Ennovent Competition: share your idea to provide energy to India's Rural Poor

Written by Anna da Costa / 24 February 2010 /

Do you know a solution to provide energy to India's poor?

Do you want to get a reward of USD 3,000?

Most of India's population has no access to affordable, let alone clean energy. Help us find in India and around the world proven, for-profit solutions that can meet some of the critical energy needs of India's poor. ennovent will invest up to USD 500,000 in the Solver to incubate or scale the winning enterprise in India and give a reward of USD 3,000 to the Connector.

ennovent invites you to participate in the Challenge by submitting Solutions and nominate Solvers online at http://www.ennovent.com
Deadline is March 31, 2010.

Light brings Calm Amidst Storms

Written by Anna da Costa / 18 October 2009 /

Wild typhoons have raged, both literally and metaphorically across the world over the last few weeks. Not only have we seen flooding in Southern India and heavy storms in the Philippines, we have witnessed deep thunder cracks and sharp lightning bolts shock through the international climate talks as North met South, as expectation met reality, as hope met fear, and as a yawning gulf re-emerged between the global leaders negotiating our future in Bangkok.

For most, the talks left a wave of shock in their wake. The news that rather than taking strides towards a global agreement on climate change, we have in many ways moved a number of steps in reverse was of deep concern. It stirred alarm for many, especially the youth, who made a declaration of no confidence in the international negotiations at the close of the Bangkok conference. Demonstrations emerged across the world in response, with protesters climbing onto the roof of the Houses of Parliament in London.

Too Stupid

Written by Anna da Costa / 23 September 2009 /

Yesterday evening was momentous. A day after the Global Campaign on Climate Change saw people take to the streets around the world and climate week was launched in New York, the Age of Stupid had its' global premiere.

India joined the army of 63 nations showing this groundbreaking film to more than 10,00,000 people - over two days. It shook us in our seats, waking us up to the imminent threat that climate change is already and reminding us that we still have the chance to salvage our common future.

The film tracks back from 2050, where a lone grandchild-less father sits in a deadened archive of world relics, elephants and antelopes in brine, and surrounded by all the data that ever existed saved on wind-power driven servers in a grey and dreary archive towering like a great iron mushroom above the sea. Climate change has escalated and humanity did nothing to prevent it. And there he sits, asking the question, how did we let this happen?

Techfest launches Energise, a Competition for Clean Tech Innovators

Written by Anna da Costa / 17 September 2009 /

Techfest is the annual Science and Technology Festival of IIT Mumbai. Each year, close to 60,000 young innovators and entrepreneurs participate from 1800 colleges across India. 

This year, they have launched a competition, Energize, which welcomes implementable clean energy solutions for India and beyond.

To meet India's challenges of energy security, rising emissions and a staggering 52,00,00,000 people still without access to electricity, innovate and make your submissions for a 1 lakh prize.

Shakin' it for the Planet

Written by Anna da Costa / 21 July 2009 /

Dance for the Planet?? That sounds familiar! 

Having spent the first five weeks of this year dancing from Chennai to Delhi to the solar beats of a New York band as we celebrated, created and communicated India's Climate Solutions, I was delighted to hear about an upcoming event in London aimed at raising money for a tree planting and livelihood generation project in India.
 
The event was one of a series of dance parties being held across the globe to support the ecological, social and economic regeneration efforts of Worldview Impact.
 
This group is one of the trailblazing organisations emerging from India, who are working around the world to help the poor to help the planet, simply put, by planting trees with some of society’s poorest communities. 

Water Conservation the Intelligent Way

Written by Anna da Costa / 14 July 2009 /

Water and energy are increasingly scarce and valuable commodities around the world – whether we realise it yet or not.

In India, the scarcity is immensely apparent, with water only available at certain times of the day if at all in most parts of a city, with groundwater levels rapidly depleting, and with power cuts or no access to power common.

One of the ways for people to ensure they have access to water despite this scarcity of supply is to use water tanks. When water becomes available in an area, it is pumped into the tank with a manually controlled electric pump, so that it can then be accessed at any time of the day, mains supply or not.

Yet in adopting this approach, a large amount of water wastage happens across India. People leave pumps on continuously, forget to turn them off for a while, or simply don’t know when their tank is full, causing the tanks to overflow.
 
Praveen Sinha, an innovative entrepreneur who was deeply disturbed by this unnecessary waste, has created a fantastic solution to this problem, which is already being implemented in Delhi and NCR households, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.  

Grassroots Network Abuzz With CleanTech Ideas

Written by Anna da Costa / 19 May 2009 /

Cross-Posted from Worldwatch Institute, Eye on Earth, www.worldwatch.org. Mehtar Hussain and Mustaq Ahmad, farmers from north-eastern India, invented a bamboo-framed windmill that pumps groundwater for irrigation in place of a diesel generator. This design was modified by GIAN West, with the help of a steel frame (Photo courtesy GIAN)

Professor Anil Gupta is an uncommon man with uncommon solutions to today's problems.

He believes scarcity is a mother of invention, and that we need to look to the world's poorest citizens for solutions to many of our local and global challenges.

"Poverty doesn't make you uncreative," Gupta said during an interview at his family home in New Delhi, India. "There are a lot of poor people in this world who are not so poor that they cannot think, or find inspiration to experiment.... They may just not know they have innovated."

Two decades ago, Gupta, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, created the Honey Bee Network to connect grassroots innovators and traditional knowledge holders with the global economic market. The network provides a means for sourcing and diffusing ideas from these individuals, while protecting their knowledge rights and enhancing livelihoods.

Have you got transformative ideas?

Written by Anna da Costa / 20 April 2009 /

This August 8th-11th 2009, 500 of the world’s most talented, engaged and creative youths aged between 14-18 will come together in Sønderborg, Denmark, to together create innovative solutions to climate change, not political statements. 

Bright Green Youth is calling on you to share your ideas with them and win the opportunity to participate in this groundbreaking summit.

For more information, please visit www.brightgreenyouth.org.
 

Calling all Indian Innovators!

Written by Anna da Costa / 11 April 2009 /

India's Department of Science and Technology recently launched the India Innovation Initiative (i3) in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry and communication analyst Agilent Technologies.  

Delhi Plans to take Earth Hour Monthly

Written by Anna da Costa / 09 April 2009 /

Cross-Posted from Worldwatch Institute, Eye on Earth, www.worldwatch.org

What did you do for Earth Hour?

Here in Delhi, many of us opened an umbrella.

Earth Hour this year saw a totally unseasonal deluge of rain in Delhi. Whether it was the monsoon coming early, or the February rains late, it was significant to say the least.

However, citizens also managed to save a reported 10,000 megawatts of power.

The campaign was, it seems, such a success that the Delhi government plans to take it monthly. The government hopes that an hour of action each month could save 100 megawatts a pop.