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Back From Mapping the BOP
I?ve had a couple emails from NextBillion readers, wondering why I haven?t been blogging much of late. Despite their pleas to the contrary, I?m back. In all seriousness, I?d like to update you all on why I?ve been so conspicuously absent from these pages. You may remember that the...
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This Week in SME Investing
I?ve just posted up several recent news stories about financing for SME development. Most of these came from the Business in Development Network, which promotes poverty reduction through entrepreneurship in developing countries. The group maintains a great newsroom for those interested in...
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- Education
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- academia
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100-Dollar Laptop: UN Secretary General?s Office shouldn?t be used for exploiting the poor
My eyes were stuck to the news that the UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan, while launching a 100-Dollar Laptop, on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia, said ?the invention is an impressive technical achievement. The project promises to provide flexible...
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Innovation Blowback
In his 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen showed that an upstart with an innovation that disrupts existing business models can beat out the big guys nearly every time. What’s more, he said, venerable companies seal their doom by...
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Emerging Market Private Equity Conference PPTs Available
Just a quick note for those of you who are interested in venture capital / private equity in emerging economies: IFC and EMPEA hosted the 8th Annual Global Private Equity Conference in Washington, DC last week. Three power points are available on EMPEA’s website that have...
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Wi-Fi Phones ? a Piece of the Rural Connectivity Puzzle
Wi-Fi phones are taking off! According to a report by Infonetics Research, the global market for Wi-Fi phones rose 76 percent in 2005 to $102.5 million, and will reach $1.9 billion in 2009. The number of units shipped rose 112 percent last year, and will increase by 158 percent this year. These...
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Divestment in Sudan: A Quandary Quartet
A week ago David Wheeler published an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail in which he argues that it is illogical and even arrogant to call for divestment of Sudan, as have done many activists and scholars, notably Eric Reeves? and Peter Kinder.?...
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Revisit San Francisco in Today’s Wall Street Journal
Attendees of 2004?s Eradicating Poverty Through Profit conference may have only dim memories of the 3-day BOP bonanza (flashes of Scott Shuster, anyone?), but not me. Which brings me to today?s Wall Street Journal, whose front page featured 3 conference speakers in an article entitled...
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