Vote in the Global Water Challenge

The Global Water Challenge, a competition put on by Ashoka Changemakers, is taking votes right now on their selected finalists. Titled “Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis,” voting for the projects is open until Sunday, May 11.
Ashoka’s Changemakers and Global Water Challenge have partnered to open a worldwide search for ideas and [...]

Who Represents India’s Women?

On average, Indian women work longer hours than men, as their day consists of a more diverse array of tasks relating both to the maintenance of their livelihoods (public sphere) and homes (domestic sphere). In rural India, this could take the form of both working in the fields and performing domestic duties such as cooking, [...]

Another Victory for Sex Workers

In a prior post, Vinay wrote about a groundbreaking event - the establishment of the first ever bank run for and by sex workers in Kamathipura, Bombay.
As a follow up to that post, OneWorld South Asia reports today that the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India has recently introduced a life insurance scheme for sex [...]

TC-I Tidbits

Here is the daily dose of headlines:

Water supply: In Chennai, city officials have made it mandatory that buildings connected to the main water supply install meters to measure consumption.
Government transparency: The Central Information Commission (CIC) will now require political parties to make their income tax returns available to the public. Sending the exact opposite message, [...]

Studying the Right to Information

Google.org is supporting a study focused on the Right to Information Act as part of their Inform and Empower Initiative. From their blog:
To help us better understand how to make the Right to Information (RTI) more effective in India, we are delighted that Shekhar Singh who is an active member of the people’s movement for [...]

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 [...]

Amartya Sen encapsulates why we should care

One of the ongoing discussions that is linked ot the field of social entrepreneurship is the very nature of what this concept truly means. In a talk held at Stanford University this week, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen eloquently and concisely spoke to the issues of empowerment and enlightenment, and I feel as though his words [...]

Evening News Feed

Clearly Reservations in India is making big news after the landmark Supreme Court Judgement on reservations. Atanu Dey has a great (but long) analysis of reservations in the Indian Education System (Part 1 of a multi-part series). If you want to learn more, I also recommend this for a detailed history of affirmative-action in India

Doug [...]

Evening Edition

India-Africa relations: India and Africa continue to take steps to improve cooperation over shared desires to have a seat on the UN Security Council.
Health Technology: The first artificial heart transplant in all of Asia was conducted in Bangalore.
Voting Technology: Bangalore’s state voting machines will now have the ability to vote using Braille for blind voters.
Quotas: [...]

NGO to push for compulsory licensing of cancer drugs

Update: A recent Times of India article discusses the actual effectiveness of the Public Interest Litigation provision and its current troubles. You can read the article here.
An NGO called Cancer Patient Aids Association (CPAA) has embarked on a campaign to mandate compulsory licensing for 20 different drugs used to treat cancer sufferers. These drugs include [...]

Maps for poverty distribution

The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University has developed The Global Poverty Mapping Project whose goal is to
enhance current understanding of the global distribution of poverty and the geographic and biophysical conditions of where the poor live. Additionally, the project aims to [...]

A Must See: For Love of Water (FLOW)

A new documentary entitled “FLOW” (For Love of Water) has recently gained critical acclaim at the Vail International Film Festival and the Flagstaff International Film Festival, and is now gaining traction within the United States. The film has been called “infuriating and incredible” for its evocative approach to the global water crisis:
FLOW: For Love [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Agriculture: PM Singh to visit Bihar to begin implementation of statewide agricultural development plan.
Hogenakkal and Water: The decision of Tamil Nadu’s CM to delay decision on project has been questioned for having political motivations. The Times of India takes a look back on four decades of controversies surrounding water supply and transport. Looking forward now, [...]

The Unintended (and seemingly unrelated) Effects of Climate Change

India’s coastlines extend a distance of 7,500 kilometers and are contiguous with 8 states, including Orissa, West Bengal, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, and Maharashtra. In 2 recent posts entitled, “Predicting a Shift: Climate Migrants” and “Mumbai in 2100: Underwater“, we spoke to the displacement risk faced by coastal inhabitants as a result [...]

Evening Edition

State weakness report: Brookings Institute ranks India 67th out of 141 states in their new report that measures state weakness based on the criteria of economic, political, security and social welfare.
Technology: Google released today Voice Search in Hyderbad which enables users to find business, restaurants, etc. by speaking the query into their mobile. In a [...]