Stolen Childhood: greatest robbery of this century There couldn’t be a more opportune moment for remembering millions of children who toil in cotton fields, brick making Bhatta, construction industry, roadside dhabas and restaurants and above all, houses of the the elites. Restoring Childhood ought to be the first priority of any civilised nation. Nobel peace…
Redirecting development: Some Lessons from 33rd Shodhyatra Walking through the villages in Mahendragadh district, Haryana was very reassuring in certain aspects and bewildering in other. We did not come across even a single malnourished child in the villages during the walk. How could ithappen when many other states and regions of Haryana…
French Announcement Invitation for the Third International Conference on Creativity and Innovations at Grassroots [ICCIG], January 19-22, 2015 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad Giving voice, visibility and velocity to creativity and innovative potential of common people at grassroots has been the key goal of inclusive development. Honey Bee Network has emerged as a committed new…
in Punjab, jalandhar, 32nd shodhyatra for walking in search of schools where inspired teachers intrigue children with mysteries of nature, villages where female foetus does not struggle to survive, soil of farms which does not get poisoned by the toxic chemicals just because she is tired, farmers who still maintain diversity of coloured cotton, yellow…
From Madiba to Mabena: A tribute to Mandela Recently I happened to visit Pretoria for a conference on discourse on Innovations from Below. There were various viewpoints presented in the conference at UNISA [University of South Africa], a 140 year old Open University. Nelson Mandela was an alumni of this university. A large number of…
Aesthetics of alienation Recently when the film Ship of Theseus drew full house, the philosophical root of the question behind its story somehow did not get discussed enough in society. Anand Gandhi has dared to ask some very fundamental issues about life, its transitivity, its mutation through organ transplants and then where does the original identity reside, in the part, or the donor or the receiver. Apart from outstanding photography and beautiful…
Entrepreneurial innovations for sustainable agriculture: Unleashing the creativity of youth Having surpassed the national growth rate in agriculture almost by 100 per cent, Chhattisgarh has achieved a distinction which country can be proud of. There are not many states, which have done it. But, growth alone will not suffice. It has to be sustainable,…
Agenda for mobilizing tech youth for transforming India: six challanges There are six challenges which tech youth is facing in reorienting not only its own motivations but also that of the larger society to use the talent and potential of youth far better than India does it today. There is a serious underutilization of this…
message to techfest organizers at teri and other colleges : There is a dire need to bridge the widening distance between the opportunities available for creative communities and individuals in formal and informal sector. While individual innovators in every sector are disadvantaged their handicaps become several times multiplied when language, remoteness and illiteracy so characteristic…
Cloudy cliffs: Forgotten frontiers Shodhyatra to Sikkim last week with the students from IIMA was an extremely enlivening experience. We absorbed undiluted warmth of local communities and much of the undisturbed nature in Yoksum region on the Nepal border. The contribution Sikkim is making for conservation of biodiversity, fragile mountains and keeping the water of…