Majority of institutions of excellence in our country contribute towards spreading excellence in wider society through various means. Some develop open source teaching content, as IISc Bangalore and IIT Madras did through NPTL pooling engineering courses. Some do summer school to spread social entrepreneurial skills, or develop open source lessons for school education through student volunteers…
When any society grows, the need for self-critical discourse becomes even more obvious. While sharing my suggestions for fostering an inclusive innovation ecosystem in Kerala at the multi-party launch of Kerala development and innovation strategic council, I was struck by the forthrightness of the colleagues. They were honest in admitting that because of heavy reliance…
The Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Awards set up by SRISTI and Honey Bee Network have created new points of reference for recognizing technological excellence imbued with social relevance among students. We received 2915 entries in 54 technology domains from 312 universities & institutes belonging to 34 states & Union Territories. Fifteen BIRAC-SRISTI GYTI student awardees get…
Tradition of creative and innovative ways of solving local problems and sharing one’s learning over 25-30,000 years, got subdued at different times in the history. The cave paintings in Bhimbetka depict the way hunting was done, animals were tamed, ornamentation of human and animals, observing movement of animals, growth of trees and plants etc. Even before the…
Increasing income of farmers and workers must be attempted together, one doesn’t necessarily lead to another. It is also true that sometime marginal farmers are worse off than laborers because of lack of mobility and thus limited opportunity to benefit from higher wages from distant labor markets. If productivity increases, work and wages may eventually…
Conversation about menstruation, despite very ably made film, Padman has not yet started in the right earnest. I am not sure how many parents have talked to their children around the dining table (if they have one) or in the chuaka, the cooking place about why biological processes are dirty or polluting per se. We…
The recent budget has included many steps for the benefit of farmers and rural communities which may alleviate some of the distress in rural India. But much more remains to be done. The cost of cultivation has to be reduced by promoting non-chemical inputs which will also help enhance the sustainability quotient. Let me focus…
How to differ without being disrespectful and violent in civic life? There has been a great disquiet in the country because of increasing instances of violence against innocents just because one wants to express one’s dissatisfaction and disaffection towards certain viewpoints. In a democratic setup, difference of views is inevitable. In fact, democracy thrives on…
There are times when we get stuck in major policy debates because we are too convinced of the position we have taken. How do overcome the logjam in such situations. Let me take a concrete case of the recent efforts to galvanise the administrative machinery of 115 most economically backward districts to fast track in…
There is consensus in the country that farmer’s income instead of increasing has either declined or has remained stagnant. Even the union agriculture minister acknowledged that minimum support prices are not being received by the farmers in many crops. Some analysts have suggested that instead of central government meeting 60% cost of procurement, it should…