Energy and the Environment: Tata Power promises an environmentally conscious power plant in Cuttack and also pledges to pay above market rates for acquiring the land. The national government launches its ‘Green India’ campaign that will plant trees over 6 million hectares of degraded forests over the next 10 years. Women and Media: Women at [...]

A thoroughly inspiring story reminding us that the most important examples of innovation occur where we least expect them to. Farmers who visit Amai Mahalinga Naik’s two-acre plot on the hilltop near Adyanadka in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka return spellbound. Irrigated farming at this height is very surprising. This 58-year-old illiterate farm labourer has [...]

We have mentioned this opportunity before. But the folks from Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation wanted us to throw in a reminder to our readers about the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award 2008. The deadline is for application is 5th June, 2008 and you can access the online application here. Here are some basic [...]

Your daily dose of headlines: Health: The pharmaceutical industry in India fears that one in five drugs sold in the country are fake. A study undertaken by the by the drug controller general will focus on this. Transportation: India and France on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in railways, including constructing world [...]

Livemint reports that India’s insurance companies (private and state-owned) are expanding rapidly in rural markets, and have topped the IRDA’s mandatory rural targets. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is Government of India body set-up to regulate the insurance sector, which has gone through significant liberalization in the last decade. IRDA has continuously emphasized the [...]

A documentary fable by Mumbai filmmaker Nitin Das was handpicked to be a part of the UN Environment Programme’s “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign.” Over two billion trees have been planted around the world under the campaign, and all sectors are encouraged to engage in voluntary action to address the issue of climate [...]

Byrraju Foundation (a philanthropic foundation founded by Satyam head B. Ramalinga Raju and his family in 2001), is organizing India’s first National Conference of Rural BPOs named ‘Jyotismay’. The conference is to be held on 16th May, 2008 in Hyderabad, and you can register to participate in the conference through this link. It is important [...]

Top 3 posts from the week: Although from the previous week, Prerna’s discussion on waste management continues to attract readers and comments. Vinay’s featured interview with Gautam Ivatury of CGAP from last Sunday was the most read as a new post from the past week. Santhosh’s post on the partnership between Airtel and the IFFCO [...]

Your daily dose of headlines: Technology: Trak.in reports that a DesiWiki will help Indian start ups to increase their knowledge base on the technical aspects of starting a new venture. Education: In order to encourage students to stay in school, the government approved a merit scholarship that will award deserving students of lower income sections [...]

Many of our prior posts have spoken to the urgent need to overhaul, or at the least, significantly revamp the education system in India, as evidenced by the massive rise in demand for both primary and higher education institutions in relation to dwindling supply (not to mention the relatively low quality of instruction/infrastructure at pre-existing [...]