The folks at LiveMint have a radical idea to address the stray dog problem in the Indian cities – Privatize them! [Via India Uncut] The fundamental problem is that stray dogs are “public property”, which creates what economists call “negative externality”. Those who feed and pamper the dogs while benefiting from wagging tails and warm [...]

It’s definitely an out of box and innovative idea, and could be just what is needed to make the word ‘condom’ more socially acceptable in India. The BBC World Service Trust has launched a condom ringtone for cellphones, a 45 second short which repeats the word condom over and over again [via BBC World Service Trust] [...]

Followers of Mahatma Gandhi are familiar with the charkha, a spinning wheel that produces a type of cotton known as khadi. A new twist on this old tool is that it can also be used to generate electricity, as an article in The Hindu describes its use near Jaipur: In a few villages near here, [...]

The greater point is that not all products and services are the same, and in some cases creating sustainable markets may be all but impossible. Though it is certainly not “ideologically attractive,” I strongly believe Kremer and Miguel are correct in reminding us that for at last some essential public goods and services “There may [...]

Source: Nextbillion.net There are two openings in India, one for a Business Development Manager and the other for a Portfolio Associate.  Both are accepting applications and hope to close the application period early next week (August 20).  View both job descriptions in PDF format, and consider applying. Learn more about the Acumen Fund here.

The Tata Sons are starting to be quite innovative in designing their CSR efforts [via Financial Express]: Tata Jagriti Yatra 2008 will be an inspirational train journey undertaken by around 400 young and enterprising participants, between 18-25 years, from India and overseas, Tata Sons’ Executive Director, R Gopalakrishnan, said in Mumbai. The youth will participate [...]

Thumbs up: Obopay and Grameen Solutions partner together to provide microfinance services to clients. The initiative will be called the “Bank A Billion Initiative.” The premise of the project is to provide access to basic financial services through cell phones, reducing the need for costly personal contact between financial institutions and their customers. The initiative [...]

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. Readers will be able to see other conversations under our TC-I Changemakers tab. Last week, Vinay sat down (via webcast) [...]

The Summer Olympics takes place every four years. So does another, lesser-known event: the Copenhagen Consensus Conference (CCC). The forum involves a group of established and renowned economists discussing the world’s problems, and then prioritizing ways to address those issues. A 2005 video from TED Talks features Bjørn Lomborg, a Danish political scientist, who explained [...]

This weekend, there is an entrepreneurship summit at the IIM in Bangalore. Titled Eximius, the goal of the summit is to “present a wonderful opportunity for students and aspiring entrepreneurs to validate your ideas, network with like-minded people and gain valuable feedback from venture capitalists before you step into the real world.” Here are a [...]