Apple environment chief visits rural Indian school where donated iPads are part of curriculum

Posted:
in General Discussion edited May 2016
As part of Apple's tour of India, the company's environment and government affairs chief Lisa Jackson visited a school in Rajasthan this week to meet with so-called "solar mamas," or women trained in the manufacture and assembly of solar lamps build solar powered lanterns.


Apple VP Lisa Jackson visits The Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India. | Source: Lisa Jackson via Twitter


On Wednesday, Jackson traveled to Tilonia in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, a small village best known as the home to The Barefoot College. The non-profit organization was founded by social activist Sanjit "Bunker" Roy and serves as both a school and community outreach center, reports Indio-Asian News Service via Yahoo.

Despite its remote location and limited funds, Barefoot College uses iPads to train students in a variety of advanced technology disciplines including photovoltaic engineering projects. Apple India donated 20 iPads and 10 Macs to the school this year, reports The Better India.

"Powerful: Visiting amazing solar mamas in Rajasthan and visiting a school using iPads to teach." Jackson said in a tweet.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the school was founded in 1972. Since the 1990s, students, mostly older semi-literate or illiterate women from developing countries, learn the ins and outs of sophisticated technological systems.

In particular, the "solar mamas" Jackson visited are trained to handle PV systems and batteries, build solar lanterns and establish local electronic workshops in their home town to conduct repairs. The effort has helped to significantly improve living conditions in hundreds of villages across the region.

Jackson embarked on her Barefoot College detour as Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives like COO Jeff Williams conducted business meetings in Mumbai. The visit coincides with the announcement of two major Apple initiatives in the country. Tuesday brought news of an upcoming iOS design and development center in Bengaluru set to open next year, while Apple today announced it will hire up to 4,000 workers to further Maps products at a dedicated development center in Hyderabad.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    This is all great but I wonder if Tim Cook really realizes how much negativity there is around Apple right now? I was just reading a couple articles on the new San Francisco store and they were full of negativity and snark, with one saying 'the new Apple Store, same as the old Apple Store except for trees'. Another had quotes from "analysts" saying Apple is in decline and new stores won't help blah blah blah. The former COO of Microsoft was on TV saying Apple isn't innovating anymore. My Twitter feed is full of tech analysts (some normally pro-Apple) talking up Google I/O and sounding warning signs for Apple. John Gruber recently had Ben Thompson on his podcast and it was basically 2 hours of bearish Apple sentiment (I've also noticed that Gruber is linking to a lot more negative pieces lately).

    Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
  • Reply 2 of 15
    JinTechJinTech Posts: 1,020member
    This is all great but I wonder if Tim Cook really realizes how much negativity there is around Apple right now? I was just reading a couple articles on the new San Francisco store and they were full of negativity and snark, with one saying 'the new Apple Store, same as the old Apple Store except for trees'. Another had quotes from "analysts" saying Apple is in decline and new stores won't help blah blah blah. The former COO of Microsoft was on TV saying Apple isn't innovating anymore. My Twitter feed is full of tech analysts (some normally pro-Apple) talking up Google I/O and sounding warning signs for Apple. John Gruber recently had Ben Thompson on his podcast and it was basically 2 hours of bearish Apple sentiment (I've also noticed that Gruber is linking to a lot more negative pieces lately).

    Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
    Do people really expect a wild and new product from Apple every 12 months? I've said it once, I'll say it again, let's see what Apple have up their sleeves at WWDC and if it that event still previews lackluster tech then let's start the negativity. 
    ai46
  • Reply 3 of 15
    LoneStar88LoneStar88 Posts: 325member
    This is all great but I wonder if Tim Cook really realizes how much negativity there is around Apple right now? I was just reading a couple articles on the new San Francisco store and they were full of negativity and snark, with one saying 'the new Apple Store, same as the old Apple Store except for trees'. Another had quotes from "analysts" saying Apple is in decline and new stores won't help blah blah blah. The former COO of Microsoft was on TV saying Apple isn't innovating anymore. My Twitter feed is full of tech analysts (some normally pro-Apple) talking up Google I/O and sounding warning signs for Apple. John Gruber recently had Ben Thompson on his podcast and it was basically 2 hours of bearish Apple sentiment (I've also noticed that Gruber is linking to a lot more negative pieces lately).

    Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
    So are you just another mindless drone compulsively wringing your hands over all the negativity you mention? Don't you realize that you get what you put your attention on? Successful companies, as well as individuals, spend little or no time or attention on negatives, but simply work rather furiously and happily on creating and building things. These are great new stores with unique qualities and benefits yet to be realized by anyone. So get off your stupid rant and consider the POSITIVE possibilities!
  • Reply 4 of 15
    radster360radster360 Posts: 546member
    I thought Tim Cook was by himself on his trip to India. It is really good to hear that he has taken his wider team to India. It is really great to see what he is doing. He is actually taking wholistic approach. He is working the software angle with setting up two different development shop there (Pick Me! Pick Me). I believe he is working the hardware angle too. There is no doubt we will see Designed in California and Make in India (India's PM moto) on Apple products soon.  He has certainly worked out the retail angle - 3 Apple stores to start out with. And, I am sure he will work out the sales angle (especially the refurb products) soon. 

    Maybe India will work out and take care of sale loss in China. 
  • Reply 5 of 15
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    This is all great but I wonder if Tim Cook really realizes how much negativity there is around Apple right now? I was just reading a couple articles on the new San Francisco store and they were full of negativity and snark, with one saying 'the new Apple Store, same as the old Apple Store except for trees'. Another had quotes from "analysts" saying Apple is in decline and new stores won't help blah blah blah. The former COO of Microsoft was on TV saying Apple isn't innovating anymore. My Twitter feed is full of tech analysts (some normally pro-Apple) talking up Google I/O and sounding warning signs for Apple. John Gruber recently had Ben Thompson on his podcast and it was basically 2 hours of bearish Apple sentiment (I've also noticed that Gruber is linking to a lot more negative pieces lately).

    Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
    To be fair, the new Apple Store concept is completely stupid. Apple needs some better top management, there doesn't seem to be a maestro conducting the rest of the execs and the e-suite doesn't appear to work well without supervision. 
  • Reply 6 of 15
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    This is all great but I wonder if Tim Cook really realizes how much negativity there is around Apple right now? I was just reading a couple articles on the new San Francisco store and they were full of negativity and snark, with one saying 'the new Apple Store, same as the old Apple Store except for trees'. Another had quotes from "analysts" saying Apple is in decline and new stores won't help blah blah blah. The former COO of Microsoft was on TV saying Apple isn't innovating anymore. My Twitter feed is full of tech analysts (some normally pro-Apple) talking up Google I/O and sounding warning signs for Apple. John Gruber recently had Ben Thompson on his podcast and it was basically 2 hours of bearish Apple sentiment (I've also noticed that Gruber is linking to a lot more negative pieces lately).

    Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
    Gruber has become a worrying old nag lately. Ben Thompson has always bad taste and business-school values.

    Guy English was on Gruber's podcast two weeks ago and the two of them were joking around about how Apple screws their customers on iCloud storage. It has never occurred to either of these two Apple blogger geniuses that maybe the company doesn't have the server and network capacity built out yet to handle the load of everybody's pictures and music.

    Gruber got his fat ego handed to him all limp and deflated today after ragging on Siri yesterday. Hilarious eating of crow is the one thing he managed to post, sheepishly, today. That's another thing. These clowns expect Apple to be great like Google in services already, like they're great in hardware. Is Google great in hardware?

    speaking of worrying old nag, what's wrong with you lately? What's this about Apple "sucking up" to India and to the hip-hop market? Why has that become your favorite phrase all of a sudden?
  • Reply 7 of 15
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    This is all great but I wonder if Tim Cook really realizes how much negativity there is around Apple right now? I was just reading a couple articles on the new San Francisco store and they were full of negativity and snark, with one saying 'the new Apple Store, same as the old Apple Store except for trees'. Another had quotes from "analysts" saying Apple is in decline and new stores won't help blah blah blah. The former COO of Microsoft was on TV saying Apple isn't innovating anymore. My Twitter feed is full of tech analysts (some normally pro-Apple) talking up Google I/O and sounding warning signs for Apple. John Gruber recently had Ben Thompson on his podcast and it was basically 2 hours of bearish Apple sentiment (I've also noticed that Gruber is linking to a lot more negative pieces lately).

    Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
    To be fair, the new Apple Store concept is completely stupid. Apple needs some better top management, there doesn't seem to be a maestro conducting the rest of the execs and the e-suite doesn't appear to work well without supervision. 
    What exactly is stupid about it?
  • Reply 8 of 15
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    flaneur said:
    This is all great but I wonder if Tim Cook really realizes how much negativity there is around Apple right now? I was just reading a couple articles on the new San Francisco store and they were full of negativity and snark, with one saying 'the new Apple Store, same as the old Apple Store except for trees'. Another had quotes from "analysts" saying Apple is in decline and new stores won't help blah blah blah. The former COO of Microsoft was on TV saying Apple isn't innovating anymore. My Twitter feed is full of tech analysts (some normally pro-Apple) talking up Google I/O and sounding warning signs for Apple. John Gruber recently had Ben Thompson on his podcast and it was basically 2 hours of bearish Apple sentiment (I've also noticed that Gruber is linking to a lot more negative pieces lately).

    Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
    Gruber has become a worrying old nag lately. Ben Thompson has always bad taste and business-school values.

    Guy English was on Gruber's podcast two weeks ago and the two of them were joking around about how Apple screws their customers on iCloud storage. It has never occurred to either of these two Apple blogger geniuses that maybe the company doesn't have the server and network capacity built out yet to handle the load of everybody's pictures and music.

    Gruber got his fat ego handed to him all limp and deflated today after ragging on Siri yesterday. Hilarious eating of crow is the one thing he managed to post, sheepishly, today. That's another thing. These clowns expect Apple to be great like Google in services already, like they're great in hardware. Is Google great in hardware?

    speaking of worrying old nag, what's wrong with you lately? What's this about Apple "sucking up" to India and to the hip-hop market? Why has that become your favorite phrase all of a sudden?
    I'm sick of pulling up my Twitter feed, going to a blog or listening to a podcast and seeing/hearing constant Apple D&G. I know Tim Cook says he's good at blocking the noise but he's terrible at telling a compelling narrative so the noise wins out more often than not. I hope they have their shit together this WWDC and we don't get another 30 minute music app demo (no Drake please) or a stupid ransom that involves sending Apple products to millionaire athletes.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    indiekidukindiekiduk Posts: 381member
    iPads are the last thing on earth those children need. How about some shoes Tim?
  • Reply 10 of 15
    stanthemanstantheman Posts: 332member
    I believe that Apple should collect 'retired' iPhones and iPads, test to make sure they are in working condition, then give them away at no charge to schools in developing countries. Their students and teachers could put mobile computers to good use. For example, I have an iPad 2 sitting in a drawer that I would be willing to donate. Apple's reward for collecting, testing and distributing the devices would be the feeling one derives from doing a good deed: a generation of iDevice customers who might otherwise never have the chance to own one. Experience suggests that these first-time users would be more likely to purchase new iDevices in the future.
    ai46
  • Reply 11 of 15
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    To be fair, the new Apple Store concept is completely stupid. Apple needs some better top management, there doesn't seem to be a maestro conducting the rest of the execs and the e-suite doesn't appear to work well without supervision. 
    What exactly is stupid about it?
    How exactly will trees help make the experience better? And how will those fit in 95% of the stores, especially the mall locations? It reeks of another decision made in a California bubble. 
  • Reply 12 of 15
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    What exactly is stupid about it?
    How exactly will trees help make the experience better? And how will those fit in 95% of the stores, especially the mall locations? It reeks of another decision made in a California bubble. 
    I actually like the trees. I like that in some places with all the big windows and now some trees it almost feels like you're outside. I'm sure not all stores will get trees. Just like today you have really beautiful stores and then stores like in my state that are inside of shopping malls and quite pedestrian. And why does it matter? Not all stores have glass staircases either. The stores are designed to fit the space they're occupying. I know it's not practical but I kind of wish all Apple stores were independent of malls.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member

    iPads are the last thing on earth those children need. How about some shoes Tim?
    Maybe ask Nike or any other company that sells shoes?
    anantksundaram
  • Reply 14 of 15
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    What exactly is stupid about it?
    How exactly will trees help make the experience better? And how will those fit in 95% of the stores, especially the mall locations? It reeks of another decision made in a California bubble. 
    How exactly does sunlight and fresh air help make the experience better? Color? Maple wood tables? Smiles, friendly staff?

    Did you ever trade in your Ford Taurus? What really happened to the Neanderthals?
    edited May 2016
  • Reply 15 of 15
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    flaneur said:
    Gruber has become a worrying old nag lately. Ben Thompson has always bad taste and business-school values.

    Guy English was on Gruber's podcast two weeks ago and the two of them were joking around about how Apple screws their customers on iCloud storage. It has never occurred to either of these two Apple blogger geniuses that maybe the company doesn't have the server and network capacity built out yet to handle the load of everybody's pictures and music.

    Gruber got his fat ego handed to him all limp and deflated today after ragging on Siri yesterday. Hilarious eating of crow is the one thing he managed to post, sheepishly, today. That's another thing. These clowns expect Apple to be great like Google in services already, like they're great in hardware. Is Google great in hardware?

    speaking of worrying old nag, what's wrong with you lately? What's this about Apple "sucking up" to India and to the hip-hop market? Why has that become your favorite phrase all of a sudden?
    I'm sick of pulling up my Twitter feed, going to a blog or listening to a podcast and seeing/hearing constant Apple D&G. I know Tim Cook says he's good at blocking the noise but he's terrible at telling a compelling narrative so the noise wins out more often than not. I hope they have their shit together this WWDC and we don't get another 30 minute music app demo (no Drake please) or a stupid ransom that involves sending Apple products to millionaire athletes.
    How do you tell a compelling narrative when secrecy is your watchword?

    'We have some great stuff in the pipeline you just won't be able to live without'?

    I don't see how you can have both secrecy and a believable narrative, beyond 'trust me'.
    edited May 2016
Sign In or Register to comment.