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A Trust registered in 1985 by a group of women who saw the need for focused, practical research and training and communication for the non-profit sector. Shakti has always explored areas that need to be researched and also talked about.

Contributors to the Book and their Experience…

Dilip Thakore, who is publisher and editor of Education World, India’s top education website for educators, parents and students, and ex-editor of Business India, the fortnightly business news magazine, shares his experience. “In 1978, I became editor of Business India. The FREA experience influenced me in taking up the editorship – our manifesto was almost the same: that we wanted rapid economic advancement”.
AG Rao, a mechanical engineer by education and known as the ‘bamboo man’, started the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE): AGBS (AG Bambu Style) Private Limited, to provide much needed earnings to crafts groups in villages through design, small technologies and marketing support. “FREA provided a unique interaction with communities that lived a very different life. They brought with them a myriad of ideas and questions, and the earnestness of wanting to make a difference to the world”.
Ajit Balakrishnan, Founder and CEO of Rediff.com always wanted to do something on his own, long before the start-up culture existed. “The FREA experience left a permanent impression on a middle-class boy like him, who sought many dimensions in life”.

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Customer Review

The book is an engrossing narration of how a small initiative of the 1970s, transformed so many lives over the decades, and impacted society at large. FREA was the initiative, and it was an effort to solve the problems of rural India, using modern technology, a road less travelled. IITs, the top tier of engineering colleges, were either focused overseas, or on the modern industrial sector, but almost entirely ignored the needs of rural India and of the informal sector, small and tiny industries, which together provided a livelihood to a large proportion of the working population. This was the problem which FREA, whose members were mainly from IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur, tried to address.
FREA did not continue for long, and never became an enduring organization. Several of those associated with FREA, met after 50 years, and discussed how their experiences of the 70s and 80s had affected their own lives and thinking processes. The idea of connecting technology to society and the idea of the social responsibility of technologists are fascinating and powerful ideas, with a transformative potential.
The book is well written, with first hand accounts from various participants lending a certain charm. A good read. Helpful

Krishna Nyapati

Reviewed in India on 16 March 2022

This is the most intriguing book I have read recently. It has immensely inspired me on a deeper level. This book tells the tales of some genuine people and their contribution to the rural Indian society. This will make you ask the question.."Are we doing enough for our society, for our future generation?" This is a truely impressive narration.

Chandrima Sinha

Reviewed in India on 19 April 2023

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We are an Indian Social Research Initiative registered in 1985 as a Public Trust under Section 29 of The Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950.

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