OPINIONS

By Bill Gates Can goats empower women? In one of the poorest areas of India, they already are. This is thanks to a new team of health workers who are training rural women how to gain financial independence by raising healthier goats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ9RZfjitSQ The health workers are goat nurses known as “pashu sakhis,” which means “friends of the animals”...

Cricket has been the most popular sport in our country for many years, but it is a sport we have inherited from the British. So what did we play before the whole “cricket-fever” gripped the nation? India had been a nation of sportsmen and sportswomen long before the British decided to take over. From the...

Most religions have a constitution of their own, supposedly scripted by the Divine or a messenger of the Divine. As the constitution is of divine origin, it is not available to any sort of amendment. The result is that it lapses into archaic impracticality, or ossifies into dogma, leading to a history of conflict. Constitutions,...

Today, knowledge is ubiquitous, constantly changing, growing exponentially… Today, knowledge is free. It’s like air, it’s like water…There’s no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you… What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know. Tony Wagner, author of Creating Innovators The change that has occurred...

By Haoyu Huang One of the regions people don’t usually think of related to extremism is Southeast Asia. Yet, extremism is prevalent there, and like many other types of extremism, it is rooted in religious and ethnic challenges. When people talk about Thailand, they often think about peaceful beaches, Buddhism, and even rice fields. Although these...

According to a report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), India is currently the fourth highest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world. This paints a worrisome picture about the state we are currently in, with respect to the climatic conditions. In addition to this, the environment has been gravely affected...

By George Ward, Massachusetts Institute of Technology For a long time, the main measure of government success has been GDP. Despite movements in the direction of going beyond such macroeconomic indicators, this is undoubtedly still the case for most if not all countries. One perfectly good reason for this focus is the extensive evidence that governments...

By Gabriel M. Piccillo The international community is concerned about stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects, and the knock-on effects on regional stability, and international tranquility. 25 years of diplomatic initiatives have failed to bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians. In 1991, at the Madrid Peace Conference, the two sides met and negotiated in person for the...

Companies, implementing agencies and CSR practitioners have their own share of learnings from the past five years since the CSR clause within the Companies Act, 2013 came into effect in India. Enhancing Human Development Indices needs concerted efforts by all parties involved, including the government. No one can ignore the government’s role in public welfare....

Jobs that provide a sense of integrity are increasingly valued. As corporate social responsibility (CSR) surges into the mainstream, people want jobs that help them feel like they’re making an impact. According to a recent survey from Clutch, 72% of employees believe that their employer is making the world a better place. Businesses must emphasize...

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have helped streamline the global developmental agenda by identifying 17 clear and quantifiable goals for the world to work towards. The quantum of finance required to achieve them, however, poses a huge challenge. SDGs require an annual investment of USD 5-7 trillion, with India alone needing USD 8.9...

By Rohini Nilekani A lot of ink is spilled, and awards are bestowed celebrating the success of the social sector–and there is much to celebrate. But the truth is, if innovation is essential to the ultimate achievements of the sector, we should spend less time on success, and more time on failure. We lament the inability...