AID Founder Ravi Kuchimanchi makes hay at the 2008 Wharton India Economic Forum

1. AID Founder Ravi Kuchimanchi makes hay at the 2008 Wharton India Economic Forum Every year the Wharton Business School organizes a India Economic Forum, where it invites the leading luminaries from various institutions to discuss the current state and the promise of India's business and economy. This year the Forum had  a panel on the "India's Underprivileged Majority: The Real Development Story". AID Philadelphia volunteers jumped at this opportunity and made a case to the organizers that AID should have a presence on this panel. We were fortunate to get Ravi Kuchimanchi to accept the invitation from Wharton to speak at the panel. The panel included Vikram Akula (SKS Micro Finance), Shanta Deverajan (World Bank South Asia), Indira Rajan (Minerva Group of Educationat Institutions). Ravi's presence added a unique perspective to the panel. He spoke passionately about the need to incorporate feedback from the local communities in development initiatives, making the case that it was the only way in which one can expect consistent and broad based growth. He touched on various recent instances where local communities were not treated as stakeholders and their feedback was disregarded, such as, the SEZs, Sardar Sarovar Dam Project etc. He also spoke about the need for developing decentralized technology which can be both made in villages and marketed in villages. He made his case by demonstrating AID's latest alternative technology innovation, the "Hay Basket", a low cost slow cooker, that saves on fuel cost, reduces green house gas emissions and reduces cooking time! Ravi's talk was very well received. Many attendees mentioned that they were drawn by the substance as well as the passion behind his words. A lot of them visited the AID table to take a closer look at the "Hay Basket " and also learn more about our other initiatives. Ravi was also interviewed by the Rediff India Abroad and PanDesi (a new channel on DISH Network).