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Nihit
Not another brick in the wall…
We are back, after a hiatus! When the British left the country, India had a literacy rate of about 12%. Though much progress has been made since and, as per the National Survey, the literacy rate has climbed to about 65% by 2001, India is still way below the world average of 85%. It accounts [...]
(almost) as good for the rich as for the poor!
As per The World Fact Book, the Gini Coefficient of India in 2004 was 36.8. What does this mean? Gini Coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion, often used to measure income or wealth inequality, i.e. the gap between the rich and the poor. Simply put, a country with a lower Gini Coefficient has more [...]
The Colours of Joy
In an earlier article, we had spoken about the huge potential for person-to-person lending in India and how DhanaX is tapping into this potential. Rang De is another organization working in this field. While DhanaX is a social business entrepreneurship, Rang De is a not-for-profit organization: this translates into a direct reduction in the interest [...]
Become a social investor!
India has the second highest unbanked population in the world - approximately six hundred and seventy five million people. More than sixty five percent of the people do not have access to a formal banking system. Only fifteen percent of the demand for credit worth ninety billion dollar is met through formal channels. Microfinance is addressing this problem. The basic idea is simple: give a very [...]
CTC Disha: The State Wide Helpline for Blood
Sankalp India Foundation, in association with Comprehensive Trauma Consortium (CTC), has launched “CTC Disha: The State Wide Helpline for Blood”. In Karnataka, anyone looking for blood in time of an emergency can call 94800 44444 for help. CTC Disha for Bangalore, launched in September 2006, enables people to hunt for blood by calling 1062. This [...]
Tuberculosis detection with a chip…
Ralph Weissleder, from Harvard Medical College, has developed magnetic nano particles that can identify tuberculosis-causing bacteria in sputum. This has made it possible to diagnose tuberculosis in half an hour. The traditional method for diagnosis takes about two weeks, as the bacteria is first spotted in sputum under the microscope, and then the suspect samples [...]
Make husk while the sun shines
The concept of the village, or ‘gram’ forms the core of India. Over seventy percent of her population is rural. There are more than half a million villages across the country, as opposed to five thousand or so urban settlements. And still many of us, such as me, have no direct experience of life in [...]