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…
Reminders serve little purpose if the victims also resign to a kind of learned-helplessness. With the exception of a few private attempts to dig small tanks, there has been no campaign in the country to store rain water where it falls, that is, in situ conservation. Why has budgetary allocation for such a strategic goal…
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…
Birds, bridges and beautiful memoryscapes: Shodhaytra in Tripura-II For a long stretch, while walking in Gondacherra region, Dholai district of the state, we did not hear the songs of the birds nor did we see them flying. Later, we discovered that they used to make clay balls,…
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…
Politics of sugar, subsidiarity principle and whither innovation Many social segments of the country are feeling that their voice is perhaps not being heard adequately. This could also be a consequence of lack of clarity about the major policy shifts. In some areas, we are continuing with the same policies even if change…
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,…
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…
Infectious innovation: Spreading a virus In last two weeks, I had the privilege of spreading infection of innovation virus in several parts of the country. The foundation programme for the current batch of IAS probationers had an innovation workshop of two days for the first time. Thanks to the initiative of faculty Jaspreet Kaur and…
Primary education reforms that India can’t wait for There is a considerable anxiety and a little bit of cynicism at all levels of educational systems about the seriousness with which government really wants to bring about reforms. Part of the reason is that it is not listening to the most important hub…