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TBI Innovations: ZIMBA – A Simple Machine To Quench The Thirst For Clean Water

An affordable device that does not need electricity or moving gears but runs only on gravity, is scientist Suprio Das’s answer to water contamination. Nilanjana Nag Pereira reports. Odd as it may seem, innovation and its usage have become inversely proportionate today. Says scientist Suprio Das, “90 per cent of our leading designs are created [...]

May 3, 2012 / 2 Comments / Read More

Seaweed Cultivation and Mangrove Nursery Projects Bring New Hope to Women in Sunderbans

January 12, 2012 No Comment

Ishika Mondal, 34, works for two hours every day in waist deep water, trying to keep the fragile ‘Gracilaria’ or ‘Seola’ (seaweed) seeds alive at the small experimental seed bank in her village of Harekrishnapur in Sunderbans, West Bengal. “This is our hope for the future. Selling the seaweed every 40 days will bring money [...]

Sweeper-Actor Kailash Stages A Sanitation Success Story

October 31, 2011 1 Comment

Kailash Basfore, 35, is a sweeper by profession. However, he is also an actor. He is part of the Harijan Para Slum Folk Theatre Group that periodically performs plays on the benefits of sanitation in the 52 slums dotting Kalyani, a township located 65 kilometres north of Kolkata in West Bengal. Motivating Kailash and others [...]

Subhas Dutta: One Man Army in Kolkata

June 28, 2011 1 Comment

Subhas Dutta has spent the last three decades perfecting the dying art of active citizenship. He is the son of refugees from Bangladesh and calls the grand old city of Kolkata his home. One could mistake this unassuming Chartered Accountant for a harmless ‘Aam Admi’ who’s just trying to live his life and ‘get by’. [...]

Water Women: How Jyoti Nagar Turned On The Tap

April 25, 2011 No Comment

Kolkata (Women’s Feature Service) The road roller operator working on repairing a damaged part of the road inside the Jyoti Nagar slum on the outskirts of Kolkata decides to take an unofficial tea break. A frail woman standing nearby steps up to the man and ensures that he gets him to work promptly. The woman [...]

How Teenaged Tribal Sunita Won A National Bravery Award

March 8, 2011 8 Comments

Birbhum (Women’s Feature Service) Sixteen-year-old Sunita Murmu is quite the celeb in her locality these days. This teenager had the courage to approach the remote Mohammadbazar police station in Birbhum, one of West Bengal’s most backward districts, and lodge a complaint against the powerful criminal elements from within her community. Of course, she did not [...]

India’s Brave New Women Scientists

February 4, 2011 1 Comment

Kolkata, West Bengal (Women’s Feature Service) When her male colleague packed his bags and wandered off to the Maoist belt of West Midnapore in Bengal, 30- year-old scientist Paushali Bal, an M.A. in Sociology and a Ph.D in Epidemiology, felt disadvantaged in being a woman for the first time in her life. “The area was [...]

Shikshamitra: Friends Of Learning

November 7, 2010 No Comment

“I now have confidence in myself and can solve my own problems. I can speak freely with outsiders. I have learned many skills – especially drawing, and the proper way to talk. School has taught me how to get along with various people,” says Santanu a student of Shikshamitra, an experimental school and resource centre [...]

Flamenco Returns to India

October 27, 2009 4 Comments

Flamenco, as Wikipedia defines it, is a Spanish musical genre. It can be both a musical form, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance characterized by audible footwork. Recently, a Flamenco group from Spain performed at the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur. At this function, the Spanish ambassador Ion de la Riva announced that [...]

Parivaar

January 13, 2009 1 Comment

Parivaar is a humanitarian service organization based in West Bengal, working for the complete development of underprivileged and vulnerable children from tribal areas. Starting with 3 children in 2003, it now houses more than 375 children and offers quality education and a better life to each of them.