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. ⇒⇒
Jun 26, 2006
The Lesser Florican [Kharmor in Hindi], a bird facing extinction, has been given a break by an innovative scheme of the Madhya Pradesh government. When special sanctuaries established in 1983 did not yield any hope, they thought of involving farmers with cash incentives.
In 2004, a prize of Rs 5,000 was announced for each farmer who reports the whereabouts of a bird and protects its egg. From zero, then 9 the current score has gone up to 23. All for a cost of a mere Rs 1,50,000. Grasslands may see the birds again. Full story.
Random picks:
“It is an oven which can cook, boil, roast and bake!,” says S Narayanaswamy
Jun 03, 2004:EnergyEventually a total of half a million megawatts are to be produced by nuclear reactors.
Nov 19, 2002:EnergyThe implication of this move is enormous for India
Mar 20, 2003:InnovationIndia generates 5600 tonnes of plastic waste daily. That is bound to grow
Sep 08, 2004:ActivismIf you marshall the Net, it’s not so hard to be a Thakkar.
Nov 09, 2002:TrendIndia’s knowledge services to the world is broader than you think. Most imagine it to be just software
Apr 28, 2003:Enthusiast“And when I heard of GoodNewsIndia in Rajkot during a seminar I was delighted,” said this grand old man.
May 08, 2004:GovernanceIndia has taken the first tentative step towards a full-fledged law to protect whistleblowers.
Dec 25, 2002:NewsclipDelhi Metro had taken barely four years to execute
Sep 25, 2003:UpdateFly ash, sewage sludge and the redoubtable water hyacinth could be combined into a formidable regenerating agent for depleted soils
Feb 19, 2004:ActivismOf the distortions in world trade indulged in by the West, the most stark are in agricultural subsidies
Mar 01, 2004:InnovationMany countries have evinced interest in buying India’s EVM
Dec 17, 2003:ProfileWe could be looking at some action with teeth to it...what can ‘you’ do?
Feb 09, 2004:ActivismVery few Indian commentators have bothered to question Transparency International’s techniques
Dec 19, 2003:Memory SpeaksCrowds frequently stopped the train he was on and would not let it pass until he had given his darshan.
Jan 22, 2004:EconomyCairn discovery was made precisely on river Sarasvati’s banks
Dec 19, 2002:EconomyIndigo will compete with models from the likes of Ford, GM and Hyundai
Jul 16, 2003:NewsclipDevelopment without democracy is like having brilliance without character
Jan 01, 2003:EconomyGrowth rate of 5.5% is “one of the highest ever recorded by a democracy.”
Jul 21, 2003:Ideas For IndiaThe most appealing feature is the wide variety of waste it can handle: tyres, plastics, paper, sludge, municipal waste and abattoir wastes.
Nov 28, 2002:ReformsOn Nov 26,2002, the Parliament passed the Securitisation Bill
Feb 18, 2003:SciencesVery few countries can today master, install and manage HVDC systems.
Oct 31, 2002:ActivismThe fightbak to save Kudremukh can only happen in a democracy that respects ‘systems’
Nov 28, 2003:EconomyThere is evidence of an India fever becoming a worldwide epidemic
Dec 29, 2002:ReformsBALCO, stagnant for years is now set to grow
Jul 02, 2003:Ideas For IndiaIs there an enthusiast out there to commission a study of this idea by specialists?
Mar 29, 2004:InnovationIn a world that has been drugged to believe that computing is not possible without Microsoft products, these four Indians are pointing to an enticing road ahead.
May 30, 2005:InitiativeYou don’t often get a more personalised, targeted-at-the-last-person dedication in social service.
A quick composting technique and a plant recycling TetraPak cartons
Aug 09, 2004:Ideas For IndiaIn just 3 quarters, TFR fell from 3.45 to 1.3 in the PSF pilot area, though admittedly it’s a small sample size.
Jan 15, 2004:Elsewhere“Indian firms are able to provide not just software… but complete business solutions.”
Sep 15, 2005:NewsclipCMS study has showed which products of reforms have worked: information technology and legislation, smaller-sized states and true competition.
Delivering sharp slaps on the notion of safe water having to come in priced bottles that are thrown away as litter.
Dec 31, 2003:NewsclipArmy may be the right means to deliver this development message.
Nov 09, 2004:InnovationIt is unlikely that any other country made such a decision, before it became affluent.
Jul 20, 2004:EnvironmentA most appropriately named village, Powerguda in Adilabad district Andhra Pradesh has pioneered a sale
Sep 21, 2002:NewsclipThe areas of his work may mystify the best of us but let us try
Jul 15, 2003:ActivismThe Kali Bachao Andolan (Movement to Save the Kali) has been formed by Parisara Samrakshana Kendra of Uttara Kannada
Aug 03, 2004:InnovationIt can travel 130 km on a full charge takes 7 hours.
Mar 09, 2003:EnvironmentThis confirms UN’s World’s Forest Report, 1999’s finding that India was the only developing country where forest cover was increasing