India Development Service

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India Development Service (IDS) is a nonprofit, non-political, and secular organization supporting economic and social development in India .

Welcome

IDS supports small, grass roots development projects under various categories, like Income Generation, Education, Health Care, Environment and Disaster Management across India. These projects emphasize self-reliance, accountability of project coordinators, and a strong sense of ownership for the beneficiaries. The projects IDS adopts are initiated and carried out by the community members themselves ensuring that they are responsive to local conditions and needs. Careful prior monitoring and ongoing dialogue with the project has been the mainstay of IDS project support. We also support activists who are striving to change attitudes and fight prejudices in society.

IDS believes is efficiency, transparency and research. Our annual reports are available.

Since 1974 IDS has acted as a catalyst/supporter to over 150 projects all over India with over US$ one million and continues that work.

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The Power of Paper

You may be wondering what can a sheet or even a few sheets of paper really accomplish. Quite a lot actually.

Sikshana‘s charter was to improve the performance of public schools in Karnataka, India. Mr. E.S. Ramamurthy, the founder of Sikshana, has always been an ardent advocate of helping public schools improve themselves. It is during a trip to one of his schools he came upon an interesting problem.

There was a public school in Karnataka,adopted by Sikshana for improvement, where the test scores of students were abysmally low. Sikshana conducted an analysis of the problem including conducting exams where students provided answers verbally. The results of that exam were remarkable. Students who were failing their written tests were scoring really high scores. Initially it puzzled both the teachers of the school and the staff of Sikshana.

After some detailed investigation, the reason for the discrepancy was clear. The students were from economically challenged backgrounds and they had no access to writing paper outside of school. This meant that their writing speeds were really low and they were unable to complete the tests in time, leaving them with low scores.

As they say the biggest problems often have the simplest solutions. Sikshana provided each student of the school with a few stacks of paper costing around $1/student. Students took to this wholeheartedly and used the sheets of paper to hone their writing skills at home.After a few months when the written tests were conducted again, there was a 60% improvement in the test scores of these students.

Quite often when trying to address the problems faced by underprivileged children, most people are fazed by the magnitude of the problem. Sikshana and its success stories teach us that rather than let it freeze us into inaction, use it as inspiration to tackle them at a micro-level and solve them. Quite often than not once the solution is found, the money required is very little.

We at Vibha believe that the key to solving these issues lies in finding and funding innovative projects like Sikshana. That is why we have provided them with over $100,000 in funding over the last two years.

We believe in them. Do you?

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National Symbols Of India National Animal Tiger is scientifically known as Panthera tigris. It is a member of the Felidae family National Anthem National anthem can be described as a patriotic musical composition of a country, which reminds National Bird The Peacock, Pavo cristatus (Linnaeus), is the national bird of India. Emblematic of qualities such as beauty, grace, pride National Calendar The Saka calendar used as the official civil calendar in the country is the National Calendar of India. National Flag The National Flag of India, also called the 'Tiranga', was adopted during an ad hoc meeting of the Constituent Assembly of the country. National Flower Lotus, botanically known as the Nelumbo Nucifera is the national flower of India. National Fruit Mango, cultivated in India since times immemorial, is regarded as the National Fruit of the country. National Song Composed by Bankimchandra Chatterji in Sanskrit, the song Vande Mataram was primarily conceived to serve as, National Tree The National Tree of India is The Banyan Tree. This huge tree towers over its neighbors and has, National Symbols are symbols of states, nations and countries in the world. They are essentially created to given people a feeling of unity, by building visual, verbal, or iconic representations of a nation's people, values, goals, or history. These symbols are often rallied around as part of celebrations of patriotism, are designed to be inclusive and representative of all the peoples of the state, nation or country. Like other countries, India too has got its own national symbols. Though culturally diverse and filled with people of different backgrounds and religion, these national symbols signify the unity in diversity in India. The National Symbols of India give the country, a sense of individuality and uniqueness from the other countries of the world. These symbols are not just a matter of pride for us, but they are also something that should be cherished and preserved by all the citizens of India. Emblematic, the symbols have a rich history and signify the cultures and traditions that have been passed on to us from the earlier generations. In this section, we have dealt with the various national symbols of India, their history and significance. We have covered Indian national anthem, national bird, national flag, national flower, national, tree, national calendar, national song, national fruit and the national animal of India.

THE HISTORY OF THE INDIAN FLAG The flag that was first hoisted on August 7, 1906, at the Parsee Bagan Square in Calcutta. Called the ‘Saptarishi Flag’, this was hoisted in Stuttgart at the International Socialist Congress held on August 22, 1907. Associated with the names of Dr. Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak, this flag was hoisted at the Congress session in Calcutta during the ‘Home Rule Movement’. In the year 1921, a young man from Andhra presented this flag to Gandhiji for approval. It was only after Gandhiji’s suggestion that the white strip and the charkha were added. This flag was suggested during the All India Congress Committee session in 1931. However, the Committee’s suggestion was not approved. On August 6, 1931, the Indian National Congress formally adopted this flag, which was first hoisted on August 31. Our National Flag, which was born on July 22, 1947, with Nehruji’s words, “Now I present to you not only the Resolution, but the Flag itself”. This flag was first hoisted at the Council House on August 15, 1947.

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Flag of India

FLAG OF INDIA

THE NATIONAL FLAG OF INDIA is in tricolour ( TIRANGA) of deep saffron (Kesari) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom in equal propotions.

The Indian flag is a horizontal tricolour in equal proportion of deep saffron on the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The ratio of the width to the length of the flag is two is to three. In the centre of the white band, there is a wheel in navy blue to indicate the Dharma Chakra, the wheel of law in the Sarnath Lion Capital. This center symbol or the 'CHAKRA', is a Buddhist symbol dating back to 200th century BC.

Its diameter approximates the width of the white band and it has 24 spokes, which intends to show that there is life in movement and death in stagnation. The saffron stands for courage, sacrifice and the spirit of renunciation; the white, for purity and truth; the green for faith and fertility.

The design of the National Flag of India was adopted by India's constituent assembly on 22nd july, 1947. It's use and display are regulated by a code.

The flag symbolizes freedom. The late Prime Minister Pandit Nehru called it a flag not only of freedom for ourselves, but a symbol of freedom for all people.