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Category : Social Enterprise

Building a One-Stop Shop for Smallholder Farmers in India

Feb 20, 2020 | Alumni, Announcements, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

Building a One-Stop Shop for Smallholder Farmers in India

In 2019, the Mittal Institute’s Seed for Change competition awarded the Gramhal team, composed of members Vikas Birhma and Pankaj Mahalle, first place. Over the past year, the funding from the competition has helped take their social enterprise initiative off the ground, and Gramhal has already had a significant impact on the lives of smallholder farmers in India. In the last few months of 2019, over 50 farmers sold their produce — worth USD 100,000 — through Gramhal, receiving a fair and higher price.

An Expanding Network Brings Eye Care to Rural Indian Communities

Nov 21, 2019 | Announcements, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

An Expanding Network Brings Eye Care to Rural Indian Communities

The latest inauguration ceremonies of two Prakash Vision Centers (PVCs) in Brahmpur and Pali blocks of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, were recently held in late October. These vision centers have been established under the project “Multidisciplinary Approach to Innovative Social Enterprises” with support from the Mittal Institute and Harvard Global Research Support Centre in India. More than a hundred people from the neighboring villages attended the ceremony, which featured special guests Rinku Yadav, the Village Pradhan of Lalapur village in Brahmpur Block, and Brijil K. Mathew, Manager of Eye Care Services at Fatima Hospital in Gorakhpur. Fatima Hospital is a charitable hospital with a well-appointed ophthalmic division that has partnered with Project Prakash to provide medical treatment to patients referred from PVCs for specialized care.

Powering the Personal Health Record: Catalysts and Barriers in India

Apr 11, 2019 | Announcements, Faculty, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

Powering the Personal Health Record: Catalysts and Barriers in India

On April 3rd, the India Digital Health Net (IDHN), a multidisciplinary research and development initiative established to support an Application Programming Interface-enabled (API) federated health data architecture in India, convened a workshop in New Delhi to learn from the several initiatives across the country that are building components of what may ultimately become India’s health tech grid.  The workshop was organized with support from the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute and the Asia Center. Dr. Satchit Balsari (Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and Professor Tarun Khanna (Harvard Business School) served as co-chairs of the event.

Students and Teachers Take on Robots in India

Mar 28, 2019 | Announcements, Blog, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

Students and Teachers Take on Robots in India

The Toolkit team develops low-cost Toolkits that can be used in underserved classrooms in India, their ultimate goal to educate students in cutting-edge soft robotics research through hands-on, cognitive learning. After years of development in the US, the team took its first step in India this week and conducted its first workshop in Delhi with a group of educators and students.

Robots in Classrooms? Next Stop, India

Mar 13, 2019 | Announcements, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

Robots in Classrooms? Next Stop, India

We recently sat down with Dmitry Popov and Ankur Goel, two members of the Soft Robotics Toolkit team at Harvard. This project — currently in the research, development, and testing phase — will become a comprehensive resource that teaches students how to design, fabricate, model, and test their own soft robotic devices.