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Milk Storage Unit Uses Sun to Keep Cool
Got chilled milk? That’s the unofficial slogan for Boston-based Promethean Power Systems, a company that this month received a grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop its innovative milk refrigeration system. Promethean’s target market is India, though it plans to expand to Africa and Latin America as soon as February. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk; the country is home to some 70 million farmers who contribute to a mul...
- Region
- South Asia
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Will Indian IT Companies’ Business Model Become Stagnant?
BANGALORE: Indian IT companies, which rode the outsourcing wave to become large corporations, may lag a bit while becoming sustainable corporations that create fortune "with" the bottom of the pyramid, says management guru Stuart L Hart . The American academic who was in town recently, says: "From what I can see, there is a little bit of self-satisfaction and comfort with the current model. Maybe they are getting stuck in the outsourcing model like that is the endgame. But it is...
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- South Asia
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To Profit or Not to Profit. Is That the Question?
I’ve been working in social business now for around fifteen years. I started out volunteering for a fairtrade social enterprise in Leeds. Except it didn’t call itself a social enterprise because the term hadn’t yet made it that far up north. We were a not-for-profit, and proud of it. I remember the pride I felt in telling people that we were not-for-profit. It was shorthand for "we’re the good guys". Privately I would question the motives of some of the people in the wor...
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Rio Reborn: The Favela Where Cosmetics Reps Have Replaced Drug Gangs
Miriam Pereira da Lima, 29, sheds tears as she watches her daughter dancing in the square while children ride past on bikes and fly kites. "Until a few months ago kids didn’t play out on the streets," she says, still adjusting to life after the pacificação, when the Brazilian army and police moved into the Complexo do Alemão, one of Rio de Janeiro’s infamous favelas, and drove out the drug gangs. With peace on the streets, business opportunities are on the r...
- Region
- Latin America
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MFIs See Sharp Erosion in Loans, Net Worth
Mumbai: Afew large microfinance institutions (MFIs) are trying to cope with a funding squeeze that followed a crisis after Andhra Pradesh introduced a stringent law governing microlenders nearly eight months ago, which saw assets of some MFIs drop by at least one-fourth. Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Ltd (BSFL), for instance, is focusing on fee income to tide over the crisis, and SKS Microfinance Ltd plans to diversify its business and start offering gold loans in a big way. Most MFI...
- Region
- South Asia
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World Bank Offers Farmers Money to Hedge Against Volatile Food Prices
The World Bank has teamed up with JP Morgan to offer farmers and food manufacturers in poor countries access to financial derivatives to hedge their risk from volatile food prices. Two other banks, one in sub-Saharan Africa and one in Europe with Middle East partnerships, as yet unidentified, are expected to launch similar products with the World Bank shortly. Excessive speculation ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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’$300 Home Is Not Just Viable But Also Profitable’
Name: Christian Sarkar Current location: on the road Twitter name: @300House In 30 words or less tell us who you work for and what you do: I help individuals and institutions with disruptive ideas and solutions. The $300 House started out as a blog post with Vijay Govindarajan. Now we’re going from blog to reality. Do you have a website / blog?
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Some Ways to Get Started as a Social Entrepreneur
With the economy still struggling, it may seem like an impossible time to start a do-good social venture. It can be hard enough to operate any business profitably - let alone one that also tries to improve the world. But some observers believe that the tough times may be increasing interest in social ventures."I get the sense that the ...
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