Started in 1972 in Rajasthan, India by Bunker Roy, Barefoot College trains uneducated women to become highly qualified solar engineers. Lacking both a basic education and common language, today women from around the world receive instruction over six months to enable them to free villages in their home countries from the pollution of kerosene [...]
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Converting to Electric Cars Could Be ‘Free’!
Posted in Insight, Technology, tagged Electric Cars, Energy, Oil, Philip Greenspun on May 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
At least at $130 / barrel of oil, according to MIT prof Philip Greenspun’s math. Here’s how he breaks it down:
total oil consumption in the U.S.: 21 million barrels every day (CIA Factbook)
cost per barrel: $130
days in year: 365
total spent per year: $1 trillion
percentage of oil consumed by passenger cars: 40 (source)
total spent per [...]
Dipti Vaghela Wins The Switzer Environmental Fellowship!
Posted in Inspiration, Technology, tagged Dipti Vaghela, Friends, Gram Vikas, India, Orissa, Switzer on May 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“Switzer Fellows are highly talented professionals who have the ability, determination and integrity to effect positive change as environmental leaders in the 21st century. Only the most active, committed and focused individuals will compete successfully to join the network of over 400 Fellows selected since 1986.”
Dipti has been working on appropriate energy technology, and is [...]
India’s National Innovation Foundation and Honeybee Network
Posted in Technology, tagged Service, Innovation, India, Anil Gupta, Honey Bee Network, National Innovation Foundation, pedal-powered washing machine, Remya Jose on May 23, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Hand-washing clothes in India is part of the daily drudgery for hundreds of millions of housewives who can’t afford the ‘professional’ male dhobis (or the electric washing machines) that urban middle-class & elites employ for laundry. The process is inefficient not just in terms of time, but also water usage and it often accounts [...]
The Source of Chronic Poverty
Posted in Insight, Technology, tagged C.K. Prahalad, Chronic Poverty, Enclosure of the Commons, Industrial Revolution, New World Order on December 6, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
The prime source of extreme chronic poverty and destitution globally is the unsustainability of livelihood options for people living in rural communities.
My first reaction to that statement was that it depends on what you mean by ‘unsustainability’. Villages in India have had specialized members of the community in hereditary crafts and trades for hundreds, if [...]
Making Better Surgeons
Posted in Insight, Technology, tagged Aravind Eye Hospital, Dr. Usha Kim, Health Care on February 26, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Fat Knowledge wrote about a surgeon who plays video games to improve his surgery and has even authored a study that’s shown that surgeons who game tend to operate faster with fewer errors than non-gamers.
That’s one way to do it.
Another is to do 100 surgeries a day like the ophthalmologists at Aravind. A resident [...]
Long Time Friend Mike Myers Returns to Aravind
Posted in Inspiration, Technology, tagged Aravind Eye Hospital, Chitra aunty, Dr. V, LAICO, Larry Brilliant, Madurai, Mike Myers, R. D. Thulsi on January 17, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Jan 10, 2005- Everyday Hereos Column
He was here in the younger days of Aravind, back in the early 80s when there were no computers, no LAICO building, “nothing but the spirit,” as he put it, and he’s now in his sixth visit to India finding new ways to use his wide-ranging talents to help Aravind. [...]
Sharpening Aurolab’s Edge with Joel Segre
Posted in Inspiration, Technology, tagged Aravind Eye Hospital, Aurolab, David Green, Dr. V, Joel Segre, Project Impact, Stanford University on January 17, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Jan 17, 2005 – Footprints Column
Note- names of Aurolab employees have been kept private to prevent headhunters from nabbing them.
“That which ceases to grow, begins to die” goes the old saying. The Aravind Eye Care System has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the last decade through the inspired efforts of many people, and Project Impact’s Joel [...]
Making the Connection with TIER
Posted in Inspiration, Technology, tagged Aravind Eye Hospital, Eric Brewer, Rabin Parta, Sonesh Surana, Theni, TIER, UC Berkeley on January 17, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Jan 10, 2005 – Footprints Column
“We’re from Aravind Eye Hospital. Can we go on your roof?” That’s what the residents of Theni and Ambasam heard as a small team of graduate students from the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), aided by Ashok and Saravan, went on a unique mission that took them to the [...]
