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Selling Entrepreneurship, Not Solar Lamps: Going Off Grid Series (Part 5)
In the same way that mobile phones took the lead over capital-intensive land lines to revolutionize communication in the developing world, Meaghan Cassidy at at KARIBU Solar Power believes that pay-as-you-go will revolutionize energy.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- off-grid energy, solar
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From Vision to Reality: RBI ruling brings India one step closer to true financial inclusion
In a recent landmark ruling, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed non-banking financial companies to provide basic services such as bank accounts and transaction services. This paves the way for microfinance institutions to jump into the fray, and could drive true financial inclusion in a country where 720 million people still do not have a bank account.
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- Uncategorized
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The Long Road to Scale: Deciphering the mHealth value chain for family planning
CycleTel helps women access family planning on their phones. But before its developers at Georgetown University could begin with product development, they had to understand the nuances of delivering personal information on a mobile phone.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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In Malawi, Turning the Wheel for Affordable Micro-Hydropower: Going Off Grid Series (Part 4)
MEGA is Malawi’s first independent power producing company, a mini-grid system that uses hydropower to bring power to remote areas. MEGA is based on 10 planned micro-hydro schemes on the fast-moving rivers of Mount Mulanje. But the main thing that sets it apart is its enterprise model. Rather than public or community ownership, MEGA is run as an enterprise that employs a clustered approach to mini-grid management.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- off-grid energy
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A Really Inconvenient Truth: The documentary “Spent” raises awareness of low-income Americans’ financial plight – but are banks really to blame?
To help spark a national dialogue about improving financial services, American Express sponsored the documentary "Spent: Looking for Change." Produced by the director of "An Inconvenient Truth," the film profiles struggling Americans who are ill-served by the financial industry. But it also illustrates another hard truth: our choices can impact our financial health more than our banks can.
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- Uncategorized
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Why U.S. Companies Are Investing in Lighting Africa – the View from OPIC: Going Off Grid Series (Pt 3)
Recent history shows that powering Africa is not only possible, it has become a major business opportunity for U.S. companies, that are achieving success through innovative projects in a number of African nations.
- Categories
- Energy
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Healthy Foods and New Jobs, Part 2: Infrastructure matters
On the way to introducing a food cart vendor business in Benin, West Africa, MamaCarts has encountered all sorts of problems with sanitation, incorporation and the government. But there’s a positive spin on these infrastructure gaps: Alternative solutions do exist and people circumnavigate these difficulties on a daily basis.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Positive (and Negative) Charges – Which Business Models Are Surging: Going Off Grid Series (pt 2)
What’s the best business model for distributed energy solutions? Jack Bird with Santa Clara State University says the answer is entirely dependent on the technology, the target market and the resources of the enterprise. No one model is the silver bullet for providing the 1.3 billion people suffering from energy poverty with clean, reliable and affordable energy. There are, however, a few takeaways from the exhaustive Energy Map.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Health Care
