The Last 500 FeetVishy KurugantiJanuary 12, 20138 mins[Editor’s Note: Paul Polak, social entrepreneur and author of Out of Poverty, wrote this highly informative narrative of the problems (and some proposed solutions) in the rural transportation area…
Vibrant Gujarat 2013 Day #1 – Perspective in 12 TweetsVishy KurugantiJanuary 11, 20132 minsMadhu Kishwar shared a dozen tweets which summed up her takeaways from the first day of Vibrant Gujarat 2013. My personal favorites are #5, #6, and #9. 1\6 Even at risk of being damned for life by my…
Indian Social Enterprises Getting a Silicon Valley MakeoverVishy KurugantiJanuary 10, 20132 minsTechCrunch reports that Bangalore/Seattle-based Unitus Seed Fund got a fresh infusion of $8 million from a bevy of A-list investors – from Silicon Valley and Bangalore. I believe the entry of the…
Announcing Tata Social Enterprise ChallengeVishy KurugantiDecember 18, 20121 mins2012 has been the year of social enterprise challenges and social enterprise incubators in India. The exciting addition to the former is Tata Group’s announcement of the Tata Social Enterprise…
Most Indian men are Cambridge MenVishy KurugantiDecember 06, 20122 minsPic courtesy merrittolson.wordpress.com At some point in your school (or college) years, you might have heard of this joke. Following the annual debate competition between Oxford University and…
Meet the Indian Howard Lutnick: actually you know him wellVishy KurugantiNovember 30, 20123 minsIf this is the first time you’ve heard of Howard Lutnick (or Cantor Fitzgerald), do read this, this, and this. Yesterday, I came across a FUCCHA post that listed out a long list of wonderfully…
Siemens Stiftung announces the Empowering People AwardVishy KurugantiNovember 27, 20122 minsPic courtesy siemens-stiftung.org [Update: The deadline for the award application has been extended to Jan 31, 2013.] Munich-based Siemens Stiftung (“foundation” in German) wants to identify efficient…
Once upon a time in SeattleVishy KurugantiNovember 24, 20125 minsB was born into an upper middle class family in Seattle. Born in the mid 1950s, B had two sisters and showed early signs of competitiveness when he organized family athletic games at their summer…
Justrojgar – India's newest BOP employment exchangeVishy KurugantiNovember 21, 20121 minsPic courtesy arpitnext.com Seattle and Bangalore-based Upaya Social Ventures alerted me about their recent investment into Justrojgar.com. While terms of the deal are not disclosed, Upaya has…
Rockefeller Innovation Challenge WinnersVishy KurugantiNovember 15, 20123 minsBack in May, I wrote about Rockefeller Foundation’s Innovation Challenge 2012 – a call for ideas in three key areas (Farming, Irrigation and Decoding Data). The panel of judges selected fifteen…
