NewsFeedNewsFeed

Our Staff Writers and Editors offer insights on the latest news, events, interviews and other happenings from the development through enterprise and base of the pyramid universes

Filter Content By Date OR Region:

Friday, April 29, 2011 — No Region Specified

A Fresh Look at Fighting Global Poverty

Source: The New York Times
By DAVID LEONHARDT Dean Karlan , a Yale economist, and Jacob Appel, a former field researcher in West Africa, are ...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 29, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

'Drop out of school': Does That Advice Work in South Africa?

Source: The Christian Science Monitor
By Osiame Molefe Cape Town, South Africa Like many other black South African parents, my folks were non-negotiable on one thing: that my siblings and I, at the very minimum, go to university and graduate. They worked slavishly, too, to make it happen. I'm sure many other South African parents held and continue to hold the ...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 29, 2011 — North Africa and Near East

Google Exec. Wael Ghonim Takes Sabbatical to Fight Poverty

Source: Los Angeles Times
Wael Ghonim never sought to become the public face of the Egyptian revolution. But the Google executive who helped organize the political uprising on social media was thrust into the spotlight in February after he was arrested and beaten by government forces during the protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. Since then, Ghonim has been traveling the globe to spread word of Revolution 2.0, tapping the power of the Internet and social media to foment revolution. He has...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 28, 2011 — South Asia

Sam Pitroda To Deliver Keynote Address At Sankalp 2011

Source: India PRWire
Mumbai, Maharashtra, April 28, 2011 / India PRwire / -- Mr. Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, and Chairman of the National Innovation Council is scheduled address over 500 social enterprise enthusiasts at the 3rd Annual Sankalp Social Enterprise and Investment Forum (www.sankalpforum.com), scheduled for May 5-6 at Taj Lands End in ...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 — South Asia

Paymate, IFMR tie up to drive financial inclusion

Source: Business Standard
Paymate, India's leading mobile payments company, and IFMR Rural Finance, have announced a tie-up to launch multiple financial inclusion projects through Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services (KGFS) entities. As a part of this initiative, the company has unveiled a mobile phone based person-to-person money transfer initiative in the Delhi to Uttarakhand corridor as well as piloted a micro-loan repayments in villages in Ganjam, Orissa. Commenting on the launch of these initiatives, Aja...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 — South Asia

GE Remodels Businesses in India

Source: The Wall Street Journal
BANGALORE, India-As General Electric Co. assessed the lingering impact of the global financial crisis, it saw that some emerging markets-chief among them India-had come through the trauma better than the developed world. The Fairfield, Conn., company has been in India for more than a century, but it revamped its operations there only a few years ago to tap into the country's large consumer m...
TAGS:scale
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 — South Asia

Amit Bhatia's Aspire: Matching Rural Workers With Jobs

Source: Fast Company
BIG IDEA: To supply India's booming economy with millions of young workers who come from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds. Bhatia's company, Aspire, trains high-school and college students to become English-speaking, tech-savvy, problem-solving whiz kids ready for hire. The company then connects students to jobs, often in the technology and service sectors, at major corporations such as IBM, Accenture, Wipro, and Infosys. This year, Aspire will work with rough...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 25, 2011 — South Asia

FMCG Firms Bank On Higher Volumes In Rural Market

Source: The Economic Times
NEW DELHI: Aiming for a deeper penetration in rural markets, FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) majors, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Britannia, are introducing products in low price points particularly in the Rs 5 category as part of their strategy to shore up volumes. While global beverages firm Coca-Cola has introduced 'Fanta Fun Taste' powder sachet for Rs 5 targeting the lower end of the market, Pepsico had also recently brought out 200 ml bottle for Rs 5 for its popular ...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 25, 2011 — South Asia

Inclusion Banking to Turn Into Profits Soon: Union Bank

Source: The Hindu
MUMBAI, APR 24: Union Bank of India, the fifth largest public sector lender with over Rs 3.55 lakh crore in assets, has said its financial inclusion project, called the 'new bankable class', will turn profitable sooner than expected. "Going by our experience with the financial inclusion project, which we call 'banking for the new bankable class', this will turn in profits sooner than later, especially when the cash transfer facilities under Adhaar s...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 25, 2011 — No Region Specified

An Investment That Mixes Profit With Philanthropy

Source: Financial News
The grey zone of impact investments - which are neither philanthropic grants nor simple for-profit investments - is potentially huge. A report from JP Morgan late last year suggested the potential over the next 10 years, in just five sectors of services for the global poor,...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 22, 2011 — South Asia

Govt's Microfinance Model Promises to Empower Poor

Source: The Times of India
GANDHINAGAR: At a time when controversy surrounding microfinance institutions charging higher-than-usual interest rates from its poor borrowers - mainly womenfolk - refuses to die down in Andhra Pradesh and some other parts of India , Gujarat government claims to have resolved the issue, coming up with a new model envisaging, to quote a document, "a ...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 22, 2011 — No Region Specified

Untying the Knot

Source: The Economist
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. By Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. PublicAffairs; 336 pages; $26.99. To be published in Britain in June by PublicAffairs; £15.99. Buy from Amazon.com , ...
TAGS:poverty alleviation
Friday, April 22, 2011 — No Region Specified

Kiva Expands Micro-Loans to Green Businesses

Source: TechCrunch
Kiva.org, one of the pioneers in micro-lending to international entrepreneurs, has expanded into a new vertical today- Kiva Green Loans. Green Loans, which can be accessed from a new module on the lend tab, is a new vertical that allows the Kiva community to make loans towards green businesses and individuals who are helping make the transitio...
TAGS:sanitation
Thursday, April 21, 2011 — South Asia

Grameen FDN, Grameen Capital India announce US$7 MN funding to Cashpor

Source: Microfinance Focus
Grameen Foundation and Grameen Capital India recently announced USD7 million (Rs. 315 million) in funding for Cashpor Micro Credit through a guarantee pool for socially-focused Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs). The financing from IndusInd Bank and another private sector bank in India was backed by US$980,000 in guarantees from Grameen Foundation and arranged by Grameen Capital India. These were the first guarantees to be placed through the US$ 8 million initiative that was ...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 21, 2011 — South Asia

Bangladesh's Largest NGO Admits Role in Microfinance Crisis

Source: OneWorld South Asia
Bangladesh's largest network of NGOs - BRAC has admitted fuelling the micro-finance debt crisis together with other microfinance institutions by pushing excess loans to the borrowers. Surplus funds in the absence of proper regulation led to the collapse of the microfinance industry. Dhaka: Lack of regulation and a surplus of donor funds in Bangladesh's microcredit industry have led to NGOs pushing loans to over-indebted borrowers, says BRAC, the world's largest develop...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 21, 2011 — No Region Specified

Bank of America Donates $1 Million for Social Entrepreneurship

Source: The Hoya
The McDonough School of Business announced Tuesday that it will partner with Bank of America to form the Global Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, a program designed to prepare students to conduct successful socially-conscious business. The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has donated $1 million dollars to Georgetown to support the initiative. The gift is among the largest donations given to the university from the banking industry, according to an MSB press release. Accordi...
TAGS:consumer products
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 — South Asia

Rich Pickings

Source: The Economist
MENTION microfinance in Asia and thoughts usually turn to India, which is struggling to regulate the industry, and Bangladesh, where Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank, has been turfed out of his job. Indonesia offers a brighter picture. There, a range of lenders is successfully funnelling credit to its entrepreneurial poor. They include Bank Rakyat Indonesia, a state-owned behemoth that had a whopping $7.4 billion in microloans outstanding in September and ...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 — No Region Specified

In Developing Economies, Equity Beats Microfinance

Source: CNNMoney.com
A new effort is underway to advance entrepreneurship in the developing world. The U.S. State Department recently launched a program to promote business creation in emerging markets known as the Global Entrepreneurship Program . Leading entrepreneurs, investors, and corporations in the public and private sector met in Washington to discuss the best ways to achieve social and economic impact in u...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 — South Asia

Generating the Unlikeliest of Heroes

Source: The New York Times
DOHA, QATAR - Persuading the Indian immigration authorities to grant entry visas to illiterate African grandmothers who claim to be trainee solar engineers is no easy task. Yet, Sanjit Bunker Roy, an Indian educator, has, since 2005, succeeded in bringing 140 such women to the Barefoot College, a school he founded...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 — South Asia

Investing in Agriculture Key to Ending Extreme Rural Poverty in South Asia ? UN

Source: UN News Centre
South Asia continues to have the largest concentrations of poor rural populations despite the fact that the wider Asia-Pacific region has made major strides in combating poverty, a United Nations agency said today, stressing that agriculture is key to poverty alleviation. The study by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), entitled Agriculture - Pathways to Prosperity in Asia and the Pacific , shows that rural poverty rates have dropped only slightly in t...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 — Asia Pacific

Foundation commits $2.2 mill for efforts at Hopkins-Nanjing

Source: The JHU Gazette
The Hassenfeld Family Foundation has committed $2.2 million to the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies to establish a social enterprise competition and fellowships at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies in China. The Hassenfeld Social Enterprise Fund will enable Chinese, American and other international graduate students to work together to develop real-world outcomes through innovative projects, while the Hassenfeld Fe...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Uganda: Understanding Consumer Protection in Microfinance

Source: allAfrica.com
Lately, the Microfinance industry has come under the spot-light with critics arguing that microfinance institutions drifted away from their core and initial mission of working to uplift the poor out of poverty through micro loans. Critics argue that the entire microfinance business is now commercialized. This is what has probably resulted into draconian recovery methods; forexample in Mexico where loan officers take children after their parents are unable to make microfinance loans; to India ...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 — Europe & Eurasia

Social Performance Start-up Fund for Networks to be Launched Soon

Source: Microfinance Focus
The Social Performance Start-up Fund to support national microfinance networks in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, is scheduled to be launched in May, 2011. The project is funded by the Ford Foundation and will be implemented by the Microfinance Center (MFC). The SP Start-up Fund committee is the strategic advisory body for the Fund Management and will provide an opinion on the strategic decisions taken, on service providers, and ensure the accomplishment of objectives. The Social...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 18, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Improving the Lot of Small Enterprises

Source: Business Day
To address the problems facing small enterprises, especially the micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the Nigeria MSME Project, a pilot initiative of the Federal Government and the World Bank in Abia, Kaduna and Lagos states, have come to the rescue. The trouble with small enterprises will always attract discussions. If you ask the small business owner what the trouble is, he will tell you it is funding. But he is wrong. True, funding is a problem, but it is not all the ...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 18, 2011 — No Region Specified

Why Many Social Problems are Entrepreneurial Problems

Source: Forbes
All problems that have unknown elements are entrepreneurial problems which means they require entrepreneurial management. However, although we often think of startups as being entrepreneurial, many social problems have elements that are unknown, which means they are entrepreneurial problems . Unfortunately, often people don't recognize social problems as entrepreneursh...
TAGS:consumer products
Friday, April 15, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Microsoft Donates $250,000 of Software to Create IT Jobs for Youth in Kenya

Source: PRWeb
Microsoft Corp. announced today a donation of software with a retail value of $250,000 to Digital Divide Data (DDD). The grant, from Microsoft's Unlimited Potential program, will support DDD to bring its social business model to Kenya. The new venture will provide services such as data entry, XML conversion and digital preservation for publishers, libraries, content hosts, academic researchers and businesses. Microsoft's software will be used to provide training and client servi...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 15, 2011 — Latin America

Empowering Women With Microfinance: From Oxford, England to Lima, Peru

Source: The Huffington Post
One week ago, I was on stage for the opening plenary of the Skoll World Forum in the scholarly, well-ordered university town of Oxford, England. Today, I am in the ramshackle home of an able, but very poor, businesswoman in the impoverished, raggedy outskirts of Lima, Peru. The connection? The Skoll World Forum is the preeminent global gathering of social entrepreneurs. Over 1,200 of the smartest, most...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 15, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

LeapFrog Invests $14M in Insurer Apollo

Source: PR Newswire
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- LeapFrog Investments has announced a landmark investment of $14 millioninto East African insurance group Apollo Investment Ltd, the largest deal in the history of microinsurance in Africa. Launched with President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008, LeapFrog's $135 million fund invests in companies providing insurance to under-served people in emerging markets. In Africa, LeapFrog...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 14, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenyan Women Pulling Together Against Poverty

Source: IPSNews.net
KIAMBU DISTRICT, Kenya, Apr 13, 2011 (IPS) - When it works, it's spectacular: Esther Ngonyo Njuguna's dairy project stands as testimony to the potential of microcredit schemes to boost rural incomes. Eight years ago, Mama Njoki - "Njoki's mother" as Njuguna is affectionately called in honor of one of her five children - says she was a housewife in the Kiambu District of Central Kenya. Her husband is an accountant, earning enough to cover household expenses. ...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 14, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

COWAN Empowers Rural Women Through Micro Credit Facility

Source: Vanguard
Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN) said it's been empowering rural women in 32 states of the country through its micro credit facility by granting revolving loans as low as N20,000,00. Speaking at a workshop organized by the Lagos State chapter of the Association titled 'The Role of Rural Women In Nigeria's Agriculture After Golden Jubilee' in Lagos, the National President of the Association, Chief Mrs Bisinuola Ogunleye, said that using the &...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 14, 2011 — No Region Specified

20 Social Entrepreneurs Chosen for Santa Clara University's GSBI

Source: Business Wire
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Twenty socially minded entrepreneurs from around the world have been chosen to receive full scholarships to participate in the ninth annual Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI TM ) at Santa Clara University. The signature program of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, GSBI is an eight-month program for social entrepreneurs, combining online and in-residence ...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 — No Region Specified

How to Attract Investment to Your Social Enterprise

Source: The Guardian
By Saba Salman The social investment sector won a recent boost with the launch of the Big Venture Challenge fund , launched by UnLtd and the Big Lottery Fund, and with another £10m of government cash for the Social Enterprise Investment Fund that supports NHS-spin off social enterprises. These developments, ...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Heirs Holdings, TEF Sign Deal with Tanzanian Firm

Source: This Day Live
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and Heirs Holdings Limited (HH) have announced the completion of an impact investment programme with Mtanga Farms, a Tanzanian based organisation as part of efforts to boost food security in Africa. A statement from the HH at the weekend, explained that the deal marked the first time an African organization and an investment firm have engaged together in impact investing, adding that the approach that is targeted at solving social and environmental prob...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 — Latin America

UNHCR Assists Microcredit Projects for Sex Workers in Ecuador

Source: Microfinance Focus
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR is providing support to a microcredit project in Ecuador to help the country's 'vulnerable' refugees break out of poverty and exploitation. Over the last year, the agency has been working with several organizations to set up self-reliance programmes for Colombian refugees and their hosts in Ecuador, which is home to the largest number of refugees in Latin America. Of the 53,342 recognized refugees, 73 per cent are wome...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 — No Region Specified

TxtEagle Raises $8.5 Million To Give 2.1 Billion A Voice

Source: TechCrunch
Never mind tablets, smartphones, and mobile-social-location-photo-sharing apps. Heck, never mind computers . The single most important technology of the last half-century, the one that has most drastically changed the day-to-day existence of very nearly everyone on Earth, remains the plain old GSM phone: unloved and half-forgotten in NYC and Silicon Valley - but still used by the billion in the rest of the world. That's why Boston-based ...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 — No Region Specified

World Bank Seeks New Focus on Capacity Building, Jobs Creation

Source: Devex News
The international community should refocus its development efforts toward strengthening national institutions and improving governance in ways that promote citizen security, provide justice and create jobs, particularly in fragile states, the World Bank's latest World Development Report suggests. The World Development Report 2011
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 11, 2011 — South Asia

Danone Looks at Measured Expansion In Country

Source: Business Standard
French dairy firm Danone is chalking out a measured expansion plan in India. The corporation, which reported $20 billion in global revenues for 2010, has been in India for a little over a year and has introduced yogurt, dahi (curd) and smoothie product range in Pune and Mumbai. It is now focusing on Hyderabad. Danone Dairy India Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sudip Dasgupta told Business Standard they were expanding in a measured way as they wanted to get the backend cold-chain distribut...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 11, 2011 — No Region Specified

Western Union: Building a Societal Brand Through Shared Value

Source: Forbes
By Robert Reiss Founded in 1851, Western Union began in the telegram business, and in 1871, added its money transfer service. With a history rich in innovation spanning stock tickers to satellites, the company has evolved into the single largest player in the $440 billion remittance market. Based in Englewood, Colo., Western Union has more than 7,000 employees worldwide and completes approximately 214 million transactions a year, generating $5.2 billion in total revenue in 2...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 08, 2011 — South Asia

'Financial Inclusion a Must for Poverty Alleviation'

Source: The Economic Times
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has said concerns on the front of income distribution and poverty alleviation cannot be met without full-scale expansion of banking and other financial services. RBI deputy governor KC Chakrabarty said while the Indian growth story was impressive, there were concerns on issues like income distribution and poverty alleviation , where lot remained to be done. Mr Chakrabarty pointed out that India ranks 119th among 169 countries on the 2010 Human D...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 08, 2011 — South Asia

Serving the Bottom of the Pyramid

Source: livemint.com
Business is brisk for Dheeraj Singh, a small kirana shop owner in Delhi's Govindpuri area. He stocks a host of brands offered by the Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in categories such as hair oil, shampoo, biscuit, fairness cream and tea, among many others. But he offers most of these products in their smallest pack sizes costing between Rs1 and Rs10. This just works fine for Savitri, a regular customer at the store employed as domestic staff in a flat nearby. She...
TAGS:poverty alleviation
Thursday, April 07, 2011 — South Asia

USAID to Invest $30m in Nepal

Source: Asia News Network
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday (March 29) launched its Nepal Economic, Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) project for improving business competitiveness, food security and microfinance to foster economic growth of the country. The two-and-a-half-year project will help the private sector in improving the country's foundations for rapid, sustained and inclusive private sector-led economic growth, the USAID said organising an interaction here. NEAT ...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 07, 2011 — Europe & Eurasia

Germany Gives Extra ?14 Million to Fund Child Immunizations; Gates Foundation to Match It

Source: The Canadian Press
BERLIN - The German government says it is providing an extra €14 million ($19.9 million) in funding for child immunization in the developing world as part of an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Development Aid Ministry says the Gates foundation will match the €14 million funding of projects overseen by the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization. It also will match any further pledges Germany makes over the next two years. Billionaire ph...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, April 07, 2011 — No Region Specified

D.light Design Names Board Chairman Donn Tice as CEO

Source: Moneycontrol.com
D.light Design, which offers affordable solar energy and lighting solutions, announced today that the board chairman Donn Tice would be the chief executive officer of the company. Tice, who has been driving innovation in consumer products for over 30 years, will focus on expanding distribution, driving global marketing and developing D.light's international team to serve the requirements of its growing customer base. Tice has been an advisor to D.light since March, 2008, and has ser...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 06, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

New Project in Ghana Aims to End Female Servitude in Agriculture

Source: VoANews.com
Hundreds of young women still held as slaves to priests under traditional “Trokosi” religion The priests -- mostly maize and black bean farmers -- are taught improved farming skills so they can do without female slaves. The women learn to support themselves with new skills such as sewing and hair dressing. "The priests have vast plots of land for agriculture," says Patience Vormawor, project officer at IN Networg Ghana. "We help them to improve on their system of...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 06, 2011 — Europe & Eurasia

Bill Gates: International Community to Miss MDG's 2015 Deadline

Source: Devex
The U.N. Millennium Development Goals can be reached if donor countries keep their commitments to increase aid spending to 0.7 percent of their incomes, but the 2015 deadline will be likely missed by up to six years, U.S. billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has predicted . The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation trustee made the remarks in front of the European Parliament's Development Committee on Tuesday (April 5).
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 05, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Digital Divide Data Launches Business Process Outsourcing Company in Kenya

Source: PRWeb
Digital Divide Data (DDD) announced today the launch of business operations in Nairobi, Kenya. The new company will offer business process outsourcing (BPO) services, including data entry, electronic publishing, and back-office administrative tasks to customers in East Africa as well as international markets. The social enterprise, which aims to create jobs for Kenyan youth, is the first investment in a Kenyan BPO company to combine U.S. technology and market expertise with operating experien...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 05, 2011 — No Region Specified

Clinton Global Initiative U. winners announced

Source: CBS News
Last weekend, a group of college students competed in a tournament with brackets -- but they weren't in Houston or Indianapolis, they were in La Jolla, Calif., or the inaugural Clinton Global Initiative University Commitments Challenge . As the university put it: On Friday, President Clinton opened the fourth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) by announcing innovative student projects that will improve health ...
TAGS:consumer products
Tuesday, April 05, 2011 — South Asia

Poor Still Benefit When Microcredit Reaps Megaprofits

Source: The Australian
IS it right to profit from the poor? This question has sparked a civil war in the business of microcredit - making small loans to the poor in developing countries - and badly tarnished the image of what had been seen as a rare success story in the fight against global poverty. Who wins this battle about how best to deliver aid could determine whether hundreds of millions of people get the chance to escape abject poverty. The controversy began last year when reports emerged that farmers ...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, April 05, 2011 — South Asia

Nobel Laureate Loses Last Legal Battle to Save Job at Bank

Source: The New York Times
NEW DELHI - Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate and microfinance pioneer who popularized the notion of giving tiny loans to the poor, lost his legal battle on Tuesday to hold on to his job as managing director of the bank he created more than 30 years ago. ...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 04, 2011 — South Asia

The Ross School and the Confederation of Indian Industry Sign a Memorandum in Honor of CK Prahalad

Source: Ross School of Business News and Media
Delhi, India - The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Ross School of Business signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Delhi April 1 confirming their intent to collaborate as strategic partners. The MOU will bring together two very unique efforts. It will support CII's India@75 initiative and the Ross School's C.K. Prahalad Initiative. The MOU was signed by Robert J. Dolan, dean of the Ross School, and Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII. The two organi...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 04, 2011 — No Region Specified

Social Entrepreneurship: Where Are Its Borderlines?

Source: Fast Company
Social entrepreneurship is a concept that emerged lately all-over the world, following the rise of both entrepreneurship and social responsibility, but what qualifies as social entrepreneurship? Do normal businesses generating employment suffice? Or does it have to be an NGO? How can an NGO insure sustainability? Different definitions came up over the years trying to define the borders of social entrepreneurship as summarized by Mair and Marti (2005) ranging between NGOs and for profit ...
TAGS:consumer products
Monday, April 04, 2011 — South Asia

IFC To Invest $30M In Dunar Foods

Source: VCCircle
International Finance Corporation (IFC) plans to invest $30 million through a mix of equity and debt in Karnal-headquartered Dunar Foods that is in the business of procurement, processing and supply of basmati rice. It will co-invest with another undisclosed private equity fund that is expected to bring in a separate $10 million for the Haryana-based, privately held rice company. Dunar Foods owns two production facilities - one in Karnal (Haryana) and the other in Amritsar, Punjab (comm...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, April 04, 2011 — Europe & Eurasia

Turkish Mother of 12 Looking to Expand with Microcredit Success

Source: Daily News & Economic Review
Ay?e Gams?z, a 72-year-old widow and mother of 12, has been struggling to make ends meet by growing vegetables for the past 35 years. Despite the years of hardships, Gams?z, from the northwestern province of Düzce, has succeeded in saving enough money to send four children to university. Now, however, Gams?z has another reason to be proud after taking home an award in the Personal Struggle Category at the recent Citibank Fourth Microcredit Awards. "After my husband passed awa...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, April 01, 2011 — No Region Specified

Rallying Cries for Yunus Open Skoll World Forum 2011

Source: Socialenterpriselive.com
Outrage at the campaign being waged against Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus burst to the top of the agenda at the opening ceremony of this year's Skoll World Forum on social entrepreneurship. eBay's former president Jeff Skoll, the forum's founder, drew loud applause as he stepped away from the theme of his opening speech - around collaboration - to commit his support to Yunus. Skoll said Yunus, one of the founding fathers of microcredit, stood to be removed from his...
TAGS:consumer products
Friday, April 01, 2011 — No Region Specified

Encouraging Social Entrepreneurship - in Pictures

Source: Guardian.co.uk
Social and business entrepreneurs from around the world gathered in Sweden on Saturday for the three-day Ashoka Globalizer summit . The aim of the event was to find ways to expand the entrepreneurs' social innovations globally. We feature some of those taking part. Ashoka is an association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs ...
TAGS:consumer products
Friday, April 01, 2011 — No Region Specified

India Journal: Where?s the Upside at the Base of the Pyramid?

Source: The Wall Street Journal
For a company to do business at the base of the pyramid, it must see financial upside. For the past several years, that upside has been conceived as a "fortune" to be tapped largely by selling goods to poor customers. Indeed, many companies believe that growth will come from this market. However, many have struggled to find the right products, prices, and distribution routes through which to make this fortune materialize. With the exception of a tenacious few, most companies have not be...
TAGS:No Tags

  • Managing Partners

    William Davidson Institute

  • Sponsoring Partner

    Citi Foundation

  • Content Partners

    Ashoka

  • Content Partners

    IADB

  • Content Partners

    MercyCorps
Subscribe to Our E-Newsletter

Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust

Found an Article we're Missing?Found an Article we're Missing?

Submit An Article

TrendingTrending

Impact Investing: Chinese Investors’ National Solution

The Wall Street Journal (China)

Asian Innovation: Frugal Ideas Are Spreading from East to West

The Economist

How the Developing World is Using Cellphone Technology to Change Lives

thestar.com

Impact Investing: How One Foundation Empowers Social Entrepreneurs

Mashable

In Chile’s Slums, A Lesson in How to Make Apps for Social Good

The Washington Post

'Social Entrepreneur of the Year' India 2012 Awards is Open for Entries

afaqs!

100 Women Who Matter: Entrepreneurs Roundtable

Newsweek Pakistan

Social MediaSocial Media

Facebook Twitter

Story Snapshot

CLOSE