Economics and Technologies

Community-based alternatives for production, consumption, and exchange

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This section features stories of initiatives that help to create an alternative to the dominant neo-liberal or state-dominated economy. These include: localisation of economic activity with democratic control, producer and consumer collectives, local currencies and trade, non-monetised exchage and the gift economy, ecologically sensitive products and processes, macro-economic concepts that respect ecological limits, and approaches to human well-being that go beyond growth, GDP and other narrow measures and indicators.

What we do not feature are superficial and false solutions, such as market and technological fixes for problems that are deeply social and political, or more generally, ‘green growth’ kind of approaches that only tinker around with the existing system.

Success Story — How they reduced packaging waste in Auroville, India

A Significant reduction in packaging waste for consumer products is possible with a little bit of effort and consumer awareness.

Re-Store sells all stuff you’d like to discard

Trivedi, who initiated Re-Store, hopes to take the message of re-use, exchange, rent, repair, as opposed to buying new, to many more people.

Engaging Communities in Resource Monitoring: The Political Ecology of Science as the Language of Power

Community-based monitoring can play a critical role in the empowerment of local communities and their engagement in conservation.

Tech that saves 35 percent of water to grow paddy

Can water consumption for cultivating paddy, as also emission of greenhouse gases, be reduced in 15 districts of Telangana?

Seed is better preserved this way

A Gondi Adivasi lady preserves seeds for over 12 years using a traditional technique!

Passive Solar Housing keeps people warm in icy Ladakh

The south face of a building needs to be all windows, as it gets maximum sunrise to sunset exposure in winters.

Digital push boosts incomes for Sundarbans’ organic farmers

A digital platform helps women farmers to sell organically grown indigenous rice directly to customers, helping them to book higher profits

Green Toilet in my backyard

Ecosan (short for ecological sanitation) toilets are improved versions of old dry toilets that do not demand water for flushing

Guwahati now has India’s first solar Powered railway station

The solar-powered station is aimed at reducing carbon-footprint as well as cut down power costs drastically.