“There is so much negativity in our world, but the Manthan Digital Festival shows there is also soc much positive energy. This field is changing, there is always so much to learn. Instead of talking about the ordinary people – Aam Aadmi (Common man), we might be able to speak for India as a country…
While Internet users have increased, the not-so-healthy reactions from the govt have also risen In the past few years, although India has been ranked among the top three nations by number of Internet users and second only to the US in Facebook users, there has also been an increasing number of not-so-healthy reactions from the…
On 12 November, the eve of Diwali, while most of the country was preparing for the festival of light, I got a call from Arain Panchayat Bhawan, saying they wanted to talk with me on Skype. The people on the other side were mostly a young bunch of people from Arain village in Rajasthan and…
Impact sourcing should be less based on employment generation and more about using naturally existing resources to create impact on the local economy. But what is impact sourcing? Out of 42 million population of Kenya, 25 million carry mobile phones and 12 million of them use it to access the Internet. Kenya is also known…
Newsweek recently announced it will publish its last print edition on 31 December. The weekly magazine attributed its decision to the fact that two out of five Americans read and consume information on their mobile devices. Is that a sign? Not more than 1% of India’s population is truly habituated to depend fully on digital…
MORE than half of the people in the country have one. Whether it’s the latest smartphone or a simple flip phone, more and more people in Nepal are using them to stay connected to family, send text messages to friends, even check the latest updates on their Facebook newsfeeds. Mobile phones today have pushed the…
There is only one way India can become a leading country in the 21st century global economy—by ensuring unhindered deployment of its right to information (RTI) law and universally enabling it with the Internet. On 12 October, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a critical remark in this regard. “There are concerns about frivolous and vexatious…
I have coined a new job role—agent of the Internet and information—and the inspiration for this is the unusual story of two Indians who are spearheading the use of the Internet for empowerment. One is a 27-year-old former electrician and the other is a 67-year-old womansarpanch, the head of a village council. Both are dedicated…
I often use the phrase “bottom of the pyramid” to refer to that part of the untapped markets of the world that has people living on less than $2 a day. And I have realized that in India, home to 345 million poor people, you cannot be a sustainable consumer unless you are a producer. I…
Using the context of market development at BOP, we have studied the Digital Empowerment Foundation’s Chanderiyaan Project as a case study to understand how the project has been able to reduce the four market separations to develop market for Chanderi weavers in Handloom products. We used a case study approach to understand DEF’s Chanderiyaan initiative.…
