After nearly five years, a team of John Deere managers recently returned to three villages in rural Rajasthan, India, with great anticipation and a simple purpose: to see whether the Joint Initiative for Village Advancement (JIVA) was living up to its name.

JIVA, which means “life” and “livelihood” in the local Mewari dialect, is a joint project of the John Deere Foundation and PYXERA Global that is designed to empower smallholder farming communities to improve their lives through agricultural training, educational enrichment, and capacity-building. The John Deere team, which included Chairman and CEO Sam Allen, first recognized the project’s potential while volunteering in the same villages in 2011.

As the communication technologies leveraged by the public safety sector advance, the intersection with smart city initiatives becomes all the more inevitable. Technological advances afforded by broadband long-term evolution (LTE) networks have changed how first responders, city and county officials, public agencies and transportation fleets communicate and gather data to better serve their communities. Learn more in the Black & Veatch 2017 Strategic Directions: Smart City/Smart Utility Report.

Head Start Kids is a foundation in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa that this year alone will reach more than 2,849 children under age 5. The program seeks to improve the educational environment by focusing on three specific areas – nutrition, movement, and enrichment education.

Though some people may not realize it, healthy oceans are critical to a healthy planet. Yet we know our oceans are struggling. Overfishing and illegal fishing are both major culprits in aggravating the oceans’ distress. Eighty-five percent of the Earth’s fisheries are fished to capacity or overfished. And often, other species are caught with the fish, threatening the survival of dolphins, whales, seabirds, sharks, and turtles, among others.

Dr. Caitlin DeJong is the first molecular biologist to be hired at HP Labs. She joined the Life Sciences Research Group in HP’s Print Adjacencies and 3D Lab last May on a three year post-doctoral research position.

Sustainable Brands, a leading website for forward-thinking businesses, published a case study that examined the unique nature of the partnership between Domtar and Procter & Gamble. By focusing on the importance of relationships with landowners, the partnership offers several lessons to other corporations and agencies about the benefits of collaboration.