Posted on November 5, 2009 by Raj Melville
Another successful conference on Social Entrepreneurship was held on October 23rd, this time at Babson College in Boston’s Wellesley suburb. Details on the conference and photos were posted in a local e-magazine, Lokvani.com and are reproduced for those who could not attend. For details go to
http://blog.ambientengines.com
Filed under: Conference, Education, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development | Tagged: Babson college, Boston, Carol Cone, Conference, ecosystem, Leonard Schlesinger, microfinance, non-profit, Pamela Hawley, Philanthropy, Pitch contest, Rural Education, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, Social Investment, sustainable development, venture philanthropy | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 11, 2009 by Raj Melville
In the past decade, much progress has been made in India and people have been justifiably proud of the improving economic situation. While most observers point to the top line numbers that show the number of people living below the “poverty line” has been consistently decreasing, by focusing on just these aseptic numbers, they fail to understand and capture the continuing anguish in the rural countryside.
Filed under: BOP, India, Poverty, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Rural Education, Sanitation, Schools, bottom of the pyramid, water and sanitation | Tagged: Agricultural Development, BOP, George Foundation, India, Poverty, Rural Development, Rural Education, Shanti Bhavan, Social Impact, World Bank | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 13, 2009 by Raj Melville
Responding to a comment on my recent blog post on “The Increasing Focus on the Rural Indian Consumer” I decided to write a longer response outlining what needs to be done to really address increasing rural income in India.
Filed under: Agricultural Development, BOP, India, Poverty, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, bottom of the pyramid, international development, social Innovation, sustainable development | Tagged: Agricultural Development, BOP, eJeevika, rural BPO, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, sustainable development, Vigyan Ashram | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 27, 2009 by Raj Melville
Last year I had written an article about an interesting organization, Agastya, that was transforming rural education in India by bringing a fresh new approach to teaching and introducing science and technology concepts to parts of the country that are typically ignored. Since then I was fortunate to visit Agastya founder Ramji Raghavan in Bangalore and accompany him to their Agastya Center in Kuppam.
Filed under: Education, India, Rural Development, Rural Education, Schools, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation | Tagged: Education, Rural Education, Schools, Agastya, Ramji Raghavan, Science Education, Mobile Lab, Science Center, rural teachers, Kuppam, Indian Education system | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 9, 2008 by Raj Melville
I had the chance to visit Agastya’s operations in Hubli earlier this year. Agastya is a NGO based in India that is hoping to transform the educational system by making it more interactive, experimental and interesting for children. Recently Ramji Raghavan, Agastya’s founder visited Boston and I had occasion to meet and hear him speak passionately about why he started Agastya after a career in banking.
Filed under: Education, India, Rural Education, Schools, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, non-profit | Tagged: Agastya, Education, Hubli, Mobile Lab, Ramji Raghavan, Rural Education, rural teachers, Schools, Science Center, Science Education | Leave a Comment »
Posted on August 21, 2008 by Raj Melville
For those who are tracking the progress of OLPC in India, here are few tidbits gleaned from the web: A fairly in-depth description of the OLPC pilot and a recent update on Nick Negroponte’s visit to Mumbai in August.
Filed under: Education, Information Technology, Politics, Poverty, Rural Education, Schools, Social Ecosystem | Tagged: Education, Rural Education, Maharashtra, India, internet, Information Technology, OLPC, Negroponte, Reliance, Laptop, computers, classroom, Digital Bridge Foundation, Schools, Teachers, Khairat, XO laptops, Goa, Johny Joseph, Satish Jha | 3 Comments »
Posted on August 6, 2008 by Raj Melville
The MIT-spawned OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project has finally penetrated India with a tie up with the mega-corporation Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG). After several failed attempts Negroponte, the godfather of the OLPC, has realized the way to get around India is thru the Ambanis.
Filed under: Education, Information Technology, Politics, Rural Education, Schools, Social Ecosystem | Tagged: Education, Rural Education, India, internet, MIT, Information Technology, OLPC, Negroponte, Reliance, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Businessweek, Laptop, social entrepreneurship, computers, classroom, Digital Bridge Foundation, XO, Schools, Teachers | 5 Comments »
Posted on July 2, 2008 by Raj Melville
I had the opportunity to visit Vigyan Ashram in February. Vigyan Ashram is a residential rural education center founded 25 years ago. Over the years, Vigyan Ashram has significantly changed the local economy, providing livelihood to many in the region while training scores of youth and making them self sufficient. More importantly, it has now been formalized as a regular course on Rural Technology and taught at 25 schools in the state of Maharashtra.
Filed under: Agricultural Development, Education, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Ecosystem | Tagged: Agricultural Development, Education, India, Maharashtra, Pabal, Pune, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Ecosystem | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 29, 2008 by Raj Melville
Recently micro-finance has caught the attention of the public specially after Prof. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006. One of the challenges that micro-finance faces is that beyond providing its borrowers with credit, it needs to make sure that they also have marketable skills and training that will increase their income generating capacity and the required business skills to help them manage their enterprises.
Filed under: Micro-enterprises, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, international development, micro-finance, microfinance, social Innovation | Tagged: Chetna Gala Sinha, Hubli, India, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mann Deshi, Mhaswad, micro-finance, microfinance, Rural Development, Rural Education, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, woman owned business, women entrepreneur | Leave a Comment »
