It’s elementary, education matters

Across sectors, parents want to educate their wards, at great cost to themselves. Can India Inc engineer, or partner in a revolution to elevate our performance in elementary education? APPARENTLY, Indians have begun to believe in themselves. We all think we belong to a country with a future. For 50 years we were not quite […]

Imagine there was no illiteracy

Countries in the West have autonomous school boards that report to citizens and encourage participatory practices. Sure they have their share of problems, but at least these problems are aired and responses are required to be made. Let me start with Akshara Foundation, with which I am most familiar. Since early 2000, we have had […]

New indignation, new alignment

Sometimes, it seems as though much of the world is trying to crowd into Bangalore. Hold that thought. At almost seven million, our population in this city is already more than the population of new-age countries such as Ireland, and almost half of that of Chile.

Campaign Read India: Get Them Glued To Books, Happily

ON International Literacy Day, it is time to do some stock-taking. And statistics do not console when it comes to the continuing high rate of school dropouts and the inability of even 50 percent of children going to government schools to read fluently. But the picture is not entirely bleak. In Bangalore, the Akshara Foundation […]

The ‘Why Why Girl’ launched –

The Vice- Captain of the Indian cricket team, Rahul Dravid, on Monday released the noted writer Ma- hashveta Devi’s book, “The Why Why Girl”, under the Read India Movement aimed at bringing down the number of illiterate children. The book has been brought out by Pratham, of which the Bangtilore-based Akshara Foundation is a member. […]

BANGALORE FAST FORWARD – Knowledge City

Bangalore is a Happening City. We’ve heard it so many times. But what does that mean? Did the people of Magadha say it was a happening city? Or the citizens of Awadh? Or nearer in time, did Bombayites think their city was happening? And did this actually start getting said because the city in some […]

Premier Book Shop

Does everyone in Bangalore know how to get to Premier Book Shop? Of course not. You have to get to M.G.Road and then find platform Nine and Three Fourths! Clearly, you have to be a wizard to actually shop at Premier. At a very special lunch at the warm home of Ramchandra Guha and Sujata […]