Samanvaya News Room

Rural Entrepreneurship Development Programme in Information and Communication Technology (REDPRINT) originally published in the Samanvaya website has been published by the ICFAI University Press as part of its publication on Entrepreneurship and Rural Development in India (ICFAI Books 2008, pgs 253, US$18). This publication is available for sale at www.books.iupindia.org

Samanvaya Freedom Lecture has caught the imagination of many of the Samanvaya regulars. Each year we bring one persona who has treated a different path and worked at the grassroot level to come and share his/her experience. This year we have invited Ms. Meenakshi of Puvidham , a rural school in rural Dharmapuri to share her experience and insights in managing a school in a remote rural set-up. Read related news item here Ms. Parimala Rao, Assistant Editor in the HINDU Business Line and a close associate of Puvidham will Preside over the lecture and introduce Ms. Meenakshi to the audience. Ms. Meenakshi will talk on Freedom to Teach under the title, 'Free to Teach' . The programme will be held on the afternoon of the 13th at the auditorium of Stella Maris College. This year Samanvaya Freedom Lecture is organized in collaboration with the Public Relations Department of the Stella Maris College in the city. The event will be hosted and organized by this department, thanks to its ...

Gopal had come down for a fortnight of internship with Samanvaya between 1st July to 14th July 2008. He has tried to summarise what ended up as a series of consultations on his work with us in his blog available here .

Sri. Bhuvan Pathak is not a new comer to Samanvaya. The convenor of the Himalay Swaraj Vidyapeeth had invited Ram for the annual Swaraj Samvad he organizes a few years back in the hills and also volunteered with Samanvaya team in the relief work post-tsunami in Nagapattinam. He was a surprise visitor at the Samanvaya office on the 17-18th of July. This time around he was here to discuss his latest venture to take forward the works of Sri. Dharampal as well as launch an organizational entity to work on the impact of global warming in the Himalayas.

On 14th July Ram gave a impromptu speech on the importance of research as part of academic learning for the final year students of PR Department, Stella Maris College, Chennai.

Ram, Chief Consultant of Samanvaya shared his thoughts on the knowledge dimensions of NREGA through a talk followed by interaction at the Centre for World Solidarity (CWS), Hyderabad on 1st July 2008. This session was hosted by CWS on behalf of the KICS forum which is supporting Samanvaya's enquiry into the knowledge dimensions of NREGA in principle and practice.

A part of Samanvaya's enquiry on the social security net introduced through the NREGA is being supported through a scoping study by the KICS forum and CWS, Hyderabad. A MOU has been signed in this regard for a period of six months starting from June 2008 till Dec 2008. The scoping study would provide directions for further research based on the study of the knowledge dimensions of the scheme both in principle and in practice.

Sunday the 3rd August 2008 Samanvaya is organizing a day long programme for a group of academics from USA. Organized as part of the Oakton Community College's Fullbright-Hays USA Project Abroad Programme, the programme is titled, 'In Search of Gandhi's India: Teaching and Learning Non-Violence in a Globalized World'. The fourteen visiting faculty will be in India between the 28th of June and 5th of August. As part of their visit they would be at Sabarmathi and Sevagram Ashram apart from listening to some eminent thinkers and Gandhian workers across the country including Ashish Nandy, Vinay Lal, Vandana Shiva, Ganesh Devy, Madhu Kishwar, Rajeev & Neeru Vora, Banwari lal Sharma, etc. In the last leg of their tour Samanvaya is organizing a day long programme with the team on the 3rd of August 2008. The day's programme titled, 'Gandhi for the 21st century' would consist of lecture and interactive sessions with Ram, Chief Consultant, Samanvaya and also tw...