Never Mind the Radar, Grab the Toilet Paper

For every problem, it has been said, there is a solution. Maybe. Or at least an entrepreneurial opportunity. Small farmers in the Indian countryside can’t afford the equipment that they need only occasionally.

It is 2016, so of course there is an app for that. Consider it an Uber for tractors.

The farmers had rental options before, much as urban dwellers could always flag down a taxi, but discrimination and price gouging can show up in the fields just as they do on the city streets, especially at times of the year when all farmers need the same equipment. (And there are 136 million farmers in India.) Mahindra & Mahindra, a vehicle manufacturer, found another way.

“One of the things that struck us was the toll it took on the self- esteem of the farmer,” Rajesh Jejurikar, head of the company’s farm- equipment division, told The Times. “It was, literally, like having to beg for it.”

The company created a smartphone app, Trringo, which made its debut in September. Farmers use it to request service, and the company sends a tractor and driver, either its own or from a private owner using the app.

It isn’t a perfect fit, given that only about 9 percent of rural India has mobile internet service, so farmers can also make their reservations with an old-fashioned phone call.

Trying to land a plane in the Australian bush, in the dark, during a medical emergency.

Set the toilet paper on fire.

Geoff Cobden, a pilot for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, makes his share of flights into the dirt airstrip of the Canobie cattle station in Queensland. “Some homesteads are so remote, it’s a half- day drive from the front gate to the house,” he told The Times. “There’s no just going down the road to see the doctor.”

But there are still motorcycle accidents and snakebites. Emergency medical care is needed, even when it is very dark. The cattle station has flares, except when it doesn’t. Fortunately, the roadhouse there buys toilet paper in bulk. Melanie Smith, who manages the roadhouse, explained the contingency plan:

“You soak the toilet rolls in diesel, put them in empty pineapple or coffee tins and line 30 of them up,” she said. Then you listen for the plane engine before lighting. They will burn for about half an hour, enough to get help on the ground.

“I’ve seen a doctor do surgery on a kitchen table,” Mr. Cobden said. Choking pollution. Bottled air. O.K., this isn’t really a solution, given that it would take eight to 10 bottles to sustain one person for one minute, and some brands sell for around $100 a bottle. But entrepreneurs are on it. Air bottled on Australia’s Bondi Beach and in the Canadian Rockies. Welsh air with a “morning dew feel.” People are buying.

“It makes my lungs feel clean,” said Pan Li of Beijing, who buys about six bottles a month. He conceded: “It might just be my imagination.”

Leo De Watts, founder of the British company Aethaer, told The Times he hoped his Welsh air would be seen like a “sculpture or a limited- edition print made by an artist.”

“Clean air is actually a very rare commodity,” he said.