About Us
The Better India was founded on 10th of July 2008, as an outcome of scarcity of positive & developmental news in conventional sources of media.
The Better India is an attempt to bring out the happy stories, the unsung heroes (and heroines!), the small good deeds, and showcase them to the world. Over here, you will read about the incremental progress being made by the people of this country, the developments happening on the social and economic front. We hope that by showcasing these here, we might be able to inspire at least one amongst you, the readers, to do something that leaves an impact. Small or big. But, an impact.
The Better India Team
Ranjini Sivaswamy – Writer
Inspired by the spirit of The Better India, Ranjini Sivaswamy, who is a freelance writer, got in touch and expressed her interest in writing for this site. She says its been an humbling experience to know and write about stories that have changed the lives of many. Ranjini comes from a mass communication background and is currently a consultant with IIM Bangalore.
Rahul Anand – Writer
Rahul is an ex-IT consultant and now a writer & entrepreneur who is always interested in innovative ideas and ventures. He co-founded www.simplypoet.com – the world’s first multi-lingual poetry portal. Within a short span, Rahul has helped setup a lot of initiatives including the Jobs section on The Better India. He is passionate about working in the development/social enterprise sector and is currently an ICICI fellow.
Unnati Narang – Writer
Unnati is a freelance writer, author and entrepreneur. She loves engaging in meaningful endeavours. From her blog to media initiatives like Times Ascent, HT Edge and social enterprises like Dhriiti and iDiscoveri, she is always keen on any writing opportunity that may come her way. Her writing bug extends to her venture www.serenewoods.com, a publishing portal she co-founded early 2009, for emerging authors. The Better India brings the best of both worlds – writing and social impact – for her.
Anuradha Parekh – Founder & Co-editor
Anuradha spearheaded The Better India initiative by identifying and partnering with the right organizations to give them their due visibility. Her effort reflects in the fact that over a year’s articles have been contributed by her, thereby giving this initiative the much-needed initial traction. She has had stints with both the corporate world and the not-for-profit sector. Anuradha holds a degree in management from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Dhimant Parekh – Founder & Co-editor
Starting The Better India more as a personal project to know more about the change-making individuals and organizations, Dhimant has been responsible in making the brand and its presence the way it is today. He is also an author and a blogger and holds a management degree from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He currently works for a start-up in Bangalore and helps run The Better India’s outreach programs, getting more people to know about this initiative.
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September 28th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Congrats, It’s a great attempt. I wish you guys a huge success. You are doing a great job.
One comment: You should try to promote this website…how? we need to think about..
October 6th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
any franchice oppurnites in tamilnadu
October 13th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I have goosebumps all over for this initiative. Inspiring and awesome. But as Quraishi already pointed out, we have to promote this website and I shall do everything best in this direction. Can I join you guys. It looks absolutely interesting to me and im charged. I know public forum aint the right place. But if you could revert to my personal e-mail, nothing like it.
Whether I join or not, its a wonderful thought and action. Kudos gentlemen!!!!
October 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am
This is definitely a good idea. One way to get more people to come to your site would be to get bloggers to say good things about it.
November 4th, 2008 at 9:54 am
All the Best for your venture. Rgds, vJ (ISB’05)
November 13th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
This is a great Initiative. Best of luck!
Do you have a facebook group?
November 18th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Superb!!! We need more such websites than our news channels.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Gr8 attempt!should find a way to promote to reach to more users.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Came to know of you from twitter. Best wishes your venture. Hope media learn some lessons from your effort.
November 27th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I’ve been crying myself hoarse ever since I read that newpapers in Lebanon have relegated the bad news to the back pages & focus on the good news, that we too shold do the same. Unfortunately most of our media has sold it’s soul long back. The human propensity to focus on the negative too needs surmounting!
I can’t even begin to say how much good you guys are doing!
Thank You & May your tribe increase!
Anything I can do to take this initiative ahead?
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:49 am
Very good concept. Keep up the good work.
Don’t hesitate to ask for help from your readers.
Brij
December 6th, 2008 at 12:16 am
I’ve been wondering why something like this doesn’t exist in India and here you are all the while! Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you! (apart from telling everyone I know, of course!)
December 15th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I just love the concept of bringing out the happy stories of India to world. Now a days media is more concern about showcasing the bad things happen in India.
Lets make this site popular!
Thanks Anuradha and Dhimant!
December 15th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Kedar>> Thank you for your appreciation
December 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Everyone who has commented here>> Thank you very much. This wouldn’t have been possible without readers like you who are interested to know about the great things happening in our country. We are humbled by the responses that you all have sent in.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
You are doing the right thing! All my BEST WISHES for this flame to continue burning and giving light and hope to many.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:40 am
This is a great concept – kudos to you people for having conceived and executed it so well.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Greetings!
I want to know your office address.
Thanks
April 29th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
we need details
May 26th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
This is a great site. A lot of interesting topics to read and learn.
I would love to read and write on the site.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Interesting site. We do something similar at areweMAD(http://arewemad.net). Hope to read more good news in the future…
June 29th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hey Dhimant and Anuradha,
Great Work!! Keep it going!!
Cheers!
July 16th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Dear Dhimant & Anuradha,
I have joined your The better india forum just today. i regret not knowing you earlier. Your work is very impressive and i am proud to see your work in promoting the better news regarding our country INDIA. Jai hind and best of luck. You have my full support. Keep it up.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:47 am
This gives hope and faith for those frustrated in day to day life seeing all negatives. It is an applaudable work that you are fostering postive qualites whereas almost all medias are fostering negatives in the mind of people.
Congrats from my heart!
August 6th, 2009 at 8:11 am
I am so happy to see this website….Congrats…All the best
August 14th, 2009 at 7:08 am
I like that you are writing postive things about India….we need more of these types of sites.
Thanks
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:28 am
Great job guys..I was touched when I read about my own school in “Remembering our teachers” article..
October 8th, 2009 at 10:33 am
All of this is very inspiring. I never thought that there are some people who would support people who are busy doing seva. well done!!
Is there any possibility to get any advise from any of these successful people? I wish to start some educational project for rural maharashtra in Konkan.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
great initiative…all the best
October 20th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Really great blog. Keep up the great work.
-Yeh Hai Life
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
Great blog! There’s too much negativity (bad news) on television and newspapers. The news stories on your blog are a welcome change for all.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Hi there- I loved finding this site. I hope you are able to promote this site more. How often do you change the stories? I would highly recommend a group on facebook to attract a wide age group of supports (primarily younger crowd). I myself have already told a few ppl and just came across this site a few days ago. Any link for archived stories? Best of luck!!
December 20th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Amazing and inspirational. You should invest in a little bit of publicity.
January 11th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Great idea, I will promote this site.
January 12th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Infact, I had stopped reading news paper only because of horrific news, sad stories and ugly events…. Great work Dhimant and Anuradha.. Congratulations for your accomplishments. May God you guys with all the strength and spirit of positivity to sustain this for ever.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Extremely happy and proud that there exists such a site. We really need it.
Thanks a lot and good luck.
::Peace::
January 29th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Hi, have been meaning to tell you from a long time, that your site is Fantastic, and is an encouragement for the voluntary sector to keep doing good work, someone will notice sometime.
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:21 pm
the highest level of help to any person is the emotional one rather than the financial or physical.
The venture will strengthen the bonds between the rural and urban people and spread positive vibes across.
February 6th, 2010 at 3:20 am
Commendable initiative … I am the project coordinator of a student voluntary organization which funds projects for sustainable alternative employment generation … It will be great if you could drop me an e-mail. (Can you view my email id which I left in the email field while posting this reply?)
February 8th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Hey .. great initiative … we need such things to keep us optimistic and work towards better future … thanks for filling the gap ..
February 19th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
hey wonderful idea.. i think you should start thinking on an all india level.. blv me it might turn out to be huge success.. if u can read out stories of dainik jagran.. i firmly believe it’ll be a huge success!! all the very best!
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:06 am
I really appreciate the effort..
Whats the story of better India?
March 11th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
I found a similar website like yours. Hope you like it:
http://www.positivepress.in
March 21st, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Superb initiative..we needed this!
April 4th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Great initiative.
We have started an NGO called Zeal Foundation with an aim to spread positive thoughts and stories.
Please visit our site http://www.zealfoundation.org
If anyone is interested to join us, pls drop a mail to zealfdn AT gmail.com
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:48 am
This is fantastic! I’m living in California and am working to start my own initiative. This seems to be an awesome way to get to know what other people are doing and keep you going!!
April 26th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
ppl will get to read somethng meaningfull,that adds value to the life instead of those sold newspapers and most irresponsible media.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:23 am
I am a social scientist working with people living with HIV/AIDS,MSM( Men having sex with men)and TB patients. One of the things we always stress the need for positve thinking and our interventions with these groups are geared towrads this. It is amazing how you guys have spread the message across esp when it comes to our country that is usually the but of negative reporting ,sympathy and ridicule..I would also love to contribute some of the sucess stories which could be included. Keep up the good work. Dr Beena
May 5th, 2010 at 11:32 am
I happened to come across this site by a fluke and am glad i did. I’m from Canadaand moved there about 15 years ago. Often me an my girlfriends have debates about India and i was glad to forward this link to them, showing India isn’t just slums and dirt.
Have you considered a monthly blast? How about positive stories about Indians abroad makinga difference?
Either way great and thank you for starting this!
May 18th, 2010 at 10:22 am
you guys are the propbabaly the much sought after light at the end of the tunnel!
Thank you for bringing out the un sung heroes.
any way, we can contribute?
May 18th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Congrats, Ofcourse it’s a great attempt. I wish you all the best.
May 20th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Indeed, it is a better initiative to show casing the positive story accross the country. As per a recent information, only 5% space has used for social development related issue in India. So better India is a true platform for the positive and change making story.
May 27th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
It is so amazing to see such beautiful initiatives. I am a student ( on my way to pursue my masters in biological sciences ), I would love to be a part of this initiative, I have shared a similar activity of mine in here.
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=116306341737685
May god bless you and keep you healthy!.
Love,
Arun.
June 1st, 2010 at 6:52 pm
വളരെ അപ്രത്യക്ഷമായാണ് ഞാന് ഈ സൈറ്റില് വന്നു ചേര്ന്ന്ത് . എന്തൊ ഇതിന്റെ കെട്ടും മട്ടും എന്നെ പിടിച്ചു നിറുത്തി . കൂടുതല് അറിയണമെന്നൊരാഗ്രഹം വന്നു പെട്ടു. കാരണം വിശദീകരിക്കുവാനാകുന്നില്ല
June 5th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Dear Friends,
Thank you for such a noble initiative.Its a great effort and We will always support .We are a grass root level NGO working in remote rural areas of Balasore district in Orissa state of INDIA for sustainable development of backward women & children.
Kindly visit our website http://www.armngo.com for detailed information.
Please contact us for any collaborative effort.
RAJENDRA KUMAR RANA
June 10th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
GOOD INITIATIVE BY YOU SIR….VANDE MATARAM…..OUR INDIAN YOUTH IS WITH YOU……
June 25th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
THANK U india is in great need of such initiatives and congrats for successful intiative. Hope it been a great succes
June 28th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Dear Dhimant and Anuradha, this site keeps getting better and better, everytime I visit here. The stories are inspiring and give us fuel and keep us motivated to continue our own quest to spread awareness about solar power in villages – sometimes can be frustrating to see so much kerosene being burnt and yet some people dont seem to see reason. Keep up the good work ! And keep us motivated
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:12 pm
I am glad I happen to come across this sight. May you be always inspired to do such good work.
July 18th, 2010 at 11:43 am
suraksha an ngo working in rural area in gajapati dist.orissa,india with diffrent development activets since last 10 years. i have seen your site and happy of your effort in this innovation we requst you please help us for providing and development of this type of activites in our area.we also promote biofual with agricultural wast.
thanking you
s.motilalreddi
secretary
suraksha
gajapati
orissa
July 18th, 2010 at 11:45 am
suraksha an ngo working in rural area in gajapati dist.orissa,india with diffrent development activets since last 10 years. i have seen your site and happy of your effort in this innovation we requst you please help us for providing and development of this type of activites in our area.we also thinking to promote biofual with agricultural wast.
thanking you
s.motilalreddi
secretary
suraksha
gajapati
orissa
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I still remember when “The Better India” was still beginning and you were researching VGKK for your first post. Since then, I have been following your posts. The background work is impressive and the posts are truly wonderful reading.
Keep it up!! Wish you all the best, better india.
August 1st, 2010 at 11:33 am
Wonderful site and great initiative. Please keep up the wonderful work!
August 19th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Great going! Am a huge fan. Keep telling people about your works…