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Assamese Gamosa - The humble style statement When Prime Minister Narendra Modi went through the yoga poses in Lucknow on International Yoga Day, the white piece of cloth with red patterns on his shoulder stood out against his complete white attire. But very few might be aware that this humble piece of cloth called the ‘Gamosa’ has irrespective of religious and ethnic backgrounds , it stands out as an Assamese identity. Before the advent of the ‘whats app’ and internet, any Assamese who travels out of Guwahati, makes sure to have a couple of ‘gamosa’s’ neatly packed. One is to be used as a towel ( ga -body, mosa -to wipe) and the second one is to be adorned over one’s shoulder as an identity symbol to other Assamese brethren in not so familiar place. great cultural significance to the people of Assam. Worn by all Assamese people Hand woven by women weavers across the plains of Assam, the Gamosas are made of mainly made using cotton threads except in some cases silk threads
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2k or not 2k Things were planned well in advance. It was decided that dinner should be served not later than 7 p.m. to all round protests from my family members. That morning I took a trip to Sarojini Nagar market to pick up a monkey cap, a pair of gloves and a muffler. On the way I drop by at a pathology laboratory asking them whether they have any old used chest X-ray films available. The lab staff looked baffled. But when I explained the reason, they all laughed and handed me two instead of one. With my scooter filled to the brim with petrol paid with my last remaining old 500 rupee note, I was ready for the night. The previous day I realised that all my old illegal 500 and 1000 currency notes which I have kept folded and hidden in an old worn out envelope from the prying eyes of our in house Income Tax Authority- my wife, has been completely exhausted. Thanks to demonetisation, after so many years of avoiding them, I was able to re-connect with my relatives, friends, foes
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Speech given at Udaan, 9th September 2007, IRMA, Anand

Dear competitors, faculty member and friends, It’s nice to be back at this auditorium as a speaker, because last time I was playing the role of Ravan on this stage. It’s also a great privilege to be in the midst of such a large group of young people from across India competing on ideas to solve some of the biggest challenges the world is facing today. Let me start by telling you about myself. I was born and brought up in Assam in an environment where there is a lot of pressure from family and friends either to become a engineer or doctor. But fortunately I didn’t get admission to any one of them and went to Assam Agricultural University to do a course in Agriculture and my life changed for ever. Although I didn’t learn any thing about agriculture, those four years sowed the seed of entrepreneurship in me. Since you had all the time to do everything except study, some of us got together and started ‘Friends of the Environment’- a club of students and academics to create awareness a
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Lets ‘Start-up and Stand-up’

Lets ‘Start-up and Stand-up’ On Jan 16 th  2016, the Prime Minister of India launched the much awaited ‘rock star’ event ‘Start Up India, Stand Up India’ with the objective of strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. According to media reports, before the event itself the Government was faced with a much difficult task- how do you assign 1500 passes to around 100,000 prospecting pass seekers? But the larger question is, should the government try to influence or even dictate the start-up ecosystem? Can entrepreneurs be created? Can start-ups really create jobs for millions of India’s youth as envisaged by the Government? Is being ‘number one in start-ups’ as the PM spelt out on Republic Day speech,  more of an aspiration for the country than a practical goal? The basic idea of ‘Start up India-Stand Up India’ is to encourage entrepreneurship in India. In the last few years India has seen a dramatic change in the start-up scenario since Sanjeev Bhikchandani launched
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Connect IT- Success factors for NGO capacity building for use of Information Technology

Speech delivered at the  The  ConnectIT Day",   a conference  on ‘ Harnessing Information Technology for Not for Profits’ , organised and conducted by  NASSCOM Foundation - 2nd June 2011 Thanks for the introduction. Frankly speaking I am not an Information Technology (IT) person. What I will try to do today is speak from my experience of being involved first as a service provider for NGO’s in the IT sphere and second as a receiver and as a consequence a sufferer like many in this room of what IT can do to our lives. I co-founded an organization called MITRA Technology Foundation way back in 2000. As some of you might recall, it was the time when every one prophesided doomsday of the personal computer by the so called Y2K bug. It was also the dot com boom with the bust. We felt that although there was a lot of action happening in the commercial sphere, there was a huge potential to be tapped in the NGO sector. There is a buzz amongst NGOs about leveraging IT for effectivenes
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Mumbai Meri Jaan

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This post is not about 'Marathi Manoos' or about the Tiger and his cubs or even Bolywood, but about the spirit of 'Aamchi Mumbai'. As I climbed on to the cool cab and told the cabbie to take me to my destination at Peddar Road, I was thanking my stars for finding my wallet after a 3 hours chase across Mumbai. I told myself that this is possible only in Mumbai. In Delhi, where I reside you cant even think of even registering a complaint with the police, forget about finding your wallet which you have left behind in a cab. It all began on a March evening when my cab driver asked me whether I am interested to take the route to Peddar Road in South Mumbai from Santa Cruz airport through the newly opened Sea Link. Since I have heard and read and seen so much about this controversial yet an amazing engineering feat, why not? So off we tool a detour from Bandra to the Sea Link. What an amazing experience. You can see the shore line of Mumbai from the middle of the sea as you
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Gandhi's Business Model

This peice was composed by Rajat Mitra, a Ashoka Fellow when the group was discussing the merits of a Business Model for social enterprises. Its an interesting read so posting it. This is in regard to your question about ‘Business Models in Social Entrepreneurship’. Hope it helps our father of the nation Mahatama Gandhi’s business model. The year is 1920 and Mahatma Gandhi is applying for his grant. His interviewer is a MBA graduate. It goes as follows: (Though there were no MBA’s then but let us assume one existed) MBA GRADUATE - I can see you have a goal to get India free. It is a Good proposal but let us see if it is realistic and if we can fund it. Q1. How many years would you need to get India free? I need a timeline, a plan and a model by which you will throw the British out. GANDHI scratches his head and says it might take a 10, 20, 30 years or a lifetime. MBA GRADUATE - That is very vague Mr. Gandhi. Can’t you give me a specific date by which you can get India free? GANDHI says
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