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Cornell Global Forum: BoP Inclusion Meets Environmental Sustainability
Rather than feeling exhausted after a 2 ? day conference on "The Great Convergence", I felt energized and enthusiastic about what appears to be a certain maturation or "coming of age" of this space. The idea that we cannot achieve inclusion of the BoP if we don’t consider how to do so with that environmental sustainability, and vice-versa...
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- Education
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Bottom of the Pyramid Paradox: India’s Sweatshops
In the past 7 months, I have had the opportunity to visit several industrial parks in the two most industrialized and entrepreneurial states in India, namely Gujarat and Maharashtra. I would like to share some of my observations with you.
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The Dark Side of Remittance Economies
In Development and Base of the Pyramid circles, we often discuss remittance economies and innovative ways to send remittances home; what we don’t always think or talk about is what forces people to leave their home countries in the first place and what they experience when they go abroad.
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Social Business in Peru: Generating Financial Sustainability and Social Impact
As a Fulbright fellow researching inclusive business in Peru, I was excited when I received an invitation to attend a roundtable discussion on social business hosted by Ashoka in Lima. The evening kicked off with a brief introduction to Ashoka’s social business initiative by Natalia Toledo, director for the Andean region...
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Cornell Global Forum: No Green Without BoP
The audience at the 92nd Street Y sat and listened politely as a series of wingtip-shod introductory speakers took turns at the lectern. But when the cowboy boots hit the stage, the audience went nuts. Why? Those boots belong to Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and now Chairman of Generation Investment Management.
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Social Investing Part 1: Risks, Returns, and Me
A lot of investors can give charitably, but cannot fathom making an investment in a social venture that does not have an appropriate risk-reward trade-off. So, what does this mean for social ventures? Will they never be able to attract the appropriate funding necessary to achieve significant scale?
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- Education
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- academia
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Incubating Clean Energy Technologies for the BoP
Yet, there I was, waiting in front of an office building on a deserted Mumbai street, when the cab pulled up to take me to ARTI (the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute), a registered scientific society established to develop and transfer innovative, sustainable technologies to rural people for income generation...
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