India’s Invisible Water Wizards
India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water—and today the country’s chronic mismanagement of water has led to drought in nearly 2,00,000 villages. According to the World…
Moin Qazi
India’s Failed Food System
India grows enough food to meet the needs of its entire population, yet is unable to feed millions of them, especially women and children. India ranks 100 in the…
The Season Of Giving: A New Year Resolution
You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you -John Bunyan When I got my first job in a small…
India’s Sick Health Care
India’s economy is soaring but its healthcare system remains an Achilles’ heel. For millions of people, the high cost of treating illness continues to undermine economic progress. This is…
Participatory Development: A Partnership For Banishing Poverty
Any sensible government must learn to unleash the energy of its people and get them to perform instead of trying to get a bureaucracy to perform ―Verghese Kurien, I Too…
Muslim Women Are Defying Stereotypes
“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” In Khaled Hosseini’s novel about…
Women: The Missing Piece Of The Poverty Puzzle
Poor women’s suffering has long been a sure-fire way to pull on the heartstrings of rich donors, but in recent years there has been a newfound appreciation for the role…
Inside The World Of Indian Bureaucracy
In the late nineties I was manager of a bank branch at Warora, a small town in western Maharshtra. We had to make frequent trips to the Block Development Office…
Giving Hope To Youngsters
The present-day education reformers believe that schools are broken and market solutions are the only remedy. Many of them embrace disruptive innovations, primarily through online learning. There is a strong…
The Man Behind India’s Rural Housing Spring
Historians will say that an explosion of creativity occurs the moment the world starts complaining that there is nothing left to invent, or that the search for solutions to complex…
Each Adversity Has A Seed Of Triumph
These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them. — Rumi, Essential Rumi “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. Everyone knows the cliché, of course, and brave people often…
Can We Solve Corruption?
(International Anti-Corruption Day-9 December, 2017) Corruption is amongst the most debilitating economic illnesses that afflicts large parts of the world. It erodes the quality of life for ordinary citizens,…
Bapu Kuti: The Nursery Of Gandhian Revolution
Eighty kilometres to the east of Nagpur in central India lies Bapu Kuti, a historic site in Sewagram, the ‘village of service’, which is nestled in the serene rustic…
The Tyranny Of The Development Lexicon
When ideas fail, words come in very handy. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe We live in an age when noisy posturing too often substitutes for reasoned debate and brash opinion…
The Indian Village: A Window Into Indian Society
The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there. ― Tahir Shah, House…
The Farewell Sermon Of Prophet Muhammad
(Birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad-2nd December 2017) As you read these lines, 1.6 billion Muslims across the world, from Morocco to Jakarta, will be paying homage to the Prophet Muhammad…
Give Some Place In Your Heart For Kidneys! Please!
Heard so much about the heart, but so less about kidneys, right? Our kidneys don't get a lot of love, and definitely don't get the attention or concern associated with…
A Decent Shelter For India’s Homeless
One of the most challenging problems of our times is homelessness. While we continue to record improvements in dealing with poverty, homelessness has been plagued with an unimaginative response from…
Financial Literacy: Key To Economic Freedom
Financial services are like clean water and electricity. They are made possible though ideal financial societies that provide safe and convenient ways of managing their everyday simple monetary affairs.…
Bridging The Gender Gap
Women and girls play a lesser recognised role as drivers of growth and progress and powerful agents of change. Gender remains a critically important and largely ignored lens…
The Poor Woman Wants A Handup, Not A Handout
The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them -Nobel Laureate Muhammad…
First World Day Of The Poor-19 November 2017
Poverty won't allow him to lift up his head; dignity won't allow him to bow it down -- Malagasy Proverb The global battle against poverty has acquired a new…
The Promise Of Microhousing
The Gaekwad family lives in a single-room-house on the outskirts of a city. The family cooks their food, eats it and sleeps in the same room. This room is also used…
How Farm Widows Are Leading Societal Change
The large swathes of cotton farms in Central India have been the epicentre of a global crisis that has gripped the rural population in crippling debts and driven thousands…
How Best To Engage Communities In Development
In India, the priorities of people are constantly undergoing changes. These are, in fact, a result of the changes the development landscape is undergoing. A generation or two ago,…
The Savings Revolution: World Thrift Day-30th October
Managing money well begins with hanging on to what you have. This means avoiding unnecessary expenditure and then finding a safe place to store whatever money is left over.…
Reexamining Professional Development Wisdom
The development community seems constantly and restlessly in search of a singular approach that will solve poverty, unveiling new theories every few years only to toss them aside. The…
Micro Insurance: A Critical Need For India’s Poor
Finance is the cementing force that holds all the pieces of our life together. It enables money to be in the right place, at the right time, and for the…
A Novel Paradigm For Fighting Drought
Historians will tell you that an explosion of creativity occurs the moment the world starts complaining that there is nothing left to invent, or that the search for solutions has come…
The Poor Know How To Escape From Poverty
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. —F.A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors Of…
The Poor Need Savings, Not Credit
Managing money well begins with hanging on to what you have. This means avoiding unnecessary expenditure and then finding a safe place to store whatever money is left over.…
Women Hold The Key To The Battle Against Poverty
(International Day for the Eradication of Poverty -17 October 2017) This year marks the 25th anniversary of the declaration by the United Nations of 17 October as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.…
A Refreshing Introduction To Islam
I recently came across a wonderful introduction to Islam titled Islam Is Good: Muslims Should Follow It by Sanjiv Bhatla that compresses encyclopedic insights in a small volume. His study…
India’s Microfinance Is Losing Its Soul
Microfinance — an approach to financial inclusion based on providing small loans and other financial services to poor people, and primarily women-has generated considerable enthusiasm, not just in the…
India Can’t Afford To Ignore Mental Health
(World Mental Health Day -10th October 2017) According to an India Spend report, the number of Indians suffering from mental illness exceeds that of the population of South Africa. At present,…
Will Supreme Court Order Rein Cow Vigilantism
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw. -Nelson Mandela India has been bedeviled…
The Female Face Of Poverty
We live in a world in which women living in poverty face gross inequalities and injustice from birth to death. The global statistics on poverty are numbing. The real…
The Heart Of A Professional Banker
During my first assignment at Aurangabad, my boss, R. P. Mehta, was a little bemused at the amicable way I treated my clients, given banks’ notoriety for poor customer service.…
Maharashtra Defaces Mughal Legacy From History Text Books
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” –George Orwell Too much of the thinking about Muslim rulers is now…
Twenty Five Years Of Indian Women’s Self Help Movement
Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are…
My Learnings As A Rural Banker
I am a professional banker taught and trained in the hard and coarse grammar of banking. At the same time I am a developmental worker at heart always keen…
How Historians Poisoned India’s Tolerant Legacy
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” –George Orwell Too much of the thinking about Muslim rulers is…
Supreme Court Of India Illumminates The World For Muslim Women
Of all the lawful acts the most detestable to God is divorce –Prophet Muhammad (This an authentic saying recorded by Abdullah ibn Umar, a highly respected companion of the prophet…
The Panoramic Circus Of Rural Development
The farmers in northern Maharashtra had suffered badly on account of low yields of cotton; additionally, the government procurement prices for cotton were pegged low. As a result, our…
How Financial Illiteracy Is Duping People Of Millions Of Precious Savings
Finance is the glue that holds all pieces of our life together. Ideal financial societies are those which provide safe and convenient ways of managing these simple monetary affairs.…
The Dilemma Of A Muslim In India
The increasing tendency towards seeing people in terms of one dominant ‘identity’ (‘this is your duty as an American’, ‘you must commit these acts as a Muslim’, or ‘as a…
Farmers Suicides Soar On Freedom Anniversary
Even as India celebrated its 70th year of independence, the number of suicides of beleaguered farmers in Marathwada, the drought prone belt of Maharashtra, touched a new high. In…
India’s Mournful Song Of Freedom
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw. -Nelson Mandela Most of us…
Poor Women Craft Their Destiny
The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them -Nobel Laureate Muhammad…
The Brave Women Running Rural India
Women are the mainstay of small-scale agriculture, the farm labour force and day-to-day family subsistence. The biggest myth is that the rural woman is part of her land's wealth.…
A Therapy For India’s Suicidal Farmers
While debates continue to rage on reforming the agricultural sector to improve the economic conditions of farmer, there has till now recently been no attempt to focus on the likely…
India Must Act Before Water Runs Out
Water is crucial to all societies as it has a myriad of uses. However, in India, it is of much more importance as over 600 million people make a living…
Rural Transformation Needs Grassroots Mantras
Tackling poverty requires a fundamentally different approach: one that starts with people themselves and encourages the initiative, creativity and drive from below .This principle must be at the core…
A Banker In The Dock
One of the toughest tasks I had to handle in my long career as a banker was handling the recalcitrant defaulters who made us literally beseech and supplicate before…
CSR Tourism: A New Development Fad
This has been a phenomenon quite old with the corporate world, but now it has acquired a glamorous face. .It is rural development or euphemistically called CSR tourism—brief visits…
Women: The Bitter Half
Woman Work I've got the children to tend The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry The baby to dry…
Suicides Continue To Ravage Farmlands
At least 217 farmers have ended their life in the month following Maharashtra Government’s farm loan waiver announcement on June 2 this year.This numbers for the month of June equal…
Loan Waivers Offer No Relief To Most Distressed Farmers
While the government is set to forgive billions of dollars of farm debts, the actually distressed class among them will have little respite from their misery .They owe their…
Men Deny Women Equality, Not The Quran
The portrayal of Muslim women in the media is grim and sombre. The public perception of them is one of stubborn stereotypes: supposedly powerless and oppressed, behind walls and…
Why Money Lenders Still Rule The Farm Lands
While the government is set to forgive billions of dollars of loans of farmers, the actually distressed class among them will have no respite from their misery .They owe…
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