Tesla gets 500+ Model S bookings in first week
Apr 3, 2009 Auto Tech, Green Technologies, Social Initiatives, Startups
A week after unveiling the all electric Model S sedan, Tesla says that 520 customers have shelled out $5,000 each for reserving the car which is scheduled to be on roads in 2011.
The base price for the Model S, which will be available starting in 2010, is $57400, before a federal tax credit of $7,500 in US, a bargain compared to the Roadster’s $105000 price tag. A limited edition of the Model S is also available for a $40,000 reservation fee.
The base Model S will do 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds (compared to the Roadster’s 3.9 seconds) and has an electronically limited top speed of 130 mph. The car will be available with a variety of battery options with upto 300 miles per charge.
Forbes publishes list of Heroes of Philanthropy
Mar 8, 2009 Philanthropy and Corporate Initiatives, Social Initiatives
Even as the world battles the current economic crisis, there have been people who are still being very generous with their help for the less fortunate. It is not necessarily the richest who make the maximum impact with their contributions. Everyone knows about Bill Gates and Warren Buffett promising billions, but its is really encouraging to see Forbes magazine coming out with their annual list of Asian Heroes of Philanthropy, which contains names which not gracing the Rich List, still makes tangible contributions for social good.
“Many opened up their chequebooks to help the victims of the Sichuan earthquake and the Myanmar cyclone in May. Many more donated to health, education, cultural and other causes,” Forbes said in an accompanying report. The list contains 48 names: 4 from India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, besides another four from Australia and New Zealand.
Read the full article and find the full list here.
Tags: Asia, Forbes, India, Philanthropy
Gates Foundation promises $48 million for African farmers
Feb 19, 2009 Philanthropy and Corporate Initiatives, Social Initiatives, Stars, Policy and Finance
Bill and Melinda Gates
The World Cocoa Foundation has announced a new, $40 million program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other companies to significantly improve the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia.
A further grant of $25 million to the German development organization Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will support another project, which aims to help 150,000 small-scale cashew farmers in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mozambique increase their incomes by 50 percent by 2012 by providing them with processing facilities for their crops locally. Read the rest of this entry »
Gates Foundation donation to empower the unbanked with m-banking
Feb 19, 2009 Microfinance, Social Initiatives, Stars, Policy and Finance
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The GSMA, a worldwide consortium of mobile communications companies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have joined forces for the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative. Armed with a $12.5 million donation from the Foundation, the initiative aims at allowing folks in developing countries to carry out mobile banking from their non-smartphones and keep and grow their money in a safe and affordable fashion.
“There are over 1 billion people in emerging markets today who don’t have a bank account but do have a mobile phone,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. The paln is to work with mobile operators, banks, microfinance institutions, government and development organizations to encourage the expansion of reliable, affordable mobile financial services to the unbanked.
MMU initiative will support 20 projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with an ambitious target of empowering 20 million unbanked people with mobile financial services by 2012. The MMU programme will fund regulatory and market research to help overcome some of the barriers of providing these services and demonstrate the business case for serving this market.
Is it not ironic that today more people have access to mobile communication devices than organised banking or reliable power supply?
Read the rest of this entry »
Sub-$10 “audio computer” trials underway in Ghana
Feb 16, 2009 Education/Literacy, Healthcare, Social Initiatives
Talking Book
Non-profit organization Literacy Bridge have announced a pilot program of their so-called Talking Book Devices, which the company describes as a “sub-$10 audio computer”. The compact devices can be programmed with various spoken-word lessons, aimed to assist in educating people without access to formal education or electricity.
Interestingly, content can also be shared between two devices without a PC or a network, and even recorded directly to the device, which Literacy Bridge hopes will allow for information to be easily distributed, and make it useful even outside the classroom. This will make it a more useful device than the $30 “laptop” from India.
The pilot study will sharing of content on various disease prevention techniques and farming best practices. These devices can be in future be paired with textbooks, so that learners can engage in comprehension and pronunciation activities, play back lessons at various speeds, engage in multiple-choice style question-and-answer sessions, and access other interactive activities. Read the rest of this entry »
Consumers still buying green in recession
Feb 8, 2009 Green Technologies, Social Initiatives
Many had assumed that consumers will stop caring about green credentials of products they buy in today’s tough economic climate. But a recent survey commissioned by Green Seal and EnviroMedia Social Marketing finds that as many as 82% consumers are willing to pay a premium for green products, though reveealingly, a third of them donot know if they are being greenwashed.
Consumers also go with brand reputation and word of mouth when judging a product’s green credentials, rather than advertising. While economic conditions means consumers are buying fewer things overall and so, only 14% of the surveyed participants said that they are buying fewer ecofriendly things, compared to the start of the economic downturn.
This is surely another proof that for brands, there is growing advantage in being and seen being green! Read more about the study here.
Tags: Green, Green products
Dell joins fight against breast cancer
Feb 8, 2009 Social Initiatives
Dell Promise Pink
Dell has announced a partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, under which it will donate $5 for each Promise Pink series of laptops bought. The money will be used for breast cancer research. Dell has also promised a minimum of $250000 for 2009.
Dell’s Promise Pink range is available today in the Mini 9 & Mini 12 netbooks, as well as the Inspiron 1525, Studio 15 & Studio 17, Studio Hybrid, XPS M1330, the XPS M1530 and the Latitude E4200. This edition of laptops will join Dell’s Product Red range which supports the fight against AIDS in Africa.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure is an organisation spearheading the breast cancer movement and has invested more than $1.3 billion since inception in 1982. It claims to be the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists.
Tags: Breast Cancer, Dell, Promise Pink, Susan G Komen
$30 laptop that does not look like a laptop
Feb 5, 2009 Social Initiatives, Stars, Policy and Finance
Sakshat
After hyping up the $20 laptop, the Indian answer to the OLPC, what came out was disappointing to say the least. What was shown on February 3rd was a “ultra low-cost” computing-cum-access device that can “make wonders” in the dissemination of education to the remotest corners of India.
Christened “Sakshat“, the 10” long and 5” wide hand-held device, resembling a modem, rather than a laptop, will supposedly help e-learners access the Web easily. Priced versions of e-content available on the Net can be accessed through this device.The cost of the device shot up to between $20 and $30 against the initial plan to peg it at $10.
Question is how much will the users have to actually fork out when you add a display or a printer to access those e-learning materials? In my opinion, the Simputer, another low cost computer design, unveiled in India in 2001 was better than this one. Atleast it had keyboard and screen! This is a joke of a laptop - one made in bad taste. Read the rest of this entry »
For a good cause
Feb 3, 2009 Information of the Day, Social Initiatives
Today if you want to contribute to a good cause, technology has simplified your search. While some websites like Kiva (focussing on microlending to communities in developing countries) and Volunteermarch (claimed to be the largest volunteering initiatives website in US and now it comes with a nifty Google Maps integration to make your search easier) have seen plenty of limelight, I recently came across two more interesting ones: UniversalGiving and WeCanBuildAnOrphanage.
WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com is a non-profit start-up building a home, clinic and school for 100 AIDS orphans in Haiti.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: CSR, Haiti, Universalgiving
NDTV India organising “Greenathon”
Jan 30, 2009 Natural Resource Conservation, Philanthropy and Corporate Initiatives, Social Initiatives
Greenathon
NDTV, one of India’s largest news channels is going to organise a “Greenathon” on 7 and 8th February. This will consist of extensive clean up drives across the country, movie screenings, music concerts and other activities organized across the country.
Toyota seems to be the main sponsor (though it was Honda which gave India its first hybrid last year, the Civic Hybrid) and celebrities and experts like Preity Zinta, popular actress and Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have come on board.
Check out more details at the website. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Greenathon, India, NDTV