Hansdehar village- located in Haryana- is probably the first Indian village to go online. Click on the link to reach the web-site of this village.

Washington, DC -based “The Heritage Foundation” strives to build an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish. Its mission statement reads: “Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute – a think tank – whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”
The Foundation claims it has influenced many policies and decisions in American history and polity and continues to do so. As it says: “We believe that ideas have consequences, but that those ideas must be promoted aggressively. So, we constantly try innovative ways to market our ideas.”
To read more about the foundation and its activities, logon to:http://www.heritage.org/

So we are talking of think tanks. Wikipedia says: “Since “think tank” is a term that has only found use since the 1950s, there is still some debate over what constitutes the first think tank. One candidate is the Fabian Society of Britain, founded in 1884 to promote gradual social change. The Brookings Institution, founded in the US in 1916 is another candidate for the first think tank. The term think tank itself, however, was originally used in reference to organizations that offered military advice, most notably the RAND Corporation, formed originally in 1945.
Until around 1970, there were no more than several dozen think tanks, mostly focused on offering non-partisan policy and military advice to the United States government, and generally with large staffs and research budgets. After 1970, the number of think tanks exploded, as many smaller new think tanks were formed to express various partisan, political, and ideological views.”

Web-sites which I have visited in past years and have liked them.

A] INSPIRING:

1. Logon to www.mss.niya.org/people/baba_amte.php

About the well known social crusader Baba Amte’s Maharogi Sewa samiti (MSS). Donot forget to see the pictures related to a ‘jungle hospital’ run by Dr Prakash Amte (younger son of Baba) in Hemalkasa, a tribal belt in Gadchiroli since 1974.

2. http://www.hinduwisdom.info/: A very good website which tells about Hinduism. Good for anyone who wants to grasp the basic understanding as well as details about this religion.

3. http://www.sarvodaya.org/: founded by the Srilankan Sarvodya leader Dr AT Ariyratne.

4. http://www.searchgadchiroli.org/Dr Abhay Bang – an MD in pediatrics and a MPH from USA, this doctor turned towards tribal interiors of Gadchiroli (about 250 KM from Nagpur) to set up a hospital. Fascinating.

5. www.cfar.umd.edu/~venu/ANNA/index.html: About Anna Hazare, the social activist.

6. www.grameen-info.org: The official web-site of Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh who was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for 2006. His concept of micro-finance has gained world-wide acceptance. Another related web-site is: www.grameenfoundation.org

Here are 3 refernces/articles about the evolution of Gandhian philosophy on Ahimsa( Non violence) and Satyagraha (passive resistance):

1. About how Gandhi’s ideas shaped, particularly in S Africa. Click

2. The book by Tolstoy which influenced Gandhi most and he had actually read it in 1994.
Click

3. Comparison between Adinballou, Tolstoy and Gandhi. Click

Here are more links to the themes of non-violenece, peace and satyagraha:

1. Albert Einstein Institution (based in East Boston, MA): Click on this link
Here you can find 198 methods of non-violent actions which were originally complied by Gene
Sharp.
2. Gene Sharp: Click here to read about him.

3. Mahatma Gandhi Library: Texas based. Click here. You can find the list of books by and on Gandhi.

4. Bethesda, MD based Gandhi Memorial Center: Click

5. Raj Mohan Gandhi (son of DevDas Gandhi, 4th son of Gandhiji): Click

6. Arun Manilal Gandhi: He is grand-son of Gandhiji and lives in USA and heads the MK Gandhi Institute for Non-violence (link) . His son is Tushar Gandhi. He lives in Mumbai and unlike his great grandfather, as per media he eats meat. He contested LS elections as a Samajwadi- Congress party in 1997.