TC-I Tidbits

Your daily dose of headlines:

Health: India continues to have the world’s highest number of polio cases this year, with the disease having crippled more children till April than it did during the same period in 2007. [Source: Times of India]
Children: In a unique lobbying effort, more than 100 ex-child laborers knocked on the doors of [...]

Eco-Wise: Braving New Frontiers in Waste Management

Waste management is a significant challenge for India, specifically in urban areas, where the accumulation of trash leads to the prevalence of preventable diseases in poor, underprivileged populations. In order to address this issue, change is required on both a systemic and individual level, as the cause of the problem is rooted not only in [...]

TC-I Tidbits

Here is your daily dose of headlines about innovative or anti-innovative ideas from around the country:

Microfinance

ACCESS Development Services and Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development will work to build cooperation between Europe and India to assist 20 MFIs in the country.
SKS Microfinance and Bajaj Allianz will form a partnership to provide clients with insurance [...]

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 [...]

Headlines Digest

Gender Budgeting: In order to promote the concept of gender budgeting at all levels of governance, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is developing manuals on this topic. This is part of a larger movement to address gender specific barriers.
Education: Proctor & Gamble’s global philanthropy program, “Live, Learn, and Thrive” has partnered with Child [...]

India’s Manpower Paradox

An article by Meera Shenoy (Executive Director of Employment Generation and Marketing Mission, Government of Andhra Pradesh) focuses on a paradox faced by India - a booming population of youth, but a shortage of skilled manpower.  Shenoy discusses the downfalls of the approaches of a variety of stakeholders - government, companies, and the rural poor, and emphasizes [...]

Headlines Digest

We have decided to condense the headlines to be posted once each workday. Please comment here, if you prefer the Midday and Evening posts.

Global Warming and Energy: P. Chindambaram speaks on measures taken by India to combat global warming. In similar news, in Haryana the government has granted a 27 crore contract to a company [...]

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 [...]

Solid Waste Management - A PPP Opportunity?

Meena Gupta, a secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Forests, claims that the Indian government will soon add amendments to municipal solid waste management regulations, and highlighted the private sector’s role in exploring new projects. Merinews, a citizen journalism news portal, quoted Ms. Gupta as saying:
sustainable waste management could materialise only if service delivery was [...]

Midday Newsfeed

BoP Energy and beyond: BP has built a new stove for the BoP market that produces much fewer emissions than the typical wood burning stoves. Scaling up, the government predicts that by 2017, 10% of total transport fuel will come from biofuels. In order to improve public transportation in Hyderbad and the surrounding area, the [...]

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

Some headlines before you head off to lunch:

Technology/Connectivity:  

Mobile connectivity will be in the hands of millions of new subscribers thanks to BSNL’s $100 million contract to Nortel for supporting GSM network expansion in the southern part of India.  The plan is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.  
On a different note, IBM Research [...]

Evening Edition

Just a few headlines for this evening:

Health: Another Planning Commission report reveals that India faces a shortage of doctors and nurses, but that the private sector can help remedy this issue, and accordingly, plan to set up hundreds of new medical education institutions as a public private partnership.
Energy: IT companies often consume a large amount [...]

Remote Blogging: Skoll World Forum 2008 — What is the role of government?

In the Innovation and Change in Government Culture workshop, one of the major themes was which problems or issues should government address and which should they ignore or stay away from. This is a very important concern, especially since much of the impetus for social entrepreneurship comes from those areas where the public sector is [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Renewable Energy: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in India has announced a demonstration programme to support mega watt size grid interactive solar power generation projects, up to a maximum capacity of 50 MW, in the country. Similar efforts have been pushed by Himachal Pradesh’s CM, in an effort for more hydel power Public-Private [...]