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 award for a variety of challenges described here: any one who thinks he/she…
A kurta without a stitch: 39th Shodhyatra Imagine wearing a kurta in which there is no stitch, it would be difficult for us to think of it. But, a weaver Karna Mehr had actually woven a kurta as a cylindrical cloth. Another weaver Chukmani Mehr had woven poetry of Shri Gangadhar Mehr in the Barpali…
Odisha Shodhyatra: Pervasive Poetry, widespread experiments, healthy children There could not have been better start of second round of shodhyatras around the country. While waking from Baripali to Narsinghnath, Bargarh district, we met very vibrant, warm and curious communities-always willing to learn and ever keen to share. When did we find a poet in…
Making Indo-African cooperation a two way street Having just returned from 39th shodhyatra in western Odisha, I can say that if we find In AFRICA even ten percent of the innovations and unique traditional knowledge that we discovered in this walk, India will learn a lot. Those who are not convinced should read a book, Africa…
Idea, i.e., inclusive, peaceful India In a diverse civilizational society, it is inevitable that one would find multiple perspectives on the concept of nationhood. To expect uniformity, would be to kill the source of sustainability: that is diversity. The real tension begins when we start measuring and monitoring the boundary of the diversity. How…
Farmers’ Protests: time for hard questions At the outset, I fully share the grief of families which lost their earning members during recent firing or because of suicides. But I must also state that just because industry has not paid back a lot of dues, therefor farmers should also not pay back, is a very…
What could be a good mantra to welcome the new year than to insist on making relationships also learning bonds? If there are three circles or venn diagrams, learning, loving and living, I will always want to be at their intersection. How can one live without learning and can we learn without loving or vice versa? May…
There has been a deep debate in the country about the inconvenience caused to common people, unfortunate death of those elderly in queue who should have been treated better, and many others. It is acknowledged that a large number of poor people have lost jobs because those who employed them have lost orders due to…
There has been a considerable upsurge of interest in design and development community in reinforcing ‘design thinking’ as if it is a homogeneous set of ideas which can be applied without paradoxes tensions and ethical dilemma. I submit that we need to step a little away from the dominant discourse on need identification, definition and…
Many problems that we face in our daily life sometimes needs high tech solution but at an extremely affordable level. SRISTI pioneered the grassroots innovation movement as a part of the Honey Bee Network. National Innovation Foundation is taking this mission forward vigorously. SRISTI decided to promote originality, social, industrial, biotechnological and ecological connect through…