Why OLPC failedVishy KurugantiOctober 09, 20207 minsIf you’ve heard of Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab, chances are you’ve also heard of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). If Negroponte doesn’t ring a bell, here’s the briefest of introductions: an…
Boiling the poor frogsVishy KurugantiOctober 02, 20203 minsIn the recently concluded first American Presidential debate, the stark economic policy difference between the two candidates was best illustated by their responses to “how exactly is the American…
A phone is indeed not enoughVishy KurugantiSeptember 26, 20203 minsIf you are reading this article, you are probably witnessing (directly or indirectly) the Zoom’ification of the Indian classroom. While the Ubers and the Olas have come to a screetching halt, Byju’s…
The Great Gatsby - a newer faster TechSangamVishy KurugantiAugust 16, 20202 minsThe TechSangam blog turned nine on March 11, 2020. The milestone passed with nary a fuss because, truth be told, the prolificacy of the early years had morphed into a slow death march towards dormancy…
India needs more non-profit unicornsVishy KurugantiAugust 08, 20202 minsNextbillion.net, one of my go-to resources in the early years of this blog, has an informative article highlighting the fact that India is woefully short in yet another area — the number of non-profit…
Schwab Foundation's Two Decades of Impact ReportVishy KurugantiMay 09, 20202 minsA few times a year, I Google a few variants of “social enterprise news” with the hope of uncovering new kids on the block or some new social impact report. Measuring social impact is hard. For…
Lest we forgetVishy KurugantiMay 06, 20202 minsLest we forget the numerous mountains still to be climbed in India, this Firstpost photo essay reminds us. After floodwater receded from the villages of western Maharashtra in 2019, the villages were…
Raghu, the cycle repair guyVishy KurugantiJanuary 15, 20202 minsYou go down Tavarekere Main Road or as Bangalorean direction-givers are apt to say “straaaaaaaaiiiiiitu” until you almost reach, what looks like a dead-end but upon closer examination, is a fork in…
Bangalore's social enterprises – 2020 reduxVishy KurugantiJanuary 04, 20204 minsThis 2012 piece where I catalogued Bangalore’s social enterprises (30 of them) continues to be a popular destination for Google searchers. This is a redux post – essentially a 2020 update just by…
We've got cash – you've got mailVishy KurugantiDecember 29, 20194 minsThat’s the tag line for GiveDirectly, a 10-year old US-based non-profit making waves in 9 African countries. “Cash” for unconditional cash transfers and “you’ve got mail” for the m-Pesa notification…
