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.

Tribal women in M.P. show that strength lies in numbers

They have formed a farmers’ produce organisation in Dewas that bypasses exploitative middlemen to access markets directly

Setting right water woes

Valvemen send direct alerts through an interactive voice response system about when the water valves are opening.

Paaduks: Shoes with soul

Inspired by an article that spoke of the possibility of using waste tyres as soles for shoes, the team dove into exploring this idea

Paper environments: Using waste to create sensitive furniture

Bhave’s products build in a level of sensitivity and softness - in the materials he uses, as also in their approach to production.

Cloth as currency – How Goonj is creating a parallel cashless economy

Using clothing, furniture, food-grains, and such, Goonj is helping rural communities develop their own infrastructure through cashless transactions.

Two women engage in battle against plastic

Arul Priya and Geetha Indravel say they started Nammaboomi to put an end to the throwaway culture

A Labour Colony gets Solar Power!

How the expenditure on kerosene was saved, and the living conditions improved at a lower cost, for the residents of a labour colony near Mangalore!

Panika fabric for Mumbai

A student who linked handloom fabric produced by Panika tribal weavers to the Mumbai market, interviewed here.

Saving for Rainy Days

People of West Bengal’s Sunderbans region are setting up grain banks to safeguard against food crisis