Samanvaya News Room

Perhaps the largest annual gathering of Voluntary Agencies in Tamilnadu happens on the first Sunday of each year. In 2015, the same will happen on the 4th January Sunday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at Coimbatore.  Networking and Development Centre for Service Organization (NDSO) as it is called is an effort of one man, Sri. J. Prabhakar .  Ten years ago, when I first attended the meeting of the gathering there were less than 100 participants, in 2015 when the network is gathers for the 10th year, the participating organizations alone exceeds over 1000 and the total number of participants maybe much more. These are small local voluntary agencies, often a few individuals, who dare to dream of a different society and have put their all into manifesting the same in their own neighbourhoods. These are school teachers, housewives, autorickshaw drivers, slum dwellers, stenographers, lawyers, doctors, artists, mechanics, young mothers, students, retired government servants, t...

yes, we completed 16 years on Aug 15th...and after 10 years of Samanvaya Freedom Lecture, we have decided that we don't need to do these any longer. Samanvaya has had an interesting journey through these years and one consistent feature has been dialogue, dialogue on issues far beyond our control and scope, dialogues to explore together, to understand (in whatever limited manner), dialogues to pursue a whiff of knowledge, dialogues with people of diverse backgrounds - activists, academics, housewives, farmers, leaders, followers, aam aadmis, creative artists, grassroot workers...often we have had people drop by just to talk, ramble in a leisurely manner on just about anything. it has been enriching even as a few people have expressed it being useful to them.  today, we are blessed with the opportunity to create and shape institutions, institutions that we hope will shape actions for a better tomorrow, we look at these opportunities not different from the dialogues and we are ...

DIALOGUE is a quarterly journal brought out by the Astha Bharati ( www.asthabharati.org ), New Delhi. I had written a short article for their latest issue, April - June 2014 that focuses on "Globalization, Modernisation and National Identity". I had met the Editor of Dialogue, Mr. Kumar in Delhi earlier this year and was quite impressed with his dedication in bringing such a serious sounding magazine for decades. This particular issue has several interesting articles including by Ven. Samdhong Rimpoche, Pawan Gupta and others. Ram, 06/07/2014 ============================== =================== The Dharma of the Expert This article is a translation by the author from an earlier article written for the THAALANMAI tamil magazine,  www.kaani.org . The advent and domination of modern technology today extends from our daily domestic use all the way to national defense and international communications. However, whenever there are questions being posed by th...

Samanvaya Workshop on the Indian System of Management, "The Indian Way" - A 4 day workshop that presents a comprehensive introduction and experience of the Indian System of Management through lectures, practical tips and case studies. The workshop is aimed for practicing managers who are working with Indian situation and challenges in their daily work life.  The workshop is slated for 28th Feb & 1st March and 14,15 March at the Arkay Convention Centre, Mylapore. Registrations are limited to the first 15 participants and close on the 26th Feb, wednesday. The fee per candidates is Rs. 20,000/- for the entire duration. Concessional fares are provided for civil society and student members. Write to chief@samanvaya.com for further details. ===================================================================== An Interview with Ram, Chief, Samanvaya and the faculty of 'The Indian Way' - What is the ‘Indian Way’? Way, Path or Route are all words us...

amazing team, great enthusiasm, conviction is high. so, can they pull off a village level herbal wellness products based  enterprises? i don't know. we  started a series of interactions with them to understand their needs and build the required capacity in them for furthering their skill and knowledge levels. "how much do you want the business to grow?" - so, they decided to draw the bar diagram using their hands as measure!! their issues on enterprise management is centered around relationships - with clients, with shop keepers, with suppliers, with the NGO promoting the venture, with their own families, villages and other community institutions. here a larger group with the SHG women and the visitors from EKAM Foundation and CERES as well!! their questions around conviction elicit a strong response, 'of course, we tell people about our products!' says one with pride. 'of course, we sound strong when we talk to them', says another. so we ...