InteGreater – Networking for Social Enterpreneurs
by Ria Rajan
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 [...]
Low-cost self-diagnosis tool for rural India
by Ria Rajan
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
by Shagun Singh
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 [...]
Bambike – A Bamboo Bicycle
by Ria Rajan
Bruce Sterling’s short story The Interoperation , featured in the Technology Review published by MIT, (Massachusett’s Institute of Technology) can be briefly summarized as a tale of a future where robots build and tear down buildings based on pre-set programs and a future where people ride bamboo bicycles. In present times, this story is not [...]
Jaaga – Creative Common Ground
by Ria Rajan
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 [...]
Empowering the deaf child – Vaani
by Ria Rajan
VAANI is an organisation that works to empower the deaf child. Its role is to act as a catalyst. Rather than delivering services, VAANI supports the development of accessible sustainable services for deaf children and their families whilst working closely with the overall development strategies of the country. VAANI works with local organisations to build [...]
ReThink Waste = Thunk in India
by Ria Rajan
India’s headcount of approximately 1.17 billion people consists of more than one-sixth of the world’s population. In a country as large as this, it is rather alarming that there is no Indian policy document, which examines waste as part of a cycle of production-consumption-recovery or perceives the issue of waste through a prism of overall [...]
Disposable mugs
by Shagun Singh
Unlike the westerners Indians use water to clean themselves after going to the toilet. However while traveling in cramped trains, the toilets have running water, but dont have containers or mugs to store the water to clean with. This unique problem has been addressed by Paul Sandeep. He designed a sustainable, disposable mug that could [...]
India: Design like you give a damn
by Shagun Singh
FrontlineWorld had an article about building sustainable communities in India post Tsunami. An Architecture for Humanity initiative led by Cameron Sinclair and an Indian Architect trained in America, Purnima McCutcheon were responsible for helping out this village in Tamil Nadu to rebuild their community which was in pieces after the Tsunami hit the village a [...]
