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[Video] Meghalaya’s Living Bridge: An example of sustainable living architecture

Meghalaya is one of the world’s wettest regions, receiving some of the highest rainfall ever recorded. One of the challenges that rears-up every year is that of the raging rivers. Crossing these rivers becomes a near impossibility due to the intense rains and wild torrents. However, the people of Meghalaya have been practicing a centuries-old [...]

November 8, 2011 / No Comment / Read More

[Video] Hiware Bazar: The Miracle Water Village

August 8, 2011 No Comment

Hiware Bazar, which we had written about earlier, continues to be a source of many ideas. First, here are some statistics. India receives abundant rainfall – around 1170mm annually. Yet, there is acute scarcity – largely due to inefficient planning and ineffective water management. Around 450 million people directly live off rain-fed agriculture. Hiware Bazar [...]

[Video] Working women break professional barriers and bring social change

July 26, 2011 No Comment

Arti Kaveriappa is a mechanic and runs a garage in Bangalore. A group of 8 women mountaineers scaled Everest. A village in Rajasthan trained its women to build and maintain handpumps. Raj runs her own industrial tool factory. These and many such stories are profiled in this short film titled “Breaking Barriers”. If you are [...]

[Video] Eko: The Resonance of Mobile Banking

July 22, 2011 1 Comment

Salim is a fruit seller and proud father of 3 children. He saves Rs.20-30 each day. He does not have a bank account but has a mobile phone. Guess what..that is enough for him to start banking! This was the premise with which Founder Abhishek Sinha laid the foundation of Eko Financial Services, a novel [...]

[Video] ‘The Musalman’: India’s Only Handwritten Newspaper

July 11, 2011 No Comment

‘The Musalman’ is India’s (and possibly the world’s) only handwritten newspaper. Started in the year 1927 in Chennai, the newspaper is handwritten in Urdu by skilled calligraphers. It is this love of its team for calligraphy and the Urdu language that keeps the newspaper going. This 4-page newspaper is published daily by a team of [...]

SMV Wheels: A Social Enterprise Empowering Rickshaw Pullers

May 28, 2011 1 Comment

Manual Rickshaws are a significant means of conveyance in this country. According to a recent estimate, there are 10 million rickshaw pullers & 20 million push-cart vendors in India. Most of them are victims of exorbitant daily rentals and the mafia that doesn’t allow them to own the rickshaws. Many of them live on pavements [...]

Watch: Stories of People with Visual Impairment

April 19, 2011 No Comment

Have you ever thought about what inspired you to take the most difficult decision in your life? Think about it and you will realize that it’s the stories of people that you have met or heard of that serve as the strongest source of inspiration. Stories of our parents, role models, and people that we [...]

Oorja Stove: Cleaner Energy for a Greener Planet

February 14, 2011 7 Comments

Try conjuring an image of an Indian village, sans its depiction in Priyadarshan movies. Chances are, you will think of green paddy fields, a bullock cart tottering along dusty pathways, womenfolk carrying a load of firewood and mud houses emitting sooty smoke from their hay-stacked rooftops. From a distance, it is an unhurried, calm and [...]