Targeting the roots

Get paid for your grades!?!

2009-06-09T18:35:00.000+05:30

Rather unusual way to get children excited about getting an education. Read along this article from NY Post LEARN-

Going green should be easier to cause desirable impact!

2009-04-24T18:08:00.001+05:30

I have come across enthusiastic appeals to contribute towards saving the environment by modifying the way I go about my everyday life. For example, I am piling up dozens of used batteries simply because I am yet to find an environmentally safe way of disposing them, even after actively searching for a recycling plant or safe-disposal facility close to Hyderabad. The same predicament applies to

Get them young

2009-01-16T09:01:00.008+05:30

It has been a long time I wrote a post on this blog - any blog for that matter. The immediate cause of this post has been request from a friend in E4SI to spread the word around about their fellowship program.Make sure you do visit their site, get more details, join and spread the word. They have some really good and respectable companies as their partners and the list is longer this time.I came

Focus on delivery methods

2008-12-25T13:29:00.003+05:30

During one of the sessions I attended in Centre for Social Initiative and Management (CSIM) I had a discussion with the visiting instructor Dr. Vishnupriya, a freelance educational consultant. She said that she deals research and consultation for organizations dealing with educating school students.Given that our team has interest in child education, I briefed her about our teaching module and

Is targeting the poor alone always efficacious?

2008-12-19T12:32:00.000+05:30

With my on and off involvement with centers close to social development, I find one attitude that may have to be changed for better efficacy of social initiatives. Let me have the first stab at defining the attitude."A social initiative will produce a better impact when it is targeted towards the economically poorer sections of the society. The richer the beneficiaries are, the lesser social

Global imbalance

2008-12-07T10:04:00.001+05:30

A very nice lecture on the crisis that looms over the US dollar and the current practice of globalization.

Majora Carter: Greening the ghetto

2008-12-01T08:55:00.003+05:30

What she presents here applies to any city in this world. Being from Chennai, I have literally witnessed the degradation of its ecology. One example I often quote is the degradation of River Adayar. If you have seen the river 10 or 15 years before you will understand what I mean.

Sustainable design ideas

2008-12-01T04:30:00.011+05:30

Posting a talk about sustainable design ideas derived from nature may not be a proper post given the theme of this blog. But if you look at the title of the blog, I guess I am not way off from the target by posting it here. Instead of me telling it, I would like you to watch the video and decide it for yourself.This amazing and eye-opening talk was given by Janine Benyus at one of TED conferences

Dr. Jane Goodall on hope for the future!

2008-12-01T03:41:00.007+05:30

This amazing talk is from the outstanding researcher Dr. Jane Goodall given at one of the TED conferences.NOTE: In case if you had problems viewing the video here you can get it from the source at: Jane Goodall: What separates us from the apes?

SE session 11: Social accounting and auditing

2008-11-22T23:16:00.001+05:30

Today’s session was on an interesting topic called social accounting and auditing. Financial accounting and auditing are tried and tested methods for tracking and verifying the financial status of an organization and finding out if the financial goals are met are violated. Social accounting and auditing is a parallel concept developed on the lines of financial accounting and auditing in order to

SE session 10: Writing fund-raising proposal

2008-11-19T18:57:00.005+05:30

I couldn't attend this class. So, this post owes its credit to my classmate, Manmohan Jain.1. Most NGOs overseas average about 51% earned income. The percentage for Indian NGOs is much lower. Earned income is income generated by the NGO. It could be either by - sales of goods (T-shirts, auction of paintings by hearing-impaired children) - volunteer activities

SE session 9: Project Management

2008-10-11T23:05:00.004+05:30

I have been attending a certification course in social entrepreneurship in CSIM and have been posting on the proceedings of each session in my personal blog. I think it is more appropriate to post it here, so will do so from this post on. For earlier post, please visit my blog!I would like to start off at the last! My take home of the day! (more of a suggestion than a rule of thumb though)

Building your own lab each year!

2008-10-10T17:46:00.008+05:30

We may all remember the post that I did on Teaching module. Well it may seem to be sleeping, but it is only moving at a snail's pace. I was discussing this with my third-level manager today and he gave his ideas on it. One idea which made my bulb glow was this statement of his:"You have people working on preparing science experiments anyway. You are doing it right out of their books anyway, why

Field visit to Bhumi

2008-09-21T07:37:00.003+05:30

In this session, we made a field visit to Government High School at the heart of Rasoolpura, known as the largest slum in Hyderabad (some say in AP). This school was adopted by Bhumi, an NGO that aims at large scale, holistic, sustainable transformation for the slum (and for the larger society in a long term).Bhumi's members Sai and Pallavi (one of CSIMs students too!) greeted us and gave an

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad NGO forum calls for hike in funds for healthcare

2008-09-03T23:06:00.009+05:30

Hyderabad - An NGO-civil society forum has stressed the need for a coordinated effort of public, private sectors and NGOs to ensure increase in the budgetary allocations for health in developing countries. Addressing the first session at the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) here on Wednesday, WHO director (Health Systems Financing), David B. Evans, lamented that a majority

In conversation with NGOpost

2008-07-12T17:09:00.001+05:30

Today I arranged a phone call with Parul Gupta and Nitin Gupta, the founders of NGOpost and I found something that amazed me.They felt that NGOs working on the same social issue rarely talk to each other with to share knowledge and exchange best practices. From her prior experience working with various NGOs related to education and women's development, Parul feels that there is a pressing need to

Let's keep going - but stay focused !!

2008-07-08T19:38:00.003+05:30

In conversation with Badhri I found each of us have a passion towards society. Our group seem to have the right thoughts and spirit. Essense for any powerful team to achieve their set goal. We have a goal ! Let's refine it further.. Well should I say prioritise ! Technically speaking we have planned our architecture, lets get into implementation. Module by module... Out of the nutrients we have

Access to notebooks at government schools

2008-07-04T11:38:00.004+05:30

I was in conversation with our team-mate and member of India Sudar, Shiva about the education for students from the lower-economic section of the society.I came to know from him that while the government provides textbooks and uniforms for free, they don't have the capability provide notebooks. This unsurprisingly turns out to be a severe limitation to learning. When inquired, the government

Hitting the Road: Teaching module - Draft 1

2008-07-03T08:24:00.002+05:30

Idea generated for schools so far Teach kids to make their own notebooks. How does this help?non-availability of free notebooks @ govt schoolspotential means to earnTeach kids of appropriate age about technologies related to clean energy like solar energyHow tap solar energyHow the market is growing etc How does this help? creating experts in a market of demand for the

"Let there d.light!"

2008-06-08T13:45:00.002+05:30

A picture says a thousand words. So...

What are we waiting for?

2008-05-24T08:41:00.006+05:30

Here is an outline of what has been happening over the last few months.OUR OBJECTIVE is officially posted on Targeting the RootsAish, Badhri, Jagan, Ranjit, Shashi, Shabnam, Dhaval agree to it.Priya, Sarathy, Krishnakanth have officially taken a "sabatical" for their current personal commitmentsA comprehensive teaching module aimed at imparting the following to underprivileged kids was proposed

A child tries to make a difference !

2008-05-18T03:49:00.000+05:30

Child Labour

2008-05-16T10:54:00.002+05:30

Most of us may have discussed and thought of how the Child Labour Laws in India are strong enough but leave much to be desired when it comes to implementation of the laws and rehabilitation of the 'rescued' children. A start has obviously been made with the government recognizing the problem and amending the earlier Child Labour Act 1986 and bringing more professions under the purview of the

Like Minded People and a Mine Of Information

2008-05-09T17:04:00.003+05:30

I was searching for more information on SABRAS - a company founded by salt pan workers in Gujarat, when I stumbled upon two links.Think Change India and IndiaCorpsThink Change India, as is clearly mentioned on their website tracks social innovation and social entrepreneurship in India - A topic of great interest to me.IndiaCorps is a well established organization which takes up social projects in

Follow up on RangDe

2008-05-09T16:45:00.002+05:30

Abhishek Khurana and I had a couple of queries which we mailed to RangDe.org. They responded promptly. Reproducing the responses here.Query 1: When I was searching for borrowers whom I could lend to, I realized that the search for borrowers in UP or J&K did not throw up any results but searching in Tamil Nadu gave quite a few. My query is, are you concentrating on a particular state or group of

Disruptive Innovation

2008-04-30T22:32:00.004+05:30

Apologies for including a jargon here; but Disruptive Innovation(DI) has always interested me. What is DI and why is it on this blog.DI is the act of innovating which disrupts/stops the current of way of doing things and introduces a radically new way of doing the same things - for the better. It differs from Incremental Innovation (II)as II aims to bring about continuous and small changes to the

One size fits all will not work

2008-04-30T12:58:00.003+05:30

Henry Ford created history and employment when he pioneered the assembly plant. When all cars of a particular marquee were the same, they can be made using an assembly plant. Path-breaking without doubt, this concept of production has entered into many realms which are better off without it.Education is one such area. Umpteen articles have been written about how each child is different and needs

Here is "one" for Standard of Living

2008-04-06T10:33:00.002+05:30

Hyderabad a very "liberal" attitude when it comes to answering natures calls. Almost everyone seems to think "As long as it is out of your body, it doesn't matter where it goes" :).Aishwarya and I stay in an apartment adjoining a stream of sewage. Right on the main road, is a long compound wall and a relatively well constructed pavement. These are very attractive places for the "Filled-up and

Conversation with Mr. Raghuraman

2008-04-03T09:52:00.006+05:30

Met Mr. Raghuraman K. (Head – L&D, OD & Corporate Communications of DRF) on 1st April 2008. Few of my inferences listed below, after our conversation:1. The last batch of LAB school was at Abids, which got completed. Also got a clarity that they target the BPL group who are incapable of earning a livelihood.2. There are currently no LAB schools in the city. Mostly because they are not getting

Standard of Living

2008-03-25T07:22:00.005+05:30

The single common indicator used for Standard of Living in India is purchasing power parity-adjusted gross domestic product. Thats a big term with a lot of words. I tried reading up on it so that I could sound smart when I write this post, but I still couldn't understand. Economic terms have always scared me and they still do. So I looked up the measures that help define that standard of living

TARGETING THE ROOTS: Our Objective

2008-03-18T22:02:00.006+05:30

The following are the criteria that should help us define our Objective:1) It should be aimed at undertaking projects that help the children of India, who are the future of India.2) It should be aimed at SOL (Standard of Living).3) It should be simply worded so that everyone can understand.4) It should be broad so that we are able to cover all the entities that affect the SOL of those

My thoughts..!

2008-03-18T10:39:00.003+05:30

Guys it may be too lengthy but trust me i couldn't edit it more :-)Post interactions I understand we had successfully zeroed on children/Women as our target group which needs support or rather our services, but how is what needs to be defined effectively! It's clearly understood that our main objective is to raise the standard of living of people who are below the poverty line, as that's the

Do NGOs talk to each other? iCONGO

2008-03-16T08:55:00.004+05:30

This post is the first attempt to find out if the NGOs working on the same social concern talk to one another. Is there an umbrella under which NGOs of similar objectives come together to share knowledge and best practices so that they improve their reach to their beneficiaries? For example, an NGO called Project511 has a programme to train school drop-outs so that they can take sales jobs in

Trip to one of the Dr. Reddy's Foundation's LABS (Livelihood Advancement Business Schools)

2008-03-10T11:43:00.004+05:30

Date and Time: 7th March 2008, Friday @ 11.30 AM.Place: Dr Reddy's Foundation (DRF) LABS at Abids Aish and I headed towards an impromptu meeting to abids; where DRF vocational course is running or rather coming to a closure for this particular batch. A handful of guys and gals were present who were undergoing the sessions there. Mr. Devi Prasad (PRO at Reddy Foundations) accompanied us all the

How to look up, build and sustain a NGO?

2008-03-10T05:13:00.002+05:30

most of the ngo databases provide contact information for various ngos.http://www.ngosindia.com/a database of ngos. u can do a statewise search for ngoshttp://www.propoor.org/search.phpanother database to search for ngos in india. they have 13719 in their database. u can do a search based on keyword and states.http://www.indianngos.com/u can search ngos based on issues and state districtshttp://

NGOcamp ! Anyone ?

2008-03-06T04:56:00.003+05:30

It was during the last Skype meeting that we accidentally stumbled upon the idea of a networking event for NGOs in India. A quick google search for such events doesn't help much which essentially means that there is space for such an event, or not at all !The idea is to organise a networking cum experience sharing event for NGOs in India. Scale and details have to be decided if we decide to go

Powerful learning !

2008-03-05T07:31:00.002+05:30

I really don't know why I titled the post that way :) , but yes it has got something to do with effective learning , more specifically - ' Effective Teaching '.Most of us remember some specific teachers more from our school days than the usual ones who used to help us cram up our lessons. The way they used to teach, the methodologies they employed, their conduct in class everything together made

Being Child-Friendly

2008-02-11T06:28:00.000+05:30

The vision for this initiative has become clear: pursue ideas that will help to raise the standard of living of the future of India, namely, the children of India. The most effective strategy to do so, as of today, from our discussions seems to point in the direction of working at the level of school education. Also, we all seem to agree that there are many factors inherent in the idea of

The power of One !

2008-02-10T18:50:00.001+05:30

Many times we have contrary views.Sometimes we say one person can change the world.Sometimes we feel that nothing less than a movement can bring about the change.The truth may lie somewhere in between.A movement to bring about change, but started by an individual.Why am I saying this and why in this blog?I read a brief account of Hekani Jakhalu, a youth activist. You can read the article at this

Some Hope...!

2008-02-09T22:31:00.000+05:30

Badhri, Aish and I have been discussing aggressively on our next steps.. its weird but we have done that over the cups of coffee, .breakfast ;-) and also amidst heavy traffic while walking and talking..! We were just dabbling our hands into this and that when we finally concluded that Reddy Foundation discussion has to be taken forward, a visit to Anand Bharathi for a whole day event and extract

Key Issues - Women's Development, Children, Poverty

2008-02-09T22:27:00.002+05:30

WaterEducationHealthAgricultureEnvironmentNatural ResourcesMicro FinancePopulationDisabilityHousingEmergency ReliefHuman RightsDisplacementForest Land Rights and TribalsChild RightsWomen EmpowermentRight To informationRight to foodPanchayati RajPeaceAnimal WelfareLabour RightsIssues Employment Generation: capacity Building,

Targeting the meet - 4

2008-02-08T20:39:00.000+05:30

What: Targeting the meet - 4When: Sunday, Feb 10, 9PM - 10 PM (IST)Where: SkypeAgenda1. Past meet round-up: Are we drifting? - by Badhri2. Round-table: Past week(s) updates3. Discussion: Answerability5. Next week goals - team and individual5. Wrap

Minutes of the Meeting - 8th Feb 2008

2008-02-08T18:09:00.000+05:30

Participants: Aishwarya, Badhri, ShabnamDate: 8th Feb 2008Duration: 30 minutesTopics discussed:1. Direction of our activity related to RTI: The fact that children should form a focus of our efforts was reiterated by Badhri. So the understanding is we should search for a subject/area which is related, if not entirely focussed, on children.2. One of Badhri's wandering thoughts: India has so many

Need for answerability !

2008-02-07T11:35:00.000+05:30

Badhri has been asking me to write this one for quite some time and finally I am down to writing this post. The very fact that it required constant reminding from him reflects the need for this post.So here is the thing. We all are a part of this endeavour - "Targeting the Roots". We are also holding meetings regularly, but for one aberration last week. Apologies for that. I compare our thought

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan - A start

2008-01-14T19:15:00.000+05:30

I was able to start today, our research on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The objective, as I see it, is to identify issues with the SSA (especially its implementation) and further narrow down to issues which can be taken up by us. A search on Google, threw up a lot of search results, expectedly. A large part of these search results were government websites - union and state.This is the home page

Targeting the Meet - 3

2008-01-05T23:25:00.000+05:30

What: Targeting the Meet - 3When: Sun Jan 13 9pm – Sun Jan 7 10pm ISTWhere: SkypeAgenda: 1. New member intro2. Previous Fortnight goals update3. Discussion: RTI, fightcorruption, X-factor..any other?4. Next fortnight goals!5. WrapMinutes of this meeting - and all subsequent meetings can be found at:http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d55f4vs_2kxbm2w

Minutes: Targeting the Meet - 2

2008-01-05T23:09:00.001+05:30

Attendees: Jagan, Krishnakanth, Shashi, BadhriAgenda: 1. New member intro Krishnakanth (KK): Chartered accountant, Pricewaterhousecoopers, UK 2. Have you thought about factors affection Standard of Living?(KK)Concern: Members @ different countries, busy work life, how to sustain initiative?On SOL: SOL is generic term. Need to choose our focus. (eg. under-privileged, children etc)Western

Targeting the Meet - 2

2007-12-29T16:00:00.001+05:30

What: Targeting the Meet - 2When: Sun Dec 30 9pm – Sun Dec 30 10pm ISTWhere: SkypeAgenda: 1. New member intro 2. Have you thought about factors affection Standard of Living? 3. Why not start with a social ill? 4. Next fortnight goals! 5. Wrap

Stuck at X-factor. How to more forward?

2007-12-25T11:49:00.001+05:30

We have been talking about Standard of living, searching for factors affecting them, arguing for and against awarenessand a dozen other things. But let us admit to ourselves. Awareness is the only factor that we have at hand so far and we are still looking for the elusive X-factor(s)! That makes me think. Is this the only angle from which we can approach the whole initiative? Let us step back and

Why should I do something ?

2007-12-21T12:32:00.000+05:30

When I think of changing society or even world without being unrealistic, the first question pops up in my mind is "Why should I even bother about it?"After all I am happy, my family is happy and life is moving smoothly for me.So the first question to encounter is why , before we actually get into the details of HOW and WHAT to do.Why? Take a moment think about it. Do we really need to do

Minutes:Targeting the Meet - 1

2007-12-20T09:56:00.001+05:30

Attendees: Aishwarya, Badhri, Jagan, Priya, Sarathy, Shabnam, ShashiIntroductionAishwaraya: Software, Pramati Tech., Hyderabad, IndiaBadhri: Electronics Design, Synopsys, Hyderabad, IndiaJagan: Telecommunications, Muscat, OmanPriya: Ph.D student, Texas, Biosciences, USASarathy: Energy, California, USAShabnam: HR, Pramati Tech., Hyderabad, IndiaShashi: Electronics Design, Synopsys, Hyderabad,

Targeting the Meet - 1

2007-12-11T19:31:00.000+05:30

Now that there are sizable number of like-minded people ready to contribute for the blog and the objective, it becomes imperative that we talk and get to know each other. I have proposed conference meet.What: Targeting the meet (A conference net-meeting)When: Sunday, December 16th at 9 PM Indian Standard TimeDuration: 1 hourWho: All inviteesHow: Using Skype (Get it here)Agenda:Introduction of the

Minutes of meeting - 21st November 2007

2007-11-22T19:31:00.000+05:30

Attendees: Aishwarya, Badhri, ShabnamSummary: The group met after a long time of around 3 months. Concerns/Topics put forward werea. Meetings should be held more regularly and frequentlyb. There has been no activity done in the past 6 months since the group was startedc. Priya put forward her opinion on the nature and langugage of the blog postsd. There has been no meeting where all the members

"Define...Remember....Refine..." dubbed to English

2007-11-21T21:42:00.001+05:30

Well, I have never felt more naked before! :) Now, here is the dubbing in English of "Define, Remember and Refine""Improving the standard of living" is very broad objective. I have commonly seen one of the two scenarios in a group like ours trying to achieve an objective. - "No projects to do" In this scenario, when two days pass by, the group gets desperate looking for an activity to do and feel

While writing a post...

2007-11-21T13:31:00.001+05:30

Hi all,This is Priya Venkat from El Paso, TX. I am glad to be a part of this group.As we are all living at different parts of the world, its no way possible to exactly understand what others are actually thinking unless we communicate in an effective manner. As a Ph.D. student who has gained some experience in writing technical article and as an individual who has less vocabulary knowledge, I

Define....Remember...Refine

2007-10-05T23:00:00.001+05:30

For a nascent team like ours with an objective as broad as "improving the standard of living of the society", the biggest question is "Where do we start?". Looking out for a good project to work on, we may get so restless that we feel the need to "just get started somewhere". Or we are drowned in the sea of "good project ideas" that we end up implementing projects targeting mutually unrelated and

Thoughts after our meeting today

2007-10-05T20:59:00.001+05:30

A few things that I felt are really important for our initiative to achieve its objectives.i) Considering that this group will necessarily consist of people who are from varied backgrounds and having different thought processes, differences in opinion are inevitable and are, in fact, required. I would request everyone to feel free to express their opinions, their reservations about others'

Minutes of Meeting - 15:00 to 15:45, 5th October, 2007 @ Whitehouse, Hyderabad

2007-10-05T20:49:00.001+05:30

Attendees: Aishwarya, Badhri, ShabnamTopics put forward for discussion:1. What are the contents that can go on the blogi. An ancillary blog was started to store any information that we deem important for our endeavor. Visit the blog here.ii. It was agreed upon that we need to update the blog on a regular basis to ensure that it does not get mothballed.iii. It was decided to update the objectives

Our Initiative..!!

2007-09-27T15:03:00.000+05:30

There’s no denying the fact that India has come a long way since 15th August 1947 economically on the global front...but the progress has been only on a superficial level...at a grassroot level there’s still so much to do…so much pain and agony for the majority of Indian population. Today Politics has become a money-making profession; the zeal to work towards the development of people is no more

Shrug off the garb of Designer Social Work and "get your hands dirty"

2007-09-27T13:42:00.001+05:30

Thanks Badhri for including me here. I would like to see the creation of this group blog as the first step towards our "walking the talk" resolution. I would start this blog with one of the very few pieces of introspection that I intend to put here. Otherwise, our intention is to put real good ideas and work, and to be sure, all serious things need not be done with a serious face. Humour is an

Taking the ball and rolling it!

2007-09-27T10:13:00.002+05:30

I have lived in India for almost all my life. Well..almost. For a short of time I had been in the US. Yea... if you had gone through the blog title, read so far, you are thinking in your mind."Oh! Not another supercilious NRI who harps about the comparative inequality in India and blames the politicians for it!"Tell you what! I used to be one among them, making one-to-one comparison between a

Members

2007-01-01T15:14:00.003+05:30

KrishnakanthShashiPriyaRanjitShabnamDhavalSrinivasAishBadhri

Objectives and Guidelines

2007-01-01T15:00:00.001+05:30

The initiative: Targeting the rootsCore belief: Standard of living in a society can be improved only by the people who constitute it. If they don't work towards better living standards, nobody will.Purpose of the initiative: To strive for improvement of living standards in Indian society.Objective of the blog: This blog forms a rallying point for our initiative. Please DO NOT mistake the blog for