Anaemedia

Recently, I came across an interesting initiative to make health monitoring equipment for the grassroots market. Here are some excerpts from their website:

...

"There is therefore an unmet clinical need of an affordable, robust, portable, non-invasive and easy to use instrument to detect and importantly, MONITOR anaemia. To make a real difference, such an instrument must find its way to the grassroots, into the hands of the 3,24,000 strong Aanganwadis , the primordial health care unit of Rural India"

...

"AnaeMedia is a socio-technological initiative. We have developed a prick-less anaemia scanner that can measure HB levels and help diagnose anaemia by referring to an accompanying simple chart. It is designed for use by low-skilled village health workers, rugged and dust-proof to last in the countryside, and equipped with a rechargeable battery and hand crank mechanism for operation in areas with infrequent electric supply."

Social Enterprise & Investment Forum

Last date for enterprise nominations: 15th February, 2009

Sankalp (English: Pledge or Determination) is conceived as a South Asia Social Enterprise and Investment Forum with the primary goal of bringing together various stakeholders sharing a common conviction that capital should be invested to create multiple bottom-line returns (financial, social and environmental) and not exclusively financial (profit-maximizing) or social (philanthropic) returns.

Sankalp 2009 along with partners such as The Rockefeller Foundation, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the Rural Innovation Network (RIN) is the region's first investment forum for emerging enterprises as well as ideas that aim to solve pressing issues of the day in a sustainable and profitable manner. Sankalp is an initiative of IDG (India Development Gateway).

Sankalp 2009 is an effort to discover, connect and support the most investible social MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium enterprises) operating in high impact sectors such as:

• Agriculture and Rural Innovations
• Education for all
• Clean tech and Energy
• Healthcare Inclusion
• Highly Scalable Social Models

The event will represent the culmination of months of nation-wide search to recognize the most Emerging models & High Impact Social Enterprises.

"Why are you doing this?"

A close friend of mine has this very interesting process of getting first year students and offering them internships during winter vacations. This is a short 25-30 day period wherein they get to do something hands-on while he gets some ideas executed through them.

Of course, it has reaped excellent rewards in the past with the CURE video being one of the successes. This year again we met some fresh faces with the gleam, enthusiasm and dreams of the college youth. When we were done discussing the ideas and plans, they asked us a very pertinent question -- "Why are you doing this?"

The question may have been a simple, logical and finite one but the series of questions that it started inside me were endless...

... I really wanted to say that this is what I would want to do throughout life... and it is a lot of
the other stuff that I do that should be the object of this particular question...

... Ideas, thoughts and experiments is what help us learn... and this is a way of experimentation...

... It is giving importance to the part inside me which always wanted to teach... always wanted to part of the academia... this is a small way to keep in touch with it and keep the fire raging....

Interesting day... nice kids... a lot of questions... :-)

Shocking...

I was reading this article in Down To Earth a few days ago and found out that -- doctors treating victims did not know the exact composition of the gas that was leaked on Dec 03, 1984.... is when more than 20,000 people died... 3800 of them immediately... (Source)

This shocked me beyond my wits... how can a company cite "trade secrets" and shy away from its responsibilities... what was the government doing? How could Union Carbide even make such a statement and get away with it? How could they even think that they could get away by making such a statement?

Shocking... this is the real world that we need to deal with... no theories work... this is the "big bad" world... The Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Union Carbide were social catalysts too... and very strong ones at that... man-made... lakhs are still facing the consequences more than 23 years after it happened...

... But they were catalysts which we would never want to emulated... catalysts which we would not bless.... but catalysts from which we could learn a lot...

There is a saying in Sanskrit which translates to "Pray to the demons first... so that they do not spoil your work..."... lets pray to them, so that we do not have such tragedies in future...

Exceptionally Inspiring...

A friend sent me a wonderful article today morning... The following quote from it is exceptionally inspiring...

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans, that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that never otherwise would have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Begin it now."

- Goethe