Global Innovation challenges-1: a call for creative connections with children, youth and women When any society learns to live with solvable problems by reinforcing inertia, indifference and also internalizing helplessness, then imagination gets stifled first. Once imagination gets constrained, innovations are unlikely to follow. UNICEF and SRISTI have joined hands to announce a global challenge…
Deification of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam legacy will be the greatest disservice to his memory. Having his statues on crossroads would not make him more venerated. We killed Gandhi, many times over by deifying him. I hope Dr Kalam will survive this tendency of making idols of people and forgetting…
Every time there is a tragedy, the parliament discusses the issue and then business resumes as usual. I hope things will change this time. Not because in the presence of thousands of people, a farmer was allowed to commit suicide. But because the conditions which lead some farmers to take extreme step have their…
Twenty-five years of web and the Honey Bee Network: The cross-cultural exchange of knowledge before the invention of world wide web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 took place slowly but perhaps more attentively. The surfing culture of television channels and social media had not emerged. The learners not only read books but also wrote letters,…
Stolen Childhood: greatest robbery of this century There couldn’t be a more opportune moment for remembering millions of children who toil in cotton fields, brick making Bhatta, construction industry, roadside dhabas and restaurants and above all, houses of the the elites. Restoring Childhood ought to be the first priority of any civilised nation. Nobel peace…
Remembering Lal Bahadur Shastri: Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan Few people remember that October 2 is birth day of Shastri apart from Bapu. It is not surprising that our text books have not done justice to such role models of honesty, simplicity, frugality and devotion to public causes. When series of railway accidents took…
What can a District Collector do to promote innovations: an open letter Dear District Collector I have had the chance to meet many of you at LBSNAA foundation program during the last five years. LBSNAA Mussoorie and IIMA are likely to get into a longer term cooperation soon to promote inclusive and empathetic innovations in…
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: building upon past mistakes An extremely appreciable focus on providing toilet in every school can be a game changing intervention for improving public sanitation and in directly for educational enrolment and retention, particularly of girls. I also admire the impatience with which central government has started action already through MHRD. However, it…
BRICS by brick: An emerging new pole in the world Recent agreement, among BRICS nations [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] to develop a new development finance institution is a highly welcome step. A unipolar world needed very badly a new pole. India has the opportunity as the head of the new institution to…
Will new budget support creative communities and young inventors? The entrepreneurship and people’s knowledge are two themes, which recur repeatedly in the manifesto of the ruling party. And yet, there has not been any declaration in this regard so far. May be, a considered view is being taken to tap the enormous creative…