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Breaking News: Husk Power Systems Wins $250K Venture Competition
Husk Power Systems, a company we profiled here on NextBillion back in October, was announced today as the winner of the Global Business Plan competition sponsored by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Cisco Systems. As the winning entrant, Husk Power walks away with $250,000 in seed funding, which they will use to build and operate more power plants...
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Social Capital Markets 09: Go to “Woodstock” with a 40% Discount
Well, there won’t be half a million of us, but as Bill Baue noted in a recent CSR Wire article, the Social Capital Markets conference (2009 vintage) is quickly shaping up to be an important event for our generation of changemakers, investors, intrapreneurs, policymakers and innovators.
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Microfinance: An Open-Book Blog
Occasionally one encounters a novel application of a familiar technology. In this case, it’s blogging. David Roodman, fellow at the Center for Global Development and architect of the Commitment to Development Index , is currently writing an open-book blog about microfinance. He writes a chapter then posts it for comment and critique.
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Yes, Microfinance has Positive Effects on the Poor
Even though microfinance is estimated to have directly reached 100 million of the poor in 2008 there is still plenty of debate about whether it has a significant impact on their lives. A series of recent World Bank studies conclusively shows that microfinance has a positive economic and social impact on participants and non-participants.
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Financial Inclusion in India: Interview with Anurag Gupta from A Little World
Financial inclusion has long been a challenge in India, where bank transactions are mainly urban based and people living in rural areas rarely even have a bank account. Financial inclusion is the delivery of banking services at affordable costs to vast sections of disadvantaged and low-income groups.
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Building a Practical Platform for Collaboration: Akvo.org
With this long overdue post I want to direct your attention to an innovative, relevant and icreasingly active platform called Akvo.org. Its topic area is one of obvious relevance to the NextBillion audience: drinking water and sanitation in the developing world.
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Intellecap Launches Magazine Dedicated to Social Enterprise
Intellecap launched Beyond Profit, a print and online magazine dedicated to the businesses, people and ideas within the social enterprise space, on April 28. The inaugural issue was released at Sankalp 2009, South Asia?s largest social enterprise business and investment forum.
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Stop Talking, Start Making: Maker Faire Africa
In this vein, I am really excited to learn about a truly innovative "non-conference". Maker Faire Africa, which will be held in Ghana this August, is no-talk, all-action. The 3-day event will bring together roboticists, hobbyists, blacksmiths - MAKERS - to jam collectively on home-grown solutions to local problems.
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