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eBay Founder Steps Up India Philanthropy
Omidyar Network , the philanthropic investing firm of eBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar, plans to plough as much as $200 million into India in the next five years. The organization’s target: businesses and non-profits that can make a "social impact" and improve life for people on the lowest economic rungs. The organization has had boots on the ground in India f...
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- South Asia
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The Contours of Social Business
I disagree with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. This is no small matter. For good reason, Yunus is a living legend among social business types. He pioneered microcredit to the poor at a time when my professor C.K. Prahalad (alas, no longer alive) had not even coined the phrase “bottom of the pyramid”, let alone written the best-selling book about finding fortune there. Yunus belie...
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- South Asia
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The Land Rush Doesn’t Have to End in a Poor Deal for Africans
If dodgy emails offering millions in return for your downpayment to repatriate a stranded Nigerian astronaut do not tempt you, then maybe this will appeal to your speculative side. A hectare of fertile African land, a 99-year lease, and all for $1 a year. Think about it: crop prices are soaring, land is appreciating and import-dependent rich nations virtually guarantee you a never-ending export market. It’s starting to sound like that Niger...
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The land rush doesn’t have to end in a poor deal for Africans
If dodgy emails offering millions in return for your downpayment to repatriate a stranded Nigerian astronaut do not tempt you, then maybe this will appeal to your speculative side. A hectare of fertile African land, a 99-year lease, and all for $1 a year. Think about it: crop prices are soaring, land is appreciating and import-dependent rich nations virtually guarantee you a never-ending export market. It’s starting to sound like that Niger...
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Impact Investing Faces Hurdles
Impact investing encapsulates a growing sector of private and public funds that finance for-profit companies focusing on services and products for the poor. It has attracted increasing investor and policymaker interest in recent years, but its development still faces hurdles. Achievements such as those Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2006, and Banco Compartamos, which attained an IPO in ...
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Grassroots Business Fund Expands International Presence to Kenya
The Grassroots Business Fund (GBF), whose mission is to build and support high-impact businesses that provide sustainable economic opportunities to millions of people at the base of the economic pyramid, has opened a new office in Kenya as a part of its ongoing global growth strategy. While GBF has been operative across the region for more than two years, the expansion intends to provide greater on-the-ground technical and financial assistance to high-impact businesses in region. ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Danone’s Cheap Trick
Groupe Danone is the world’s largest yogurtmaker and one of the biggest companies in France, with some $21 billion in sales annually. Yet a tiny factory in Bangladesh from which Danone never expects to earn any money is giving the company a profitable lesson in manufacturing for the developing world - and even some tips for business in the West. The factory, which sits in the northern city of Bogra and ma...
- Region
- South Asia
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Indian Rickshaws Pull Ahead
Today, "social entrepreneurship" has become an important development to help some of the poorest groups in the world like the rickshaw pullers in India. Colorfully adorned cycle rickshaws have long been a part of India’s landscapes. These hardworking yet environmentally friendly rickshaw operators can navigate busy urban streets and rural country roads with the same ease. But they are all but invisible to their passengers as they barely subsist above the poverty level....
- Region
- South Asia