“New-Improved” is a label started by Namrata Narula, a textile designer based in Bangalore India. (She is also is a close friend and classmate of mine from college). “New-Improved” stems from the age old habit of recycling, preserving and jugaad especially amongst Indians. The idea behind the label being that there is still use and value left in fabrics considered old or useless. Namrata works directly with individuals to design products like bags, bottle holders, stoles etc, that are specifically crafted to suit they needs and preserve the sentimental value attached to the fabrics.

A lil bit about Namrata - Namrata Narula graduated as a Textile Designer from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. Prior to that, she completed a Bachelors degree in Textiles and Clothing. As someone who has loved fabric and it various forms since the time she can remember, her foray into design happened naturally.

I managed to sucker Namrata into talking about the initiative, her process  and experiences for Designwala.

RR - ” Ok, for the benefit for those who weren’t in the room when it happened, could you tell us how New Improved was born?”

NN – “Well, it began as my graduation project at Srishti. It started with my fascination with textiles and clothing being transformed into some new…I love old stuff, vintage, messy, torn. so when I saw material which were worn out, faded and old…their appearance changes, they age and they carry with themselves so many stories and experiences, which gives it a new character which no other brand can. Those fabrics represent us… plus the material still has potential to go on. The life cycle doesn’t end there.

RR - ” Prior to studying Textiles at Srishti, you studied Textiles and Clothing. How has that helped and influenced your work?

NN – “Yes, I did at Delhi University, I studied textiles and clothing as my major. It wasn’t design, it was just skill based, knowledge based study…very practical oriented. I learned techniques like tie and dye, block printing and developed a better understanding of fabric. It helps me now, cause after studying design, I can apply all that I have learned, in many creative ways, to bring new life to the old fabrics i work with. I want to incorporate all the techniques i know to enhance the up-cycled products that i am going to make in future.

RR - “Sounds amazing! Going back to your graduation project, tell me more about how it developed?”

NN - “So i started out with collecting old clothes from my friends, family and strangers…basically whoever wanted to share their old clothes with me, for the project..and then after i had a whole lot of clothing to work with, I kind of started with the process of deconstruction…I began with cutting up the clothes and tried to make new compositions. After much trial and error… I decided to make bags.”

RR - “Why bags, and not clothes?”

NN – “During the process I discovered that people in India, (especially since this has been my market), are very vary of using products made from recycled materials. Of course, that notion is now changing. I began to understand that people don’t like the idea of wearing something old- something that’s been worn by somebody else before…but with bags its not the same – they carry so many stories put together, in the form of old clothes and they don’t really come in direct contact with the skin. So i thought it may be something that opens up people’s minds to up-cycled clothing! I have always wanted to make clothes and I think I will at some point. I have already started with a dress and am on my way to making the second one.”

RR - “Nice! How has the response been to New improved?”

NN – “The response has been great, and it is very overwhelming to see how an idea that I had, one day in college, is shaping itself into something tangible!!People like the concept, appreciate it, and are fascinated by how clothes can turn into something new. But they still aren’t open enough to spend money on something that’s not entirely new!! Nonetheless, i have managed to do a few customs projects so far and am hoping for some more.”

RR – “Tell me a lil bit about your process, like after a client gets in touch with you, what’s the next step?”

NN – “Once a client gets in touch with me, I ask them about their material – like how old it is, who it belongs to, if it has a hand-me-down or if they bought it themselves, what do they want to make out of it, their needs and association with the material; if they have any stories, pictures etc. to share.Such questions help me get in touch with the material and its importance. Client projects are very special. After the first introduction, I start work on the design, based on what they want made…”

RR - “What tools are you using to market an publicise New Improved?”

NN - “Facebook and through friends. I have been featured in a couple of articles, in a few magazines and newspapers that gave me a great deal of visibility, plus New Improved went live on a local radio show as well!!

RR – “That’s fabulous. Publicity is always good.. do you think the project has developed since you began? where do you see it going?”

NN - ” I started retailing my products out of a store in Goa…I don’t know how commercial i want to make this project. Since i like to make products which are one off, and each product has its own individuality. I have been focusing on doing quality work even if it lacks quantity, and i want to focus on making my products with better finesse every time. I see myself working with people more…because that really inspires me to use people’s old clothes and give them back to the owner, after being transformed into a new product… I love the look on their faces. Also, i want to create a space where people can come in with their old clothes and get them up-cycled into anything they want…”

RR -  “As always, its been inspiring to chat with you. Its encouraging to see people be conscious about something as large and grey as waste. Thanks a ton for sharing your experiences and learning here. I love New Improved and wish you all the best and success with it!. (psst- where is my long overdue bag?” : )

NN - ” I want to thank you, Ria, for being a guide to me and New Improved, and I hope after reading this article, all you guys hit your closet and find clothes which you love but just haven’t worn in ages! Give them a new”, life now!!! (p.s -you’ll get a bag when u give me your old clothes!!!)

Namrata can her contacted directly at : newimproved.namrata@gmail.com

Her other work and play can be viewed here.

This post is long overdue. Ive been caught up with the madness that trails behind deadlines, mundane activities like getting my driving license, visas etc. In the midst of all this thankfully, I managed to have a chat with Aditya Dev Sood,  Founder and CEO of the Center for Knowledge Societies (CKS). CKS is an innovation consulting firm based in Bangalore, India.

How CKS began – Aditya Sood came to back to India from the States, after studying Architecture, Critical Theory, Sanskrit and Anthropology, amongst other things in 1999, when the Dot Com revolution in India was just about turning into a raging bull, much like the Silicon Valley in the West. As most of these things go, it got Aditya thinking about Information, Communication and Technology and most importantly how these resources can fuel the local ecology and economies. One thing lead to another, and CKS was born. Aditya, while travelling through the country, had collected photographs of village information kiosks, showing how people were clustering around computers. These pictures were noticed, and he was invited to talk about how to use technology more effectively in a non profit world, at The Doors of Perception conference in Amsterdam in 2002. The next couple of years, from 2003 to 2007, were spent in the realm of mobile services and telecommunications. A lot of time was spent researching and studying street technologies and how they were used here in India. All this, while still thinking about the deep and large question of how to design for our economy and ecology. Interrogating and understanding these principles have made up the core DNA of the company.

In 2009, CKS diversified its portfolio and made a bold foray into the world of financial, medical and health services. With a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (that is in the forefront of applying innovation to the social sectors) and in partnership with the Government of Bihar, CKS took on the Innovation for Improved Maternal and Child Healthcare (IIMCH) study, the outcome of which are the 34 ways to save a life that provides solutions as identified by its antecedent,the Vaccine Delivery Innovation Initiative (VDII)

From the report - (Context of the study) – The northern Indian state of Bihar is witnessing rapid change today. It is the fastest growing state in India with an astonishing 10.5% growth rate (CSO, 2010-11), in comparison to the national average of 8.6% (CSO, 2010-11). This is a major leap from 6.3% recorded in 2009 (Economic Survey 2008-09). Bihar has, thus, come a long way from the morass state it was in about a decade back, with growing promises for the future, but not without its own set of challenges.

One of the most critical challenges that the state encounters today is in its health scenario. Being the second most challenging state as far as health care service delivery is concerned, Bihar today, cannot afford to tread the traditional developmental path of continuous roll out and upgrade. Set back by at least a decade of no active development, Bihar now needs to look at innovative ways of leapfrogging a decade of little development.

Keeping with the research and innovation that CKS’s work surround, the  34 Ways to save a life special report focused on studing and developing and detailing out potential design solutions to address key challenges identified through its antecedent, the Vaccine Delivery Innovation Initiative (VDII). The main objective was to facilitate innovation in the delivery of maternal and child healthcare services in Bihar and other rural parts of India through design solutions that not only address challenges in the vaccine delivery mechanism, but also cater to related services within the broader ecology of maternal and child healthcare.

A broad array of design solutions have emerged in this report, which are presented against five metacategories:

• Managing Health Information

• Enhancing Service Delivery Infrastructure

• Improving Medical Equipment

• Strengthening the Healthcare System

• Transforming Community Perceptions

One of the solutions that has emerged from this extensive study has been the redesigning of the Vaccine Delivery Service Kit.While its currently still at its early stages of development, the kit used by the frontline health workers, to delivers vaccines to children in remote parts of the district.

The challenges address by this concept are -

• Immunization session execution and logistics
• Tracking children and work activities
• Accountability and training

Types of problems addressed-

• Unwieldy structure- Very large and heavy vaccine carrier box, making its transportation and handling difficult.
• Space and function- Carries only vaccine vials irrespective of its large size, and has no provision for incorporating other components (e.g. syringes, needles, hub cutter) that need to be transported to the immunization session site.
• Safety issues- Difficulty in cleaning and maintenance of pockets provided for ice packs lead to formation of molds. No provision to carry cotton, disposable needles and syringes, leading to unhygienic practices and disposal methods.
• Temperature control- Melting of ice packs owing to improper freezing, large distances of transportation from the cold storage and lack of provision for refilling poses potential threat of spoiling the vaccines. Handling of the vaccine vials using sweaty hands also poses a challenge.
• Potential for institutional branding to build recognition, credibility and empowerment remains unexploited.

The existing vaccine carrier box can be judiciously redesigned to incorporate multiple functions such as storage of RI paraphernalia, easy transportation and collapsible work surface.

The RI kit here is designed in the form of a briefcase, with adjustable straps to provide flexibility to the ANMs to carry it either on their shoulder or back. Alternatively, the RI kit can also be designed in the form of a roller bag, provided with wheels and telescopic handle to allow easy mobility. It also has shoulder straps for the ANMs to carry it on their backs on rough terrains.

Multifunctionality is the highlight of the concept, with storage provision for registers, disposable syringes and needles, cotton, Vitamin A bottle, and medicines, in addition to vaccine vials. The extensible tray acts as a work surface for holding vials and other paraphernalia while in use and as a writing surface support. Incorporating technological features such as an information display screen and smart card reader could help in improved session execution.

Characteristics creating potential value

• The compact form with its smooth rounded edges adhering to the shape of the body, enhances its ergonomics. It would also help in easy stacking, enabling courier men to carry more than one box at a time.
• Accommodating all required paraphernalia for vaccine administration and record keeping, as well as providing work surface in the same box would improve its functionality. Color-coded vials would allow easier identification of vaccine types. This would help in resolving the challenges around equipment management, enabling smoother work flow.
• Replacing ice packs with materials such as PCM would reduce space wastage as well as help in easy cleaning and maintenance.
• Integrating the hub cutter and compartments for safe and easier disposal of needles, syringes and vials ensure effective waste
management.
• Use of innovative materials such as Phase Change Material (PCM) provides insulation to the vials and constantly maintain them at the desired temperature range of 2 to 8 degree Celsius. Provision of an outer case to hold the vials prevents direct contact with
person holding the vials, and contributes towards maintaining the temperature intact.
• Additional features such as information screen displaying the names of due recipients and vaccines due could aid in easier tracking of children, and faster vaccine administration. Incorporating smart card reader would make data entry faster and error proof, and also provide an in-built feedback mechanism by tallying due recipients with recipients administered vaccines at the end of every session. This would generate better accountability.
• Branding the RI kit (e.g. NRHM logo) would create improved recognition of the services provided, impart a professional identity to the ANMs and make them feel more empowered.

One can read the full 34 Ways to save a life report here.

All images from the 34 ways to save a life and the Vaccine Delivery Innovation Reports by CKS.

India seems to be on the brink of exciting new things especially in the realm of art and design. As a young creative practitioner, its inspiring and encouraging for me to see examples of the new work that is emerging from the country.The UnBox festival was once such platform that brought together 200 practitioners, academics, and thinkers from the fields of art, design, technology, research and entrepreneurship. The festival acted as  a space to share cross-disciplinary reflections on bringing about cultural change.

Held last month in New Delhi, the festival is the brainchild of four successful Indian creative practices that have successfully crafted an inter-disciplinary approach towards driving impact and change. They go by the name of The Box Collective; made up of Quicksand ,Codesign, BlindBoys and Basic Love of Things (B.L.O.T.). Wanting to share and exchange the experiences of their combined creative endeavors, they decided to organise  and use the format of a festival; as it would help express and celebrate the diversity, that is the core idea behind it.

The festival that ran for the duration of four days, had as part of its iternary – a conference, fellowships, workshops and public events that drew in people from various fields like sociology, business and development, entrepreneurs and of course, art and design. The fellowships were offered in the fields of new media, sanitation, organic food and rural livelihoods. Unbox aimed to build momentum around design thinking and interdisciplinary collaborations to drive sustainable innovation for businesses, society & culture in India.

Some of the speakers included John Thackara ( Doors of Perception ),MP Ranjan, and Ashish Rajpal (CEO, iDiscoveri). The conference had a bunch of workshops that dealt with a variety of subjects such as design thinking, brain storming and developing future scenarios, conceptual principles & techniques of telling stories, typography, the basics of film making and theater, making sure there was a little bit of something for everyone.

The festival also had an open day, where the participants visited a host of studio spaces, kitchens, offices, and common spaces, where new idea are constantly brewing. Another interesting and fun activity that found its way to the Unbox schedule, was an all day – all night platform for hacking, tinkering, learning, creating, and playing. The three parallel festivals that were organised to coincide with Unbox were TechnoDrome – a festival of emerging electronic music, visual arts and performances, BeatRepeat – a  festival bringing interdisciplinary perspectives to the spoken and written word using electronic music, cinema & new media, and EyeMyth – a festival of visual music and experimental film.

Having garnered the support of the Goethe-Institut, and the British Council, it definitely got the attention it deserved. Plus it had a great turn out. All in all, the first ever Unbox festival went down a success. When I spoke to the some of the Unbox peeps last week, they were gearing up for a meeting to discuss the future plans of the festival. Here’s hoping that next year, it only gets bigger, better and more awesome.

Images compiled by The Unbox team. Shot by various participants.

To know more, visit – http://unboxfestival.com/home/

TechVista is Micrsoft Research India’s annual symposium, that brings together and features people whose work defines new directions in technology and science.This year, TV was held at the Westin, in Pune, India on the 21st of Jan. I had the wonderful opportunity to actually be part of and work with a fantastic team whose project was demo-ed this time. Ours was the DigitalNarratives team and we worked very hard, over the period of four months to pull it off. Some of the other projects that were demoed can be found here.

A digital narrative is a narrative that takes advantage of multimedia and web technologies, providing the author with a new way to build and present a media-rich story, and simultaneously offering the viewer a new way to interact with the content. Microsoft Research India, along with key partners, are currently developing a new technology called Rich Interactive Narratives (RIN) that enables creation of digital narratives.

RIN <Rich Interactive Narratives> to me, as an artist and designer, is a great tool to tell compelling stories. Once released, I believe it will change people’s multimedia experiences. RIN is a Techonology which would eventually let all types of digital media unite and can be tied into the form of a story narration or movie.It enables the author (creator) to construct information and media heavy stories/narratives and infact, define the interactions the user experiences when viewing the story. While the design team was mainly focused on creating amazing content for the narrative, we got first-hand experience working with the tool. This was my first official foray into the world of interaction and experience design, and interesting enough, it threw open a space where one could examine of the role of designers in tech research. While the creative/design peeps brought in various skills such as story-boarding, photography, illustration, editing etc that was fully focused on content generation, the dev.  (development) team worked towards creating a more robust tool. The marriage of the two, left brain and right was perfect.

From a geeky perspective, quoting Nikhil Chandran, Project Manager, DigitalNarratives – “All the projects that i have worked on, the outlook towards the whole engagement has been based on the following assumptions:

1. The scope is defined
2. The time is fixed

Rikin Gandhi made it to Technology Review’s Young Innovators list 2010. And rightly so – his NGO – Digital Green aims at educating farmers of developing countries using innovative, simple technologies.  The seed of Digital Green was sown while Rikin was working at Microsoft Research Labs, India, a few years ago.  At Microsoft, the Emerging Markets department wanted to find ways to use simple technology to better the lives of marginalized communities.  Eventually, his group broke away and became an independent organization with advisory support from Microsoft. The group wanted to develop a way for farmers to share effective farming techniques with each other, to increase each farmer’s knowledge and skill-set.   Thus, they developed a method for training farmers: they taught them how to use video cameras and simple editing technology to produce their own films.

The philosophy is behind the intervention is simple – Seeing is believing. Using video as a tool to share information between farmers, generated by the farmers itself .Thereby reducing the disconnect between technology and the people and ensuring the quality of the content too. The Digital Green system provides structure to a traditional vocation of farming. It improves the efficiency of informal knowledge sharing by delivering targeted content to a wider audience and enabling farmers to better manage their farming operations with reduced field support. This system sustains relevancy in a community by developing a framework for participatory learning. It includes a digital video database, which is produced by farmers and experts. The content within this repository is of various types, and sequencing enables farmers to progressively become better farmers by learning from others and sharing information.

The main principals of Digital Green are –

• Cost realism, essential if we are to scale the system up to a significant number of villages and farmers
• Building systems that solve end-to-end agricultural issues with interactivity that develops relationships between people and content.

With content that touches upon agricultural practices across seasons to focused videos on techniques and practices, along with testimonials from other famer viewers; Rikin and his team have been working towards building the capacity of the farmer. Some other subjects that Digital Green has probed into include looking into different economic demographics and how it relates to the farmers community along with better sustainable practices and inspiring change in the behaviors of the farmer.

‘Today, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and logging accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2007, employed 52% of the total work force and despite a steady decline of its share in the GDP, is still the largest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of India.’ < source – Wikipedia>

Given these statistics, the intervention spearheaded by Rikin and his team can only mean good things. Currently operating within 400 villages with 7 partner organisations, Digital Green hopes to extend its services to Africa. One of its immediate goals is to streamline and structure the process. The challenges lie on two levels – the human resource side and the technological development. On one hand they deal with training the trainers at a local level, and on the other – how to share video content? Especially in remote areas where there is no access to the internet.

 All videos produced are available to the public on their main website.

For more information, visit – http://digitalgreen.org/

Following the conversation with Kalyan Akkipeddi about ProtoVillage, I decided to weasel a little more of his time and get him to talk to me about InteGreater. I reckoned it would help me understand the larger framework within with the ideas of social entrepreneurship; sustainable habitats and knowledge sharing are situated. One of Kalyan’s favorite examples of how people can get together remotely, collaborate and co-create stuff is Wikipedia. The idea of doing something similar except with the core being social entrepreneurship, was never too far from his mind. Also, every time he travelled, be it for work or play, he found himself being faced by a shade of reality that was different from the life he knew; and each time this happened, he felt that he could do something to change/better the situation. There were such obvious opportunities to do things efficiently, except that it was being ignored, opportunities that can make lives better and easier.

And so he did what he thought was important- travel. He quit his job, sold his car, pooled all his money and took off. Travelled across the country, met people, saw things and through this journey, he realised three things that he thought, are the hurdles to systemic development.

1.     There are many people with good intentions, but they don’t have the know-how or the access to expertise to make things happen.

2.     There were many people working on similar problems across the country, but didn’t know each other, causing redundancy, and often reinventing  the wheel

3.     There was no space for diversity in the thinking of solutions. So most of them were quick fixes.

So after 9 months on the road, there was this feeling that there is space for an idea that addresses all of the above. And serendipitously, while attending a Buddhist sermon that said – All things apparently random are actually INTEGRATING into the GREATER one – gave him the name of InteGreater. This is how InteGreater was born. It began with the vision to get all those who think they want to, and can help solve the world’s problems, together. An intervention in the form of a networking space for people to build contacts, interact, exchange knowledge, trade expertise and take ideas forward. It brings together resources and competencies of industry, academia, governments, NGOs & Social enterprises, and individuals, to enable development and implementation of ideas that will solve the problems of extreme poverty around the world and build a happy planet within 15 years.

There are two kinds of networks on InteGreater. One for social entrepreneurs and the other for those with demonstrated expertise in their respective domains. The idea is to let people find each within and across these networks. Since the inception of Protovillage, Kalyan has also been feeding of this network, and has been working on various ways to get experts from diverse disciplines to create more possibilities like Protovillage. Also, working full time on Protovillage, he has now stopped managing projects for social entrepreneurs and NGO’s, having decided to let them find each out and work on solutions. With no physical address, the idea is for InteGreater to stay online permanently, while constantly working towards widening this scope of the network. Currently, the network consists of about 2400 people offline and about 300 online; both globally and locally spread over 40 countries.

If you think you can contribute in any domain, you can join as the resource person, that the social entrepreneurs will call for when they need, or as a social entrepreneur, you can join to tap into this rich network of people who work under social and financial constraints to provide creative solutions for systemic development.

To know more, visit – http://www.integreater.org/

A Prototype, by definition, is a typical example of something.

That is exactly what PROTOVILLAGE aims to be. An initiative of InteGreater and brainchild of Kalyan Akkipeddi, who, in a trend that is fast becoming popular with those who are opting to BE the change they want, quit his corporate job and went travelling across the country over the period of a year.

During this time, moving from the south right up to the north, Kalyan found that apart from the obvious poverty around; the statistics available on poverty was extremely dis-empowering. He found himself asking the question – Why is this number so important?  He also discovered that one of the main problems was the lack of access to expertise to come up with solutions and make them possible. Thus began InteGreater (more about it – coming soon). The main idea behind this venture was to bring together people with expertise, identify committed NGO’s, and serve as a common thread that brings them together.

Prototype began as a question posed in Kalyan’s mind – How does one define an ideal village? This began the quest to define this ideal village using a multi-dimensional approach which also looks at the definition of the desired state of being and more importantly, the word, enough. Another interesting route this project took was to create an “opportunity” get to that desired state and have sufficient access to factors that ensure dignity of life. While there is an infinite scope of extending this “desired state of being”, ProtoVillage decided to limit the possibility to ADEQUACY – which is achieving the desired state while maintaining the basic dignity of the people. The 12 dimensional approach to create a sustainable state of ADEQUACY have been defined as  -

Food Security

Water Conservation & Management

Shelter

Clothing

Healthcare

Energy

Income Generation

Education

Connectivity

Eco – Conservation & Disaster Management

Socio – Cultural Equality

Public Domain.

The force behind this idea being that “ If a multi-dimensional approach can comprehensively define  the poverty line, and effectively measure the population below it”, then team Proto believes that “ the definition of a desired state of being can be developed as a function of the same dimensions.” It is important to note that the idea isn’t merely about the supply of the above-mentioned dimensions but also the quality.  The 12 dimensions were arrived at from research and studies conducted by the team and the idea of ADEQUACY came from involving the residents of the chosen village-cluster.

One of the main objectives of this project is to document the development process into a robust theoretical framework that can be broadly replicated across the country. Having said this, there cannot be a formula-based approach and the proportions of each dimension cannot be defined. What Protovillage hopes to achieve is to define an outline, a broadly replicable framework of these dimensions that can be further tweaked and molded to suit each village-clusters individual requirements. This project also hopes to create a rural leadership model that will gradually take form and create an avenue for sustainable incomes for the villagers.

The village-cluster, currently being worked on, in situated in Andhra Pradesh. On asking Kalyan, how the village was selected, he said that they travelled to over 166 villages and chose this one primarily because he is familiar with the language. Given that they are currently in the experimental phase, it makes sense to chose a space that it more familiar than alien. It helps that this cluster has huge forested area in close proximity, giving them an opportunity to introduce the idea of social forestry to the villagers.

While Protovillage began as Kalyan’s idea and vision, he now plays the role of a gatekeeper. In his own words,  “I’ve brought people in, sent those who weren’t meant to be out and didn’t let the others leave”. The Protovillage team currently consists of peoples from various disciplines and with unique set of expertise, all of who are living of their savings and living their dreams. A small bunch of enthusiastic volunteers, who are more than happy to have people passionate about social innovations and participatory practices, on board.With 1091 days left to build the prototype of an Adequate Village Cluster, here’s wishing the project all the best with its endeavors. Anyone interested and willing to help can get in touch with the team at – kalyan@integreater.org or fra@integreater.org

To know more , visit – www.protovillage.org

In simple words, Synthetic Biology is about making living organisms do things which nature had not intended on them doing. Its about taking tiny bits of DNA, splicing them together and inserting them into bacteria. In effect, a bacterium could be made to change colour or made to be bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. In Yashas Shetty’s words, Artist and faculty member at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology as well as Artist-in-Residence at NCBS – National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) – “this mixing and matching of elements to create new things was a bit like what artists did. But instead of using paints and canvas, synthetic biologists used life itself.”

This thoughtful insight by Yashas Shetty led him to mentor a bunch of art& design students – who knew very little, if anything about science to participate in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) last year. One of the aims of the competition is to attempt to build simple biological systems from standard, interchangeable parts and operate them in living cells.

The iGEM competition facilitates this by providing a library of standardized parts (called BioBrick standard biological parts) to students, and asking them to design and build genetic machines with them. Student teams can also submit their own BioBricks. Successful projects produce cells that exhibit new and unusual properties by engineering sets of multiple genes together with mechanisms to regulate their expression.

Information about BioBrick standard biological parts, and a toolkit to make and manipulate them, is provided by the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, or simply, the Registry. This is a core resource for the iGEM program, and one that has been evolving rapidly to meet the needs of the program. Beyond just building biological systems, broader goals of iGEM include:

• To enable the systematic engineering of biology.
• To promote the open and transparent development of tools for engineering biology.
• To help construct a society that can productively apply biological technology.

As per the rules of the competition, MIT sends all participants 400 bits of DNA. They are all numbered. One cant go to a database of parts on the web and find out which DNA makes what and then make your organism in the laboratory using the DNA bits.

NCBS had been sending students for MIT’s iGem competition for the last couple of years. Last year they decided to send art students – who knew nothing about science – to participate instead. They were called the ArtScience Team from Bangalore. And, unlike scientists, the artists came up with a project which only artists could have thought of: they were going to replicate the smell of first rain in a laboratory— that odour when pure water from the skies mixes with soil.” The English word for the smell is Petrichor, a non-lyrical name for a phenomenon that is so emotive. The primary cause behind the smell, however, has a slightly more lyrical name: Geosmin, an organic chemical.

The students did the scientific parts in the laboratory of NCBS. At the end of it, Shetty says, the experiment didn’t turn out the smell of first rain. Instead there was this smell of dampness.

But it was enough.

They won the third prize for science. The presentation, in which they explained how a group of art students became scientists for a season, got them a special prize for best presentation. “They said that they started off as artists and are now talking to scientists. I think that impressed the judges,” says Mukund Thattai of NCBS, whose laboratory the art students had used for this experiment. The ArtScience Team took synthetic biology to new groups, running workshops to teach designers to build working DIY microscopes using webcams and ran creative workshops at a school for the urban poor. This idea of “human practices” – that is, exploring the ethical and social implications of the technology – was a new focus of last year. What made this team stand out from the rest was the fact that they looked at the field from a beginners perspective and climbed their way up to the knowledge filed and shared it with anyone who was interested. While the other teams were focusing on a problem-solution approach they were more interested in making the knowledge that iGEM was distributing as accessible and open source as possible. Their process- start to finish, complete with drawings was documented in a handbook that was printed at distributed at the competition. It’s no surprise that they ran out of copies. The handbook is available for free download at – http://hackteria.org/wiki/images/a/a1/Handbook.pdf

When I asked Neha Bhatt, member of the ArtScience team – about her first hand experience with synthetic biology and its processes, she said “ it was a real eye –opener. For me, the competition’s process opened up a whole new area I’d never known existed. The field of artists doing science and the boundaries b/w art and science being traversed.”

Apart from being instrumental in changing people’s perspective towards synthetic biology, the participation of students of art+design in an otherwise science competition, threw open many discussions; primarily that was access. Should Science as a field and practice remain inclusive or should it open its doors to creative practioners as well; to explore and create? There were those purists, of course, who simply did not take them seriously, for they believed that artist’s are those who draw the bio diagrams; and the main question that they were faced with was – ” So if  you guys being beginners can be given the authority to play around with real life, can anyone looking to harm society also not to do the same?”

They’re answer was simply that their project was an experiment to these questions.

Team ArtScience 2010 is all set to make another appearance at this year’s IGEM. Here’s wishing them all the best and one hopes that more such lines between seemingly disparate disciplines get blurred, norms get challenged, more knowledge gets shared and that perceptions are constantly altered.

The iGEM 2010 site –

http://2010.igem.org/Main_Page

The wiki of Team ArtScience Bangalore -

http://2009.igem.org/Team:ArtScienceBangalore

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 in the countryside. Primary health centers and sub centers rely on trained paramedics to meet most of their needs. The main problems affecting the success of primary health centers are the predominance of clinical and curative concerns over the intended emphasis on preventive work and the reluctance of staff to work in rural areas. -(Source – Wikipedia)

This is where the Low cost self-diagnosis tool comes in.

Winner of the International Design Excellence Awards 08 (http://www.idsa.org/IDEA_Awards/gallery/2008/award_details.asp?ID=35918307), this is a mechanical self-diagnosis tool was created to help patients in rural India capture symptoms and provide them basic information about their disease. Made with recycled materials to maintain low costs, it aims to empower patients and aid doctors with accurate diagnosis and efficient recovery throughout the rural parts of the country.

Designed at Honeywell Technology Solutions in Bangalore by Ankur Sardana (NID) and Parag Trivedi (IDC), this tool displays relevant information. With simple rotation of rings & mapping on the chart, the tool provides -

1. Criticality of disease, basic suggestions (like – ‘how soon to meet the doctor’)

2. Kind of diagnostic tests would be done on them (this is based on the research finding that the villagers are quite suspicious of blood being used for testing & also unprepared for the expense which tests might require)

3. Cases in which they should meet a specialist directly instead of going to a general practitioner

4. Information & contact numbers of healthcare providers

The tool consists of a set of Rings (symptoms), a disease chart & other information. These rings could be made of cheap but durable cardboard. Each ring has set of symptoms. The patient rotates the rings (starting from smallest) & chooses his symptoms by bringing them in one line, below the marker. Each symptom has a number printed on it. The user maps the disease code (set of numbers, 1 from each ring) on the chart. The chart provides tentative result –disease name, severity, next steps, diagnostic tests required to confirm disease, doctor they should meet (i.e. which specialty) & contact information of doctors &hospitals. Made out recycled plastic/cardboard, it is easy to be produced locally in the villages.

The low-cost self-diagnosis tool was born out of the need to provide rural Indian patients with a method to help themselves. Healthcare has not been a priority of rural dwellers in India & they have been used to taking ‘over the counter drugs’ or getting quick relief in the form of a steroid injection from the unregistered medical practitioners- URMP’s (in villages there are usually no qualified doctors). Though an immediate solution, it is not a proper one, disease symptoms resurface & the patient is rushed to a proper registered doctor in the city, who now administers an emergency case where it could have been a case of normal diagnosis. With the tool, the rural dwellers can be empowered with basic knowledge about their disease & can avoid the mistreatment by URMP’s. This tool can also be used by NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and self-help groups (in cases of illiteracy) to increase awareness & help make disease symptoms more understandable to the patients. There is also a mutual benefit for healthcare providers and patients. The patients save the money and side effects of self-medication and time, while the doctors have increased inflow of patients and thus more usage of their services.

Currently, in its present form it has not been tested on a large-scale. Most of the feedback has been gathered from the villagers. The educated villagers usually becomes excited, as they understand that they can get empowered if they have some idea of what disease they have. What has been tested in the field (in UP) is a variant in which there are no results, just collection of symptoms. The results have been mixed. Literacy is by far the biggest problem.

While this tool doesn’t aim to act as the messiah of the rural health care problems in the country, it certainly is a step in the right direction. One hopes that it inspires other creative practitioners and problem solvers to delve deeper into this space. It certainly needs more such social innovations.

For more information about more the tool, contact: Ankur Sardana: ankur.sardana@honeywell.com

More on Honeywell at – https://www.honeywell.com/sites/htsl/

Tired of the sensationalized reports and negative journalism of Indian newspapers and magazines, Bangalore based husband and wife duo – Anuradha and Dhimant Parekh decided to set up a platform that focuses only on happy stories. Thus The Better India was born.

It was an honest attempt to celebrate and bring together those unsung heroes and heroines, the small deeds that were making a difference and filtering out stories of scandals, gossip, murders and other such morbid doing that made their way to mainstream news. The Better India consolidates material relating to the incremental progress being made by industrious people of the country who actually care about change. Focusing on developments being made on the social and economic front, and hoping to inspire people to create an impact, The Better India does something quite simple – it makes one believe that not all hope is lost.

The Better India began as a blog because of its low cost of delivery and easy accessibility. Acting as a filterblog, by posting relevant links of stories, after scanning through loads of materials from newspapers, magazines and other blogs; it started primarily via reader contributions and soon gained traction through individuals and social networks. While it is currently a self-funded initiative, Dhimant hopes to make The Better India a commercial, for-profit venture.

Nearly two years old – The Better India now publishes original content. With a new post every week – Dhimant and Anuradha are on a constant look out for stories. Each article is well researched, people interviewed and facts verified. They even recently began an internship program and currently have two interns working at The Better India. The interns are very involved with the news coverage and reporting and publish their own articles on the blog. The main objective still remains in letting people know of the good things happening around them, and connecting like- minded people. It also hopes to be a good resource base for people wanting to make an impact but not knowing what or how to go about doing it. Providing the readers with real life examples helps in illustrating the possibilities of various acts – however small, to create a larger impact.

With adequate press coverage and tie up’s with NGO’s, The Better India has gained large visibility in the city of Bangalore and throughout the country. Dhimant was even invited by IIM – Ahmedabad to give a talk on Positive Journalism.

Aside from spending most of his time with The Better India, Dhimant is also a writer. His foray into writing began when he was introduced to a friend’s blog, which led him to start him own. He began writing short stories as part of his blog. When his stories were well received by his readers, he decided to take ten favorite stories and put them together in a self – published book. His collection of short stories called “Neumonia and Other Sketch Stories” is also available as an e-book, can be downloaded at – http://www.sketchstories.com/

One can read more of Dhimant at – http://www.dhimantparekh.com/

The Better India at – http://www.thebetterindia.com/

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