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Unilever, Acumen invest $800,000 in cleaner cookstoves
Acumen and Unilever announced they will invest nearly $800,000 to enable BURN Manufacturing to bring its new low-cost, energy-efficient, wood-burning cook stove, the Kuniokoa, to smallholder and plantation workers in tea estates in Kenya and Tanzania.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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With $4.3 Million PayJoy Is Ensuring Smartphones Land In The Hands Of The Next 2 Billion
Co-founded by Mark Heynen, Doug and Tom Ricket, and Gib Lopez, PayJoy is an attempt to resolve the financing problem faced by the nearly 2 billion people around the world who have access to internet connectivity but currently can’t afford to buy a smartphone.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Opinion: Stop Calling Everything ‘Social Entrepreneurship’
The term “disruptive innovation” is thrown around a lot these days. From AirBnb to Uber, everyone seems to be disrupting something, and the phrase has permeated the lexicon of start-up and blue-chip companies alike. I admit, I’m guilty as well.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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The 10 Per Cent Solution
When the cow is in the news mostly for the wrong reasons, an Indian company based in Hyderabad gives us a reason to smile. Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) turns out to be a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board. The latter of course was started by the “milkman of India” Verghese Kurien. As Operation Flood, with the aim of turning India into a milk surplus nation, stunned all with its success, the NDDB realised it was spending a fortune on cattle vaccines. In the ’80s, one dose of vaccine cost Rs 14 (equivalent to about Rs 350 today). The NDDB decided to set up IIL, its own vaccine manufacturing subsidiary, in 1982.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- vaccines
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World Bank Approves $1.5 Billion Loan for Toilets in India
The World Bank has approved a $1.5 billion loan for a state-led sanitation program in India, where millions of people have no access to toilets, the bank said Wednesday.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending
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Narayana, Which Serves India’s Poor, Going Public
All eyes are on the IPO of Narayana Hrudayalaya, the Bangalore-based affordable healthcare chain founded by India’s best-known cardiac surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty, which opens tomorrow. Dr. Shetty, 62, pioneered inexpensive cardiac surgeries by creatively and efficiently driving down costs, thus putting life-saving surgeries within the means of thousands of poor Indians. That is particularly noteworthy in a country where healthcare is mainly delivered by as-yet small number of private healthcare operators while the government spend on healthcare is a scant 1.1 % of the GDP – compared with 18% in the United States.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Is There A Funding Gap in Impact Investing?
Are you a young professional? Want to start investing in companies that inspire you? You don’t need loads of money to be an investor. Just the right tools and mindset, according to this startup.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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‘Supercondom’ Made of Hydrogel and Plant-Based Oxidants Combats HIV/AIDS, Enhances Sexual Pleasure
An American professor of Indian origin has created a “supercondom” that can help combat HIV/AIDS while enhancing sexual pleasure at the same time.
- Categories
- Health Care
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