Recycling and Redevelopment

BBC’s One Planet focuses on Dharavi, a Mumbai slum that is the largest in Asia, and the thriving recycling industry that resides within its streets. With the “Vision Mumbai” plan to revitalize the city by 2013, however, shelters in Dharavi will be demolished to make way for high-rises. The redevelopment project will have a ripple [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Apply for the 2008 YouthActionNet Fellowship

From the YouthActionNet Website:
Each year, YouthActionNet selects 20 young social entrepreneurs to
participate in its Global Fellowship Program. These accomplished young
leaders are distinguished by their records for success in achieving
positive change in their communities, by their innovative approaches,
and by their ability to mobilize their peers and community members in
support of their social change visions.
The program is [...]

Midday Newsfeed

There is currently an ideological debate brewing in Bombay regarding the preservation of ancient structures versus urban modernization.  The building in question is the 139-year Crawford Market in Bombay, which is facing the threat of demolition by RNA Corp., a leading Bombay construction firm that hopes to replace the building with a high-rise.
The Supreme Court [...]

World Habitat Awards 2008: Innovation, Sustainability, Transfer

The World Habitat Awards are accepting applications for Stage I of the application process, deadline June 1st.  Find out more below:
The World Habitat Awards were established in 1985 by the Building and Social Housing Foundation as part of its contribution to the United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless.  Two awards are given [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Headlines:

Indians free to settle in any part of country, says SC

Reacting to Raj Thackeray’s statements on north Indians, the SC said that such a tendency is leading to Balkanization of the country should be curbed with an iron hand.

Don’t Ban the Ban

Unless the government, people and media scale up measures to ensure cradle-to-grave food and [...]

A safe haven for war torn girls

Often it is easy to become so engrossed with the political and strategic factors of a conflict like that in Jammu/Kashmir that we completely overlook the devastating effects that such violent endeavors have on the innocent bystanders stuck within. The most obvious example of this is orphaned children, who must suffer from images of death, [...]

Tsunami Microinsurance

From PSD Blog — World Bank Group:
A new health insurance plan will enable the poor in India to buy health insurance for less than 10 cents a month, and it will cover natural disasters including Tsunamis.
The new program is a partnership between and aid group, CARE International, and a private insurer, Allianz. It is expected [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Headlines from around the town:

Include women in governance agenda: Women’s Charter Against Poverty

To mark the International Women’s Day, Indian anti-poverty network Wada Na Todo Abhiyan has released a report highlighting the recommendations of the Women’s Tribunal Against Poverty held in October last year. The charter against poverty reinforces the demand for women’s access to power, [...]

Ingredients for disaster: climate change, carbon, population and poverty

Update: PSD Blog just announced that a new tsunami insurance will be specifically designed for the poor. See post above.
While anyone who has watched Al Gore’s riveting documentary An Inconvenient Truth understands the potentially catastrophic effects climate change could have on densely populated communities, an article in End Poverty in South Asia brings this [...]

Fast Company Singles Out 45 Social Entrepreneurs that are Changing the World

From Fast Company:
The 2008 Social Capitalist Awards
Change the world. Make some money. It’s an appealing prospect. Nonprofits were born because for-profits weren’t addressing some market failures–pollution, poverty, illiteracy. Profit won’t cure those ills, but it’s becoming a bigger part of more solutions. Below you will find the organizations that are granted the Fast Company/Monitor [...]

Middle of the Pyramid Real Estate

Millenum Spire, a global real estate company, is raising a $1 billion dollar fund that will focus on providing low-cost entry housing to the emerging Indian middle class. According to Ashish Bhalla (from VC Circle), who is a managing director along with his brother Abhijeet, this area of the market has largely been ignored by [...]