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Education = Maths *Communication * Curiosity

Parvathi Menon's picture

Gyanshala ClassesIf Einstein had to write his famous equation in the context of the changes in Bihar it would translate into:
 

EDUCATION = MATH * COMMUNICATION * CURIOSITY (and probably have a 3rd C as another element for ‘Confidence’!!)
 

Gyanshala’s innovative pedagogy and Chaitanya Gurukul’s integration of technology and web content into education are building a strong case for innovation in getting effective education to the most remote and poor corners of India – by focusing on whats essential.
 

Development 2.0 Brought to You by Social Entrepreneurs

Parvathi Menon's picture

We traveled an hour outside of Jaipur to Laporiya village, in the Jaipur District. One of the 41353 villages across 32 Districts of Rajasthan that depends largely on agriculture and dairy for sustenance.

The total cultivated area of the state encompasses about 20 million hectares and out of this only 20% of the land is irrigated. Ground water level is available only at a depth of 30 to 61m. Yet with minimum inputs, the agricultural sector of the state accounts for 22.5 per cent of the State economy.

India DM team in Jaipur, Udaipur, Bhubaneshwar and Patna

Parvathi Menon's picture

The process for the India Development Marketplace 2011 has been designed to be highly interactive and provide several opportunities for direct engagement between your organization and the India DM team. This process was designed with a particular focus on ensuring that we can facilitate organizations to complete the application forms – as well as seek first hand insights on what would be relevant elements of the support and technical assistance needed to grow and scale sustainable social impact models over a 2 year period.

With that in mind, the Teams from Innovation Alchemy are traveling across the 3 States of Rajasthan, Bihar and Orissa (Odisha) to meet and interact with a diverse set of social enterprises who are potentially applying for the India DM 2011 grant.

India Development Marketplace 2011 – OPEN

Parvathi Menon's picture

As Process Partners for the India Development Marketplace 2011, (India DM) one of the exciting things our team at Innovation Alchemy is doing is to help seek and surface interesting Social Enterprises that are working on tough social challenges, and building sustainable models to solve them.

A rigorous assessment process with a panel of independent expert assessors and jury will help the India DM 2011 program arrive at 13 winners who will each get funded with $ 50,000 over 24 months to effectively scale their SE models.

The call for entries has just been launched on December 10th  2010 and Applications can be submitted online before 23rd January 2011. As this process moves forward we will be traveling across the Target states of Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa to meet and engage with the social impact community – to help eligible organizations apply for the competitive grant available under the India DM. More on that soon.

Manav Seva Sansthan wins STAR Impact Award

Kirsten Spainhower's picture

Manav Seva Sansthan (MSS), 2008 Development  Marketplace winner, recently won the STAR Impact Award. The award recognizes and supports local organisations that  achieve excellence in the provision of services to disadvantaged children and that demonstrate effective management practices. Winners receive $100,000 in unrestricted funding, tailored consultancy support and media training.

Under the Development Marketplace project, MSS works to provide excluded women and their families with legal rights to land through a collective/group land  ownership rights model. The concept of collective land ownership for ensuring women control of land and building women’s leadership in agriculture based livelihood is unique in the Indian context. MSS is successfully carrying out “collective land and collective farming” with small farmers using Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) techniques.

How DM Project in India Filled Empty Water Pots

BP Agrawal's picture

BP Agrawal is a double Development Marketplace winner.  He won in 2006 with his Sustainable Rainwater Harvesting project and in 2007 with Walk-In Clinic for the Masses. This is being reposted on the occasion of Blog Action Day 2010.

Visit Sardarpura, a sleepy Indian village 150 km (93 miles) southwest of New Delhi.  Women have gathered at the village square. They are tapping empty matkas (earthen water pots) to produce melodious beats. One is humming the “lament of bride": "Dhola thare desh men, moti marvan aant.  Daroo milti mokali, paani ki koni chhant."

Oh, Beloved!
In your land
Not a drop of water 
Brides have to fetch water from miles
It is hard to survive but for your love
Thus laments a bride.

 Sudden commotion drowns the melody. Children start running in the dusty streets and yelling “Pani Aagayaa. Paani Aagayaa” (Water has come! Water has come!). Women wrapped in vibrant colors rush with their matkas resting on their waists. The water tanker had just arrived — after two weeks.
 
That is the perennial scarcity of drinking water in rural India!

Development Marketplace winner SAR is on a roll

Tom Grubisich's picture

Development Marketplace 2006 winner SAR Technology keeps rolling up achievements in its successful fight against arsenic pollution of water.  Shortly after being asked to participate in Development Marketplace's Innovation Fair: Moving Beyond Conflict in Cape Town in April, this pioneer in removing arsenic from groundwater in West Bengal, India, won the $75,000 2010 St. Andrews Prize for the Environment. (SAR's technology innovator Bhaskar Sengupta holds award in photo above.)

The St Andrews Prize, which is given by the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the international energy company ConocoPhillips, drew a record 302 entries from 73 countries.

Weeks before it went to Cape Town, SAR won the 2010 Asian Water Industry Management Award at an event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In November 2009 SAR's Development Marketplace-financed arsenic removal program in West Bengal was selected as one of the "12 Cases of Cleanup & Success" in the World's Most Polluted Places Report by Blackwell's Institute.  That same month, Sengupta,  Senior Lecturer at Queens University of Belfast who developed SAR's technology, received the Dhirubhai Ambani Award given by the Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Disaster Risk Management and Climate Adaptation

Abhas Jha's picture

I grew up in a small town in India-Patna-beside one of the mightiest river systems in the world, the Ganges. It is hard to describe the sacred place that the river has in Indian daily life. From sprinkling the holy water on a new born baby to putting a few drops into the mouth of someone about to die to dissolving the ashes of the dead into her deep embrace, the Ganges is like a mother to most Indians (literally she is often referred to as Ganga Maiya or Mother Ganges). But she can be a tough disciplinarian as well. Growing up next to her teaches you a profound respect for nature and the havoc she can cause. Patna is the capital of the state of Bihar which is one of the poorest states in India. One of the primary reasons for the poverty of the state is the almost annual havoc caused by the flooding of the Ganges and her tributaries in which thousands of lives and billions of rupees are lost. I remember as a little boy waking up in fear late one night  hearing government jeeps warning everyone to get out of the way-the river was about to break over its embankments and flood the town.

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