Newly built homes for flood victims, rejected by the villagers: A case for Participatory and Inclusive design for emerging economies.

Villagers of Karnataka , who were devastated by the floods  were given corporate help by Biocon, a major life sciences company in Bangalore to build houses. They came with a really good low cost technology. The model house was built and shown to the villagers and they liked it. But once they started building the homes and people started really observing it they rejected the houses upright. The villagers gave their reasons. And it seems to be a lack of research and participation of the villagers in the design process.
The villagers found the the full concrete wall does not allow them to put nails in the wall(manually) for hanging pictures. The footprint of the homes were too small for the villagers, who during the rainy season, keep their goats and sheep inside.
Participatory and inclusive design are very strongly needed especially when the user is miles and miles away in distance as well as culture. (In places like India and other newly growing economies were there is so much of polarisation between the rich and the poor, the house next door is actually miles and miles away). And it is not just in cases like this one involving villagers.

This is something which businesses should look into when they look at India and other emerging economies as markets to invest and sell their products and services. Its cliche, but you should be knowing what you are selling to whom.

Green Initiatives at Auto Expo 2010, Delhi. How Green are they?

Quite a few automotive companies showed off their green solutions.
Most of them are electric cars, save the Prius which is a hybrid.

Which is more green; Hybrid or Electric.
In the Indian context most of the electricity is generated by thermal power, mainly coal. Our coal plants are inefficient and it really need to be analysed whether the electric cars will genuinely reduce carbon the carbon footprint. But then there are hardly any emissions from the car if it is electric. Another point is a completely electric car will most generally be a second car. You spend so much on a car, and it can only be driven around in the city? How sad. So you have consumed more...Phew

The hybrid holds a lot of promise in the present situation and I think these are the technologies which we should promote in the short term.

The Electric car is definitely the future. By the time our energy is renewable and we have better battery technologies which would give more running kilometers, services like the Better Place to make charging and electric power hassle free, there is a lot on the horizon.

What we do need is government support, both for the consumer and the ,manufacturer.