Tag: development sector

  • How To Build Our Own Silicon Valley

    By ABHIJIT BHADURI —- FROM 2010 to this year, venture capitalists invested $168billion in firms in the Bay Area which accounts for almost a third of the total investments in America. Three of the world’s five most valuable companies are in the Silicon Valley: Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent) and Facebook. They are valued at $2.5trillion.…

  • Fundraising Is Selfless – Just Do It!

    By MICAH BRANAMAN SHARMA —- THE festive season is here once again! As families come together to celebrate a variety of festivals from Navaratri, and Durga Puja to Dussehra and Diwali, consumer spending traditionally skyrockets. To harness the excesses of consumerism for good, #DaanUtsav, literally the donation festival, kicks off in tandem with this celebratory…

  • Small Talk With Ashif Shaikh

    CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer four questions, not necessarily about their work, but about themselves. This week we catch up with Ashif…

  • Ordinary people, extraordinary power

    By ANSHU GUPTA —- THERE’S a recent image that will remain etched in our collective memory for a long time: 40,000 farmers from Nashik marching towards Mumbai in scorching heat to demand their rights. The reason it makes for a compelling image is because the farmers joined hands across caste, religion and class lines to…

  • Privilege And Bias Affect Our Empathy

    By ALEX GABBAY —- IN 2001, I moved to Kathmandu to produce three films for UNICEF. Whilst making them I realised that films were able to connect two communities: people in need and people with privilege. And that through storytelling we could create awareness and ultimately empathy. To give you an example, I made a…

  • Films to watch if you want to change the world

    WANT to change the world but aren’t sure where to start? Get inspired by watching one of these documentaries: 1. The Thin Blue Line and Making a Murderer are two documentaries following the cases of men exonerated of the crimes that they were convicted and details how mistakes, misconduct and malintent within the justice system (of…

  • Are We Oblivious To Caste Discrimination?

    By NITISHA PANDEY —- IF you think that caste bias is a thing of the past and India has moved into the 21st century with modern belief systems, you are mistaken, my friend. If you thought that maybe this inequality exists only in rural areas, you are wrong again. If you are consoling yourself by…

  • The Drama of Social Change

    LIVE theatre has been a form of communication since ancient Greece and was a part of everything from festivals, religious rituals, academia, athletics and poetry to everyday activities, including politics, law, music, weddings and funerals. Over the millennia, theatre developed and focuses shifted, depending on the culture and time. In the last few decades, a reimagining of…

  • Small Talk With Kathy Walkling

    CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer four questions, not necessarily about their work, but about themselves. This week we catch up with Kathy…

  • Is there a disconnect between donor giving and NGO needs?

    AS a donor, do you have a preconceived notion of what your giving experience should look like? In today’s culture of instant gratification, many want instant recognition of their gift. While it is heart-warming to see the appreciation of the person you are helping and watch them immediately benefit from warm socks or food, does…

  • Small Talk With Maitreyee Kumar

    CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer four questions, not necessarily about their work, but about themselves. This week we catch up with Maitreyee…

  • Be Kind, It’s Natural

    By AARTI MADHUSUDAN —- IT was 42 degrees. The sun was beating down with a vengeance at 12 noon. I was late to pick up my son from his playgroup. He was a two and a half year old reluctant nursery goer. I couldn’t run any faster from the end of the road where all…

  • Small Talk With Nikita Gupta

    CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer four questions, not necessarily about their work, but about themselves. This week we catch up with Nikita…

  • Working In Social Sector Similar To Parenting

    By GAURAV SHAH —- WHILE there may be numerous ways of bringing up children out there in the world, there’s one irrefutable, universally accepted fact about parenting: it’s tough. Funnily, the night outs, the constant worrying, the trips to the doctor, the endless negotiations (give and take on every possible thing under the sun) are…

  • Small Talk With Poonam Bir Kasturi

    CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer four questions, not necessarily about their work, but about themselves. This week we catch up with Poonam…

  • A Realisation Of My Privilege

    By WYONNA D’SOUZA —- WHEN I was in class 2, I remember breaking the shower while trying to fix it in my direction. So, I immediately placed it in the shower holder and pretended as if nothing had happened. Mom thought it was the domestic worker (Suman) at fault there, and I let her take…

  • Can We Trust NGOs?

    YOU might not have heard of this unusual form of measurement, but the Edelman Trust Barometer has been tracking trust since 2001. The responses for this annual survey are collected from 28 countries, which are then used to evaluate the public’s level of trust in governments, businesses, NGOs, and the media. This year’s results were…

  • Small Talk With Vishal Talreja

    CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer four questions. This week we catch up with VISHAL TALREJA, co-founder and CEO of Dream A Dream.…

  • Change Yourself, Change The World

    By VENKAT KRISHNAN N —- I HAD an interesting conversation with a seasoned development professional some years back, as he held forth on why ‘charity is bad and development is good’. “Imagine,” he said, “that you are standing by a river, and you see a baby floating by, obviously thrown into the water and likely to…

  • Giving Back On #GivingTuesdayIndia

    By MICAH BRANAMAN SHARMA —- GROWING up in the US, the day after Thanksgiving is commonly known as Black Friday, the kick off of Christmas shopping as part of the extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Over the years, however, Black Friday has become more and more insane with reports of deaths as people stampede stores or intimidate…

  • Acting On Empathy

    THERE is a pervasive theory from people outside the development sector that those who work in nonprofits, charities, or field agencies are “do-gooders”, motivated by empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of others – rather than the drivers that influence those working in other sectors. Do Gooders Or Doing Good? Anecdotally, this…

  • Media Misses The Development Sector

    THE 24-hour news cycle is our reality and newspapers now reflect that. When you open your paper or browser online you are bombarded with the most sensationalist news, amongst the advertisements, sponsored links, sports, op-eds, and other miscellaneous banality. A quick look at four of India’s top English news sites (Times of India, Hindustan Times,…

  • Small Talk With Ajit Sivaram

    CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer four quirky questions. This week we catch up with AJIT SIVARAM, the managing trustee of U&I. U&I…

  • Working In The Impact Space: Three Under-Addressed Challenges

    CHALLENGES. We all face them, regardless of where we work; however, they are more pronounced when it comes to the third sector where the definition of success is hazier with goals focused on “impact” rather than profit. Things that corporate teams take for granted seem unreachable or unimaginable to those working in under-resourced, donor-dependent, grant-driven…

  • Got EQ? Here’s Why You’ll Be Valued In the Development Sector

    EMOTIONAL Quotient: The magic ingredient that makes you a valuable addition to any organisation, especially in the impact sector. For years we’ve heard how important it is to have high EQ and how emotional intelligence helps us get ahead in life. So what are the signs of EQ? We put together a few tell-tale signs that…