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

?Affordable Housing is Not Possible in Mumbai or Delhi?

Vishnu Swaminathan, director of Ashoka Foundation which is undertaking a low-cost housing initiative for the poor, believes that such projects are not possible in the major metros where land costs are too high and delays add to the cost The government estimates that the country will see a shortage of 26.53 million homes by 2012. Ashoka Foundation, the global association of social entrepreneurs for change, has in one of its several initiatives, launched low...

Source

Moneylife (link opens in a new window)

Tags

housing

Debate on the Role of Growth and Redistribution in Poverty Alleviation in India

The capacity of Indian intellectuals to argue even when they lack data either to refute the opponents’ position or support their own far exceeds that of their counterparts anywhere else in the world. This means that issues that have been largely settled elsewhere remain subject of endless heated debate in India. Nothing illustrates this better than the debates on the role ofgrowth and redistribution in alleviating poverty, which go unabated in the real and virtual forums around the countr...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

India?s Oldest Microfinance Firm on the Verge of Closure

Mumbai: The controversial Andhra Pradesh microfinance law is set to claim its first victim. Vijay Mahajan-promoted Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Ltd (BSFL), India’s oldest microfinance institution (MFI), is collapsing under the burden of bad loans. With borrowers in Andhra Pradesh refusing to repay, bad loans are growing and threatening to wipe out its entire net worth and reserves. "We are unlikely to survive beyond the next two to three months if we don’t get fresh funds," ...

Source

livemint.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

AfDB Launches Microfinance Capacity Building Fund

The African Development Bank, in partnership with the government of Spain, has launched the Microfinance Capacity Building Fund - a multiyear effort to increase technical capacity building in the finance sector for the benefit of poor and low-income people in Africa. With a special focus on women and rural areas, the MCBF aims to increase transparency in A...

Source

Devex (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Southampton Students Bring Solar Lights to Madagascar

Families in Madagascar are benefiting from solar-powered lighting through a project set up by Southampton students. The University of Southampton’s SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) group set up a finance scheme to reduce the cost of the lights for rural families. The Right Light scheme has meant 98 families have reduced their use of kerosene lighting. Student Michael Austin said the scheme showed how students were "creating positive change in the...

Source

BBC (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low-cost Innovations Make Life Easier for Rural Poor

Often, people living on the margins of society don’t need path-breaking innovations to improve the quality of life. They need simple innovations that will make their daily life easier, and a number of social entrepreneurs have come up with precisely such innovations. For instance, Pune-based Ossian Agro Automation Pvt Ltd invented Nano Ganesh, a GSM mobile-based remote control system exclusively for use with water pump sets in agricultural areas. The system allows farmers to address...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

How a 100-Year-old Tortoise Helped Build a Scalable Social Enterprise

There is no shortage of people with a vision to change the world. But how? Strategy without the proper execution is simply a dream. When met with environmental and societal issues, organisations tend to use linear thinking (give a man a fish) to identify a solution to the problem instead of taking a circular, sustainable approach (teach a man to fish) by investing in the prevention of certain situations. Take Lonesome George for example. As the last surviving tortoise of its kind, many ...

Source

Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Five Lessons for the Microfinance Industry

Microfinance is going through a crisis . The industry that gives small uncollateralized loans, often to women for entrepreneurial activities in developing countries, is booming but has been damaged by a slew of negative events. Its most famous banker, Muhummad Yunus, has been made to step down from Grameen Bank which he founded in the 1970s. In India ...

Source

The Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)