What kinds of innovation are emerging in rural India, and can they be documented and harnessed across the country? How can the corporate and government sectors support such grassroots innovation–and how can volunteers get involved? Many of these challenges and approaches are analysed in the book Grassroots Innovation: Minds on the Margin are not Marginal Minds, by…
harnessing youth for nation building: In a pluralistic, democratic and polycentric society, it is natural that building consensus will not be easy around a minimum agreed plan for mobilising youth for nation building. However, I want to try and propose an agenda for debate and modification so that a non-controversial pathway to progress…
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…
When the whole world looking at Indian renaissance as a sign of hope for pulling the global economy out of recession, the policy ambivalence is difficult to understand. In the year about to pass, several initiatives took shape. But a very few could get concretized. One good example is that of BIRAC [Biotechnology Industry Research…
SRISTI, NIF, GIAN and other Honey Bee Network members mourn the sad demise of Shri Parshottam B Patel on October 29, 2015; one of the longest serving member of the SRISTI family. He had helped in organising or implementing almost all the 35 Shodhyatras in different states of India. He had represented the Honey Bee…
Recently when I saw a Japanese film, “A stitch of Life”, directed by Yukiko Mishima, I was reminded of a vain Gandhian dream of forging close connections between producer and consumer through customized products and services. A Seamstress, Ichie persists with her vision of tailoring western design cloths using an old sewing machine for her…
We are happy to invite applications for third summer school on inclusive innovation program from 21st May 2015 to 11th June 2015 organised by SRISTI.org. We are inviting enthusiastic young minds who wish to spend their summer break in the process of solving social challenges with possible mass impact in the following fields: Developing…
In One of the first Indian state to declare itself as organic, finding clean mountains and stone pathways is not surprising. In fact there were more dustbins in the mountainous tracks near Lum village than in the plains. The result is that one does find plastic wastes near the settlements, scattered as they are. A child…
In an attempt to understand what makes a good teacher, colleagues at the Honey Bee Network were asked what attributes made a teacher effective. The following list is a compilation of views expressed by our colleagues Who considers both positive and negative sides of students Who engages with parents of students as well when needed…
Several state governments are realizing belatedly that they need to provide a concrete, low transaction cost system for innovation and entrepreneurship development. However, when it comes to creating a flexible and friendly environment, the bureaucratic mindset often overtakes good intentions. The result is a plethora of rules and very few outcomes. Way back in 1997,…