from OneWorld South Asia – Top Headlines Villagers in India’s north-eastern state of Tripura lack basic civic amenities like water, hospital, school, etc. and yet are content with their voter identity cards issued by the government. Poverty inhibits them from demanding even their basic rights.

from OneWorld South Asia – Top Headlines India generates around 300,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, which is likely to grow more than five fold by 2012. In a recent ranking guide, environmental body Greenpeace has called upon Indian electronics companies to adopt green practices to deal with the e-waste menace so as to come at [...]

Here is one issue that needs substantial help — stigma placed upon those individuals infected with HIV/AIDS in India and the creation of a media and education campaign to help dispel such discrimination. On Sify today, an article highlights that the Health Ministry is contemplating the appointment of a “health ombudsperson in all its districts [...]

Imagine not being able to study past sunset because that is your only source of illumination. Or if your village does have electricity it comes and goes sporadically — so inconsistently that it is borderline useless. Now imagine that all you needed to fix this problem was the simple force of gravity … From Slashdot: [...]

From BBC: Map pinpoints disease ‘hotspots’ A detailed map highlighting the world’s hotspots for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) has been released. From Reuters: Study urges new focus in hunt for emerging diseases LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Health experts are mostly looking in the wrong places for the next AIDS, Ebola, or bird flu and [...]

From the Hindu: BANGALORE: The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) is in the process of launching an ambitious energy conservation project for the replacement of incandescent bulbs in households with highly energy-efficient Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). The pilot project, which will be taken up in Bangalore Rural district, envisages the replacement of a maximum of [...]

From Xigi.net, Gray Matters Capital, a private equity fund that focuses on the creation and expansion of social enterprises has been conducting very interesting research on the prospect of providing private school education at $2 per day in the developing world. Talked to Sam Moss, Brian Cayce this week about their research at Gray Matters [...]

One of the ongoing issues that appears to be hindering development in countries like India is the lack of equity based funding for small and medium sized businesses. These entities, which usually are too large to be benefited from a microloan but too small to have the necessary financials to secure corporate debt or private [...]

From Avashya The Indian arm of the world’s largest soft drinks company Coca-Cola India is all set to come up with an India specific arm for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities this year, starting with a corpus of $10 million.

In an effort to address rising pollution levels, traffic congestion and overall convenience, Indimoto.com is a carpooling matching site that allows for commuters to find other people in their area to share rides with. With the recent unveiling of the Tata Nano, this website may become a necessary evil stemming from insane traffic congestion. Avashya [...]