Recently many cars collided on Mathura road, because they could not see the accident ahead due to fog. This could have been avoided if the idea of Gayathri and Pranav from Naval school, Kochi, Kerala, had been implemented in vehicles. They suggested that whenever a two-wheeler (for that matter, any vehicle) meets with an accident,…
How can a mayor of a city use the open spaces, shared spaces, and redevelopment projects to revitalize the cultural neural network of the city? How can common citizens, not just elites have a greater say in shaping the future of the city than what dominant architects and planners will permit them? It is very…
Busy as a Bee By VAIDEHI IYER May/June 2010 All over the world, there are people with problems and innovators with solutions. The Honey Bee Network connects some of them to help make their dreams come true. Imagine an automatic food making machine that does away with the trouble of cooking. “Wouldn’t everybody like that?”…
Last week, I looked at the problems that country is currently facing due to drought and the challenges, which are ahead of us once it rains. I was reflecting on the reasons responsible for so much collective neglect. It doesn’t matter which political party in power, the apathy for long-term drought mitigation persists. The…
When so many non-issues have occupied the mind of the youth, to plead for sensitivity to what appear to be real issues may be a vain hope. But, symbols matter. Despite many statements criticizing the decision to move cricket matches out of Mumbai because of water scarcity, it did focus attention of the urban middle…
Every time, there is a disaster, natural or manmade, we ask ourselves whether we have learned any lesson, whether casualty/injury could be minimized, how long it took for adequate relief to reach, minutes, hours, or days? Have standard operating procedures been developed for flyovers, bridges, and other heavy construction in crowded places? Where do I…
A fitting homage to Babasaheb Ambedkar will be a fundamental transition from entitlement based approach to an entrepreneurial system to empower and emancipate the Dalit community. Recently, some chambers of commerce dedicated to Dalit entrepreneurs have come up. Yet the dominant discourse in the country is to give them…
Budget for unleashing creative potential of India Railway budget, regardless of what anyone else thinks, is a progressive budget for women, elderly, physically challenged, poor who cannot afford to reserve seats, and for the environment and also for those who want to see India clean and orderly. I welcome the fund for promoting start-ups for…
Amazingly creative children in the land of rising Sun: Arunachal Pradesh Dora James and Tanya Taring, two class six children did not take too long to answer when asked questions about unmet local social needs. Farmer innovators, school teachers, professionals, engineers, students, professors etc., had been debating about several problems noticed in Tajing village as…
Why did you go to such interior places in Bastar? Don’t you know it is dangerous, asked the Police officer. Parshottam replied, “How else will we learn about the problems of the neglected communities?”. He was involved in designing a route plan for almost all the thirty five Shodhyatras in practically in every state of…