News from India : of positive action, steely endeavour and quiet triumphs ~ news that is little known
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India is a million new initiatives now and GoodNewsIndia is dedicated to publicising them.
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Why is GoodNewsIndia not being updated?

Many regular readers of GoodNewsIndia [GNI] have wondered why this site has not been updated since 2006. The simple answer is this: the one-man team, that is me, D V Sridharan that publishes GNI is busy with a land restoration project christened, pointReturn . It will need my undivided time and attention at least till 2010; that leaves me with little time or energy to travel and do stories for GNI as I have done since 2000. So work on the site is temporarily suspended.

That is the reason. But there is a connecting story behind how I came to undertake pointReturn. In case you are interested, do pull up a chair and listen. It's a long one, and I must caution, somewhat opinionated.  ⇒⇒


Beginning to grow –  Falling in love with swales –  The new pavilion at pointReturn –  Status report: June, 2009 –  Adventures with the Rocket Stove –  Trees at pointReturn –  Permaculture : an interlude –  Exploring cob –  Large water storage - a solution –  Off grid power – 
What is pointReturn | Mission


MAGAZINE

List of all stories

Random Picks

The Ganga in the sky:
rwh
Residents and establishments in Tamil Nadu have taken to rain water harvesting and water recycling proving that local action can alleviate shortages.



Clothier to the poor:
goonj
Since 1998, Anshu Gupta’s Goonj has innovated in many ways to deepen our superficial awareness of the importance of clothes for the poor


A Marathon man in village-India:
elango
The success of Rangaswamy Elango at Kuthambakkam village justifies the hope that Gram Swaraj will yet bloom all across India.


Battling for governance :
santosh
Parivartan’s unknown little Indians like Santosh, have fought to clear the thickets to form tracks to good governance.


The road from Marx turns right at Gandhi:
timbuktu
Mary and Bablu didn’t settle at Timbaktu to retire, but to begin again with the conviction that nature is what really matters.


Raging into the night:
ymc
The creation of Yusuf Meherally Centre near Mumbai is only a part of Mangla Behn and Dr G G Parikh’s 62 year commitment to India. Their smiles belie their fire.


A daughter returns:
pWhy
Anuradha Bakhshi’s sense of debt to India is over-imagined considering how little she has taken from this land but therein lies a lesson for many of us who have drawn much.


The new Indian rope-trick :
upChain
In the decade since it opened its economy, India has survived early shocks and has now assimilated with elan the tricks of making good profits in world markets.


Bridges to mainstream life:
bharadwaj
Girish Bharadwaj’s foot bridges for isolated villages are transforming communities—and are aesthetic as well


Jim Garthe’s innovation:
plastoFuel
The pioneering work of Jim Garthe at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, in converting plastic waste into an energy resource has a great significance for India’s environment.


Minimalism in service:
dada
Dada Lakhiani is a role model for everyone who is sitting out for the right time, funds and opportunity to do something for India.


A U-Turn at B-School:
dhan
M P Vasimalai’s rural upbringing made him turn back to rural India, soon as he graduated from IIM-A


Making the foot run:
ymc
Not many know that top bureaucrat D R Mehta’s 30 year long commitment and leadership are what revived the famed Jaipur foot from slumber and taken it to a third of a million people round the world


World standard toilets:
fuad
Since 1999, Fuad Lokhandwala has been demonstrating in New Delhi that building and running toilets to world standards is possible along sound commercial lines.


This postman delivered more than mail:
postmanSingh
This vintage classic from the 1930s should give us heart because it shows service to fellowman is intrinsic to Indian way of life.


The two-pit privy man:
sulabh
Perfecting a simple sanitation solution and getting it to revolutionise Indian society has taken 35 years of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak’s life


Dreams come true in Ratnagiri:
rwh
An unlikely team of clerks in government offices in Mumbai are reaching out to rural school children in Ratnagiri district


Where water flows in veins:
tiptur
The Smile Index of children and adults here, proves that the networked farm pond idea pioneered by BAIF’s branch in Tiptur, Karnataka is a success worth replication.


Enfolding the lost ones in Goa:
plastoFuel
Bernadette D’Souza and Gregory D’Costa strive for the dignity of immigrants who built today’s shining Goa - and, are abandoned on its streets to their own devices.


A soldier’s march into peace:
ralegan
Anna Hazare’s work with Ralegan Siddhi has thrown up a model for all round development of India’s villages.


Young voices rising:
cwc
Nandana Reddy and Damu Acharya have approached the issue of India’s working children by creating activists from children’s own ranks.


Reality catches up with GNI’s Publisher:
mgm
Having published GoodNewsIndia since 2000, it was hard to overlook MGM Beach Resort’s ways in my own backyard.


Inside China’s anti-poverty success:
chIndJun04
Does China’s economic performance show-up India, or are there some unique merits in our system that we do not value sufficiently?


Help for puzzled visitors:
shristi
Caring for autistic and special children in India, has been entirely mothers’ and private citizens’ effort, as typified by Shristi Special Academy in Bangalore.


Sifted from main media

Oct 07, 2006

India has risen by two places to the 43rd, in the Global Competitiveness Reports published every two years by the World Economic Forum. Countries may be small but highly competitive as Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Singapore, the top 5 suggest. Among the large growing economies, India [43] leaves behind China [54], Russia[64] and Brazil [66]. USA[5] and Japan[6] are the only countries in top 15 that have populations above 100 million.

The ranking is a measure of effective use of technology and capital, innovative skills, soft infrastructure like education, financial and legal institutions, markets etc and relative efficiency. WEF site and Report highlights

OTHER PICKS:  World forests growing - India’s too |  Markets chase dabbawalas |  ...more


SUPPLEMENTS

List of all articles

Recent Reports

Jan 28, 2007::Activism
§ Siege of Goa… defeated!

Not since the success of the movement to save the Silent Valley in Kerala has there been a people’s victory comparable to how the siege of Goa was broken.

Jan 24, 2007::Energy
§ Emerging alternate energy breakthroughs

Although not of Indian origin, two new developments could favourably affect our environmental and energy situation.

Jan 16, 2007::Reforms
§ The Supreme Court growls

The Supreme Court has settled once and for all, that the Parliament’s freedom to legislate is not unfettered but subject to provisions of the Constitution

Jan 12, 2007::Sciences
§ A miracle rice

A new variety of rice known as the Aerobic Rice has been discovered which requires little water, generates no methane and produces good yields.

Random picks:

Apr 17, 2003:Reforms
A new broom for India’s power sector

India will have reformed the power sector into a modern, competitive industry

Jul 21, 2003:Ideas For India
A final solution for waste?

The most appealing feature is the wide variety of waste it can handle: tyres, plastics, paper, sludge, municipal waste and abattoir wastes.

Dec 04, 2002:Update
Cane trash charcoal progress.

Housewives just love this cooker, not only because of the low fuel consumption

Dec 19, 2002:Economy
Now, an India-grown three box car.

Indigo will compete with models from the likes of Ford, GM and Hyundai

May 13, 2006:Ideas For India
Novel energy options

Here are some promising paths that lead away from fossil fuel dependance, towards a sustainable energy future

Nov 28, 2002:Trend
Women make two more inroads.

There are today 450 women pilots in the Indian Air Force

Oct 07, 2003:Enthusiast
Shivdutt Pandey: A priest into development

Pandey’s outlook is what a student needs to learn, to get inspired, to make a contribution towards society

Jan 27, 2004:Economy
India’s Surge: a fresh round-up

India seems driven by what Keynes called, ‘animal spirits’

Jan 15, 2004:Elsewhere
Arun Shourie surveys IT - India

“Indian firms are able to provide not just software… but complete business solutions.”

Dec 10, 2004:Elsewhere
Living easy with Greg Seaman

Greg’s voice is gentle — it merely informs. There are no harangues at this site.

Dec 25, 2003:Energy
The biodiesel imperative

“The coming crisis will no doubt affectt India badly, but it also presents us an opportunity to implement a holistic response.”

Dec 10, 2002:Economy
A recent spray of IT good news

‘Just wing it’ is not part of the Indian culture

Dec 04, 2004:Innovation
Children’s own bank

They showed they had a mind of their own: they wanted to start and run a bank exclusively for children.

Jan 24, 2003:Initiative
Preparing slum children for the outer world

Costs run to Rs.60,000 per month and she needs donations

Dec 20, 2002:Governance
Parliament sets a record

The variety shows it has a grip on the reality

Nov 28, 2002:Reforms
Time running out for old world tycoons

On Nov 26,2002, the Parliament passed the Securitisation Bill

Dec 12, 2002:Newsclip
The Divide closes by a few more inches

Language is not the barrier - it is the challenge to create a PC that will

Jan 02, 2004:Memory Speaks
More than a cooking stove

The whole family gathered around it

May 17, 2003:Enthusiast
Niraj Mohanka: Amateur Historian and Indologist

Whether or not you agree with him, you will find yourself asking some new questions.

Jul 15, 2003:Reforms
Exposing the PDS flaws

It is clear the PDS never really delivered to the needy but fed a parallel trade

Apr 14, 2006:Activism
Lessons from Daurala

Globalisation that spawns much evil, has also created many tools and resources for grassroots activists

Dec 29, 2002:Reforms
BALCO, two years down the line

BALCO, stagnant for years is now set to grow

Nov 28, 2003:Economy
GoodNewsIndia names it, ‘the Surge’.

There is evidence of an India fever becoming a worldwide epidemic

Nov 30, 2003:Reforms
A turnaround story from Assam

Officers from road transport corporations in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal are making a beeline to Guwahati to study the miracle

Sep 25, 2003:Update
Toxic wastes reclaim land

Fly ash, sewage sludge and the redoubtable water hyacinth could be combined into a formidable regenerating agent for depleted soils

Jul 22, 2003:Newsclip
A fresh insight into changing India

“Labour market flexibility in India is reality for all but a small labour aristocracy.”

Mar 13, 2003:Sciences
India’s cryogenic engine comes of age.

“We have been able to successfully develop cyrogenic engine on our own”

Dec 16, 2002:Economy
IT companies are in big league.

India’s big IT companies are bigger than you think

Jul 16, 2003:Newsclip
India v. China debate [contd.]

Development without democracy is like having brilliance without character

Sep 02, 2003:Ideas For India
Seed balls for greening India

“Seed balls are a small universe in themselves.”

Feb 05, 2004:Memory Speaks
A ‘family’ that was Hindu and Muslim

Khalid Chacha had decided that only Mummy could get him to study, so Umar would live with us.

Nov 08, 2004:Profile
Surfacing from a dive

His life changed the moment his question changed from “why me?” to “why not me?”

Mar 27, 2003:Activism
Corrective surgeries on electoral law.

Our public life can be influenced by activism, the various means of communication and the objectivity of the Courts

Jun 15, 2005:Ideas For India
Food forever, for nothing

All it requires is some subtle management of a fully integrated, zero-waste system

Jul 15, 2003:Activism
The fight to save Kali

The Kali Bachao Andolan (Movement to Save the Kali) has been formed by Parisara Samrakshana Kendra of Uttara Kannada

Aug 23, 2003:Trend
Mainstream and the Muslims

Education is a fair and equal mainstream for all those that arrive at it

Feb 20, 2003:Newsclip
College girls save an industry.

“We owe this tremendous success to college girls and rural women.”

Aug 10, 2003:Initiative
V N H Rau connects need with plenty

A waste disposal problem turns into an answer for hunger

Oct 13, 2005:Reforms
The Right to Information Act is headed right

Despite its limitations the Right to Inforamtion Law that came into force yesterday is very promising.

Sep 21, 2002:Newsclip
Madhu Sudan wins the Nevanlinna Prize

The areas of his work may mystify the best of us but let us try



...list of all articles




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