Young and Restless India » Sustainability

Grass Root Innovation

Raj — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:27:07 +0000

India’s databank of grass roots inventors is swelling as the nation officially marks the 2010s as a decade of innovation according to CNN article titled “India’s inventors seek markets in innovation decade“.

The country’s National Innovation Foundation (NIF) has 140,000 entries compared with 10,000 when it was set up by the federal government in 2000. But 10 years later, India acknowledges that bringing its innumerable small-scale experiments to the masses remains a challenge in an economy that is attracting businesses worldwide partly because of high-tech capabilities and a growing middle class.

According to the NIF, most geniuses on its roster are school or college dropouts with little means and access to markets. India needs to promote research and development efforts for its poor and for its massive informal economy in order to put their existing know-how to mass use. But experts regret that most Indian innovations have not hit domestic markets, let alone international.

Young MPs face to face with Young Indians

Raj — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:34:33 +0000

CNN IBN has hosted the program called ‘Youngisthan’ where they invited the young MPs to face questions from young individuals. The MPs had to tackle very tough questioning by the youth. For more videos go here.

Empowering Rural Women to bring Electricity to Villages.

Raj — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:19:32 +0000

In India, 220,000 villages lack electricity. Development organizations like the Barefoot College have focused on empowering women to help these rural villages. Solar projects which brings solar-powered lights is run by the Barefoot College in Tilonia, founded by Bunker Roy in 1972 to help make Indian villagers become self-sufficient, with an emphasis on using women’s skills. The college (www.barefootcollege.org) has now reached out to more than 125,000 people in 160 villages over an area of 500 square miles, addressing such problems as sanitation and safe drinking water by building toilets and underground reservoirs, where rainwater is harvested and stored. It has also focused attention on rural unemployment, income generation and waste recycling.

A key priority is the education of girls, normally taboo in rural Rajasthan. Furthermore, the college trains girls and boys from other Indian states to work together, discover their own skills or acquire new ones, and set themselves up with forms of income generation. Over the years, these women solar engineers have not only gained acceptance in the community but earned respect as trainers of women from other Indian states and from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Ghana, Syria and Uganda.