To achieve his target of building 20 km of national highways per day, Highways Minister Kamal Nath seems to have it all figured out

"Our days have become longer. Earlier, we slept soon after sunset. Now, we remain awake till 10.30 p.m."

Business ideas for the bottom of the pyramid come in unlikely situations. Four years after running a purified, bottled water business, Kammili Satyanarayana Raju, an alum of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, decided it was logical to make machinery that purifies water.

It's a damning statistic Shining India will cringe at. Over 1,000 children under five die of diarrhoea every day in India. Every day. In effect, a number greater than every child you know. Think about it.

The year: 2004. The movie: Swades (Hindi for homeland). Shah Rukh Khan is playing the character of Mohan Bhargava, a non-resident Indian space scientist in the US. On a trip to meet his grandmother in India, Bhargava is appalled by the living conditions in her village, Charanpur, set in the plains near a river.

Every movement needs a poster boy. India's quest for securing its water needs could use Rajiv Mittal. At 49, the Managing Director of VA Tech Wabag, is one of the younger water entrepreneurs who are changing the way we treat the liquid that sustains our life.

ITC is prototyping a new script for its e-Choupal initiative to take engagement with farmers to the next level-co-creating with farmers and harnessing their entrepreneurship. E. KUMAR SHARMA

When you run Corporate India's largest, most ambitious and most celebrated rural initiative, you better know the following:

The minister

The role of developing countries in meeting the challenge of climate change has been in the news in recent weeks, particularly in the wake of Hillary Clinton's visit to India. India's position on the issue has been consistent with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility", which is part of the un Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc).

The humble Indian auto-rickshaw may soon be reborn in a smart, fuel-conserving avatar. The trigger: A Dutch environmentalist called Stef van Dongen, who took a few too many rides in rickety, smoke belching three-wheelers on a trip to India. Shaken and stirred, he made it his mission to build a better, cleaner model of the auto-rickshaw for Indians.