Under tribal development fund of Nabard, Development alternatives planted 468 acres of Sahariya land in Babina block of Jhansi district. Nabard has extended its support for the green shadenet technology for indoor vegetable and seedling germination in Bundelkhand region of Jhansi district.

A total of 200 families have access to the solar lantern solution under clean solution technology.

Demonstration of groundnut TAG-24 and TG -37 was conducted on 400 farmers’ fields in 40 villages.

A one-day training cum workshop was organised in Koti village for the landless families of the Sahariya tribals on ‘Promotion of Income generation Activity for Landless Sahariya’ through the wadi programme.

A joint review mission of Tejeswani visited the project villages of Pipra in Niwari cluster and Ubora in Tarichar cluster and were impressed with the interventions.

Shooting of a documentary film on the case studies of JIF programme was undertaken with the UNDP team.

Under Cluster Development, the SPEED team is opening two new sites - Faizabad and Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. A team from Gram Oorja has visited Kochamau site in Hoshangabad that has been finalised as a site for implementation of a prototype plant.

On the industrial engagement front, SPEED conducted the first High Level Advisory Group Meeting on 3 September 2012. The meeting has provided a broader platform to mobilise SPEED for various governmental agencies and major industrial players such as Telecom.

Exposure visits were organised for 24 Watershed Committee members of Mouraina district (MP) and for 35 Self Help Group members of Tikamgarh district (MP) under the IWMP project.

A community training centre was inaugurated at village Sigwaha district, Jhansi (UP) under the vocational training programme.

The TARA team attended the third project planning and review meeting of ‘Green Technology for Rural Prosperity’ funded by FK Norway at Pokhara on 17-19 September. The meeting was attended by partners from India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand. TARA will be sending two participants to Bhutan and Bangladesh in 2013-2014 to build capacity and deliver business solutions on livelihood technologies, skill development and enterprise modeling in energy efficient technologies.

VE-SuRE has currently commissioned three biomass and one micro-hydro projects. The team has worked extensively on biomass security for power plants and has carried out plantation of Ipomea and Sesbarne Sesbania in Behratola and Bakhriwa.

A half-day consultation meeting was jointly organised by DA and the Environment Planning and Coordination Organisation (EPCO) in Bhopal on September 20, 2012 under the DA - Swiss collaborative project ‘Sustainable Civil Society Initiative to Address Global Environmental Challenges’. The meeting discussed a road map for mainstreaming climate change adaptation concerns into the decision making process.

DA and IIT, Chennai organised a workshop on ‘Emerging Technologies for Water Purification’ in Chennai on 14-16 September which received good participation from both national and international level.

DA organised a consultation on ‘Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS)’ on 26 September 2012 at DA Headquarters. The objective was to organise a network of stakeholders that can help in including HWTS options in the broader government strategy for safe drinking water.

National Round Table on Eco-habitat for All was organised on 11 September 2012. Establishment of a National Rural Habitat Network was proposed to scale up eco habitat development in rural India.

Under the CLEAN-India programme,more than 200 Ford India volunteers have engaged in improving the educational standards and hygiene behaviour of over 500 school children in Paramanur and Melrosapuram villages near Ford’s manufacturing facility in Chennai as part of ‘Global Week of Caring’.

CDKN Shubhkal-A half day consultation meeting was organised by Development Alternatives in association with Environmental Planning and Coordination Organisation (EPCO) in Bhopal on 20 September 2012. DA gave a presentation titled ‘CDKN Shubhkal - From Information to Knowledge’. The presentation and resulting discussion focused on the identification of gaps in the dissemination of scientific climate change information to the grassroots level.