Maharaja Harendra Kishore Kendriya Zila Pustakalay, Bettiah West Champaran, Bihar

Maharaja Harendra Kishore Kendriya Zila Pustakalay which was established more than hundred years ago has been functioning as a district public library for twenty five years now. Until 2013, the library was not fully functional. Then came the Global Libraries (GL) pilot project in the library campus of Bettiah District Public Library, a project of…

Information darkness plagues weavers in Odisha

Last month, a team from DEF visited Attabira and Barpali in Bargarh district, and Nuapatna in Cuttack district of Odisha to access the socio-economic condition of weavers. And we were particularly impressed by the weavers of Nuapatna.about 70 kilometres away from the state Capital of Bhubaneswar, actually experiment with patterns, and are more meticulous and traditional in their process of extracting thread, spinning yarn ….

A visit to rural Odisha

A team from DEF was in Odisha last month to assess the situation of weavers in the villages of Attabira, Barapali and Nuapatna. It is sad to know that despite the government’s cluster development programme, the wages of weavers have only marginally increased since 2005. Adding to the woes of weavers is the role of…

Column of the Month

India is now the fourth largest start-up hub in the world, with a wide range of project in mobile media, Internet of Things(IOT), analytics, edtech, food-tech and more. Social entrepreneurs and NGOs are also active on the mobile front, backed by a range of venture capitalists, government grants and impact investors. “India is fast becoming…