by diana | Jan 24, 2012 | Blog, Jan '12 India Trip, Thoughts and Ideas
The Deshpande Foundation was hosting its annual Hubli-based Development Dialogue, a conference that brings together social entrepreneurs from all over India (although mostly in the south). This year’s theme was “Thriving in Ecosystem.” Hubli is the location of the...
by diana | Jan 15, 2012 | Blog, Thoughts and Ideas
Rural distribution of social impact technologies requires cracking a number of tough nuts. What do Essmart and other companies attempting rural retail and distribution have to consider? Picking the right technologies. In terms of products, there is a lot of junk out...
by diana | Jan 14, 2012 | Blog, Field Notes, Jan '12 India Trip
Today is Saturday, and I am chilling in Bangalore. I spent most of the day on my computer, and then a portion of that time on the phone. Over the past few days I’ve been trying to purchase products for our inventory experiment.Envirofit made this easy for me by...
by diana | Jan 14, 2012 | Blog, Field Notes, Jan '12 India Trip
I hired a car for the day and headed to the headquarters of United Villages, which is the main reason I came to Jaipur (no, it was not to look at pretty buildings). United Villages (UV) is a rural distributor of fast moving consumer goods. Its origins are at MIT, and...
by diana | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog, Field Notes, Jan '12 India Trip
Prashanth dropped me off at IIT Madras once again. I wandered around on campus and took the shortcut to the little student area where you can buy toiletries and small snacks. I hung out there for awhile and made a phone call to Nishant of Desta, which is a rural...
