During a recce for DigiKala, a project that DEF has recently initiated, in collaboration with Microsoft Corporate Citizenship, members of the organisation got a chance to meet Sarat Patra in Nuapatna, Odisha. A National Award winner Sarat is a talented handloom weaver who focuses on art and not the sale of his creations. Sarat’s wife…
52 Parindey is a project dedicated to finding and identifying 52 innovators who are making a conscious living for themselves and their planet through alternate careers in Indian towns. Under this project, starting end of November, a fellow, Rahul Karanpuriya, will travel across the country to cover 52 locations and spend a week at each…
Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy and Politics organised in September a three-day workshop, Tana Bana, for the weaver communities of India and those individuals or organisations that are working with the weavers and for the weavers. The workshop saw participation of almost 40 people from across the country and from different walks of life to…
An early autumn morning and I was shaken up by my mobile alarm. The most, annoying alarm in the world. I had to get out of my bed, the only way to make it stop ringing, as I left it on television set last night. It took me a while to realize that I was…
We arrived in Bundi, Rajasthan, which is a historical town known for its forts, palaces and step-wells, to film with NGO Srijan, one of our winners in Mobile for Good (M4G) Awards, 2014. Farmers around Bundi were struggling from depleting yield. Srijan formed in 2008, began working with 50 farmers to start with and introduced…
I am not an economist nor have I studied business. But my common sense says crowdsourcing is not only humane but also Gandhian. Last Friday, I came out of a meeting in Shastri Bhawan (a building where officials of several ministries sit) in New Delhi and opened the Ola mobile app to find a cab nearby.
The IT sector as a whole has huge work to unfold in mapping the scope of their involvement resulting into a long-term positive impact – impact which can bring cheers to the face of millions of disadvantaged communities. While there are discussions and debates considering ICT as an important aspect in reaching out to masses…
It was early Sunday morning (8 am on October 18, 2015) and Team DEF was waiting at Chawri Bazaar Metro Station Gate No. 3 for an expected crowd of about 50-60 participants to arrive and register for a walk organised by the eHeritage Project (Shahjahanabad) — Heritage Walk: Tracing Dilli ki Tehzeeb.
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on October 19, 2015. What is happening in Rajasthan for the past four months must be replicated across India. After all, education is the most neglected area in India, and the situation in government schools remains pathetic, with no sign of any improvement in the future.…
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on October 14, 2015. How come access to Internet.org through a limited network service is access to the entire Internet? In 2009, I joined Facebook after my friend Asif Syed, editor of online news magazine Current.in convinced me of its possibilities for people like me who…