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.
Here are some interesting photos from the wiki of thier initial pilot in Khairat village, in Raigadh district, Maharashtra. It is on the OLPC wiki and makes for interesting reading.
One room school house at Khairat (from OLPC wiki)
Posted in Education, Information Technology, Politics, Poverty, Rural Education, Schools, Social Ecosystem
Tagged classroom, computers, Digital Bridge Foundation, Education, Goa, India, Information Technology, internet, Johny Joseph, Khairat, Laptop, Maharashtra, Negroponte, OLPC, Reliance, Rural Education, Satish Jha, Schools, Teachers, XO laptops
I had the pleasure of meeting Tapan Parikh a few weeks ago when he presented on a panel at a conference to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of my alma mater, IIT Bombay. The panel focused on the latest trends in technology with the rest of the panelists discussing emerging areas in nanotechnology, biomedicine and energy. Tapan provided a refreshingly different viewpoint that emphasized the needs of the end user in developing countries. By harnessing technology to make things simpler, Tapan has provided platforms that make the daily grind of field workers in rural parts of the world a lot easier. Continue reading
Posted in BOP, Information Technology, international development, micro-finance, mobile technology, Poverty, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development
Tagged Berkeley, CAM, cell phone, ekgaon, Guatemala, human-computer interaction, humanitarian, India, Information Technology, microfinance, MIT, mobile technology, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact, social Innovation, Tapan Parikh, Technology Review, University of California
A BusinessWeek article mentions that 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). This is after several failed attempts by Nicholas Negroponte, godfather of OLPC, to establish a beachhead in India. Previous negative comments from the Indian political establishment about his efforts include:
In 2001 Information Technology Minister Arun Shourie dismissed his [Negroponte’s Media Lab] efforts as “pedagogically suspect” and wanted more accountability.
… in 2006, his project was again rebuffed by India’s then-Education Secretary, Sudeep Banerjee
“Our primary school children need reading and writing habits, not expensive laptops,” says Arun Kumar Rath, India’s Education Secretary.
Posted in Education, Information Technology, Politics, Rural Education, Schools, Social Ecosystem
Tagged Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Businessweek, classroom, computers, Digital Bridge Foundation, Education, India, Information Technology, internet, Laptop, MIT, Negroponte, OLPC, Reliance, Rural Education, Schools, social entrepreneurship, Teachers, XO
The Gates Foundation has made some major investments in the area of finance over the past few years. Now, based on their findings and experiments, they are making a big push into the area of micro-savings. Traditionally rural finance has focused on providing micro-credit services to the poor. Only recently have some of the micro-finance organizations started extending their services to include savings and insurance. In most cases the issue has been local regulations and banking controls.
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal – Giving a Lot for Saving a Little – the author points out several issues why savings schemes for the rural poor have not taken off. Among the issues identified:
Posted in BOP, Information Technology, international development, micro-finance, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, social Innovation
Tagged Ethiopia, Gates Foundation, Information Technology, Kenya, M-Pesa, MFI, micro-finance, microcredit, microfinance, microsavings, Opportunity International, Poverty, rural banks, Rural Development, rural savings, Vodafone, Wall Street Journal
I had a great time attending the conference to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of my alma mater, IIT Bombay. The event was well attended with over 800 attendees and very well organized. It was fun catching up with some of my classmates after 30 plus years!
I had the pleasure of moderating a wonderful panel on “The New Philanthropy – New models for Social Impact” with four great speakers presenting a wide range of activities that their different organizations pursue in the social sector. The panelists were
I have written a more in-depth article for Lokvani, but some of the key points were: Continue reading
Posted in Conference, Health, Information Technology, micro-finance, non-profit, Philanthropy, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development, venture philanthropy
Tagged Acumen Fund, Ashoka, calvert foundation, Community Investment, Community Investment Notes, google, google foundation, google.org, hybrid philanthropy, India, Micro-enterprises, micro-finance, microcredit, microplace.com, New philanthropy, Philanthropy, poverty alleviation, renewable energy, small and medium enterprises, SME, Social Impact, social Innovation, Social Investment, venture fund, venture philanthropy
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