Warrior against odds: Umendra Dutt’s poorly funded, lean staffed team is quietly and gamely trying to turn farmers to natural agriculture in a Punjab that is losing rural folk to cancerous water. It’s an unequal battle but it’s steadily being fought.
Keeper of seeds: Dr Debal Deb believes that unless India’s elite gives up its ‘developmentality’ and sits listening at the feet of our eco-system people, it will not learn how much the environment matters to our well-being
Clothier to the poor: Since 1998, Anshu Gupta’s Goonj has innovated in many ways to deepen our superficial awareness of the importance of clothes for the poor
A rare and enviable school: 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
Making the foot run: 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
Raging into the night: 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.
A magic wand to zap plastics: Alka Zadgaonkar conjures up a way to end waste plastics menace by creating value for collectors and processors
A U-Turn at B-School: M P Vasimalai’s rural upbringing made him turn back to rural India, soon as he graduated from IIM-A
Reality catches up with GNI’s Publisher: Having published GoodNewsIndia since 2000, it was hard to overlook MGM Beach Resort’s ways in my own backyard.
The road from Marx turns right at Gandhi: Mary and Bablu didn’t settle at Timbaktu to retire, but to begin again with the conviction that nature is what really matters.
Dreams come true in Ratnagiri: An unlikely team of clerks in government offices in Mumbai are reaching out to rural school children in Ratnagiri district
Battling for governance : Parivartan’s unknown little Indians like Santosh, have fought to clear the thickets to form tracks to good governance.
The Ganga in the sky: Residents and establishments in Tamil Nadu have taken to rain water harvesting and water recycling proving that local action can alleviate shortages.
The two-pit privy man: Perfecting a simple sanitation solution and getting it to revolutionise Indian society has taken 35 years of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak’s life
Young voices rising: Nandana Reddy and Damu Acharya have approached the issue of India’s working children by creating activists from children’s own ranks.
Minimalism in service: Dada Lakhiani is a role model for everyone who is sitting out for the right time, funds and opportunity to do something for India.
Staring down droughts: Amidst the gloom of droughts and suicides, we have this transformation of farmers who will look a drought in its eye.
A Gandhi education pays off: Cherkady Ramachandra Rao, now 86, lost his parents when 2, found Gandhi when 7, and has not been lost ever since.
Inside China’s anti-poverty success: Does China’s economic performance show-up India, or are there some unique merits in our system that we do not value sufficiently?
Beyond even his dreams: 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.
Enfolding the lost ones in Goa: 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.
Jim Garthe’s innovation: The pioneering work of Jim Garthe at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, in converting plastic waste into an energy resource has a great significance for India’s environment.
Help for puzzled visitors: Caring for autistic and special children in India, has been entirely mothers’ and private citizens’ effort, as typified by Shristi Special Academy in Bangalore.
World standard toilets: Since 1999, Fuad Lokhandwala has been demonstrating in New Delhi that building and running toilets to world standards is possible along sound commercial lines.
The new Indian rope-trick : 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.
A daughter returns: 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.
Digging deep into Sanskrit: Prof. Lakshmi Thathachar at Melkote is a teacher, ecologist, animal breeder, computer adept and a champion of Sanskrit as an unmined knowledge source.
Where water flows in veins: 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.
Biodiesel goes from lab to land: 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.
After micro credit, it’s micro capital, now: Aavishkaar is a pioneer attempt by India’s overseas professionals to bring venture capitalism to socially, environmentally relevant small businesses.
A Marathon man in village-India: The success of Rangaswamy Elango at Kuthambakkam village justifies the hope that Gram Swaraj will yet bloom all across India.
A soldier’s march into peace: Anna Hazare’s work with Ralegan Siddhi has thrown up a model for all round development of India’s villages.
This postman delivered more than mail: This vintage classic from the 1930s should give us heart because it shows service to fellowman is intrinsic to Indian way of life.
Bridges to mainstream life: Girish Bharadwaj’s foot bridges for isolated villages are transforming communities—and are aesthetic as well
