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Can Big Companies Drive Development through Enterprise? President Clinton and CEOs Weigh In
Yesterday I heard former US President Bill Clinton, as well as Coca Cola and ADM’s CEOs talk about ways big companies can "create value for business and society" on a panel moderated by Brookings Institution VP and former UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervi?. The panel was hosted by Brookings and the Clinton Global Initiative in Washington DC.
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BoP Career Paths: A Different Way to Educate India
In December 2008, I left my job at Barclays Capital to volunteer with Deepti Doshi, former Talent Manager at Acumen Fund and current CEO of an educational social venture called Ziqitza Education. The mission pursued by Ziqitza Education is to ensure that the innovative, participative and efficient teaching methods used in some elite schools...
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Portfolios of the Poor: Financial Diaries of the Bottom Billion
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book discussion for Portfolios of the Poor: How the World?s Poor Live on $2 a Day. The recently released book focuses on methodology and new ways of thinking about the bottom billion. They focused on roughly 300 urban and rural households...
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“Can we make money and be good? Really?”
Sounds like a familiar question that drives people to sites like NextBillion.net, right? It is also one of the questions to be tackled during TED’s first conference in India, this coming November.
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After a Small Car, it?s a Small Home from Tata Housing
Bangalore: Soon after Tata Motors Ltd launched the Nano, touted as the world’s cheapest car, another group company announced on Wednesday that it will build homes that cost between Rs3.9 lakh and Rs6.7 lakh. Privately held Tata Housing Development Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, has launched the first of these projects, branded Shubh Griha, in Boisar, a distant suburb in Mumbai, the company said. The firm will invest up to Rs100 crore in a 1,200-unit township in the ...
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- housing
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Book Review: In the River They Swim
Where does this title come from? Why rivers and swimming? I wondered about these questions as I opened a copy of "In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty", a new book edited by Michael Fairbanks, Malik Fal, Marcela Escobari-Rose and Elizabeth Hooper. The answer to my question came pretty soon...
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Staff Writer Grace Augustine Moves On. Next Stop: Oxford
In January of 2008 Rob welcomed Grace Augustine as a Staff Writer for NextBillion.net. I remember it clearly, as I had just met Grace and many of her colleagues in Ann Arbor while attending the 2008 edition of the Net Impact Forum at the University of Michigan. Today, we wish her the best as she prepares to start a new stage at Oxford.
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Something to Cheer: Nano Homes for Rs 3-5 Lakh
BANGALORE: Creating products and services for the bottom of the pyramid is the sweet spot where social objectives marry economic benefits. After cars and mobile calls, developers and social entrepreneurs are looking at creating ‘Nano’ homes. On the anvil are houses for between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh for a constituency as diverse as domestic help, taxi drivers, plumbers, senior citizens, graduates, newly wed couples - basically, those who earn between Rs 6,500 and Rs 13,000 ...
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- South Asia