Category Archives: Economy
Marc's Coffees
The Growing Culture Of Coffee In India
India is the sixth largest coffee producer in the world, and although the vast majority of Indians still prefer to start their day with tea, the trend of coffee consumption is changing in India. More and more European style cafés and eateries, where friends can gather and socialize over a cup of coffee, are now popping up all over urban India.
This café trend has introduced in India a variety of espresso, cappuccino, latte and more to people who had far fewer options before. Coffee drinkers now start to develop a palate for quality coffee and crave for more variety.
In the past, because coffee was seen as an export crop only, high-quality Indian beans were sold to European companies who would process them and blend them with other beans. Retailers would then import such products to sell to their own customers. Today entrepreneurs like Marc's Coffees are starting to change all of that.
A number of cafés today are popping up in cities all over India, buying and roasting Indian coffees especially for the domestic market.
India still exports almost 80 percent of the beans it produces, but in the past ten years, the consumption of coffee in India has increased by 40%.
For farmers, this recent domestic demand for coffee is giving hope of expansion and increased profit.
Talking Thrash with ECOSERVICE
"Your 5 minutes of attention can save the planet 500 years of decomposition time, WASH YOUR PLASTICS BEFORE YOU THROW" Auroville is full of Culture, Education and Celebration, one of the few places on earth where not only we deal with our waste consciously but can create ways to have fun with it. Auroville radio met up with Palani and Kali who took charge of Ecoservice Unit from January 2016, keeping Auroville 'LitterFree' every single day. In this program Palani and Kali share with us real-time facts and figures from last year, speak about the recent Kottakrai clean up campaign, share with us various myth and truths about the Ecoservice, draw comparison with their peers from Pondicherry, Villupuram and Chennai and bring our awareness to various DO's and DONT's that we can follow in order to minimizing "Our Waste" ending up in landfill. The Ecoservice was segregating the community waste into 60 categories last year, have now upgraded their process and are capable of segregating the total waste collected into 82 categories. No one else does that. The unit is working relentlessly and is coming up with unique and creative solutions to tackle the challenges of waste management. One of the main tools they are employing is to stop waste at it's source, by educating the community to make conscious choices in a way which will enable them to consume healthily and demand recyclable packaging for products. It can seem like just a job but what makes it successful is when your passion can make it into a challenge to do better. Encouraging the community to literally "talking thrash" to have a better future for all of us.
Sharing Space with Service Space
Nipun! Just as the name means, 'a clever man', Nipun Mehta was like a Santa Claus with fresh ideas. In an introduction meet, organized by Manoj Pavitran and friends. The Participating Aurovilians got a treat this christmas when Nipus, whose name literally means Rishi, talking about 'Gift Economy'. As Nipun suggests, we have many kinds of capital amount, to trade and deal in, money need not be the only option. Nipun along with his wife and brother started an organization, leading successfully in the world, 'Service Space'. The core principles of this organization are: 1. Totally volunteer operated 2. No fund-raising 3. Focus on small He emphasis on the point of positive volition is what is required to create the desired ripple effect. When we create the correct atmosphere, the desired mind set within society can be achieved. The meet ended with a BIG group hug and people signing up for the 21 day kindness challenge. Smile cards and other positive symbols where distributed amongst Auroville as a gesture of love, for all of us to Pay-It-Forward.
GM on Economy
AT SAIIER yesterday RAS facilitated General Meeting with the topic on Economy, with subtitle Where Are We? The Residents Assembly Service was trying to convey of this important community update from the working groups:
The Budget Coordination Committee
The departing FAMC
The Unity Fund
Affordable, Healthy Eatery
On Wednesday 10th of May at 6pm we are invited to the entrance of Mahalakshmi Park to witness official opening of new - The Neem Tree Eatery in Auroville. In short interview with Partha, one of the project holders, we find out that the main inspiration behind the project was to offer mainly aurovilians healthy affordable place to eat. Project holders Partha, Min and Mahavir who cherish good home made meals, has decided to offer food from different parts of India. In first months the Neem Tree Eatery will run between 6pm to 10pm, offering extra time for late comers, or those who like to attend cultural events in the evening. At the moment they can tend around 50 to 60 people, Desing of the building was done by Partha's wife Sonali(an AV architect) along with Min, keep it simple and beautiful taking in account the sustainability by use of recycled material. For the opening Partha promises us, and invite at the same time to taste some of the Indiand snacks and juices.
BCC presents Auroville accounts
The BCC has taken an initiative to hold open meeting with the members of the community, in their effort to make matters more simpler. The presentation speaks about the accounting performance for the year 2016-17 in comparison to the previous year, 2015-16. The presentation was given jointly by members of Budget Cordination Commitee, BCC, which is a sub group of the FAMC, member from Human Resource Team, HRT, which is subgroup to BCC. This is seen as a healthy move and generally in a good direction as during the presentation it was noticed, community members were able to share their grievances but also were able to seek relevant information, thus strengthening the notion of transparency of the systems. Many suggestions were provided to the presenting group by the members attending the presentation which indicates such presentations act as a bridging instruments and should be encouraged. A major topic of the discussion was the status quo of maintenance and the policies surrounding it, a notion was passed around to have a study group formed which can formulate and help finalize maintenance policies which the community at large can comprehend and are in line with the ideals of Auroville.
CAT 04 - Economy 2
At the Unity Pavillion, on the 19 December 2016, CAT (Create Auroville Together) brought together a collaborative space for innovating a new economic paradigm to help manifest the Dream.
After the initial presentation, the atmosphere became quite heavy with Aurovillians and Guests strongly voicing their negative feedback, at this point the recorder strangely crashed and upto that point the audio was lost ...... But later after the small groups of Guests, Volunteers, New Comers and Aurovillians had sat together sharing visions and ideas the atmosphere changed and a feeling of hope arose into the space ..... listen to what they had to say....... the Divine speaks through many mouths.
Auroville Economy Fundamentals
A new study group has been inspired, to brainstorm and create a resolute economy structure for Auroville of the future. Spearheading this endeavor is Jaya and Divyanshi, in collaboration with other team members. We have a tendency of approaching economy in a very logic frame of mind, based on financial rules and principles and tend to have rigid parameters, here we have a refreshing new approach to economy with spirituality at its base, guided by the principles of only The Mother, and fundamentals derived from interpretation of the Matri-Mandir gardens. Yes! the Matrimandir gardens is like a matrix in its own, gifted to us by the Mother and can bring enormous insights into designing of lifestyles and ecosystems, as Jaya elaborates in this interview. They propose, for an out-of-the-box solution is required to shape an economy, which should have no parallel in the world, as it should very well be like an invention, such is the theme set for Auroville. It is an interesting and thought provoking point-of-view where you have flowers, gardens, spirit and feelings as a vocabulary to design an economy which serves the people rather than an economy designed to enslave the talent and power humans can produce. This group has started off with small steps but with great intensity into research and problem solving methods, starting right from the micro level and building up the economy story. Anyone listening to this interview and is related to Auroville economy must consider offering time and energy to this special group, determined to achieve The Mother's Dream, "Money is no longer the sovereign lord of people"
CAT12: Progressive Economy
Economy is the topic everyone in Auroville is pondering on and has a reasonable idea on what is going wrong, but how to get it in line with the ideals of Auroville is the question? How can the economy of our future be, progressive, inclusive and sustainable? The Lotus group, represented by Micheal and Yves made a fantastic presentation in the last CAT's get together. The presentation was structured, rehearsed and beautifully articulated. It was designed in a unique manner, so that all the content of the matter is properly presented and no clutter of opinions is created. All the questions regarding the presentation can be directed to the Lotus group for which they will answer on the Auronet. Anyone who has an opinion or wants an idea on economy must listen to this program and then participate in the series of round table discussions which will be organized by the group to formulate their final proposal which hopefully can be presented and later acted upon by the Community. To download the pdf in English click here To download the pdf in French click here
CAT on Economy
Well attended 2nd CAT (Create Auroville Together) yesterday at Unity Pavilion with the title "Where we are to Where we can be... " has brought forward some fresh and "new" ideas. Partialy meeting, partially barnstorming workshop in groups, has united different members of the community in the quest to look at our vital part of our life - economy.