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 [...]

Dr. Muhammad Yunus has talked extensively about reconceptualizing “capitalism” in his new book, “Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and The Future of Capitalism,” suggesting that “capitalism” posits human beings as one dimensional profit maximizers, devoid of complexity and multi-dimensionality. He proposes the reconceptualization of capitalism in the context of social business, where the [...]

Based on last year’s success, Hand in Hand is hosting interns again this summer. The projects will take place in Kanchipuram, 2 hours west of Chennai. Projects range from solid waste management to enhancing entrepreneurial skills among MFI clients: Every summer, Hand in Hand offers a four-week internship programme focused on well-defined projects and deliverables. [...]

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced a debt waiver in the amount of Rs. 600 billion for small farmers this past week. As per the proposal, farm loan cancellations will be offered to small farmers with less than 2 hectacres of land. The offer follows more than a decade of farmer suicides resulting from rising prices [...]

While this came to ThinkChange India’s attention after the deadline past, the competition seems like a great opportunity for our readers and should definitely be something to do next year. Titled Genesis, this competition, which will be held at IIT-Madras, aims to do the following: Genesis is a social entrepreneurship competition that aims to bring [...]

Today I’d like to introduce you to one of my heroes, Baba Amte. He died a few weeks ago on February 8th at the opus of his life, Anandavan. I was fortunate to visit him several times during my work in India, and have this short piece to share with you all. Anandavan, meaning forest [...]

Hot off of the momentum of the Lead India campaign run by the Times of India, winner R K Misra has launced ChangeIndia.in,  a website aimed to build a community of individuals “who want to do something for society or undertake a project for the benefit of the nation.” (AlooTechie) Besides English, the site is [...]

There are two aspects of sex education — one straightforward the other complex. On one hand we have the biological nature of sexuality and gender, which for the most part, can be effectively explained within schools objectively and without too much controversy. The other issue, the one dealing with the physical impulses and feelings associated [...]

Some bits of tid for you all: Radical restructuring of judiciary requires people’s movement Forget that judicial system is not accessible to the vast majority of people in India, even worse is the fact that it is increasingly acquiring an elitist and anti-poor character. A recently held convention in New Delhi talked of reclaiming and [...]