News from India : of positive action, steely endeavour and quiet triumphs ~ news that is little known
gniLogo
India is a million new initiatives now and GoodNewsIndia is dedicated to publicising them.
Unique visitors:
since Jun,00


Page-views:
3,000,000 :   Jun,07 
2,000,000 :   Jul,05 
1,000,000 : Dec,03 
0,000,000 :  Jun,00 

MAGAZINE

List of all stories

Random Picks

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.

A rare and enviable school:
olcott
The free school for the poor he founded in 1894, is an equal legacy of Henry Steel Olcott to the Theosphical Society that he co-founded and promoted

Earlier Stories:

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 rare and enviable school:
olcott
The free school for the poor he founded in 1894, is an equal legacy of Henry Steel Olcott to the Theosphical Society that he co-founded and promoted


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


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 magic wand to zap plastics:
dhan
Alka Zadgaonkar conjures up a way to end waste plastics menace by creating value for collectors and processors


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


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.


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.


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


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


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.


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


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.


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.


Staring down droughts:
dharwad
Amidst the gloom of droughts and suicides, we have this transformation of farmers who will look a drought in its eye.


A Gandhi education pays off:
cherkady
Cherkady Ramachandra Rao, now 86, lost his parents when 2, found Gandhi when 7, and has not been lost ever since.


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?


Beyond even his dreams:
rValley
When J Krishnamurthy spotted that banyan tree in 1925, it is doubtful if he envisioned how it might change the grim landscape and lives around it.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


Digging deep into Sanskrit:
melkote
Prof. Lakshmi Thathachar at Melkote is a teacher, ecologist, animal breeder, computer adept and a champion of Sanskrit as an unmined knowledge source.


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.


Biodiesel goes from lab to land:
svo
Prof Shrinivasa’s SuTRA has proved to India’s tribal people that biodiesel is the best way to electrify their homes. And they are making a revolution of it.


After micro credit, it’s micro capital, now:
aavishkaar
Aavishkaar is a pioneer attempt by India’s overseas professionals to bring venture capitalism to socially, environmentally relevant small businesses.


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.


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.


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.


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



...list of all stories  

Sifted from main media

Aug 22, 2006

For a man who was all of 90 years when he died yesterday, Bismillah Khan, the shehnai grandmaster, has triggered off a wave of national grief. If Banaras is the soul of India, the Ustad was the soul of Banaras. He was charmingly, defiantly loyal to his values.

Winner of the highest national award, the Bharat Ratna, he spurned ostentatious living, but provided for a household of 66. He preferred to travel by cycle rickshaws and trains and chose modest hotels when he travelled. A devout Muslim who prayed five times a day, he was also a devotee of Baba Vishwanath of Kashi and Goddess Saraswati. He refused to air-condition his house since his neghbours could not afford to do likewise.

He spurned a Rockefeller Fellowship that would have required him to live away from his beloved Banaras, asking “where will I find Baba Vishwanath and Ganga?”

Get to know him at this link.

OTHER PICKS:  Man-made glaciers |  Rising care for Chennai lakes |  ...more

pointReturn
A spell of inaction –  Was it the week that oil peaked? –  A planting plan –  State of the rains, 2007 –  Rock harvest –  Gandhigram : An interlude –  A pond is born –  Building with local materials –  One year on –  Water on high – 
About | Mission

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:

Feb 09, 2004:Activism
Why be afraid of TI?

Very few Indian commentators have bothered to question Transparency International’s techniques

Mar 04, 2004:Resources
Bamboo futures

It takes 60 years to replace a 60 foot tree but only 60 days to replace a 60 foot bamboo

Dec 31, 2003:Newsclip
The Indian Army as development agent?

Army may be the right means to deliver this development message.

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.”

Aug 20, 2006:Activism
RTI - a tactical retreat by the government

Government’s decision to not amend the RTI Act ‘for now’ is only an interim victory, but the campaign to gain it, is a landmark triumph of citizens’ collective action.

Dec 10, 2004:Elsewhere
Living easy with Greg Seaman

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

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

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

May 21, 2003:Ideas For India
Hydrogen power for India’s villages?

The Van Ooetegham discovery seems precisely targeted at India.

Nov 26, 2003:Memory Speaks
Life in the wadas

“We wouldn’t return home till we had done the rounds of at least 20-30 homes”

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

India’s big IT companies are bigger than you think

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

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

Oct 29, 2003:Innovation
Plastic recycling moves ahead

Luckily,India has already exhausted that reflex reaction of shallow thinking: ‘ban plastics!’

Sep 15, 2005:Newsclip
More transparent, less international

CMS study has showed which products of reforms have worked: information technology and legislation, smaller-sized states and true competition.

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

Oct 02, 2002:Initiative
Hope for Chiru, the Tibetan antelope.

Today only 75,000 chirus are left on this planet

Jan 17, 2003:Enthusiast
Subraya Bhatt::Genes Archivist

He has so far brought back 80 species of mango and jack-fruit

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

May 12, 2004:Energy
Gas hydrates: a gift wrapped in problems

India has entered into an agreement with Russia and some exploratory work has begun.

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

A waste disposal problem turns into an answer for hunger

Nov 12, 2002:Resources
GSPC may exceed Reliance in gas finds

GSPC’s designated field of 1850 sq.km needs shallower drilling

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.

Jan 15, 2003:Economy
Revisiting the China v. India debate

Indian manufacturing efficiency is on a roll

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

There are today 450 women pilots in the Indian Air Force

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

“Seed balls are a small universe in themselves.”

May 08, 2004:Governance
Dubey may yet inspire Indian whistleblowers

India has taken the first tentative step towards a full-fledged law to protect whistleblowers.

Jan 22, 2004:Economy
Boom time ahead for Rajasthan?

Cairn discovery was made precisely on river Sarasvati’s banks

Apr 13, 2004:Economy
Supreme Court arms the Securitisation Act

Increase in credit and at cheap rates will spur investments and create jobs.

Oct 19, 2005:Sciences
Bird Flu: the scare and some sense

An Indian scientist explains why the feared pandemic killing a hundred million will not come about. Is it scare mongering then, by commercial interests pushing drugs?

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.

Jun 22, 2003:Enthusiast
Col S S Rajan: Walking to reconnect with India

Among the few things that a man in uniform gets in India when he retires is, faith and love of his land.

Feb 19, 2004:Activism
Arun Jaitley’s insider-view

Of the distortions in world trade indulged in by the West, the most stark are in agricultural subsidies

Nov 09, 2003:Economy
Indian wheels on foreign fields

Tata Motors, Pune, “do all the paint work for Mercedes and it holds the highest quality ratings for that work outside Germany”.

Sep 08, 2004:Activism
Villagers teach how projects impact people

If you marshall the Net, it’s not so hard to be a Thakkar.

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

Dec 17, 2003:Profile
Is Satyendra Dubey really dead?

We could be looking at some action with teeth to it...what can ‘you’ do?

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

There is evidence of an India fever becoming a worldwide epidemic

Mar 09, 2003:Environment
Forest cover increases by 2000 sq.km

This confirms UN’s World’s Forest Report, 1999’s finding that India was the only developing country where forest cover was increasing

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

Oct 07, 2003:Activism
Another surprise from Bihar

In spite of its much maligned administration and almost compulsively retailed jokes, Bihar still has surprises to deliver

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.



...list of all articles



Write to GoodNewsIndia

GNI Mailing List
Sign UpLeave
WEB FEED
Supplements

______________

In Association with Amazon.com
______________

Nearly new FORD cars

UK Ford cars and Ford car dealers directory... links to Ford dealer groups and Ford new and used cars.

All about FORD

Internet Explorer distorts many of the styling features of this site. Switch to Firefox