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Jack the Vietnam way
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
ABOUT a decade ago Tom C. Kavalackal, a well-to-do Keralite, made a trip to Vietnam. Quite by chance, he was served ...
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You can fund an artisan directly now
Prashun Bhaumik, New Delhi
A small loan and some nifty marketing helped Ashwin, a bamboo craftsman, become an entrepreneur with a turnover of Rs ...
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Fridge from the sun, cooling in the middle of nowhere
Civil Society News, New Delhi
WHEN tribal women go into forests in Udaipur district to pick fruits like jamun and sitaphal, they are always in ...
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The good noodle is here and getting popular
Civil Society Trends, New Delhi/Mumbai
NOODLES come with irresistible charms. Children who won’t eat their meals will happily slurp up a bowl of noodles. Working ...
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Restaurants brace for change, seek govt help
Sidika Sehgal, New Delhi
In 2018, Anusha Pinto and Vijay Giri started Fullyfilled, a small restaurant serving shawarmas and momos in Bengaluru’s posh Indiranagar area. ...
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Gunsberg gingerale is the new flavour
Raj Machhan, Chandigarh
In a market dominated by international beverage majors, here is a homegrown brand of natural ginger ale and ginger beer ...
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Folks, plates, trays and more from paddy straw
Rwit Ghosh, New Delhi
Every year Delhi’s skies turn extra murky when farmers in Punjab burn paddy stubble to clear their fields. Ecoware is ...
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Goa's walking company offers unusual experiences
Ashwini Kamat, Panaji
When 28-year-old Varun Hegde decided to quit his job in Germany and return to Goa with the vague plan of ...
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Toilet has sensors to stay clean
Rwit Ghosh, Faridabad
Most public toilets stink but not GARV toilets. Small and portable, these loos are equipped with biosensors which sniff out ...
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Hiring the disabled: Youth4Jobs' winning model
Civil Society News, New Delhi
Everyone is worried about the lack of jobs in the Indian economy. Where will a growing number of young people ...
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Pickles from a family tradition
Kavita Charanji, New Delhi
Vikram Bhargava’s hobby was making pickles at his family farm in Paharapurwa village, in Rajnagar tehsil of Madhya Pradesh. His ...
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'Environment needs tech, innovation'
Civil Society News, New Delhi
It is not common to find a hard-nosed environmentalist with a fan following in the boardrooms of corporations. Chandra Bhushan ...
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Atulyakala helps deaf artists make a living
Rwit Ghosh, New Delhi
In 2013, when Smriti Nagpal went with her sister to an art exhibition, she met Amit Vardhan, a hearing impaired ...
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Kokum booms and sol kadi is the winner
Shree Padre, Kasargod
Kokum (Garcinia indica), an indigenous fruit with medicinal value, is becoming the nub of a rising beverage industry in the ...
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A really big EV: How Kona changes the game
Murad Ali Baig, New Delhi
The launch of the Kona by Hyundai in July has raised the bar for expectations from electric vehicles (EVs) in ...
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Tiles from plastic for paths and roads
Rwit Ghosh, New Delhi
ParaS Saluja is sitting coolly in a scrapyard in Ghaziabad, unaffected by the heat or the junk. His business, Shayna ...
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Hygiene technicians, not just cleaners
Rwit Ghosh, New Delhi
Diversey has made cleaners into hygiene technicians to give back to society through an initiative called Garima. A global company whose ...
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Just Organik goes to small farmers in Uttarakhand
Kavita Charanji, New Delhi
Businesses in organic products are as much about social impact as healthy bottom lines. It means farmers, consumers and the ...
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Solar dryers giver farmers market clout
Shree Padre, Nashik
It is a story heard across India. Small farmers are left with vegetables they cannot sell when prices fall because ...
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Plastic into products: Upcycling the Lifaffa way
Rwit Ghosh, New Delhi
Kanika Ahuja is the CEO of Lifaffa, an enterprise that converts plastic waste into sheets and then crafts them into ...
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Punjab firm has waste solution
Rwit Ghosh, New Delhi
The Delhi Cantonment area could be on its way to becoming a model for municipalities wanting to separate wet waste ...
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Refugee enterprise in Delhi is Afghan by design
Rwit Ghosh, New Delhi
Salma Gul, 32, lives in a small barsati in an inconspicuous lane in Delhi. An Afghan refugee, she fled her ...
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‘There has been CSR learning and course correction'
Civil Society News, New Delhi
In an unequal world, it has become increasingly important for companies to do their bit by society. Some of them ...
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Bamboo has got a big agarbatti connection
Civil Society News, New Delhi
After it went from being a ‘tree’ to a ‘grass’ and got freed from the over- protective clutches of the ...
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Cold storages for villages: A mini answer from CoolCrop
Shree Padre, Mangaluru
This April, for the first time, the Kunbi tribal community in Joida will harvest their crop of pickling mangoes without ...
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A neem factory on wheels! Fresh pesticide for farmers
Shree Padre, Ishwaramangala
Three months ago, Nagaraju G.H. started an unusual venture, probably the first of its kind in India. He set up ...
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Mutual fund for NGOs? It may just be possible
Civil Society News, New Delhi
Non-profits mostly have to strive hard to raise funds for their causes. It distracts them from the good work they ...
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Donkey love: Soap from milk is a beautiful idea
Kavita Charanji, New Delhi
Wasim has been earning from his donkeys for years by putting them out to work at construction sites and getting ...
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Meals for you: LeanSpoon knows to customise diet
Civil Society News, Hyderabad
Ordering in is bigger than ever before. Everyone’s buying food that comes home and is ready to eat. But what ...
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LED light keeps animals away from fields
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
As cropping season approaches in Kasaragod district of Kerala, farmers begin to get edgy. Wild animals from nearby forests start ...
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Whatever happened to EVs? 2030 goals need clear policy
Civil Society News, New Delhi
As air pollution levels soared in November, making it difficult to breathe in New Delhi and the surrounding National Capital ...
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There is money in honey! Ask Raikar & Co.
Derek Almeida, Panaji
When Suprajit Raikar started biking into Goa’s countryside with his friends, he was struck by the hardships unemployed youth deep ...
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A smart network makes electric cars smarter
Civil Society News, New Delhi
What will I do if the battery runs out and there isn’t someplace nearby where I can get an easy ...
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Shiji and Shaji open a jackfruit restaurant ?
Shree Padre, Manjeri
When travellers alight from buses in the busy Muttipala area of Manjeri city in Malappuram district of Kerala they can ...
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Rapidly growing market in small loans for small homes
Civil Society News, New Delhi
The government has been a game changer by setting a target to finance 20 million new homes for the poor ...
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Lawyers and doctors when you need them
Civil Society News , Gurugram
Imagine this: You have paid a lot upfront for a builder flat but it is nowhere near ready. The builder ...
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‘Sanitation is the fortune at the bottom of the toilet’
Civil Society News , New Delhi
The Union government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Campaign has had several impacts. It has created awareness about hygiene ...
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In Goa, a bag to beat the new plastic ban
Derek Almeida, Panaji
Measures for protecting the environment throw up alternative business opportunities as well. The banning of plastic bags in Goa from ...
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Sanitary napkins need a pro to get them right
Kavita Charanji, New Delhi
When the Nalanda Foundation set up a small sanitary napkin making unit in Ghazipur in east Delhi in 2014, the ...
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Banana man goes digital from nowhere
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
Four years ago, 23-year-old C.V. Srinidhi, a computer science graduate, decided to try his hand at natural farming. His family ...
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Taking crabs to market: Goan farmers learn how ?
Derek Almeida, Panjim
When researchers of The Energy and Research Institute (TERI) discovered that two ponds in Batim village were ideal for rearing ...
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How cool is carpooling? See how Orahi does it
Civil Society News, Gurugram
Five years ago, Orahi popped up, like so many new-age companies in India, with small money, a big idea and ...
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Stubble trouble: Is a market solution the way out?
Civil Society News, New Delhi
Innovative mechanisation and a robust market in crop residues may just be the best ways of discouraging farmers in Haryana ...
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‘Northeast is full of opportunities’
Civil Society News, New Delhi
For decades, the Northeastern states have been showered with government funds to promote development. One of the consequences of this ...
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FICCI team helps firms choose useful CSR
It is three years since changes to the Companies Act made it obligatory for managements to go beyond philanthropy to ...
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Janota’s trendy shoes are all soul and comfort
Derek Almeida, Panaji
Edwin Pinto is perhaps Goa’s only designer-shoemaker to keep his business running for 20 years without publishing a single advertisement. ...
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Kerala farmers give Desi cows get a brand name
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
How do you save desi or indigenous cows from extinction? Just make it profitable to rear them. It is really ...
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World Bank lends $650 m to SBI for rooftop solar
Civil Society News, New Delhi
The Indian market in rooftop solar installations has been growing because of falling asset prices, beneficial changes in legislation, new ...
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Fresh, crisp and catching the clean-eating trend
Civil Society News, New Delhi
Delivering hundreds of eatable salads across New Delhi and Gurugram in a day is not the kind of enterprise the ...
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Banglanatak makes villages into craft hubs
Subir Roy, Kolkata
When banglanatak.com first started working among the Chhau dancers of Purulia district in West Bengal there were barely a dozen ...
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Zonta's way: A dump can become a drop box
Umesh Anand, Bengaluru
It takes more than civic sense to get a city into shape. The best of intentions won’t make garbage disappear. ...
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Banana stem on path to fame with new takers
Shree Padre, Coimbatore
The banana is not just valued for its fruit. Its stem too is becoming a popular food in Tamil Nadu. ...
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Shared workplace comes with many advantages
Kavita Charanji, New Delhi
Connaught Place is abuzz as usual — cars whiz by, pedestrians gingerly negotiate the chaotic traffic, and shoppers and diners ...
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Orahi has made carpooling a smooth ride in NCR
Kavita Charanji, Gurgaon
For a large section of National Capital Region (NCR) residents, the daily commute from home to office and back is ...
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Cosmetics made to order and wholly organic
Civil Society News, New Delhi
When Kavita Bhatia-Gupta makes a face scrub, it is so fresh that you can smell the ingredients each time you ...
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‘MFIs have coped but going cashless is tough'
Civil Society News, Gurugram
The microfinance business works on a model of collection and disbursement. Traditionally it has been dependent on cash because loans ...
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India’s small, smart and passionate inventors
Harsha Sai, New Delhi
Twenty-eight children from all over India came to Rashtrapati Bhawan, the sprawling residence of the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, to ...
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Antim Yatra has services for bereaved families
Harsha Sai, New Delhi
In 2003 Daljit Sean Singh had a near death experience in America. Lying half-conscious on the road, he fervently hoped ...
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Punjabi jackfruit quest succeeds in Malaysia
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
Jackfruit isn’t prized in Punjab. It doesn’t have the status of the aromatic basmati rice or the tongue tickling sarson ...
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The market beyond drip
Civil Society News, Hyderabad
When plants and trees need water how much are they really asking for and when and how should it be ...
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Elderly start-up by caring young entrepreneurs
Kavita Charanji, Gurgaon
Arnab Sen lives and works in New York where he leads a clinically oriented physician engagement company. His mother passed ...
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Bottling the goodness of coconut oil
Gauri Gharpure, Panjim
Imagine leaving a corporate job in Mumbai to go to Goa for its coconuts. That is what Nilisha Ferrao, the ...
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Lok Capital makes profit with social impact
Civil Society News, New Delhi
In times when private equity investments haven’t been faring too well, Lok Capital is out there raising money for its ...
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Vedica’s MBA is smart, female and beyond profit
Kavita Charanji, New Delhi
Everything at Vedica is new and exciting, says bright young Ashmita Kannan, a graduate in computer science engineering from Kumaraguru ...
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Healthy, organic foods from Raj Seelam's 24 Mantra
Civil Society News, Hyderabad
Looking up to Raj Seelam is easy because he is all of six feet and three inches tall. But the ...
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Kerala promotes coir with organic sound panel
Saibal Chatterjee, Alappuzha
Of all the products that were on view at the sixth edition of Coir Kerala, an international exhibition, the Accoir ...
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Solar firm readies for place in the sun
Civil Society News, New Delhi
On the phone from Hyderabad, Vivek Subramanian is every bit an entrepreneur in full flow. We talk post-lunch, in time ...
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Bringing Sikkim ginger to the Delhi market
Subir Roy, New Delhi
Parvata Foods has marketed 100 tonnes of ‘Himalayan Ginger’ in the National Capital Region (NCR) through Mother Dairy’s 350 plus ...
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Bandhan grows and learns
Subir Roy, Kolkata
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the first banking licence to a microfinance organisation, creating Bandhan Bank, against the ...
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Multix as rural car gets big thumbs up from users
Civil Society News, New Delhi
Ganesh Narayan Chaudhry is a farmer in Mahapura village of Jaipur district in Rajasthan. His is an even-paced rural existence ...
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Jackfruit finds a company that knows to dream big
Shree Padre, Kannur
After studying India’s scattered jackfruit industry for more than a year, Subhash Koroth, 32, finally decided to take the plunge. ...
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With Microspin, it is cotton in, fabric out for growers
Jency Samuel, Chennai
At Buldana in Maharashtra a small, integrated spinning mill will soon become the first in the world where a farmer ...
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GudNeSs for Rs 10 with all the iron women need
Arjun Sen, New Delhi
A bar made from jaggery, nuts, seeds and multiple grains and available for just Rs 10 could be the low-cost ...
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Mahiti helps innovators with technology for social good
Frederick Noronha, Bengaluru
Like giant trees, impressive organisations have their beginnings in small seeds or little ideas. Mahiti.org, based in Bengaluru, started in ...
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