A webinar session marking the sixth in Stakeholder Forum's eight-part "Countdown to the UN SDG Summit 2023" series leading up to the SDG Summit in September 2023. Discussion on SDG 11 and 12, with an emphasis on enhancing the environmental component of the 2030 Agenda.

Radio Bundelkhand celebrates Earth Day in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund by planting trees in Madhya Pradesh. Addressing environmental damage that man-made activities have done in the past and how we need to make environmentally conscious choices each day to leave a better planet for the future generations to come.

To support Govt school children in exploring their cognitive self-understanding and knowing about various career pathways, DA organised Bal Melas and Career Counselling Sessions in five villages in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh as part of the LIC HFL HRIDAY Project.

Three JalTARA filters are now used by 300 families in Sonbharda, UP. A project supported by LIC HFL has directly benefited the most remote communities of this dry and arid region. These filters have given a ray of hope to the communities and now these filters are run and maintained through LOCO model.

Development Alternatives (DA) Group, a pioneer in sustainable development, has undertaken several initiatives to reduce resource scarcity, resource disparity, and environmental degradation. DA has been at the forefront in advocating the opportunities tied to ‘waste as wealth’ and its sustainable management.

Development Alternatives participated in the ‘CSO-Media Regional Networking, Write-Shop and Study Tour’ conducted by the IUCN recently in Nepal. It was a platform to discuss regional cooperation to promote sustainable energy transition in the Ganges River Basin.

CSIRO is coordinating an 'India–Australia Industry and Research Collaboration' to achieve a zero plastic waste economy. The researchers involved in this programme visited India recently to learn the on-ground waste management situation.

Development Alternatives, along with Esquare Inc. organised a seminar where industry experts and professionals came together to have a discourse on CSR landscape in India, the Companies Act of 2013, and to showcase the potential of CSR in India.

On the occasion of World Radio Day, Radio Bundelkhand (RB) hosted Bundelkhand University students, introducing them to the day-to-day activities of the community radio. Also, team DA attended the three-day Radio Festival (TRF) in Delhi.

The Conference, which was organised on 7 February, 2023 in New Delhi, deliberated on how to create a groundswell of demand–supply match and expand sub-scale pilots to respond to the rapidly growing population of rural youth.

Development Alternatives (DA) participated at 'A Week of Technologies for Low Carbon and Lean Construction' (TLC2) at IIT Madras, recently, to gain insights and knowledge on the latest advancements in sustainable construction practices.

To spread awareness among entrepreneurs about the use of innovative technologies in integrated fisheries and poultry farming to increase productivity, we, along with our partners, recently organised a mela in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh.

Building upon its green economic transition work with the fly ash brick entrepreneurs, DA organised a training-cum-consultation session on financing for such enterprises along with partners in Darbhanga, Bihar.

Development Alternatives hosted a session at the Livelihoods India Summit 2022, New Delhi on 19 January, 2023, wherein it led the conversation on 'Youth Entrepreneurship: Driving Micromovements of Change'.

Ms Gitika Goswami, Asso VP, DA moderated a session on ‘Financial Innovations for Resilience’ jointly hosted by National Institute of Disaster Management and DA at the Resilience and Sustainability Summit: Vision 2047, held in New Delhi in January. 

DA and Indian Micro Enterprises Development Foundation (IMEDF) hosted a cohort from Yale School of Management who are building a comprehensive feedback mechanism for udyaME in understanding the needs of entrepreneurs and developing products in real time.

During the event on 'Empowering Grassroot Startups for Sustainable Development', Dr Ashok Khosla, Chairman, Development Alternatives highlighted that creating jobs requires social capital and this support needs to come from the ecosystem.

Development Alternatives (DA) joined the first formal convening of the Think20 under India's G20 Presidency in New Delhi. DA had earlier in January responded to the Call for Policy Brief Abstract with five submissions in collaboration with the global partners.

Recently, DA jointly conducted a workshop with Vidya Bhawan Polytechnic in Udaipur with a broader focus on participatory learning and knowledge sharing through the Citizen Science approach.

An interactive and insightful Live Q&A took place on 23 December, 2022 between Development Alternatives (DA) Group and social investing platform, Rang De, where Kanika Verma, Lead, Green and Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Associate Vice President, DA Group and Rang De’s Smita Ram, Co-Founder and CEO and Ram NK, Co-Founder and MD conversated on green jobs, innovation in finance, and the partnership in making low-cost and timely credit accessible to rural India’s entrepreneurs.Seeking to understand the systemic shifts created in the ecosystem, highlights from the conversation are as follows: i) Unlocking Innovation in Finance Speaking on innovation in finance, especially in building micro-credit products, Ms Verma remarked that one has to be dynamic and inclusive in recognising the aspirations of an individual. She shared an example of persona-based credit and stated, “DA has identified four personas in its programmes, namely women, youth, seasoned, and inclusive through which the team identifies the aspirations and needs of the individual, and which has also helped the entrepreneurs understand the type of financial products they would like to avail.” ii) Mainstreaming Inclusive and Green Entrepreneurship Micro-enterprises are wired to veer towards green economy opportunities by virtue of their ability to capitalise on local resources and create local jobs. For instance, juxtapose the carbon footprint of a local chips manufacturer to that of a multinational corporation’s, not to mention the number of jobs it creates within the local economy! Another example would be the Integrated Fishery and Poultry (IFPE) model which optimises poultry waste as a resource to reduce input cost in the fishery model. iii) Listening to Nurture Constructive Communities At DA, deep listening has been central to include the voices of communities responding positively to shifts in the new social system. Through co-creating proactive solutions, the entrepreneurs have been spearheading micromovements of change on ground such as

03 Jan 2023 South Delhi, kalkaji