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Big Trouble for Microfinance
OVER the past month, we’ve covered the ongoing crisis in the microfinance industry in Andhra Pradesh, the state in India where microfinance-especially, but not only its for-profit variant exemplified by recent stock-market debutant SKS-has grown most rapidly and has the largest number of borrowerss. The situation on the ground seems to have remained largely unchanged since we covered the story ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Kids Test Solar-Powered Computer Tablet for Schools in India
The One Laptop Per Child project might need to step up, now that tablet devices are on the scene. Rice University has partnered up with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Villages for Development and Learning Foundation in India to develop a solar powered tablet computer that can be used in schools that lack electricity. Dubbed the "I-Slate," it is already being tested out in classrooms. ...
- Region
- South Asia
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China leads decline in world rural poverty
ROME — China has led a dramatic decline in rural poverty rates in many parts of the world over the past decade, a report released on Monday by the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development showed.
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Unilever Eyes Top and Bottom-end Segments in Developing Markets
SINGAPORE : Consumer goods giant Unilever wants to straddle both the top and the bottom of the economic pyramid in developing markets. This is part of its strategy to tap Asia’s growth potential, and compensate for the slack in its European and North America units. And to support this growth, Unilever has been making invest...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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What?s Policy Got to Do With Social Enterprise?
By Lindsay Clinton Many social entrepreneurs and social investors tend to avoid inviting the government to their table because it often means a slow, fat-fingered solution, rather than a targeted, nimble infusion of resources. However, government policy can also serve as a growth catalyst and a broad-based enabler, and, as such, cannot be overlooked as an important partner in the development of social enterprise as a sector. What does a marriage between social enterprise and...
- Region
- South Asia
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Private Equity Discovers Bottom of the Pyramid
With a staggering increase in capital invested across social ventures-$404.58 million in 2010 as compared to $150.36 million in 2009-private equity/ venture capital players are finding a fortune beyond the tip of the pyramid. And, in a turn of focus, interstitially more and more mainstream PE/VC funds are also venturing in this hitherto reserved space of social venture capital funds, making the investment play in the segment dynamic like never before. Fathom this: If social VC funds suc...
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India Microfinance Body: Sector Facing Survival Threat
MUMBAI -(Dow Jones)- India’s microfinance sector could be all but wiped out if immediate steps aren’t taken to rescue it, after authorities in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh initiated steps to tighten its grip over their lending activities, the president of a local representative body said Friday. "By Dec. 31, if this situation continues, there will be no microfinance sector in 2011," Vijay Mahajan of Microfinance Institution Network, or MFIN, told reporters on the sidelin...
- Region
- South Asia
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Africa Agriculture Fund First Close at $135 Million
PRESS RELEASE ---- 29 November 2010 The African Agriculture Fund (AAF), a private equity fund designed to respond to the food crisis that severely impacted the continent in 2008 in the wake of escalating food prices, reached its first closing at US$ 135 million in November 2010. AAF investment thesis primarily lies in food production, processing and distribution in cereals, livestock farming, dairy, fruit and vegetabl...
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