Reflections on Jugaad: A short personal history
That’s from the beginning of 2007, when we first tried to make Jugaad a reality. A loosely knit collaboration that would span Asia and Africa and America. I gave up on it before the summer of 2007 was over, having moved out of the United States that year. Little did I know that I was […]
My pilgrimage to Birkenau, part 2
I seem to have mislaid every single photograph I took of the setting sun at Birkenau. Even that was too revealing of the bleakness of the landscape, as we stood there shivering in penance while dogs barked in the distance and the wind blew into the folds of our clothing at -16 Celsius. There doesn’t […]
WIPO 6th annual “Innovation and Creativity of Women” Conference
On the Design for SME panel at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, March 21st 2013, Poland This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
A very different kind of human centered system design with highly efficient processes
Every profession must come face to face with the ultimate reality of the ways that their industrial training can be perfect in operational form yet perverted completely in its application. As an Industrial and Production engineer, I studied assembly lines and efficiency. As an Industrial Designer exploring the concept of human centered design, particulary from […]
Dangerously obsolete: questioning the use of the all purpose label “The BoP”
Siim Esko wrote a short piece on his blog that inspired me to write out these thoughts. Since much of his work focused on the BoP in India and I’ve recent East African experience with the demographic, it was but natural for us to compare and contrast the challenges and the conditions of the lower […]
Systems thinking and the mobile platform for economic impact and wealth creation
I have been meaning to write this post for quite some time now, percolating as it has in the back of my mind but it was Mark Kaigwa who finally spurred this writing. This is not all about MPesa, though it will take a look at some of the issues why its runaway success in […]
Uncle Cooks with dal from Malawi in your desi kitchen
Indian brand Uncle Cook’s Malawi Toor Dal sold in Singapore My mother lives in Singapore and prefers to do her monthly shopping at the well known megamall Mustafa’s – frequented by South Asians from every region plus anyone looking for anything, all of which is available under one humongous roof. This packet of toor dal, […]
Traveling on the New Silk Route with African traders to the Far East
The 21st century’s version of the old Silk Road that led caravans of traders from around the world to China and back is the flight path between the African continent and China. Bangkok Airport is one of these new oasis for caravaneers on the New Silk Route, where I caught the Kenyan Airways flight on […]
The Letter writer: Yesterday’s social mediators
Letter writer Mr Thangaraju s/o Singaram, who is 85 years old and was from Tamil Nadu, India. Click to enlarge and read the stories of those who were lucky enough to have been educated when they migrated looking for work. They made their living helping others… as the Tamil letter writer Mr Thangaraju says, we […]
Vignettes from Singapore’s past: Independent Women
Look up more on Samsui women , pioneering globe trotting. independent employment for women. The Samsui women were a proud and independent lot. Prostitution, opium peddling and various vices were common with other women mired in poverty. However, Samsui women chose to be engaged in hard labour with little pay instead of being lured into […]
