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A thoroughly inspiring story reminding us that the most important examples of innovation occur where we least expect them to.
Farmers who visit Amai Mahalinga Naik’s two-acre plot on the hilltop near Adyanadka in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka return spellbound. Irrigated farming at this height is very surprising. This 58-year-old illiterate farm labourer has developed [...]

TC-I Tidbits

Your daily dose of headlines:

Health: The pharmaceutical industry in India fears that one in five drugs sold in the country are fake. A study undertaken by the by the drug controller general will focus on this.
Transportation: India and France on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in railways, including constructing world class stations, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

TC-I FundWatch

Editor’s note: In order to more quickly provide our readers with pertinent information, ThinkChange India has created TC-I FundWatch, a regular post that summarizes important investments made by social and traditional venture capital firms that directly affect the lives of India’s poor. This way, on Tuesdays, our readers will be able to get a regular [...]

Food: The New Luxury Good

TC-I frequently covers the headlines concerning the current food shortage crisis in India, and this issue has deep roots and sobering implications. Infochange interviewed M S Swaminathan, a plant geneticist and advocate of sustainable agriculture.  Swaminathan breaks down the global issue, its effect on India, future scenarios, and what needs to be [...]

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 [...]

Headlines Digest

Microfinance: SKS Microfinance is getting serious about microinsurance, by partnering with Bajaj Allianz to provide coverage to its members. Also, ACCESS Development Services will be providing intensive capacity building support to MFIs in India, and access to loans from European cjompanies. The project is partially funded by the European commission [both stories via Microcapital]

Healthcare: [...]

Headlines Digest

Food Shortage Crisis: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that the country has sufficient food to feed the people and that prices should reflect that soon. Sending conflicting signals, PM Singh may call a meeting with Chief Ministers on controlling prices. Shockingly, another article highlighted the extremely high amount of crops wasted annually — RS [...]

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 [...]

UNIFAD Seeks Innovative Remittance Proposals

The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development is looking for innovative remittance schemes to invest $13 million into. The initiative is labeled the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) 2008 and the proposals need should focus on “[p]romoting innovative remittance systems and investment channels for migrants.” The objectives are the following:
* Improve remittance transmission and [...]

Evening Edition

Microfinance:

The Annual Policy Conference on Microfinance was held last week “to streamline India’s mircrofinance infrastructure, facilitating sustainability to support the Indian microfinance sector’s current rate of growth and provide for future growth rates.”

Accion International announced that it reached 3 million clients through 25 countries and 35 partner organizations.
Lok Capital LLC, an India focused microfinance [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Technology: Although it is a hub for information technology, India is only #50 on the world’s most networked economies list, partly due to its poor ICT infrastructure.
Health: According to a survey, in the next decade, one in 20 female deaths in India between the ages 30 to 69 will be caused by smoking. (Source: India [...]

Pragati April 2008: Give them their freedom

In March we wrote on this magazine’s March issue on the Gujurati Model. Well, the April version of Pragati has been released with a focus on farmers in India. Click on the image below to download the issue in .pdf format.

[Source: Atanu Dey]

Evening Edition

Agriculture: Politicians are expected to focus much of their rhetoric and polling towards the upcoming elections on issues near to rural agrarian sectors of the population. Amidst fears for price increases on basic goods, both Minister for Food and Civil Supplies C. Divakaran and Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar said the the centre will [...]