MUMBAI, India – Earlier this month we were stoked that one of our favourite Nokia services, Nokia Life Tools, officially touched down in India. Following its successful pilot scheme in Maharashtra, Life Tools has now officially launched via the Nokia 2323 classic and Nokia 2330 classic devices, and will be later become available on other Nokia devices and extend its reach to many more rural areas in India.

If you’re new to Nokia Life Tools, the concept is to deliver valuable and up-to-date information on the core topics of agriculture and education, providing rural communities without access to the internet, with timely information via SMS at a low cost. Perhaps the best example of this in practice is the agriculture tool that has been designed to deliver farmers with precise commodity prices on from a network of 291 local mandis (marketyards), meaning farmers don’t need to travel often long distances to the nearest town to arm themselves with these details, saving them time and money and enabling them to improve their quality of life.

We’ve gathered together a few initial reactions to the launch of Nokia Life Tools from a handful of Indian websites, so read on to see what others are saying, plus if you find any other reactions or want to voice your opinions, share them here as we’re keen to hear your thoughts.

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Sustaining long-term initiatives in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABEBA, Ethiopia – Nokia has as history of getting deeply involved with local initiatives in crises situations across the globe, including Africa where it worked with the Red Cross in Ghana to assist with the long-term repairing of communities hit by the floods of 2007 and the civil turmoil in Kenya earlier this year. Most recently Nokia, Nokia Siemens and Save the Children Finland have formed a partnership to build and deliver a sustained strategy for helping families in the area of Alaba Special Woreda in central Ethiopia, where drought has imposed terrible adversity on local children.

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What can we learn from the Korean code of Internet ethics as parents and users?

Korea, ASIA – Having earlier posted a piece on Nokia’s Jan Chipchase and his contribution to this week’s “Beyond the Web Browser” themed Lift Asia conference in Korea, it reminded me of an interesting article I came across last month regarding Korean Internet etiquette education, written by no other than Jan’s old partner in design, Younghee Jung.

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Help where it’s needed

GLOBAL – Devastation is about the only word we can think of to describe the recent earthquake in the Sichuan Province. With a death toll now touching 70,000 people words can barely describe it. Nokia has been doing what it can to help. Not just financially, but in offering services and practical support as well.