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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
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VCs Plan to Invest $53M in Social Biz Over Six Months
MUMBAI: In the 20-company portfolio of Nexus Venture East, a $320-million venture capital (VC) fund, three businesses stand out. There’s Suminter India Organics, which does contract farming for organic produce; D.light Design, which provides solar lighting solutions; and Sohan Lal Commodity Management, which provides grain warehousing facilities in small towns and villages in 12 states. Nexus refers to them as ’impact investments’ - businesses where the pursuit of...
- Region
- South Asia
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Everest Capital Launches ’Frontier’ Hedge Fund
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Everest Capital, a $2 billion hedge-fund firm run by Marko Dimitrijevic, has launched a new fund focused on so-called frontier markets such as Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Everest, which has been investing in emerging markets for roughly 20 years, started trading in the "frontier" markets in 2008. By June, the firm had $90 million allocated to its frontier strategy. The money came from the firm and from...
- Region
- South Asia
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It?s Payback Time: How a Bangladeshi Bank is Growing in the U.S.
Laura Falcon, an Ecuadoran immigrant working as a babysitter in New York, became an entrepreneur by accident. About a year ago, when her uncle back in Ecuador was having hip problems, Falcon sent him some vitamins that seemed to help. She began to think there could be a broader market for the products, which are not widely available in her home country. But she needed a loan to buy them in bulk, and as a person with no credit history she couldn’t get on...
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SKS Share Sale Subscribed 13.68 Times
Aug. 03--The initial share sale offer from SKS Microfinance Ltd issue received bids for 188 million shares, a subscription of 13.68 times the shares on offer, as investors bought into its growth story. The offer, which opened on Wednesday, was priced between Rs850 and Rs985, with a Rs50 discount for retail investors. ...
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Al Hammond Shares the Latest in Bottom-of-the-Pyramid Innovations
Al Hammond belongs in the same category with CK Prahalad and Stuart Hart as some of the world’s pioneering bottom-of-the-pyramid researchers and strategists, and Hammond has specifically targeted rural connectivity and health care. From the World Resources Institute, where he authored the pivotal research report, ...
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Research Finds Change in Rural Consumer Patterns
NEW DELHI: Indian consumers’ earning, saving and consumption patterns are rapidly changing. So much so that a recent report by the Centre for Macro Consumer Research (CMCR) of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) predicts that by 2015, incomes of more than 42% rural households will shift from agriculture to non-farm sources like construction, retail, trading et al. "The rural landscape is undergoing a steady but dramatic change. While there is a shift...
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