NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Maximum Impact: How Top Philanthropists Would Spend $10 Billion

At this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Bill Gates , the chairman of Microsoft Corp., committed $10 billion over the next decade to help develop vaccines and distribute them to children in the developing world. By anyone’s estimation, this is a lot of money and a worthy cause. But could it be spent even more wisely? It is now ...

Source

Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Agriculture

Reserve Bank of India to MFIs: Shape Up or Face Music

HYDERABAD: India’s booming microfinance segment is under the scanner, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issuing a veiled warning that it could be taken off the priority sector lending list of banks if the industry fails to improve its governance standards. This was spelt out at a meeting in late January between senior RBI officials, representatives of Sa-Dhan-the association of Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs)-and some senior MFI managers from Karnata...

Source

Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Agriculture

Region

South Asia

Is Aid Working?

It is hard to argue with the lofty ambition to end once and for all the scourge that is global poverty. How the world should go about this, however, is much more vexed. If poor countries do not have sufficient capital, aid advocates argue that there is a moral imperative for rich ones to help. Since 1970 hundreds of billions of dollars in bilateral and multilateral aid has been sent to Africa from the developed world. G20 leaders agreed at last month’s summit London that an extra $50bn ...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Agriculture, Investing

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Time for a New Kind of Capitalism?

The global financial crisis has led to serious questions, about the state of world capitalism. Anger is still running hot and strong against what’s perceived as the selfishness and greed of those in big Western banks and corporations. But there are some entrepreneurs who believe now is the time for another kind of capitalism to grow and flourish - a more kind and compassionate form which has social good as its goal, the betterment of the lives of the world’s poorest people, and ...

Source

BBC News (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Agriculture