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.  ⇒⇒


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 –  Vetiver : an interlude – 
What is pointReturn | Mission


MAGAZINE

List of all stories

Random Picks

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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.



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.


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.


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.


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.


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?


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


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


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.


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.


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


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


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.


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.


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


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.


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.


Sifted from main media

Sep 28, 2006

Surprising coconuts have taken this long to confront colas: they are safe, healthy, biodegradable, competitive and put profit into our farmers’ pockets and not some far MNC’s.

What they needed was someone to make them appealing, easy to open at the point of use and ensure reliable supplies. Health Magic, a Bangalore company has just done that and business is growing among techies and upscale pros. H R Yogesha worked out a way to attractively carve coconuts into a standard shape, preserve the fresh cut white look and made them un-messy to handle and dispose off. Sales are 2,000 nuts per day and growing. “...if we miss a single day, phones start ringing,” says a happy Yogesha.

Read the whole delightful story here.

OTHER PICKS:  Muslim enthusiasm for Sanskrit |  Business ranis |  ...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:

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

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

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

The whole family gathered around it

Dec 21, 2002:Newsclip
32nd National Games wows everyone.

Vajpayee declared that India was ready to bid for the 2012 Olympics! 

Jan 10, 2003:Environment
Taming the fly ash menace.

Fly ash is a very usable resource

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

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

Dec 02, 2002:Initiative
An online blood donors network

Database of volunteers throughout India, who are willing to donate blood

Jun 08, 2003:Trend
Justice on faster track

The number of heinous crimes had come down, particularly in Rajasthan and Maharashtra

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

Indian manufacturing efficiency is on a roll

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

Today only 75,000 chirus are left on this planet

Feb 25, 2003:Update
How fares that anti-pollution invention?

Many of the stumbling blocks he has faced may have been overcome by a smart MBA

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

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

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.”

Apr 08, 2003:Economy
Not by software alone

India’s knowledge-edge is making it a success in the $3 trillion global auto-parts industry

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

India’s big IT companies are bigger than you think

May 20, 2003:Sciences
Two breakthroughs

India will gain her identity due to the efforts of her little known sons

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

Dec 25, 2002:Newsclip
A Metro at last for a choking New Delhi.

Delhi Metro had taken barely four years to execute

Dec 03, 2003:Innovation
Karan Grover’s building is Green Platinum

India can escape the horrors that the West went through before it recovered

Jan 04, 2003:Energy
Railways take a serious look at bio-diesel

Rs.150 crores would be shaved from their annual fuel bill

Feb 15, 2004:Ideas For India
The M S Swaminathan Plan

Water-wars and resentment against migratory labour are beginning to rear their heads.

Oct 08, 2003:Environment
Forests envelop a steel town

Vizag Steel itself is one of the most modern steel plants in the country and a government run unit which has revitalized itself

Nov 19, 2002:Energy
Ethanol blended auto fuel debuts

The implication of this move is enormous for India

Jun 01, 2003:Water
A gathering of water warriors.

As an expression of defiance the Convention decided to boycott bottled wate

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 15, 2003:Reforms
Exposing the PDS flaws

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

Jul 05, 2004:Ideas For India
People-sized desalination

An ox driven desalination plant is capable of producing 600 to 700 litres of potable water per hour

Jul 30, 2003:Newsclip
The Indian edge in education

“The United States contracts out its technical thinking to Asia”

Nov 09, 2004:Innovation
The import of EDUSAT

It is unlikely that any other country made such a decision, before it became affluent.

Feb 10, 2003:Innovation
Rebuilding coral reefs for fisheries

The idea has been well thought through— from the sea bed to the supermarket shelves

Jan 13, 2004:Memory Speaks
Papad prophesies

The bride-to-be was put through a ‘fool-proof’ test: get her to roast a papad.

Jan 09, 2004:Economy
Drucker on outsourcing, India and China

“I think India’s progress is far more impressive than China’s.”

Aug 29, 2005:Update
An opportunity to serve Sanskrit

Sanskrit may not be a dead language but there are no lack of efforts to kill it.

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

Development without democracy is like having brilliance without character

Jul 01, 2004:Innovation
Plastics recycling is out in the streets

Ahmed Khan has now produced what seems a flawless solution that will satisfy all critics.

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”.

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:Innovation
A digital rural market covering 6000 villages

eChoupals will arrive in 100,000 villages within a decade

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

Jul 02, 2003:Ideas For India
An Indian use for geodesic domes

Is there an enthusiast out there to commission a study of this idea by specialists?

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

The Van Ooetegham discovery seems precisely targeted at India.



...list of all articles




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