Upto 20,000 Puneites throng the streets in a festive atmosphere. Children romp, artists display their works and plays are staged. The whole programme is run by an event management company which is permitted revenue by controlled advertising. Particulate and noise pollution levels have dropped by upto 40%.

Citizens are clamouring for more streets to follow the example but traders and municipal councillors are resisting. This would be a good cause for civil societies to agitate for. Read the full story at the India Together site.

There are great synergies here: the palash tree grows in wastelands, the insect feeds on the tree without killing it, farmers get a cash incomes in those harsh geographies and many industries are served.

Dr Moni Thomas a scientist from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Shahdol, MP [Phone: 0-94251-84255] listened to the wisdom of Ram Manohar Patel, a 90 year old farmer who had profited by it long ago and longed for its revival. In 1903 India’s first shellac factory was established in Umaria, Shadol district.

Thanks to Dr Thomas’s encouragement, more farmers are reviving this rural industry. Source: Outlook magazine

The Foundation will start a series of well designed primary schools throughout India, at an average cost of Rs 10 -15 lakhs to build and Rs 5 -7 lakhs to operate. Beginning with Punjab, the programme will move to the east next.

If ever India needs to be ashamed of a single thing, it is the failure to create a cheerful, caring primary school system. Fortunes made by companies that routinely hit headlines ring strangely hollow and disconnected from reality. The Bharti Group seems to have realised that. Azim Premji’s Wipro is already active in building a primary schooling network.