutions such as Grameen Bank and Unitus have done wonders to empower women in developing countries, these budding entrepreneurs continue to lack any formal business training. To address this dearth in education, Goldman Sachs announced last week that it will invest $100 million over the next five years to provide [...]

The Economic Times reports today that IT firm Helios and Matheson had tied up with the Indian School of Business to float a venture fund supporting social entrepreneurs: The company will be leveraging on its association with ISB to select and study the feasibility of various entrepreneurship ideas. For instance, it is participating in the [...]

While India’s national economy booms, educational disparity between rural and urban areas remains a major issue of concern, specifically in terms of resources, infrastructure, and funding. Despite the Indian government’s attempts at ameliorating the problem through increased rural education funding and targeted programs such as the Mid-Day Meals Scheme, illiteracy levels in rural India remain [...]

How can rural communities gain access to the internet without the infrastructure required to support an internet connection? Even more importantly, even if rural communities were to have access to the internet, how would the illiterate population avail of these services? What is the use of providing internet access that cannot be used by the [...]