Daily Archives: May 26, 2014

Social media: weapon of masses

There is a buzz of excitement among Pashtun women in Pakistan. Corridors in Peshawar filled with news of extremism, for some extent at least, has been taken over by a teenage blogger. She writes her blog for the New York Times. It is a story of Sher Bano’s incredible courage that has brought the issue…

Making the most of mobiles

The Telecom Commission plans to use Rs.3,000 crore from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to provide mobile connectivity to 56,000 villages identified as mobile and telecom shadow areas. While USOF does that, we should not ignore the fact that out of the 867.02 million mobile subscribers (as of April) in the country, not more than…

Mobiles for social change

Various examples show the role mobile phones can play to trigger social and behavioural changes in India Not many of us are aware of the role that mobile phones can play to trigger social and behavioural changes in India. Let us look at a few examples. Mobile Kunji has been implemented in eight districts under…

Bridging connectivity gaps for better health services

If you have no electricity, you can survive despite inconvenience; if you have no pucca house, you still survive on thatched shelters; if you have bad roads, you can still communicate on the patched roads. But if you don’t have sound health, you simply lose your life. That’s what happens in villages of India. The fundamentals of…