Using Regulation to promote Social Business: The case of IRDA

Livemint reports that India’s insurance companies (private and state-owned) are expanding rapidly in rural markets, and have topped the IRDA’s mandatory rural targets.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is Government of India body set-up to regulate the insurance sector, which has gone through significant liberalization in the last decade. IRDA has continuously emphasized the [...]

First ever National Conference of Rural BPOs

Byrraju Foundation (a philanthropic foundation founded by Satyam head B. Ramalinga Raju and his family in 2001), is organizing India’s first National Conference of Rural BPOs named ‘Jyotismay’. The conference is to be held on 16th May, 2008 in Hyderabad, and you can register to participate in the conference through this link. It is [...]

TC-I Tidbits

CSR: Turns out Government of India is planning to set-up a institute focused on corporate affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility. The proposed think-tank is to be called Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) [via iGovernment]

Social Security: According to a report by the People’s Collective for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PCESCR), an umbrella organisation [...]

TED | Talks | Hector Ruiz: The power to connect the world (video)

AMD, the only real competitor to Intel’s effective monopoly on microprocessors, has established an ambitious initiative to provide internet access to 50% of the world by 2015. Here is the video of Hector Ruiz, AMD’s CEO, on the project titled 50×15.
from www.ted.com posted with vodpod

Cellphone Company + Fertilizer Company = Cool Idea

IFFCO Kisan Sanchar (IKSL) is a unique partnership between India’s largest mobile operator, Airtel and Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO). According to the brief on iGovernment:
IFFCO Kisan Sanchar (IKSL), would be focusing on communication requirement of rural India, besides providing agriculture related information to enable villagers take right farming decisionsIKSL will offer handsets, co-branded SIM [...]

Social Intrapreneurs

SustainAbility’s new publication, “The Social Intrapreneuers: A Field Guide for Corporate Changemakers,” features a case study on Hindustan Unilever’s Shakti project.  SustainAbility defines the social intrapreneur as:
Social intrapreneur, n. 1 Someone who works inside major corporations or organizations to develop and promote practical solutions to social or environmental challenges where progress is currently stalled by [...]

TC-I Tidbits

In 65 days, 70% of Gujarat’s villages will be linked with Broadband connectivity, promised Chief Minister Narendra Modi[via iGovernment]. Lets see if he comes through. He cant fool us here at TC-I, our correspondent Prerna is in Ahmedabad as we speak. Staying with promises, the Chhattisgarh government proposed to electrify 79 villages using Solar Energy [...]

Interview with India’s Rural BPO Guru

Its been almost three years since Businessworld India published a feature on Rural BPO, writing about a company called Lason. Lason had just just set up its first rural BPO unit in Kizhanur village, 50 km from Chennai. The unit was the brainchild of Pradeep Nevatia, then managing director of Lason India, a subsidiary of [...]

TC-I Tidbits

Health: According to a report, India is not on track toward the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child and maternal mortality. The number of children who die before their fifth birthday stands at 76 per 1,000 live births, while the goal is 38.
Government Schemes: The Gujarat state government’s Jyoti Gram Yojana, a program to [...]

Making the Impossible Possible: GE develops portable, affordable EKG

Brought to our attention by Technology, Health & Development Blog by Aman is a story of technological innovation at its finest. The challenge was to create an affordable, portable electorkardiogram (EKG) that helps doctors assess various heart ailments, particularly acute heart attacks and strokes. The original story can be found in Business Week. Here is [...]

Show us what you can do ArcelorMittal

The Hindu reports that AcerlorMittal, the worlds largest steel company has promised to spend US$ 500 million on CSR initiatives focussed on Jharkhand and Orissa. Its no coincidence that the company has multiple project sites within these states.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal-promoted world’s biggest steel company has announced two steel projects in Jharkhand and Orissa of [...]

Eradicating TB in India: Its up to you Ranbaxy

In what could be an interesting example of a Public-Private Partnership in the pharmaceutical sector, India’s largest drug-maker has entered into an agreement with the Department of Biotechnology to push for discovering new drugs to treat tuberculosis. The Department of Biotechnology will provide a three-year grant to Ranbaxy as per the agreement to conduct research [...]

Evening Edition

For your reading pleasure:

International Relations: The India-Africa summit kicked off with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promising to ease access from the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Said Singh, “under this scheme, India shall unilaterally provide preferential market access for exports from all the 50 least developed countries.”
Green Energy: As we have been covering in [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Some titillating headlines:
Microfinance:

Whole Planet Foundation (WPF), a Whole Foods Market nonprofit that “empowers individuals in the global community through entrepreneurship” recently announced the creation of the Whole Planet Foundation Supplier Alliance for Microcredit (WPFSAM), a coalition of natural foods companies that aims to support the financial endeavours of WPF. The WPFSAM Alliance has pledged [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Saturday afternoon news:

Social welfare: The Government of Himachal Pradesh is planning to issue separate ration cards to single widows in the state to enable them draw benefits under various state social welfare programmes. (Source: iGovernment)
Health research: Using supercomputing simulations and lab experiments, an IBM research team plans to accelerate the design of drugs that inhibit [...]