On July 23, 2015, New Delhi-based non-profit Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) announced 24 winners out of 320 nominations from eight South Asian countries at their 6th mBillionth Award 2015 Gala. The award salutes mobile-based innovations for development.The winners were selected by a Grand Jury after two days of deliberations in June…
Six weavers – three each from the Barpali and Nupatana handloom clusters in Odisha – have won the Digikala Handloom Design Competition. On January 12-13, DEF founder director Osama Manzar and Microsoft Lead (Community Affairs, CSR) Manju Dhasmana awarded certificates and cash prizes to the winners during a small ceremony in the area. More than…
This article was first published in the Mint newspaper on March 2, 2016. This is a story of communities whose world of knowledge, skills and wisdom lies in oral and audio visual communication. Despite being functional illiterates, their current generation is fast adopting digital tools and media to leverage their traditional skills, like folk music—not just…
The organization may call itself the Barefoot College (BFC), a world famous institution located at Tilonia a remote village 35 km from Ajmer city in the semi-arid and hilly district of the same name in Rajasthan, but it leaves a deep footprint on the minds of anybody who cares to visit it. Today Tilonia is…
Raghav Mahto was 20 when I first met him in 2006. He was from a small village in Mansoorpur in Bihar’s Vaishali district. His house is hardly 10km from the famous Vishwa Shanti Stupa. He belongs to the Kumhar caste classified under other backward classes. He has not studied beyond Class II; yet, Mahto has…
Taking forward the partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, an independent non-profit committed to promoting liberal policy and politics, we are hosting a summit on ‘Individual Rights in the Age of Digital Medium’ in Bengaluru, Karnataka on September 30, 2016. For the same, we invite papers on themes around (i) Access, Openness & Diversity; (ii)…
The 6th edition of the mBillionth Awards marked an important day for both the grassroots NGOs and the digital community.At a time when there is growing distrust of NGOs across the country, the need for a validated and verified identity has become all the more pertinent for non-profits.July 23, 2015, marked an exciting time in the history …
Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) is going back to school, literally. In partnership with global IT consultancy giant Capgemini, DEF has taken up a project called “Raising standards of education through digital intervention” under which it will adopt government schools within a 50 km radius of 10 cities in India – New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon,…
“The goal to digitally empower 1 Billion people in the long run is a lofty target something few organisations would have dreamt of. Digital is such an exciting space to be in in these times of #Digital India etal. The political establishment wants it, the nation is craving for it and nothing in the world has made it more equal than digital & ICT tools has.”
“Another thing I have been liking about DEF is its Open work culture. Osama sir never wanted a partition to be put as cubicles etc which must be unique. I have read and seen on tv Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook’s office to be this open. Openess also is equality.”
बाईस साल के मल्हार इंदुल्कर कोंकण क्षेत्र में बहने वाली वशिष्टि नदी के तट पर रहते हैं। जब उन्हें यह पता चला कि वहां का औद्योगिक कचरा नदी के जीव-जंतुओं को नुकसान पहुंचा रहा है, तो उन्होंने ऊदबिलाव के संरक्षण में खुद को झोंक दिया। ऊदबिलाव बीमार मछलियों को खा लेता है, जिससे नदी में…
