UK start-up unveils hydrogen car

A friend of mine in the UK, who has been a part of the project, just sent me an announcement that their prototype vehicle is now on the road and attracting lots of attention. For more details, go to the company website at http://riversimple.com/.

Products need to be modular, durable, adaptable, repairable, recyclable…

The mufti-dimensional mega-crisis crisis includes resource depletion, waste, and pollution. Products need to be modular, durable, adaptable, repairable, recyclable, and efficient in their use of scarce resources. The old corporate model of private profit maximization encourages just the opposite.

Here’s one example of how products can be made the right way.

The Locus of Power in Today’s World

What are the largest, most powerful entities in the world? Transnational Institute has published a report, State of Power: 2013, that contains some interesting statistics, among them the fact that forty of the world’s biggest economies are corporations, and less than one percent of the companies, mostly banks, control 40% of all corporate shares. Read the full report here.

Putting People Before Profit, the New Wave in Business?

Is it possible for a business to put service foremost as its purpose and still remain viable? The story of Aravind is inspiring, and seems to answer the question in the affirmative.

Here is an excerpt from the description in Wikipedia:

Aravind Eye Care Hospital is an ophthalmological hospital with several locations in India. It was founded by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy.

The hospital is named after Sri Aurobindo, one of the 20th century’s most revered spiritual leaders

Given the magnitude of blindness and the challenges faced in a developing country, the Government alone cannot meet the health needs of all. Realising this predicament, Dr. Venkataswamy wanted to establish an alternate health care model that would supplement the efforts of the Government and also be self-supporting. Hence, upon his retirement in 1976, he established the GOVEL Trust to initiate eye care work.

Under this Trust, the Aravind Eye Hospitals were founded. Today, Aravind is more than an eye hospital. It is a social organisation committed to the goal of elimination of needless blindness through comprehensive eye care services. It is also an international training centre for ophthalmic professionals and trainees who come from within India and around the world. It is an institute for research that contributes to the development of eye care and to train health-related and managerial personnel in the development and implementation of efficient and sustainable eye care programmes. Aravind also is a manufacturer of world class ophthalmic products available at affordable costs through the Aurolab.

You can read the full Wikipedia description here, and the complete story of Aravind in the new book, Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the World’s Greatest Business Case for Compassion  (see a preview here).