The loud voice of unconnected
Trai has rebuked telcos and the likes of Facebook which had introduced Free Basics as a content service in the name of providing free access to the Internet
Nichlagarh is out of digital exclusion
Nichlagarh now is a tribal Wi-Fi village, without any functional telecom service
The poor and Free Basics
Mark Zuckerberg has come and gone one more time but what we keep hearing is not about the access and the quality of access but just Free Basics
A ray of hope for Trichy’s weavers
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on January 12, 2016. This is the story of a weaving cluster where the weavers work only as labourers, living in complete exclusion from the mainstream. They know nothing about who buys their products, who sells it, where the raw material comes from, what are the trading…
We need more state accountability
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on December 31, 2015. Santosh Devi and Raju Devi of Raniwara in Jalore district of Rajasthan are from the Bhil tribal community. They are widows of the same man and live with their grandchild. Earnings are meagre here—every time the postman brought pension payments to the old…
Why community radio matters
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on December 25, 2015. John Nelson is in his 30s and lives in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. Cuddalore was severely affected in the recent floods. Nelson also runs a non-profit called Saranalayam. On 3 December, while he was engaged in relief operations, he called Ram Bhat,…
Apps to enable social change
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on December 18, 2015. There are 12 million people in rural India who are either on the rolls of the government or elected members of local bodies, and all of them have cell phones. They can change India for the better. The country is on the cusp…
Hundred days of accountability
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on December 9, 2015. Starting 1 December, for 100 days, citizens across the 33 districts of Rajasthan will come out and ask the government about information that may not be easily available. We know how information has different roles to play in our country. While the most…
Literacy in the Internet age
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on November 27, 2015. Literacy is not an issue any more. As long as we have digital media tools and a verbal syntax, we are literate and educated. For all endangered languages, digital media could be a saviour and a means of bouncing back. For centuries, those…
Entrepreneurs are born and start-ups made
The reason 90% of start-ups fail is that they may not have been risk-taking people or may not have identified a truly serious problem to find a solution to