Environment is a growing cause of concern for the world today. All across the globe man’s practices are depriving future generations of a healthy and pollution free world. Although initiatives like a tree a person and reusing etc are wonderful, in order to serve the purpose its cause itself needs to be regulated and drastic solutions on a much larger scale need to be implemented. Emissions trading could be just the answer.
Emissions trading, as it is known by European Union is the trading of emissions between the government and industries so that the overall emission does not exceed a pre set limit. In the US it is known as the cap and trade policy and has several programs active at present. According to the program, a limit is set on the amount of emissions a given plant/factory can emit. The limit is known as credits. If the company emits below this level then it can bank on the credits for the future when it may emit more. Or they can trade their credits with other producers which are falling short of credits. In this way the overall upper limit is maintained and the industries which are the biggest pollutants can be brought in to ensure a sustainable development.
Although this method does not eliminate the source of pollution, it does reduce it drastically which is the only possible effective solution and should be implemented across the globe, since closing down well established industries or coming up with hundred percent eco-friendly processes does not seem to be coming any sooner.
The writer of the post is Gautami Bhatt. She is a Masters student in Power & Control Engineering at the University of Houston.
“We are but an island in an ocean;
This is our home, third from the sun.
Let it be evergreen.
To keep it ever green,
I would lay my life down.
God, keep it evergreen.”
–”The Earth Anthem” by The Turtles
Enough has been done to educate the world about the significance of environment. It’s time we do something in the actual sense. The Ads4good application helps people to do their bit for the environment. Rajagopalan Nats is one of those who is using his blogging platform in fighting for the environment. Rajagopalan Nats | An electrical engineer by profession, Rajagopalan is also a freelance blogger who has two insightful blogs, while Just outis a newsblog where he provides his own insights on popular news, and raises important environmental issues, Web Browser is a useful tool for those wishing to explore new and interesting websites.
Little initiatives make a great deal of difference.
Needless to throw light on how animals are being treated by us. Of many threats endangering the helpless animals, MAN is the deadliest of all. And yet we call ourselves soulful living things. Of very few people who do not consider animals machines, Vishal Marathe, also once a part of Save The Tiger Campaign, is one.
Vishal Marathe | A die-hard Chelsea Football Club fan from Thane is a SEO executive. His blog Chelsea FC Blog has all updates of Chelsea club matches. From match scores to videos to a detailed commentary of how terrific Chelsea club played, you will find everything on this blog.
Animals Have Equal Rights
“I love animals and to see the way animals are treated is very disturbing. They have as much right to live happily as we do. Our tigers are on the verge of extinction and we can’t afford to let our wildlife in further danger, ” says Vishal. “With Ads4Good widget, I can make some difference”.
True, a nation which has been gifted with rich wildlife cannot and should not take this gift for granted.
This week Ads4Good has a young student who considers Poverty as the root cause of the numerous problems the country is facing today. True, lack of basic requirements result in all other issues; thus leading to stagnation of progress and growth.
Here’s featuring someone who is helping to uplift lives of as many people he can with the Ads4Good widget.
Arun Gupta | A student (B.Tech) and a freelancer who designs & develops websites. Passionate about Internet & Web Technologies, he started his Blog Technofreak to pen down his insights on technology. Technofreak is all about technologies related to PCs, Mobiles, Troubleshooting, and technology Tips and Tricks.
Arun who is a student had always wanted to contribute something for the poor.
I had this wish of doing something good for the underprivileged of the society. But being a student I could not do anything substantial for them. Surprisingly, Ads4Good happened and I grabbed it. I am glad, I can now serve the society,
While Aircell is advocating “Save Our Tigers” and Idea Cellular advising to save paper, Ads4Good is doing the little effort it can by donating the money generated from the commercial ads of Ads4Good widget to help save the environment.
Joining us in the effort is the Jugaadbhai.Com, a website with a concept as interesting as its name.
Jugaadbhai.Com | A place everyone would want to log on to find creative and innovative solutions to problems. JugaadBhai.com is a simple concept where they show different ‘Jugaads’ done by people through Pictures and Videos. Also, their Samay Pass/Online Khel sections are two segments full of fun.
From Jugaadbhai,
“Our Environment quickly needs a Jugaad It’s high time each one of us get down to doing our part to save the world we live in. With Ads4Good widget we are trying to do our bit in saving the degrading environment and also encourage people who visit our site to be sensitive towards the environment. “
True, it is high time we take our environment seriously. And if you still don’t agree, watch the video below.
Facts are this, the island nations of the world are slowly sinking. The polar ice caps are melting. Global temperatures are increasing, water resources are depleting and climatic conditions are as volatile as the stock market. And in such scathing situation, it is upon us to not let our lovely world die.
Few of us take long to get into action, and few know how they can make a difference. Julia is one of those who knows what her help means.
Julia Scissor | An environmental activist and polyglot chose to add the Ads4Good widget on her blog to help save the environment. Her blog Crazy Quilt is a personal space which she uses to pen down her experiences. In her words it’s her “Thought-Dump”.
“The environment is a cause I am passionate about and it’s close to my heart. I have been actively involved with various environmental issues. For us to be alive, our environment has to live. Margaret Mead had once said- We Won’t have a society if we destroy the environment. Today the statement holds so true,” says Julia
Indeed, for us to survive the environment around us has to be healthy. Will you join Julia to protect the environment?
“It pains me to see people so poor, and pains me even more to see children being deprived of education due to poverty and forced to work. Both Poverty Alleviation and Education are interdependent. One cannot be solved without solving the other,” says Biswajit Dhar.
The picture below truly justifies Biswajit’s logic.
(source: roomtoread)
The recent stats say about 1.4 billion people live below the poverty line. 640 million people around the world have no proper home to live in and 1 in every 2 child is poor. And one of the major cause is of it is the lack of Education.
In a world where the inequality gaps are widening to the extent where the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer; doing even the minutest help would help narrow this gap. With Ads4Good Widget on both his blogs, Biswajit is making a difference.
Your help would count too.
Biswajit Dhar | Biswajit is a Delhi based full time call centre executive with a passion for photography. His blog, Delhi Street Photography (supports Poverty Alleviation), is a personal space which he uses to live his passion- capturing the mundane yet eventful lives of people and places with the lens. His other blog Rhymes and Frames, where he supports Education of the underprivileged, is a collection of poems.
The question is not, “Can they reason?” nor, “Can they talk?” but rather, “Can they suffer?” ~Jeremy Bentham
This may come as a shock to many; at least it did to us.
The Indian style of fortune telling is well known and of all the most common practice is of a fortune teller who proclaims to own a blessed parrot. The owner of the parrot says his parrot is blessed and capable of reading one’s future.
The owner opens the door of the tiny cage and the little parrot comes out of the cage which otherwise is always shut. The parrot walks out slowly, picks up a card and very obedient goes back to the cage. It is perhaps this act of the parrot going back to the cage instead of flying makes us want to believe that the man with the parrot is right in saying that his parrot is blessed.
Has anyone wondered why the parrot goes back in that little cage? why does the animal not behave according to its genetic characteristics? How will it with its tail feathers and wings tied up; brutally. The only option the helpless parrot has is to go back in the cage.
Apart from this the parrot is also subjected to cruelty such as not being given enough water, food and sunlight. The cage is rarely cleaned. To sum it up- the parrot is subjected to all that cruelty which makes it dread to even think of going against it’s master’s will and bring itself freedom.
As a matter of fact, this is not one place where an animal is treated cruelly for man’s selfish needs. You may well be reminded that most of the medical achievements in the 20th century was achieved by experimenting on animals. And the saddest of all is the cosmetics experiments- the cream you use or the bag you carry reached you after it was tested on an animal leading to the animal’s wipe out.
Animals, like us, have rights; let’s not deprive them of it. Join now and help these innocent animals get thier rights- /http://ads4good.org/why-what-how/
About 750 million people in the world do not know to read and write. And of this most belong to the continent Africa, accounting to about more than 60% of illiterate population. Also, Africa is one of the least developed (poorest) countries. Need we say more?
It is apparent that education and development have a direct relation. And do develop a nation and eventually the world, there need to be more people able to read, write and think on their own. This is what Pascal Nunes aims to do with adding Ads4Good Ads Widget on his blog- NunesPascal.Com.
Pascal Nunes | Pascal who loves travelling and Photography is a tech geek passionate about clearing obstacles people face as using computers to perform tasks. His Games section on his blog has few very old and interesting computer games.
In simple words Pascal sums up the power education carries with it.
“Education is an enabler. It is the leverage that many need to fight poverty, social evils, etc. When you educate a child, you educate the generation that come after him/her.”
With the fund raised out of Ads4Good Ads Pascal surely will manage to educate more than one child, And You?
To many it would come as a surprise to learn the myriad ways Jithin Krishnan, a student at Asian College of Journalism, has taken to to extend help to the society. Yes, it is surprising and also inspiring when a student indulges himself in an act of responsibility.
Jithin Krishnan| Besides being a blogger, Jithin is also the Vice President in charge of Public Relations at Make A Difference (MAD), a youth volunteer organization which works to educate the lesser-fortunate children across India. A reflection of his work can been seen at the MAD blog- http://makeadiff.in/blog/
Someone of that kind surely could not have missed out on any chance of doing good to those in need in any way possible. Jithin turned out amongst first few to add the Ads4Good widget on his blog-The Jinxability Blog- to help support education of children.
“In my last three years of work at MAD, I have come to realize the importance of education and that it is the strongest element to uplift lives in the truest way.”
Truly books are the windows through which souls look out.
Jithin’s efforts and vigilance to grab every single opportunity to add value to other’s life make one question- whoever said the youth today is irresponsible?
Ads4Good was founded as an effort to contribute to the society and those part of it. Of many who utilized this simple yet unique and effective concept to help make a difference in lives of the underprivileged, Anu Shankar is one.
Anu Shankar| In days when women, caught in the hectic chores of life, quit expressing their thoughts, Anu Shankar took to writing about her travel experiences and sharing information through her blog- A Wandering Mind.
She is using the Ads4Good widget to Support the cause Education. On asking why, Anu shares:
“I believe that it is only education which can bring about an effective change in our country and by education I don’t mean just literacy. One can be literate, but not educated. For me, the educated person is one who is aware of things around him, and knows how to deal with it in a positive way. Unless every child in our country is educated, we can never really move forward.”
Indeed in a world full of ignorance and unawareness, helping to educate a few is the need of the hour. And this is what Anu Shankar intends to do with having the Ads4Good ads on her blog.
Akshay Surve taking a session on Blogging4Good @ BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010
Akshay Surve attended BlogCamp Mumbai last weekend on the 20th Feb, 2010. The event was very well *un-organized* and it was good to see a lot of first timers who were curious about blogging. Add to it a healthy mix of veteran campers and you are assured of a fun filled time with a lot of knowledge and experience sharing. Most of the sessions were interesting and it was great to see participation from each and everyone. Campers no doubt were an excited lot!
It was also heartening to see among all other topics there was a special focus on on social causes. Satish and Ranjeet spoke about ‘The Sapling Project‘, Sanjukta took a session on how Bell Bajao used Social Media, Meeta shared an inspirational story, Chandni spoke on how she leverages twitter and posterous to mobilize funds for causes and finally Akshay on how bloggers could leverage their blogs for good by using Ads4Good on their blogs. Sanjukta summed it up by tweeting:
@sanjukta: Am glad we are not talking about how to make money with blogs nemore. Money is so passe, we r now changing world. #blcm
Akshay Surve taking a session on Blogging4Good @ BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010
Participants @ BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010
ACM organizers @ BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010
Participants @ BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010
@ideasmithy at BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010
Netra & the Wikiboard @ BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010
Akshay Surve (Ads4Good) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb'10
Ads4Good was invited by the Startup Saturday Mumbai team for a ‘Lightning Pitch’ last weekend on the 13th of February. Startup Saturday is an initiative by Headstart to provide entrepreneurs in each city with a monthly community driven forum that is structured in agenda but open in discussions. A Startup Saturday provides a forum for entrepreneurs to discuss, present, network and learn from peers, prospective customers, adopters, partners and investors.
Startup Saturday Mumbai had brought together some interesting startups and folks interested in startups. The highlight of the event was the talk by Mr. Mahesh Shetty of MT Educare (popularly known as Mahesh Tutorials) on his experiences as a young entrepreneur. Having to speak right after him was an humbling experience. The real start of the evening was the curious and participating audience which not only gave everyone a patient ear but took the initiative to ask the right questions.
Not to forget there were some very interesting startups also presenting at the event viz. Dewink, Meter Down, i-Become and Deltecs. We also had some freebies given to participants with the best questions sponsored Navarang Tshirts. A big thanks to the Startup Saturday Mumbai Team and especially Netra and Annkur for the invitation.
Akshay Surve (Ads4Good) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb 2010
Akshay Surve (Ads4Good) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb'10
Mr. Mahesh Shetty (MT Educare) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb 2010
Anubhuti Mishra (Dewink) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb 2010
Simi (Meter Down) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb 2010
Deltics at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb 2010
Akshay Surve (Ads4Good) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb 2010
Next you should find us at BlogCamp Mumbai on the 20th of February. If you are planning to be around please gives us a shout and we would love to meet you.
ISB iDiya 2009 Felicitation at ISB Leadership Summit
We are elated to inform you that Ads4Good has won at the ISB iDiya 2009 – National Ideas Challenge. For this we would foremost like to thank you for your unconditional support and we intend to seek your ongoing support as we take our idea to fruition.
The objective of the ISB iDiya Challenge was to encourage the social entrepreneurship paradigm amongst youth in India. It endeavored to bring together entrepreneurs, mentors and investors to help create sustainable and scalable businesses that have a positive social impact.
Objectives of ISB iDiya from their website:
Stimulate Indian youth to identify the needs within their communities, and come up with practical sustainable solutions to meet those needs.
Create an online social networking platform to facilitate collaboration amongst individuals interested in the social sector in India.
Support transition from idea generation to idea commercialisation through the mentorship and entrepreneurial training programme.
The highlight of the competition was a week long bootcamp with an opportunity to interact with industry leaders, venture capitalists and mentors. In addition, we are now also eligible for a 10-weeks mentoring support from a board comprising high-profile businessmen and organisations.
If we look back at the bootcamp it was the knowledge sharing and the late night discussions with invited winners which was the highlight. Considering most of the ideas were in the initial stages there was so much in common that we could share to help eachother. The other winners were as follows – Source Pilani, Green Bag Pune, Surya Kiran, Hole in the Wall and Green Basics. Our best wishes go to all of them.
To top it all, our heart goes out to the team behind iDiya. Their attention to detail and commitment was contagious. Every team was assigned a buddy and our buddy, Kavitha Gorapalli deserves special mention to help us completely restructure our business plan pitch at the last moment. Not to forget to mention, we were totally awed by the architecture and picturesque campus of ISB.
Some pictures from the ISB iDiya 2009 National Social Ideas Challenge
ISB iDiya 2009 Felicitation at ISB Leadership Summit
ISB iDiya Felicitation - Excellency Korn Dabbaransi (Former Deputy Prime Minister Thailand), Akshay Surve, Ravi Kabra, Ajit Rangnekar (Dean of ISB), Pavan Mishra
ISB iDiya 2009 Felicitation at ISB Leadership Summit
ISB iDiya Felicitation - Excellency Korn Dabbaransi (Former Deputy Prime Minister Thailand), Akshay Surve, Ravi Kabra, Ajit Rangnekar (Dean of ISB), Pavan Mishra
ISB iDiya 2009 Winners with Rahul Bose in the center
ISB iDiya 2009 Winners with Rahul Bose
We are very excited to share with you that we have made a smooth transition to the ‘cloud’. ‘Cloud Computing‘ or ‘Cloud’ as it popularly referred to is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics – on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.
Behind all the technical mumbo jumbo what it means to the users is that our ‘adjets‘ will now load faster and we will be able to scale more easily in size and geographically. Considering that soon we would be out of our pilot phase we needed to ensure that we had the infrastructure in place to support massive viral growth when needed.
In the coming days we have some very interesting announcements to make regarding our progress and associations. All we can share as of now is that our team is now in Hyderabad at ISB and will be attending ISB Leadership Summit tomorrow.
The last four weeks have been very exciting at Ads4Good as we launched our limited pilot program with the Joy of Giving Week. I would particularly like to thank each one of you for sharing your honest feedback and ideas that we could incorporate in the near future.
We have already added a new ‘Adjet’ size for you to add in your blog based on your feedback.
I would also particularly like to thank Wendy, Royston, Manav and Praneeth to reaching out to us through email with feedback.
In the coming weeks I would love to share with you more about our vision. If you are in Mumbai, Hyderabad or Pune and would like to catch up please feel free to get in touch with us or connect with us through twitter (@Ads4Good). We are always looking to meet curious individuals who want to make a difference.
Internally we refer to the widgets that we serve as Adjets (Ad + Widget). (Isn’t that a funky name?)
We started off by serving Adjets of width 300px. One of the most requested feature in the last few days has been that you would like to see narrower Adjets that fit nicely in your blog sidebars. As I write this post we have released Adjets of width 160px (and height approximately 640px) code for which you can now see in your profile page.
Here are some samples:
Adjet width 160px
Adjet width 300px
The 160×600 ad format also happens to be one of the top performing ad formats and we are happy to give you an option to use it. This is also the ad format which you see many times on Facebook on the extreme right.
In other news we had some remarkable NGOs which have come onboard to join hands with Ads4Good. They are particularly interested in participating in this massive online intervention that all of you are taking part in. I think I would take some time out over the weekend to share with you some of the on the ground work of organizations we are working in collaboration at Ads4Good.
Great News! Updates form Ads4Good are now available on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/Ads4Good (Notice the simple to remember URL)
Facebook only offers this service if one has considerable ‘Fan Following’. It was for this very reason I want to take a moment and thank You for becoming a fan of Ads4Good, inviting your friends and sharing our stories on your profile page. While I write this message to you we are 140 fans in all.
This is also the best time to show your support for Ads4Good. You could do this in the following ways:
The Joy of Giving Week is a new national movement that aims to engage every single Indian in giving back to society in a way that she or he chooses-money, time, skills or resources.
The spirit of the Joy of Giving Week is in sync with our Ads4Good philosophy. For this we have initiated the Ads4Good Event for the Joy of Giving Week campaign. Although the Joy of Giving Week ends on the 3rd of October, we are pledging our support to the event and its spirit by allowing our community to donate all funds raised to the partner NGOs. Yes, at Ads4Good we and our community will be celebrating the joy of giving for the whole month of October.
How can you participate?
If you have a blog (active/dormant) go ahead and signup with us with your favorite cause.
(It would only take two minutes)
Spread the word
Know of friends who blog? Let them know about us and why they should participate in this unique program.
The Joy of Giving Week is a new national movement that aims to engage every single Indian in giving back to society in a way that she or he chooses-money, time, skills or resources. So far, 35,000 schools, hundreds of colleges, several state governments, corporates, celebrities and sportspersons have signed up, and the fellowship is growing every day.
In the words of Venkat Krishnan the founder of GiveIndia which is coordinating this event:
We need this because giving unites people across numerous divides-urban-rural, caste, class and gender-and brings them together. Thus, competing five-star hotels of Chennai will unitedly host a lavish Battle of Buffets fundraising dinner to benefit all Chennai’s NGOs, and citizens of every shape and size will run together at city marathons to generate cash and community feeling.
We need this because giving is an eclectic function-let me count the ways. An artist can donate a painting, a student can use his pocket money to buy a pair of chappals for the flower-seller, a housewife can pay for her maid’s child education. What better inspiration than young BPO executives whose parents are maids or drivers but who are still eager to donate Rs 50 to 100 a month from their salaries to a cause.
We need it because India could do with more Bill Gateses and more Warren Buffets. As India continues to struggle with its paradoxes of growth with inequity, of having the most billionaires in the world and the largest impoverished population, the Joy of Giving Week is an opportunity to redeem ourselves. To paraphrase management guru Peter Drucker’s words, when we look in the mirror in the morning, we should be looking at a citizen who takes responsibility, a person who as a neighbour cares.
We at Ads4Good wholeheartedly support the spirit behind the Joy of Giving Week and would soon launching our campaign for it. I believe ‘giving’ is infectious and it reaching pandemic proportions can save this world.
You should surely check some of the celebrities endorsing Joy of Giving Week:
It’s high time each one of us get down to doing our part to save the world we live in. With Ads4Good widget we are trying to do our bit in saving the degrading environment and also encourage people who visit our site to be sensitive towards the environment. “
