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Three Messages from BRAC’s Frugal Innovation Forum to the Skoll World Forum
Small is beautiful, but big is necessary. In Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, many development practitioners live by this creed. But at last month’s Frugal Innovation Forum: Scaling Simple Solutions, everyone agreed that they don’t get nearly enough opportunities to talk shop and compare notes within the region. Taking place in Dhaka from March 30-31, the forum was the first ever gathering of South Asian development practitioners, hosted in South Asia, specifically to talk about scaling frugal innovations.
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- Technology
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TOMS Shoes and Consumerism’s 3 Biggest Sins
Unlike impact investing, which is often funded by rich angel investors, conscious consumerism allows middle class individuals to make philanthropy part of their daily lives. Unfortunately, the movement remains controversial because companies like TOMS don’t prioritize a lot of things that “normal” social enterprises do. Here are conscious consumerism’s three biggest sins.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday: Strategies for Doing Business in Emerging, Diverse Rural India
Only12 percent of India’s population lives in cities, the remaining 88 percent of people are not reaping many of the economic benefits from the country’s evolving leadership status and associate growth. Rural poverty remains rampant; as a result, innovative thinking is required to meet the needs of India’s majority.
I spoke with Pradeep Kashyap, the CEO and Founder of MART, one of India’s leading emerging markets consulting firm, about the opportunities and challenges of creating innovations for rural Indian markets- Categories
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Learning from the Pioneers: Marketing innovative devices for the BoP
Over the last two decades, a range of affordable devices and equipment have been created to provide 4 billion people at the base of the pyramid (BoP) with life-changing benefits. Yet, progress in marketing these devices has been frustratingly slow as marketers struggle to convince BoP families that future benefits (cost savings or increased income) justify their investments. The “Marketing Innovative Devices for the Base of the Pyramid” project analyzed 15 pioneer organizations selling life-changing devices to low-income people around the world.
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- Education
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Investors commit over Rs 400 crore for funding new ventures for the poor
BANGALORE: Investors have committed at least Rs 400 crore to a government-backed fund that will provide capital to new ventures serving the needs of India's low-income communities. The fund, whose eventual size is envisaged at more than Rs 5,000 crore, is the first such by the government, which is taking increasing interest in venture capital investing.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Weekly Roundup – 3/23/13: More than coins in a wishing well
The theme for this year’s World Water Day is cooperation. Technology and stakeholder partnerships, to say nothing of consumer behavior and deeply entrenched mindsets about how much of the world views water, will have to change. Here are several examples of how various players can break a pattern of immobility.
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- Agriculture
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World Water Day: Cooperation is key
The theme of this year’s world water day is "cooperation." At first glance, cooperation might appear a somewhat passive sentiment; but, in the context of the global water challenge, meaningful change, and progress will only happen through cooperation, collaboration, and partnerships.
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- Agriculture
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Bringing Sanitation Solutions Inside Homes: An Interview With Andy Narracott, Deputy Chief Executive of Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor
When the nonprofit Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) got together in 2010 with board member Unilever to explore new enterprise opportunities in sanitation, the consumer goods giant supported the idea wholeheartedly.
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- Health Care