Third party role in The Tech Awards 2011 by The Tech Museum The controversy over the Tech Award to Dr. Pradip Kumar Sarmah of CRD, Guwahati took a new turn after a press release by Assam Foundation of North America (AFNA). AFNA has mentioned that: i) it has submitted the application for this award. ii). as part of the application process, AFNA submitted detailed information about the contributions of all stakeholders in the Rickshaw Bank project, including those of CRD and IIT Guwahati.
Now going by the statement of AFNA, the questions that arise are: i) Who authorized AFNA to apply for this award without prior permission from the stakeholders (AFNA has never discussed this with Project Investigator and Designer of the Dipbahan, Dr. Amarendra Kumar Das)? ii) Was it that AFNA only nominated Rickshaw bank? iii) Why AFNA and CRD will attend the award function and why not IIT Guwahati? iv) In whose account is the award money going to be deposited (in case it is announced at the award function)? It has been pointed out that AFNA applied for the award and it is logical that they will receive the amount and then they will pass it on to whom - Dr. Pradip Sarmah or CRD or AFNA coffers? AFNA needs to justify its action, because nobody can claim awards like this on other stakeholder’s behalf, without prior permission. Is this acceptable in today’s knowledge driven economy? The press release by AFNA looks like a damage control measure (or shall we say face saving measure?) taken by AFNA. If readers are keenly following the whole episode, one can see that AFNA still did not touch Dr. A. K. Das’s main allegation of PLAGIARISM. CRD and its executive director have received several awards based on plagiarism. CRD claims that the Rickshaw Bank concept was innovated by them. However this concept was practiced much earlier in the year 1994-95 when Rastriya Gramin Vikash Nidhi (RGVN) sanctioned this project to the Bastar Sevak Mandal, Madhya Pradesh. Please go through the pdf attachment regarding the project of the Bastar Sevak Mandal. AFNA themselves should inform about this plagiarism to The Tech Museum so that we can be sure that AFNA is not in league with this plagiarism. AFNA, instead of initiating face saving measure like telling the world now that they gave credit to Dr. Das and IIT Guwahati, should take corrective measures so that the guilty get their due share of blame and the one who deserves due honor gets it, otherwise this will bring disgrace to Assam and Assamese Community. AFNA has mentioned that CRD has made some changes in the original design but question arises whether CRD has taken permission from IIT Guwahati for such changes and whether by making some changes they have compromised with the quality and passenger safety. I have seen many rickshaws on the roads of Guwahati which have been manufactured by some local manufacturer other than CRD, so can they too claim to be the innovator because they have made certain changes? Dipbahan tricycle rickshaw designed by Dr. Amarendra Kr. Das and supported by the Department of Design, IIT Guwahati, is excellently designed for passengers’ benefit like space, safety, comfort etc., which only a professionally trained designer like Dr. A.K. Das can conceptualize and deliver. When the whole success of DIPBAHAN is to be attributed to the design, leaving Dr. Amarendra Kr. Das and IIT Guwahati out of this award is nothing short of treachery and we must play our role that “if we cannot do any good for the society, let us not harm it”. Action of AFNA/CRD will have a big effect on de-motivating people like Dr. Das and his colleagues in IIT Guwahati. Bidyananda Barkakoty Guwahati ________________________________ From: Buljit Buragohain <buluas...@yahoo.co.in> To: "assamonl...@yahoogroups.com" <assamonl...@yahoogroups.com> Cc: "assam@assamnet.org" <assam@assamnet.org>; "friendsofassa...@yahoogroups.com" <friendsofassa...@yahoogroups.com>; "northeastin...@yahoogroups.com" <northeastin...@yahoogroups.com>; "silc...@yahoogroups.com" <silc...@yahoogroups.com>; "axomiya_stude...@yahoogroups.com" <axomiya_stude...@yahoogroups.com>; "assamsoci...@yahoogroups.com" <assamsoci...@yahoogroups.com>; Amarendra Kumar Das <da...@iitg.ernet.in> Sent: Sunday, 9 October 2011 8:21 PM Subject: [NorthEastIndia] AFNA : Rickshaw Bank receives prestigious international economic development award CANTON, MICHIGAN, USA, Oct 8 2011 - Rickshaw Bank, a project of the Centre for Rural Development (CRD), has been named as a laureate of the Flextronics Economic Development Award this year. The award will be presented later this month in Santa Clara, California, USA. The Flextronics Economic Development Award is a part of the Tech Awards, named after the prestigious Tech Museum in Silicon Valley, California. The awards are in five categories - Environment, Economic Development, Education, Equality, and Health. Each category has multiple laureates and one laureate in each category will receive a cash award of $50,000, to be announced during the awards ceremony on October 20, 2011. Rickshaw Bank was named a laureate for its social development impact to improve the lives of thousands of marginalized rickshaw pullers with below-poverty-line incomes. Starting in 2004 with 80 rickshaw pullers in Guwahati, the program has scaled to 5,000 pullers all over Assam. The project provides an asset-based loan to the puller to purchase a technologically superior rickshaw, known as the Dip Bahan, originally designed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, and manufactured by CRD. Pullers are able to pay off the loan to CRD agents in convenient daily installments over a period of 18 months, after which they can keep all their daily earnings as owners. CRD also provides the following services to the pullers: - Licences/training on rules and regulations - Uniforms to help identify drivers - Property, casualty insurance - Cooking gas connections for families - Cash loans, after full on-time repayment of rickshaw loan - Low cost health care services for the family Dr. Amarendra Kumar Das, Head of the Department of Design, led the team in IIT Guwahati that originally designed the Dip Bahan. Based on active field testing in partnership with CRD and other organizations, the Dip Bahan has made over 30 improvements to the traditional rickshaw design, including: - Lowered rickshaw weight to 75 kg from 95-105 kg to reduce strain on the puller - Lowered footrest to 17 inches from 21.5 inches to help women, children, and elderly people in getting on and off - Changed the brake and lighting systems to make it safer - Added better covering from sun and rain for both puller and passengers - Used tubular iron pipe instead of wood for body parts to increase functioning life - Added more luggage space for passengers Assam Foundation of North America (AFNA), a volunteer-based non-profit organization registered in USA, that has served charitable interests of Assam and the USA since 1982, submitted the application for this award. As part of the application process, AFNA submitted detailed information about the contributions of all stakeholders in the Rickshaw Bank project, including those of CRD and IIT Guwahati. Representatives from AFNA will join the executive director of CRD, Dr. Pradip Kumar Sarmah, who has been invited by the awards organization to attend the ceremony. AFNA is proud to be able to support this effort involving two organizations from Assam, whose combined contributions are benefitting one of the poorest segments of urban workers in India. Further information about the organizations named in this press release can be found at the web sites listed below: - The Tech Awards:www.techawards.org - Centre for Rural Development:www.crdev.org - Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati:www.iitg.ac.in - Assam Foundation of North America:www.assamfoundation.net http://www.assamfoundation. net/index.php?option=com_ content&view=article&id=77: rickshawbankpressrelease- 08oct11&catid=39:welfare-news __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (2) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group MARKETPLACE Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! 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