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Cooperatives
A question of political will
Issue Date: Oct 15, 2010
CHHATTISGARH
“It was a crazy time and we took great risks,” said Alok Shukla. “Sometimes I shudder to think what would have happened if we had not succeeded. We would have been facing audit questions the rest of our lives.” Shukla was referring to his challenging time as food secretary of Chhattisgarh during 2007-08 when he transformed the crumbling and corrupt PDS into an efficient, streamlined organisation. Thankfully, Shukla succeeded and was given the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for 2008-09 along with two other officials.
Bee farms to shops
Issue Date: Sep 30, 2010
The journey of honey from bee farms to breakfast tables has become complex with time. From wild honey gatherers, honey supply has passed into the hands of cooperatives of individual beekeepers and then to big companies.
Amul takes hygiene a step forward
Issue Date: Sep 15, 2010
On the genesis of the scheme
Our target is to ensure not a single milk producer in Anand and Khera districts of Gujarat defecates in the open. This is the region where the milk movement began in 1946, where we strive to improve the quality of the milk chain— from keeping cow udders clean to transporting milk.
Interviewee:
Rahul Kumar
How to take community-led rural electrification forward
Issue Date: May 15, 2010
Meticulously planned off-grid systems of power generation face the greatest threat from haphazard extension of the grid. “The subsidy is disbursed, plants are built, and then mothballed as soon as the grid reaches,” Ratna Sansar Shrestha, water and energy policy analyst, said. Despite the long and frequent power cuts, many prefer power from the grid to the hassle and costs of maintaining off-grid power plants.
Big engagement with small power
Issue Date: May 15, 2010
Away from the grid, villages have been generating their own electricity for decades in Nepal. The country is the developing world’s petri dish for experiments on small-scale renewables. Generous international donors have supported biomass (biogas, improved cooking stoves and biofuels); mini- and micro-hydro power; improved water mills; solar (photovoltaic and heating systems).
A consumer movement is born
Issue Date: May 15, 2010
Across Nepal, close to 420 electricity user groups, cooperatives and committees are working to extend the grid into villages. They are taking charge of electricity distribution, maintenance and ‘customer service’. Together they have electrified 176,000 rural households according to nea; another 90,000 are in the pipeline. These numbers are significant because 70 per cent of rural Nepal is not connected to the grid.
Model village, but for how long?
Buddhist prayer flags strung on every pole mark the end of the tortuous climbs from the highway snaking along the Rosi Khola river in the valley below. This is Pinthali, a mostly Tawang village inured to visitors from Kathmandu who are chaperoned by the REDP staff.Scale matters
The Kailali Kanchanpur Rural Electrification Project in western Nepal was launched in 1999 with support from the Danish government’s donor arm Danida to devolve the ownership and management of low voltage distribution systems to electricity user cooperatives. It mobilized 98 cent households in the project area. These included poor and lower caste families—a first in Nepal. The project today manages 216 load centre-based user cooperatives in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts. The Danida-funded part of the project alone added about 50,000 connections by 2008.Switch on biomass
Issue Date: Dec 15, 2009
New diet regime for calves
@AparnaPallavi1 Issue Date: May 31, 2009
Beneficial and cost effective, says cooperative that introduced feed
