Low-cost self-diagnosis tool for rural India
Primary health centers are the cornerstone of the rural health care system. In 1991, India had about 22,400 primary health centers, 11,200 hospitals, and 27,400 clinics. These facilities are part of a tiered health care system that funnels more difficult cases into urban hospitals while attempting to provide routine medical care to the vast majority [...]
NyayaBhoomi – A Service Design Venture for Auto-Rickshaws
Ever had to catch one of those New Delhi auto-rickshaws? You know that you are being taken for a ride then. The rickshaw drivers are rude, they refuse to go by the meter, they always seem to be going the opposite direction to where you want to be going. I have questioned the local transportation [...]
The city and the internet
For some of us who grew up back home in India, we understand the perils of living in an unplanned city. Dodgy transportation system, consistent power cuts, inefficient waste disposal and sewage systems, gridlocked roads and a broken, corrupt bureaucratic government. People develop ways around problems. They adjust. The idea is to work the system [...]
Kopernik : Connecting technology with people who need it the most
Incase you haven’t discovered the difference in the writing style – from well put together prose to someone writing a personal diary, here is the revelation. I am the person who does the videos and not the writing. That said, Ria is on vacation and will be back soon.
This morning I woke up and was [...]
FreMo: A BikeShare Initiative in India
I visited Paris in the summer of 2007. After spending a couple of weeks of learning french and reading the lonely planet, I was prepared for a week or two of intense historical, cultural and architectural overdose. Everything was pretty much as imagined except the law that allows one to open a bottle of wine, [...]
“A Grand Idea – Inhabit” Competition Brief
What is this competition about?
This competition is focused on design solutions that can change our immediate urban environment into places that we can truly inhabit. The first series of ‘The Grand Idea Initiative’ is called ‘INHABIT‘. The ultimate challenge of which is to create solutions that introduce fun, sustainable, and innovative ways people use public [...]
Babajob.com – Connecting employers with informal sector workers
Babajob.com is a Bangalore-based start-up that uses the web and mobile technology to connect employers and bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) informal sector workers (i.e. maids, cooks, drivers, etc.) with the goal of creating a scalable, replicable and profitable solution to combat poverty. Babajob aims to do this by creating greater market efficiency in the informal sector through [...]
The Indovators – Part 1 | Lina Srivastava
Lina Srivastava is the Principal of Lina Srivastava Consulting, LLC, which focuses on employing strategy, innovation, engagement and the use of cultural assets to create and demonstrate social change. For our new feature ‘The Indovators’, Lina talks about opportunities for indian designers in the fields of service design, information design, systems design, climate change and [...]
Jaaga – Creative Common Ground
Having spent a long weekend with Archana Prasad –Co Founder Jaaga, National Institute of Design alumnus and Bangalore based artist, in Pondicherry, where she was performing with her group The Manjunauts, (she is also a VJ) at the Freedom Jam; I had the chance to engage in a dialogue with her about Jaaga.
Jaaga’s name has [...]
Coming Soon – The INDOvators – Lina Srivastava
Lina Srivastava is the Principal of Lina Srivastava Consulting, LLC, which focuses on employing strategy, innovation, engagement and the use of cultural assets to create and demonstrate social change. She spoke with Designwala about the role of strategic thinking and design in India for the upcoming feature series ‘ The INDOvators’. Keep a look out [...]
Chotukool – nano refrigerator for rural india
The ChotuKool is like no other fridge. It does not have a compressor. It runs on a battery. Utensils and bottles need to be loaded into this 43-litre cool box from the top. It weighs only 7.8 kg and costs only Rs 3,200. A product of Godrej & Boyce, the fridge was co-created with the [...]
Social Lending in India
dhanaX is an online-offline person-to-person lending platform that allows Indians to lend and borrow money from each other. For a lender looking for a social investment, or a borrower seeking an affordable loan, dhanaX provides and option by facilitating lending or borrowing of small capital using scientific, credible methods. dhanaX works in partnership with [...]
Stopping open defecation in India by 2012
“This is the first toilet in the world — in the world — where you use the toilet and you get paid,” Nair says. Now India is trying a different kind of cash reward to encourage toilet use. The Nirmal Gram Puraskar, or “clean village prize,” gives 50,000-5 million rupees to local governments that end [...]
The SammaaN Foundation – The Rickshaws of today
IRFAN ALAM, a 27-year-old from the Indian state of Bihar, remembers clearly when he first felt the thirst for entrepreneurship. Sitting in the back of a cycle-rickshaw on a parched summer’s day in his hometown of Begusarai, he asked his rickshaw-puller for a drink of water. He points out that India’s rickshaw-pullers earn only a [...]
The next billion mobile users
VNL | Meet the next billion mobile users from VNL on Vimeo.
Vihaan Networks Ltd., an Indian telecommunications company known as VNL, won the Bronze award for a solar-powered base station to bring cellphone access to remote rural villages. The inexpensive base station can be quickly assembled and set up by unskilled villagers, and can run [...]
Justice on wheels
“We must take justice – fast justice – to people,” vowed Mr Singh. “When a verdict takes 10 or 20 years, it destroys their faith in the legal system.”
According to the government, Indian courts are bedeviled with a staggering backlog of 15.6 million cases. It is not uncommon for minor cases to drag on for [...]
Mera Nokia
MeraNokia is an information phone service from Nokia providing localised information in Agriculture, Education. The Enertainment section caters to Astrology and Ringtones. Depending on the service, you either subscribe to it, or download content when needed. If you subscribe to a service, the service sends you content messages to your MeraNokia inbox. At present, customers [...]
E-Chaupal : Agriculture and Innovation
e-Chaupal, an agricultural e-business initiative by ITC, one of India’s larger conglomerates, offers rural farmers information, products and services to enhance farm productivity, improve farm-gate price realisation and cut transaction costs. It also facilitates supply of high quality farm inputs as well as purchase of commodities at their doorstep. Farmers can access latest local and [...]
Systems thinking and Healthcare
The head of IDEO, a design and strategy firm based in Palo Alto, Tim Brown talked about Aravind Eye Care Hospital in Madurai in a recent interview with socialedge. The lesson he learnt on his trip to India was – “By trying to serve those who have the most needs, you can end up being [...]
MobiGlyph: Phone concept for rural India
MobilGlyph: Making Data Tangible from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.
Adaptive Path, a product experience and strategy design company recently went to rural India to investigate the impact of mobile technology and developed concepts for new mobile devices for this market. Mobiglyph is one such concept that allows illiterate users to save contacts by using QR [...]