In our society, the differently-abled and mentally challenged citizens find it extremely difficult to be able to make a living and live a life of dignity. These individuals do need work and subsequently the advantages of work. However, prejudices towards them have caused them to be treated as surplus citizens incapable of being contributing and productive members of society.

This is where Diya Foundation makes its mark. Started in 1999, Diya Foundation is a vocational training center which provides training and, more importantly, employment to adults who are mentally challenged as well as others who are differently-abled physically.

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Those signature kerosene and petromax lamps at hawker shops have decorated our streets during its busy evenings for years now. They are a hawker’s constant companion and a basic necessity for their shops. But did you know that a hawker has to spend around 250-300 rupees every month for these lights? Parting with this big chunk of money from the handful that he earns becomes quite a burden. Accolades to Urja Unlimited, who understood this difficulty faced by the hawkers and came up with a fine solution – replacing the fuel lamps with solar power.

Urja Unlimited is an organization which was born with a novel idea of providing ‘energy for all’ through renewable energy. Urja aims to serve every village, town and city in India with efficient energy solutions. With its vision in mind, Urja initiated the project to support street hawkers and aspires to reach a million hawkers with their lanterns.

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One question that you would perhaps like to answer is “How do I reduce my contribution to the city’s garbage system without altering my lifestyle too much?” Well, let Daily Dump answer that for you.
Daily Dump provides a commercial compost ‘pit’ that you can have at your home. All your leftovers and other organic waste can be dumped into these pits. Within a few months this becomes manure and you can use it for your garden or just sell it off to a needy farmer maybe.

Early Days

Daily Dump, the brain child of Ms Poonam Bir Kasturi, evolved from the question – How can design make a difference? Poonam graduated in Product Design in 1985 from the National Institute of Design. She worked in a small scale manufacturing company after college and then set up a craft based design company called Industree with two other partners. She quit after 5 years and set up Playnspeak, a proprietorship concern, to make products for the home. At the same time Poonam also was the founding faculty of Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore which she in May 2008 to start Daily Dump.

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Global Warming. Unemployment. How do you come up with a solution that addresses both these issues? S M Raju, a civil servant in Bihar has done just that. Raju has started a campaign to encourage unemployed village folk to start planting trees. This campaign has been linked with the government’s NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and thus the village people earn money by planting these trees.

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Introducing SourcePilani, a company that is bringing the concept of BPO to rural India, starting off from the small town of Pilani in Rajasthan.

SourcePilani provides high quality and low cost BPO services by leveraging the hitherto untapped talent that rural India has to offer to the growing Indian economy. In addition to providing employment to the local people, SourcePilani is also providing the rural youth an exposure to the paths of progress being witnessed in the bigger Indian cities.

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Mumbai, August 26, 2009: Marico Innovation Foundation announces its 3^rd edition of the Innovation for India Awards to be held on 12^th March 2010 in Mumbai. A significant initiative by Marico – the “Marico Innovation Foundation” was founded in 2003, with an objective to fuel Innovation in India. Under the leadership of stalwarts like Dr. Ramesh Mashelkar, the Foundation focuses on providing the country with a belief that Innovation is a crucial way to leapfrog into the center stage of global business leadership.

Over years the Foundation has effectively played the role of a catalyst by creating knowledge through years of in-depth research, multiplying this knowledge through various platforms and recognizing breakthrough innovations through its Innovation for India Awards.

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Khabar Lahariya a weekly newspaper in Bundeli (local dialect of Bundelkhand) is being run by a group of women from various sections of the society from the interiors of Chitrakoot and Banda in Uttar Pradesh. Their main objective is to reach out to the nearby villages and provide them with ‘infotainment’.

Despite having a limited exposure to the literacy and information, their ability to interact with various people in public sphere and coming up with innovative ideas is extremely remarkable. Their works have been acknowledged and credited by leading National Dailies including The New Indian Express, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Tehelka and various other dailies and weekly’s.

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Meet Laxman Rao. He sells tea on the roadside in Delhi. He is also an author, having penned 20 novels in Hindi so far. What’s more, Hindi is not even his mother tongue! Laxman originally hailed from Maharashtra and has settled down in Delhi, running a tea stall. His interest in writing manifested in the form of a book in the late 70s when he published his first novel Nayi Duniya Ki Nayi Kahani.

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In the recently concluded Asian Youth Chess Championships 2009, India has bagged 23 medals out of a total of 36, says this report in The Hindu. The championship was conducted by the Asian Chess Federation and was held at New Delhi, India. It is a great feat shown by India by being the majority medal winner. The second in the medals tally is Vietnam. India’s spectrum of medals included 8 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze.

The Asian Youth Chess Championships is conducted for both boys and girls under the following categories:
Under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years of age.

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Children in over 70,000 government schools in Bihar are now enjoying reading hundreds of colourful, well-written, and well-produced storybooks – thanks to Pratham Books and its novel mission to see “A book in every child’s hand”.

In our country, children are expected to learn to read and comprehend simple text by the end of their first year in school. Textbooks in early school grades require children to read fluently by the end of class two. However, available evidence indicates that a large proportion of school children are still struggling to recognise letters and decode words after 2 or 3 years of formal schooling. This makes helping children learn to read one of the biggest challenges in India today.

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