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  • Indian Rural Network to Get $3.4 Billion Investment

    Sam Pitroda, speaking at the Institute of Studies, Singapore gave a brief roadmap of the project. Connecting villages through internet and telephony will bolster India’s infrastructure and provide the much needed bridge between technology and users. According to Sam Pitroda the investment for the project will come from the $1.3 Billion collected from private telecom operators and the accumulated amount of $5 Billion as part of the Universal...

    Source
    ZD Net (link opens in a new window)
  • Bringing Clean Light to Poor Nations and Moving Beyond Charity

    A child killed in Benin. A dormitory burned to the ground in Tanzania. Countless men and woman across Asia, Africa and elsewhere suffering -- and some dying -- from respiratory ailments. The poorest people on the planet together spent almost $40 billion last year on kerosene a...

    Source
    The New York Times (link opens in a new window)
  • New Rules in India Sink SKS Shares

    MUMBAI-Shares of SKS Microfinance Ltd., one of the world’s largest microloan companies in terms of borrowers, tumbled on Friday after the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh created new restrictions on the microfinance industry in reaction to a recent string of suicides by borrowers. SKS and many of India’s biggest microlenders are based in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. The state is planning to adopt new rules to govern ...

    Source
    The Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    South Asia
  • Are Social Entrepreneurs Crazy?

    Social entrepreneurs have never been in greater demand, as the world grinds on with tired solutions to seemingly intractable problems such as hunger, poverty, war, inequality and disease. And in theory, social entrepreneurs bring new ideas that challenge the prevailing wisdom that these problems are intractable at all. They are front and center in developing countries, with new vaccines to combat disease, water pumps to irrigate crops and micro...

    Source
    The Washington Post (link opens in a new window)
  • ?Impact Investing? Teeters on Edge of Explosive Growth

    Conferences can be a good indicator of the health of an industry, and by that measure the emerging sector of "social entrepreneurship" appears to be booming. The third annual SOCAP conference last week in San Francisco drew more than 1,300 people paying as much as $1,395 a ticket, and you could feel the energy among the amalgam of philanthropists, foundations, investors and idealistic entrepreneurs. The idea that it’s possible to marry hard-nosed capitalism and bleeding-heart causes...

    Source
    The New York Times (link opens in a new window)
  • IGNIA Fund Invests MX$38.1 million in Barafon, a BoP Public Telecommunications Provider

    MONTERREY, Mexico , Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- IGNIA Fund I, LP, the first impact investing fund in Latin America , announced today that it has invested MX$38.1 million ( US$3.1 million ) in Servicios Caseteros S.A.P.I. de C.V. ("Barafon"), a provider of public telephony and related services to low income populations in Mexico through a networ...

    Region
    Latin America
  • mWomen Launches BoP Mobile Application Challenge

    The GSMA’s mWomen Program today launched its ‘Base of the Pyramid (BOP) App Challenge’ which aims to encourage the development of original apps targeted at the specific needs of women in developing countries living on under US$2 a day. Sponsored by Vodafone, the app challenge is focused on both low-end devices (or feature phones) as well as smartphones. Developers have until December 7 to submit their apps, with the winners announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress n...

  • FINO and NCR Launch Remittance Kiosks in India

    Financial Inclusion Network & Operations (FINO), one of India’s leading Financial Inclusion service provider and NCR Corporation, a global technology company today announced the launch of an added functionality of remittance service to the FINO NCR EasyPoint 70 – &lsqu...

    Region
    South Asia
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