e-Choupal, Transforming Agricultural Supply Chain

In setting up rural farmer-entrepreneurs with Internet access, and using modern technology to accurately weigh farmers' crops (and paying them promptly), ITC's e-Choupal system is transforming India's agricultural supply chain, reducing systemic corruption and giving farmers both better prices for their crops and a sense of dignity and confidence in being connected to the rest of the world.

Amy Smith: Simple designs that could save millions of childrens' lives

Mechanical engineer Amy Smith's approach to problem-solving in developing nations is refreshingly common-sense: Invent cheap, low-tech devices that use local resources, so communities can reproduce her efforts and ultimately help themselves. Smith, working with her students at MIT, has come up with several useful tools, including an incubator that stays warm without electricity, a simple grain mill, and a tool that converts farm waste into cleaner-burning charcoal.

The inventions have earned Smith three prestigious prizes: the B.F. Goodrich Collegiate Inventors Award, the MIT-Lemelson Prize, and a MacArthur "genius" grant. Her course, "Design for Developing Countries," is a pioneer in bringing humanitarian design into the curriculum of major institutions. Going forward, the former Peace Corps volunteer strives to do much more, bringing her inventiveness and boundless energy to bear on some of the world's most persistent problems.

"Smith has a stable of oldfangled technologies that she has reconfigured and applied to underdeveloped areas around the world. Her solutions sound like answers to problems that should have been solved a century ago. To Smith, that's the point."

Wired News